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SPORT FANS AS CONSUMERS: AN APPROACH TO SPORT MARKETING

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 British Journal of Marketing Studies
Vol.5, No.4, pp.36-48, April 2017
Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)
SPORT FANS AS CONSUMERS: AN APPROACH TO SPORT MARKETING

Edson Coutinho da Silva

Postdoctoral in Marketing Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo
Postdoc in Marketing, University of São Paulo.
PH.D Social Science in Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo; and PH.D Health Public in
Federal University of São Paulo.
Affiliation: University Center of FEI, São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil.
Professor of Marketing at Administration School
Address: Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco Street, 3792 – São Bernardo do Campo, São
Paulo, Brazil – 09850-901.
Phone number: 55 11 4453-2900

Alexandre Luzzi Las Casas

Postdoctoral in Marketing, Portuguese Catholic University, Porto, Portugal.
PH.D in Business School, Getulio Vargas Foundation
Affiliation: Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Professor of Marketing at Economics and Administration School
Adresse: Ministro Godoy Street, 969 – Perdizes, São Paulo, Brazil – 05015-901.
Phone number: 55 11 3670-8513

ABSTRACT: This theoretical paper arises as a purpose of discussing the role play of fans as
sport consumers on the marketing strategies, in professional sport clubs. This study is part of a
project which will provide some other empirical papers which will use the fan perspective as one
axis for analysing sport clubs in the São Paulo city, Brazil. In order to understand the sport fans
as consumers, five topics were developed for contextualise them: (i) sport fans overview for
explaining what fan means; (ii) loyalty and attendance for sport experiences in which the idea is
comprising games as entertainments; (iii) sport fans as consumers in order to discuss what they
love to consume; (iv) ‘new’ interactions between fans and teams, what does have been changed
related to promotions? (v) and sport fans as foundations for revenues, what instruments sport
clubs have used to get money from their fans? Therefore, this paper aims to highlight the point
of view approached by literature to comprise the sport fans as consumers in sport club’s business.

KEYWORDS: Sport Marketing, Sport Fans, Sport Consumers, Customer-Fans.

INTRODUCTION

Sport consumers may have varying interests, motivations and reasons to attend games. The fan
can be studies based on their behaviour and based on their degree of attachment to a team. Sport
consumers are typically highly involved. They often follow sport closely. Still their behaviour
might be driven by different features in team sport products, which they especially regard
interesting. The motives typically differ by gender, sport and preferences. Also the points of
attachment show differences as spectators might be attached to different aspects like teams, clubs,
athletes and other fans. Some enjoy a variety of aspects in game experiences and for some others

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a particular club has a great importance (Yoshida & James, 2010). Sport teams bring together
people with varying socioeconomic backgrounds, who share a bond – an attachment to the team.
Many fans appreciate that sport provides them an escape from everyday life. Thus, sport fans are
a heterogeneous group and their range varies from casual fans to committed season ticket holders.
This consumer group can be regarded as the most essential in the business of sport club.
Popularity of the product attracts other target audiences. In summary, without fans there would
be no demand to show games on tv and pay for those rights. In fact, without game-attending fans
clubs would have problems attracting sponsor. The initial driver for a sport club’s growth is the
development of a fan-base (The Future of Sports, 2015).

In the meantime, across the world, it is seeing ever closer convergence between the sport and
entertainment, as both sectors continue to rise to the challenges of new digital technologies which
shape the way individuals may spend their leisure time. At the same time sponsorships and media
rights emerge as the main engines of growth, putting the traditional dominance of gate revenues
under pressure. Sport clubs are accused of charging more for tickets than providing entertainment
in quality level to fans and spectators who pay for it. The same ultimately applies to the cost of
media rights, which can knock on to the pay TV subscriptions funded by fan’s subscribers. The
balance between price and value proposition is further complicated by the deep sense of
ownership that many sports fans feel for their club or sport (Clark, 2011; Collignon & Sultan,
2014; KPMG Reports, 2014). In addition, Maltese & Danglade (2014) argument that it's
reflecting trends in entertainment such as brand and product placement, sport sponsors want to
be embedded within the product, rather than just being a name on a shirt. As for fans retain a
strong desire to be part of the live experience of supporting their teams. Thereby, this paper aims
to discuss the role play of a fan, as a sport consumer, on the marketing strategies, in professional
sport clubs.

SPORT FANS OVERVIEW

Fan is defined as the person who thinks, talks about and is oriented towards sports even when –
the fan – is not actually observing, or reading, or listening to an account of a specific sport event
(Norris, Wann & Zapalac (2014). However, fan has also been defined as an affiliation in which
a great deal of emotional significance and value are derived from group membership. In addition,
a sport fan as one who shows consistency, dedication and loyalty with the commitment coming
in three forms (Stewart, Smith & Nicholson, 2003; Johnston, 2004): (i) cognitive, as the consumer
builds up knowledge about the sport and team; (ii) attitudinal, as the consumer believes strongly
in the team and the sport; (iii) and behaviourally, showing his/her commitment through tangible
acts such ticket or merchandise purchasing. Thus, fan are individuals who are deeply committed
to the club, ergo, this commitment manifests itself in long term affiliation with one team (or club),
in significant time and money expenditure, and in loyalty despite results, that is, commitment
persists even when clubs are not performing well. According to Leal & Moutinho (2008), under
this circumstance, several terms arise in defining and describing a sports fan, for instance, fanatic,
passionate partisan, highly committed fan, vested fan, diehard fan and varying definitions
supplied, this sampling of conceptualisations shows the range of definitions as well as the
similarities and overlap.

For this reason, it is advisable established a distinction between mere spectators and fans.
Spectators are individuals will observe a sport and then forget about it, while fans will have more

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intensity and will devote part of every day to the team or the sport itself. However, the difference
between a fan and a spectator lies in differing levels of passion. But, the differences between a
fan and a spectator as well as the differences between highly and lowly identified fans. Then,
sport fans are identified as individuals who are interested in and follow a sport, team and/or
athlete, instead spectators are identified as individuals who actively witness a sporting event in
person or through some form of media, such as radio, television, internet, etc. Spectators remain
passive in their interaction with the game, they watch, analyse and appreciate, and sport fans
participate in a different way. Sports fans create and shape the experience of sports, consequently,
they are not passive receptors, but active parts of the game itself. They influence action on the
field of play, true fans participate in the sports. Fans desperately impart emotional energy, support
and distraction, whenever they can (Stewart, Smith & Nicholson, 2003; Johnston, 2004).

Thereby, being a sports fan is an active and lived experience. Fans discussing about their role,
because they are not just spectators, they take part in the game and believe that their presence,
engagement and involvement impact on their team’s performance (Yoshida & James, 2010). By
the large, four characteristics define the fans’ profile (Mahony, Madrigal, & Howard, 2000;
Johnston, 2004; Piipponen, 2011): (i) emotion: the fan involvement and identification with teams
may often reach levels where individuals mood and emotions are influenced by team results; (ii)
intolerance: some fans are particularly intolerant to other supporters who are not as committed to
the cause as they are. For some fans, ordinary supporters are intruders and they complain that
British teams from Premier League are focusing on their strategies to attract the suburban middle-
class kids and their parents, first they support teams whether winning or losing, and they produce
more money; (iii) supportive social contexts: sport fanatics manifesting in how they choose their
friends, in the media they consume and the things they collect; (iv) memorabilia: fans have the
tendency to collect various team and match related important objects. These phenomenon and
terms is known as “capital collecting”. Capital can include just about anything that can be
collected – or bought – that represents the team or the sport, for example, books, records, clothes,
posters, articles, autographs, photos, video of old performances, newspaper clippings, match
programs, etc. Fans conserve the precious relics of their attendance, witnesses to the presence
next their idols.

Therefore, the term ‘fan’, often popularly used and derived from the word ‘fanatic’, to describe
individuals who willingly invest resources – either emotional and financial – in supporting their
favourite sport team or club. According to Giulianotti (2002) and Leal & Moutinho (2008), fans
do not represent mere spectators, but rather a fraternity of people who diligently and over
prolonged period of time display their allegiance to a specific sport team of which they are fervent
supporters. These individuals often subscribe to the unique culture or ethos of a club, immerse
themselves within a community of other fans who share their passion for the club and loyalty
embark on various endeavours that promote club interests, such as attending live matches at the
stadium or purchasing the branded merchandise of the club. Sport fans of a particular team form
the essence of what can be described as such club’s collective currency in society. Funk (2008)
highlights which this community of people represents the club as ambassadors, generates
awareness of the club in the vastness of their numbers and generally serves the club’s commercial
and social interests by consuming the properties of the club as a business entity. For Bauer,
Stokburger-Sauer & Exler (2008), this is based on brand community, the loyalty that sport fans
experience in relation to their club and which influences their interaction with that club. Then,
when fans feel part of this community, they may experience empowerment, which motivates and

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encourages them to engage in positive consumer behaviours of interactions with the brand of
their favourite team. Sport fan engagement encapsulates the passion that sport fans have for their
chosen club, which in turn drives their investment in such club and ultimately leads to the growth
and expansion of the club’s interests.

LOYALTY AND ATTENDANCE FOR SPORT EXPERIENCES

Motivation scale for sport consumption has been shown to accurately and reliably measure the
motives of sports consumers. There are four key drivers that influence loyalty across sporting
clubs, which were developed considering all teams competing in the United Stated in four major
professional sporting leagues, as: National Basket American (NBA), National Hockey League
(NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB) and National Football League (NFL): (i) pure
entertainment value: is linked with team success and as such is more likely to be influence in the
creation of short-term loyalty or fair-weather supporters, rather than committed long-term fans,
although, this variable is also influenced by factors not directly related to success such as the
teams style of play or the quality of pre-game and half time entertainment; (ii) authenticity: index
looks at the fans perceptions of the game as real and meaningful with outcomes a true results of
team effort. In essence the authenticity factor looks at whether a team plays pride regardless of
their win or loss record, an issue sports fan frequently cites as holding the utmost importance; (iii)
fan bonding: driver looks ate the personal attachment between fans and a team or team’s players.
The driver also examines the degree to which fans feel their efforts impact on the team. The idea
is making spectators feel that they had contributed to the team’s success was so important as
winning; (iv) history and traditions: this component look at the team’s previous record of
achievement and richness of the club’s culture (Burden & Li, 2009; KPMG Report, 2014).

Table 1: Classification of Fans

Type Incentive Loyalty
Aficionado Quality Performance Loyal to the Game
Theatregoer Entertainment, Moderate Team Loyalty
Excitement
Passionate Partisan Identification with Team Strong Team Loyalty
Champ Follower Winning Team Loyalty related to Success
Reclusive Partisan Identification with Team Strong Team Loyalty, but Moderate
Attendance
Source: Smith & Westerbeek (2003).

The sport fan may be classified into five groups. The classifications of fans were based on
incentive to attend game and on type of loyalty, see table 1. First, aficionado is a fan, who is loyal
to the sport and not to a specific team. He/she wants to see games with good quality performances.
Second, theatregoer has only little loyalty to the team and is thrilled by the entertainment and
enjoyment provided by the game event. There first two classes have in common that their
behaviour is driven by attraction to the sport and not by attachment to team. In turn, the latter
three classes are all attached to a team. Third, passionate partisan identifies him/herself strongly
with the favourite team. He/she is faithful, attends games often and follow team through good
and worse. Fourth, success excites the champ follower. Loyalty lasts as long as the team is
successful. The reclusive partisan is loyal to the team, but attends games only occasionally.

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He/she might follow team also through media channels, and others typically have influence to
their behaviour (Smith & Westerbeek, 2003).

Thereby, fans are often remarkably loyal to the team, but instead of being attached to team some
customers are rather attached to specific players or coaches. Still, it’s questionable which types
of fans are most preferred. If profits are only taken into consideration, fanatics may even be less
valuable than casual spectators looking for good entertainment and enjoyment. On the whole, the
nature of loyalty is quite unique in sport. In traditional businesses customers might quite easily
switch the provider, if they are treated below expectations (Yoshida & James, 2010).. However,
if a loyal fan is not satisfied with the experience, switching the favourite team is still very unlikely.
For many fans there is actually only one supplier in the market as they particularly follow football
played by their favourite team and not football in general. It is argued that the demand for game
tickets is inelastic, so the increase in ticket prices is not likely to diminish revenues. There are
only few any substitutes for team sport products. Also, only small correlation has been found
between season ticket renewal and fan’s income suggesting that spending on game-tickets is not
dependent on fans income level. Perhaps more expensive purchases are cut first if less money is
available (The Future of Sports, 2015). Actually spectator sport has been speculated to be an
inferior good. Basically, when people become wealthier they might find classy consumption
habits decreasing sport’s share spending.

For Tsiotsou (2012) as well as Stander & Beer (2016), understanding sport consumer behaviour
as a consequence of product and/or service satisfactions, several attempts have been made to list
the motives for sport event attendance. By the large, eight motives were observed: (i) escape
refers to one’s diversion from usual life; (ii) some customers may also be driven by economic
features, gained for example by betting; (iii) eustress is the result of gaining excitement and
stimulation in sport; (iv) sport events may also enhance one’s self-esteem; (v) group affiliation
refers to event’s social nature; (vi) sport customers search often also entertainment; (vii) family
relates to the spending time with family; (viii) and aesthetic beauty concerns one’s desire to seen
the artistic beauty and the grace in sport. However, Shilbury (2009) summarise five sport motives
considering psychological benefits that sport consumers desire from a sport experience.
 Social interaction represents a desire for sociability as individuals are motivated to seek
a sport event experience owing to opportunities for the enhancement of human relationships
through external interaction with other spectators, participants, friends and family;
 Performance represents a desire for aesthetic and physical pleasure as individuals are
motivated to seek a port event experience due to opportunities to enjoy the grace, skill and artistry
of athletic movement and physiological movement;
 Excitement represents a desire for intellectual stimulation as individual are motivated to
seek a sport event experience due to opportunities for mental actions and exploration from the
atmospheric created by the uncertainty of participation and competition and the spectacle of
associated activities;
 Esteem represents a desire for competency as individuals are motivated to seek a sport
event experience due to opportunities for achievement and challenge that produce a sense of
mastery and heighten a sense of personal and collective self-esteem;
 Diversion represents a desire for mental well-being as individuals are motivated to seek
a sport event experience due to opportunities do escape and remove from daily work and life
routines that create stress.

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SPORT FANS AS SPORT CONSUMERS
Fan engagement provides a compelling strategic advantage to clubs, as it is engagement with the
brand personality that moves people to actively consume club products and services offerings.
Across the world, and within the domain of all flourishing professional sport codes, clubs
leverage high levels of engagement of fans to enjoy sustained development despite sluggish
economic growth prospects. Thus, engaged fans will actively seek opportunity to attend the
specially arranged events of their preferred sport club, such as attending games or being present
at special activations such as fan opportunities for meeting the players of that club. Engaged sport
fans commit financial resources and emotional energy in seeking interaction with their favourite
sport club (Leal & Moutinho, 2008; White & Absher, 2013; Stander & Beer, 2016). In other
words, a sport fan is a sport consumer which spend on club merchandise directly to levels of fan
engagement, i.e., engaged fans is likely to purchase club products, such match ticket, attire and
general merchandise, on a frequent and continued basis.

The link between fan engagement and purchasing behaviours may be explained by customer
engagement theory. In general, this theory argues that consumers, when considering a purchase
of a product or subscribing to a particular idea, will conduct a cognitive and /or affective
evaluation of the extent to which such a product, service or idea is aligned to their own personal
values, preferences or moral and/or ethical. It means, when the consumer perceives congruence
between his/her personal values and the offering of the product, service or idea, that consumer is
likely to frequently display behaviours to consumption (Shilbury, 2009; Maltese & Danglade,
2014). For Norris, Wann & Zapalac (2014), the theory introduces marketing concepts in order to
seek relationship with customers by emotional affinity aim to sales. Relationship marketing is
complex as it is reliant on trust and identify with a brand, but when such trust and identity is
established, repeated purchases are highly likely, and commercial growth will follow. Given that,
fan engagement is related to relationship marketing as its reflects the absorption with a brand a
sport fan experiences and is indicative of the long-term commitment and emotional investment
the fan makes into the professional sport club’s brand, making it an influential predictor of buying
decisions.

Team loyalty has a significant positive impact on the fan’s consumption behaviours and attitudes.
This implies that generating maximum team loyalty, or fan base support, is significant goal of
every sport team. Hence, team loyalty includes fan allegiance, fan loyalty, fan support, team
attachment, fan avidity, fanship, fandom and sport customer loyalty. The more loyal a fan is to a
team, the more they will engage to consume. Highly loyal fans are likely to view their
expenditures as an avenue of supporting the team, as opposed to simply paying money in
exchange for good or service. This turn leads to many fans being less price-sensitive when
purchasing team or player merchandise (Piipponen, 2011). Collignon & Sultan (2014) state that
fans as consumer have created several challenges and opportunities for television viewing
preferences, customer service preferences and loyalty towards a team or player. In this case,
understanding fans – as consumers – and what motivates him or/her to consume a sport product
is also essential in to successfully create and deliver the sport product. With regard to motivation,
sport consumers have been examined from both peripheral and psychological perspectives. The
peripheral perspective focuses o on factors not directly related to the actual consumer, for
example, the stadium capacity, geographic location, weather, and win-loss records. The
psychological perspective examines factors related to individual fan perceptions, preferences and
expectations.

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Thereby, sport fan and consumer may be defined as a process involved through which individuals
select, purchase, use and dispose of sport-related product, services and benefits. For this, sport
marketers use sport consumer behaviour research to determine how to position the marketing mix
– product, price, distribution, promotion, professional, process, performance and program.
Research assists sport marketers identify how a sport product and/or service provides the
opportunity to achieve desirable outcomes and develop effective marketing strategies that
communicate these positive features (Bauer, Stokburger-Sauer & Exler, 2008; Shilbury, 2009;
Maltese & Danglade, 2014). In general, the study of sport consumer behaviour examines attitudes
and behaviours of the individual relative to sport products and services. Indeed, fan and/or
consumer behaviour describes how individuals devote available resources of time and money
toward sport consumption activities. For Blumrodt, Desbordes and Bodin (2013), the study of
human behaviour is important for understanding sport consumers, such as: (a) psychology
principles is that each individual is different and therefore each individual has a unique
personality, different perceptions, life experiences, capabilities and interests, and importantly
different attitudes, beliefs and values; (b) sociological principles, as it is undertaken individually
as well as in groups.

By transferring the loyalty concept to fan behaviour, the following activities constitute a loyal
behaviour in the team sport context: attending the favourite club’s games live in the stadium,
watching the favourite club’s game on television, consuming other club-related media,
purchasing club merchandise, wearing the colours or logo of their favourite club, and trying to
convince others that the favourite club should be supported. Cross buying refers to a fan’s practice
of buying additional products and services from a favourite club brand in addition to the ones he
or she currently owns, particularly, relevant for sport marketers today because most professional
clubs now have brand extension strategies whereby they are expanding the range of branded
products and services beyond club merchandise (Funk, 2008; Piipponen, 2011; White & Absher,
2013). Therefore, the sport consumption recommends (Clark, 2011, Maltese & Danglade, 2014):
(i) using behaviour consumer for shaping the fan/consumer; (ii) segmenting them using by
cultural, socially and demographically perspectives, and articulating them to the behaviour; (iii)
explaining impacts of these segments considering sport club business; (iv) and defining a specific
marketing mix in order to suite business of the club to target audience and behaviour consumer.
Thus, sports fans act in the same way as consumers of other products, but, sports fans are
particularly steadfast in their loyalty towards their club.

‘NEW’ INTERACTIONS BETWEEN FANS AND TEAMS

By the large, being a fan is no longer just about watching and cheering. Empowered by social
media, fans now expect an unprecedented level of access to players, coaches, and owners. What
is more, they expected to be part of decisions that were once made behind closed doors. Besides,
fans have increasingly used their collective power to influence leagues and franchises. With
access to myriad twitter feeds and other sources of information, fans not only have more power
but more potential points of conflict and disgruntlement. What might set them on the warpath
will become increasingly difficult to predict. A team’s financial decisions, broadcast blackouts,
rule changes, trades, or off-field behaviour may spark outrage. In fact, social media can rekindle
and give new life to long-simmering disputes, like the controversy around the Redskin’s name
and logo. Or, the backlash can happen nearly instantaneously. If a star player gets in an altercation
at an after-hours nightclub, fans will be discussing and building consensus about the incident

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before the sun rises the next day (Clark, 2011; Collignon & Sultan, 2014; KPMG Reports, 2014;
The Future of Sports, 2015).

Originally, fans counted on sportswriters, talk radio hosts, and tv commentators to lead the
conversation about their teams. Whereby, emerging generations of fans – armed with powerful
media advices and always-on connectivity, and social media platforms with massive reach – have
stated to take control of the conversation, effectively becoming a major media entity in their own
right. Teams, leagues, and sponsors who fail to respond to activist fan movements rick major
damage to tickets sales and brand equity. Thus, fans become an ever more powerful force in
breaking news and creating consensus with little deference to traditional sources of information
like sports journalists or official commentators. It recognises that everything about sports is
participation and fan participation is critical (The Future of Sports, 2015). It is about engagement,
giving the fan control, power and accessibility, i.e., that is what it means to be a fan. If a manager
treat fans like customers long enough, eventually they will start behaving that way, reducing their
irrational love for their team to a cool-headed, dollars-and-cents decision to buy tickets or not,
with no more emotional investment that deciding whether to go to the movies or by new tires.
Technology is radically changing the relationship between fans and the teams they love. The
amount of content produced by fans uploading video streams and images of live games – from
smartphones inside the arena – will regularly exceed the amount generated by official
broadcasters – and will be seen by everyone around the world. Teams will designate fans-
appointed ombudsmen to represent fans in major team decision; far-sourced input will be
common. Mobile devices and augmented-reality headgear will display the statistical advisability
of plays and audible before they happen. Thus, the balance of players, team, fans and media have
shifted. Fans no long just watch, they participate, analyse, critique, deconstruct, fantasise and
connect with their favourite players and teams in real time. Being a sport fan has never been so
emotionally charged, or fun, as it is today (KPMG Reports, 2014). Over time as fans have gotten
more and more organised, the ritual monopolies teams and leagues have enjoyed have been
broken. League organisers and sport clubs will have to learn how to communicate with
authenticity or be ignored.

For Norris, Wann & Zapalac (2014), the influence of social media on sport organiser and clubs
is growing rapidly as channel communication. An increasing number of professional sports
leagues are relying on the internet, social networking site and mobile technologies to market their
team, citing it as a cost effective avenue for reaching a larger audience of sport fans – or
consumers. The internet enriches the sport experience through in-depth product (team related)
information, venue information and interactive experiences. In the point of view of Collignon &
Sultan (2014), whether fans are watching their favourite team play from home, at the sports bar,
or among 70.000 screaming fans at the stadium, sport marketers are eager to enhance experience
and increase fan interaction by customizing the use of technology within each setting. Then,
through technologies emerging today – flexible screens, motion controls, haptic, etc – or tactile
– technology, smart glasses, virtual and augmented reality – the merging of real projected worlds
will produce a seamless experience, a complete illusion. This sort of technology is just starting to
learn and understand how to control, manipulate and share visual and aural perceptions. The
possibilities are vast.

Thinking in those fans who are priced out of for attending live sporting events, third venues
emerge as the go-to spaces to experience the newest and most exhilarating sports entertainment

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technology. Augmented reality, interactive table top technology, holographic replays, and 3D
displays will make their first public appearances in the 21st century’s family-friendly. Third
venues offer the best elements of stadium atmosphere, more creature comforts than the stadium,
and friends fans to celebrate with – the perfect integration of live and digital moments. This
modular experience can be consumed a la carte to fit the personalised fan experience. Third
venues will be the first place it will be able to see life-sized replays up close and in fully realised
3D. The first generation of these displays will not be true holograms – it will not be able to view
them from all sides –, but they will still appear fully 3D to the viewer. Initially this technology
will be used to enliven pre and post-game interviews. However, as the technology advances, it
will bring life-sized instant replays into sports bars and luxury lounges. While bars are for adults,
the third venues are for families and friends who want to feel a stadium atmosphere at home
(KPMG Report, 204; The Future of Sports, 2015).

SPORT FANS AS A FOUNDATION FOR REVENUES

In the sporting market, with regard to fans, money flows in many directions, from fans to pay-tv
providers, from fans to ticketing and from fans to merchandises, see figure 1. Fans are crucial
elements for securing revenues to sport clubs. The sport ecosystem based on flow of money
developed by Collignon & Sultan (2014) drawn the attention for attendance of fans in stadium
and at home on TV. However, due to space (seats) available on stadium as well as big distances
a new term arise, that is ‘sport viewership’. Sport viewership are those people that watch their
team play. This could mean that the games are consumed by attending the games or via electronic
media, as pay-tv providers; they are titles as sports spectators. The more loyal fans are, the more
they will engage in media consumption related to the team, including watching games. Highly
loyal fans will often plan their entire schedule around watching games. Besides, these fans
typically experience more pleasure and stronger emotional reactions when watching a game than
casual fans. Watching games allow the highly passionate fan to feed their feelings of
identification with the team. In fact, it seems that watching a game consummates the relationship
between the fan and the team in powerful way.
Figure 1: Sport Ecosystem

Fans Ticketing and

Pay-Tv Merchandising
subscription
s Ticketing Transfer fees
Revenue
TV rights distribution Salaries
Media Leagues Clubs Players
Via agents

Sponsoring

Advertising Sponsoring
Brands

Source: Collignon & Sultan (2014, p. 6).

Nevertheless, for making money on sport professional, Collignon & Sultan (2014) use as
references sport events, as Super Bowl in United States, Premier League in England or

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 British Journal of Marketing Studies
Vol.5, No.4, pp.36-48, April 2017
Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)
Wimbledon in London. They recommend analyse five critical elements for producing revenues
for sport club: fans, media, leagues, brands and club (itself). Fans excitations for spending their
money to buy packages of pay-tv providers for matches and products relate to clubs, and, to
become a membership of clubs. Media buying rights of matches for broadcasting for an audience
of fans, which watching games using different platforms, as tv, websites and apps. Brands
choosing right partner clubs, leagues and athletes and, also, choose the right types of partnerships,
such as official partners, suppliers, naming rights for arenas or advertising inside of arenas.
Leagues organise seasons and championships, although, in most case they also play an
intermediary role in flowing revenues to clubs, especially, media rights money. Club obtains
revenues selling tickets, licensed products, sponsorships and media rights; but revenues may be
increased, clubs need to achieve three indicators: (i) performance, i.e., winning, it generates
interest in fans, which it generates media revenue – viewership; (ii) presence of star players, who
mobilise sponsorships, ticketing and merchandise – commercial revenues; (iii) loyalty, by
membership in order to assist clubs to get more revenues, see figure 2.

Figure 2: Winning is a Virtuous Cycle

Resource Allocation Assets Revenue

Team Salaries Team Performance Media Revenues

Academies Talent Sale

Commercial
Talent Acquisition Stars Players
Revenues

Stadium Facilities Ticketing Revenues

Fan Loyalty
and Promotion (or Gate Revenues)

Club Management

Source: Collignon & Sultan (2014, p. 9).

According to Clark (2011), Piipponen (2011) and The Future of Sports (2015), sport clubs require
to rethink together the sport as business from league organisation for encouraging fans and,
consequently, obtaining revenues. European and North American clubs (in several sports) have
been found out that a strong sport club is unfolding of a structure and organised league. League
is foundation for sport clubs share their motivation on rules, players, images and revenues. From
league is provided all arrange of products and/or services that will be offered to fans, spectators
and media, and, still, making business with sponsorship for improving revenues. European and
North American leagues have achieved great result timing matches taking into account family
viewing, television and in-stadium, suitable ticket pricing structure with special offers for family
tickets, refurbishment of stadia, better viewing angles, spectators friendly game formats,
broadcasting in at least two languages (local and in English), marketing involving sport celebrities

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 British Journal of Marketing Studies
Vol.5, No.4, pp.36-48, April 2017
Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)
as heroes and ambassadors of various teams and engaging with school and colleges by offering
student tickets driven to audience. Besides, leagues and sport clubs have created supporting
infrastructure as facilities like restaurants, bars, fast-food chains, merchandise stores, book and
music stores, etc. They have transformed in-stadium sport a spot of entertainment and experience
unforgettable to fans and using the sport club brand for commercialising products and services
for enhancing revenues and profits.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Hence, marketing-driven strategies enable to sport to respond better to fans/customers’ needs and
to reach even more fans. Sport has turned in to be entertainment and economic success in
becoming a more central element in sport. The sport business has also become increasingly more
customer-oriented. Game facilities and other service-extensions have evolved; ticket process
have increased significantly in recent years, and individual fans may not be able to afford tickets
and corporations are more often ticket-buyers. In fact, technological development has improved
sport’s availability and experience. Following a certain team and/or league or finding out
information of specific sport is constantly easier. Sport has great spectator appeal, which gives
sport a chance to gain revenues from many sources like ticket sale, media rights, sponsorships,
licensing of products, etc. The representatives of all different interest groups are naturally
customer form sport clubs’ perspective. As several revenue sources exist, sport can employ
business and marketing professionals who further develop commercial opportunities. The most
important target market for all sport clubs is still game-attending fans. Due to people’s willingness
to follow sport performances on site leads to that other customers – sponsor, media, etc, - consider
sport products as interesting investment targets (White & Absher, 2013).

Indeed, for attracting more fans and spectators to events and, consequently, making more
revenues, sport clubs depend on strong, structured and organised leagues, because sport clubs are
associated to leagues. But, for making feasible a commercial league seven components required
adjustment (Clark, 2011, Collignon & Sultan 2014; KPMG, 2014, The future of Sports (2015):
(i) governance framework: need to be able to sustain and recognised by associated as an official
sport federation for organising championships; (ii) league timing: the tournament (or
championship) need to be organised, respecting fans, spectators, media rights and international
time zone in order to attract more spectators around the world and positioning brand and team
images and no competing with another leagues; (iii) players: hiring and involving top players of
the country or, still, the world to maximizing the competition level within teams and, thus,
attracting more fans, spectators and media focus; (iv) marketing: developing an effective
marketing plan focusing on fans, spectators and, still, quality services by sport actors (or
sponsorships); (v) fan base: planning marketing strategies for engaging fans in order to participate
on sport events and experiences, understanding all of them as consumers; (vi) stadium
infrastructure: qualifying all arrange of activities which are developed inside of stadium, before,
during and after sport experience; (vii) game performance: improving the quality of games in
order to capture fans, spectators, media and sponsorship interests for applying new investments.
For presenting a quality entertainment, on the one hand, it is suitable five elements for offering a
sport entertainment marketing-oriented (Maltese & Danglade, 2014): (i) suppliers in this
environment are players. Their interest to play and their skills influence the success and the
profitability of a club or league; (ii) customers are spectators or fans are the users of the sport
product that is made in sport business; (iii) infrastructure consists of the services that guarantee
the match performance such as sport arena or stadium and its supplements; (iv) competitors

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 British Journal of Marketing Studies
Vol.5, No.4, pp.36-48, April 2017
Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)
which drawn attention to two features; first, there is competition between other sport clubs that
participate in the same league, and the other feature is competition against other sport arts and
even other leisure time activities; (v) groups of interests are stakeholders which assist and support
sport clubs, ticketing, media, transportation, etc.

One the other hand, it is recommendable follow four steps for guarantying a sport event (offer)
to customers-fans (demand), in marketing orientation (Shilbury, 2009; Piipponen, 2011; Norris,
Wann & Zapalac, 2014): (i) developing an enhanced understanding of customers-fans: marketer
sport teams should try to learn as much as possible of their consumers. It is essential to know
fans’ perceptions of the sport club brand. By enhanced relations responding to fans’ needs will
develop. Technology can assist in these efforts; (ii) increasing the interactions between
fans/consumers and the sport club brand: indeed, teams should strive for enhancing regular
interactions with fans/consumer to encourage players as well as coaches to attend would be a
significant improvement. Product extensions such as sport bar, restaurants, museum or fan shops
would also increase team’s visibility; (iii) reinforcing and rewarding loyalty to team brand:
traditionally in sport environment customers are forced to pay for being loyal. Rather than forcing
customers to pay, voluntary and symbolic offerings could be provided. Recognising and
rewarding fan loyalty is becoming more prominent; (iv) and consistent integrated marketing
communication to reinforce key brand associations: long-term vision should be employed in the
planning of marketing activities. Instead of on-field performances, which are always uncertain,
emphasis should be moved to the core values the sport organisation wants to promote and
communicate. Sport teams should put less focus on success in their marketing efforts.

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