Articles in this issue:

• Psychological Connection to a New Sport Team: Building or Maintaining the Consumer Base?

  Jeffrey D. James

  Richard H. Kolbe

  Galen T. Trail

  A mail survey was conducted with season ticket holders (N=507) of a new Major League Baseball franchise to ascertain whether consumers felt a psychological connection with the team prior to any direct experience with the team. Three items scale were used to ascertain respondents?level of psychological connection to the team (a=.74). Reasons for purchasing season tickets were compared among the groupings. Significant differences were found among the groups of respondents relative to the number and strength of the factors influencing the purchase of season tickets. No significant differences...Read more

• The FUTURES Golf Tour Case Study: Sponsorship Sales and Eduselling

  Elizabeth Jowdy

  Mark McDonald

  As the number of sport leagues and events continues to increase, so does the amount of sponsorship dollars required for each to survive. Sport properties/organizers are not only charged with producing unique products for consumers, they must offer unique marketing platforms that attract corporate sponsors. Although sponsorship spending in North America has steadily risen, from $5.9 billion in 1997 to $9.5 billion in 2001 (International Events Group Sponsorship Report 2001), corporations increasingly command managers to thoroughly justify sponsorship investments, due to a struggling economy...Read more

• Sport Marketing and the Law - Reducing Risk in Promotion: The Incorporation of Risk Management Principles by Sport Marketers

  Matthew T. Brown

  Andrew Kreutzer

• Brand Extensions by U.S. Professional Sport Teams: Motivations and Keys to Success

  Artemisia Apostolopoulou

  Brand extensions are increasingly implemented by sport organizations to create additional revenue streams and enhance brand strength. Although brand extensions have been a topic of extensive study in mainstream marketing (e.g., Aaker & Keller, 1990; Broniarczyk & Alba, 1994; Keller, 1998; Rangaswamy, Burke, & Oliva, 1993; Reddy, Holak, & Bhat, 1994), limited efforts to examine this practice in the sport setting have been undertaken (Chadwick & Clowes, 1998). Given the increasing prevalence of this marketing strategy for sport organizations, this study explores the...Read more

• Outsourcing Sport Marketing Operations by NCAA Division I Athletic Programs: An Exploratory Study

  Ming Li

  Willie Burden

  The outsourcing of marketing operations and rights is a common practice in American college athletics. It is estimated that over half of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletic programs have outsourced some or all of their marketing operations and rights to nationally prominent marketing companies. Nevertheless, a number of Division I-A athletic programs are keeping their marketing operations in-house. This study was designed to examine this polarized development in collegiate marketing. It is hoped that the study will help athletic programs contemplating...Read more

• Perceptions of the Service Experience: Using Demographic and Psychographic Variables to Identify Customer Segments

  T. Christopher Greenwell

  Janet S. Fink

  Donna L. Pastore

  While the game is generally considered the most important factor influencing sport spectators, insights can be gained about how customers, especially different customer segments, view the physical facility and service personnel. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the demographic independent variables age, gender, household income and family size, and the psychographic variable of team identification to affect customer perceptions of three service experience elements: the physical facility, the core product, and service personnel. Results from a sample of 218 minor league...Read more

• The Day of the Week’s Impact on Selected Socio-demographic Characteristics and Consumption Patterns of Spectators at a Ladies Professional Golf Association Event

  Matthew J. Robinson

  J. Richard Carpenter

  The purpose of this study was to determine if the day of the week impacted select socio-demographic characteristics and consumption patterns of spectators attending a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) event. A questionnaire was administered to randomly selected spectators on each day of the tournament using the spectator-intercept method for golf developed by Hansen and Guathier (1993). Twoway Chi square analysis determined that significant differences exist regarding the socio-demographics of employment status and age and the consumption pattern of how tickets were acquired and...Read more