Jason Simmons
Michael L. Naraine
and Chris Greenwell

Using the context of the Washington Football Team, the current study examined the importance of six brand associations (team colors, community integration, culture/traditions, nickname, logo, uniform style) on fan attitudes toward a revolutionary rebrand. Data were collected from 669 Washington Football Team fans through an online questionnaire. A rating-based conjoint analysis was used to test for the relative influence of each brand association on brand desirability and rejection. Separate analyses were conducted based on respondent geographic location, existing attitudes toward the name...Read more

K. Damon Aiken
Ajay Sukhdial
Richard M. Campbell
Jr.
and Aubrey Kent

While previous research has found support for the existence of tanking in professional sport, attitudinal complexities surrounding the phenomenon have yet to be investigated. This study utilized Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service to obtain a national sample of National Basketball Association (NBA) fans. The sample contained fans of all thirty NBA teams. Respondents provided data regarding their overall attitudes toward tanking as well as their underlying old school values, time-oriented values, and ethics-based values. Results indicate that fans have a relatively strong dislike for perceived...Read more

Ceyda Mumcu and Nancy Lough

In May 2014, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) launched its Pride campaign and became the first professional sport league in the US to explicitly reach out to gay fans. As the public opinion toward homosexuality has been changing, sport marketers need to understand how to reach and respond to heterosexual and gay fans without alienating one or the other. The purpose of this study was to investigate heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) fans’ attitudes toward the Pride campaign, and the impact of fandom, attitude toward the Pride campaign and...Read more