Katherine R. N. Reifurth
Matthew J. Bernthal
Khalid Ballouli
and Dorothy Collins

Sports fans’ identification with their hometown is a very salient aspect of who they are, and thus, they are likely to be attracted to teams that represent the place they call “home.” Although recent sport marketing studies have shed light on the importance of home among fans, there is a void in the literature relative to “nonlocal fans.” This study aims to examine how geographic distance, geographic identity, and the presence of other local teams affect team identification for different types of nonlocal fans: displaced and nondisplaced fans. Nine hundred and twenty self-identified...Read more