FiT Publishing

UEFA is the sports governing body for football (soccer) in Europe with 53 national associations as members of a democratic organization. UEFA is also the most important member of FIFA, which is the international governing body for football. UEFA organizes all European Championships and Youth Championships, as well as two trans-European playoffs every year between the best teams from the national leagues. The better teams from the 53 national leagues are, with some playoffs for the positions, playing in these two leagues. And the better the teams from a national league are performing, the...Read more

In January 2007, Major League Soccer (MLS) announced that international soccer sensation David Beckham would be joining the league playing for the LA Galaxy. This paper examines Beckham¡¯s effect on MLS ticket sales for the 2007 season. Depending on specification, our results indicate that Beckham increased ticket sales as a share of stadium capacity by about 55 percentage points. We then use these results to evaluate MLS¡¯s Designated Player Rule and to perform a back-of-the-envelope calculation of Beckham¡¯s benefit to the LA Galaxy.Read more

The purpose of this study was to assess brand equity in professional soccer teams. Through a preliminary analysis and further adaptation of the Spectator-Based Brand Equity (SBBE) scale, a refined model was tested among soccer fans. Results gathered from a confirmatory factor analysis indicated an acceptable fit of the model to the data and confirmed the relationship between Internalization, a single first-order construct, and Brand Associations, a second-order construct with ten dimensions. Review of the psychometric properties indicated all constructs had good internal consistency,...Read more

The Seattle Sounders FC took Major League Soccer by storm in its inaugural season of 2009. The club led the league in attendance, won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup trophy, and clinched a playoff berth. The team’s success was attributed in part to its rabid fan base, which routinely sold out its 30,000-seat venue and nearly doubled the league attendance average. How was it that an expansion franchise was able to garner such immediate, fervent support, while original franchises with well-established fan bases struggled? This case study sought to supplement the limited current literature...Read more

Knowing similarities and differences between sport participants and spectators can be advantageous for sport marketers as it may allow sport organizations to increase their consumer base beyond their traditional consumers. Therefore, the present study is aimed at examining similarities and differences of consumer motivation for both playing and watching sports. Using a sample of soccer consumers who both play and watch soccer (N = 237), the study found that for the most part, motivations for playing and watching soccer were different. However, affiliation was found to predict commitment to...Read more

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) unveiled a brand new logo for the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil on July 8, 2010 (“Official Emblem,” n.d.). The Official Emblem of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, called Inspiration, features three victorious hands together raising the World Cup Trophy. Yellow and green are Brazilian colors and they dominate the design. The words 2014 FIFA World Cup Brasil complement the picture (see Figure 1). The official launch took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, three days before the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This high...Read more

This paper examines how sponsors perceive the impact of different elements of a sponsorship package on brand equity. An empirical study using an online survey was conducted among key managers involved in sponsoring football clubs in the Netherlands. This study develops a formative measure of sponsorship, termed the Sport Sponsorship Index, and links this measure with brand equity. Results indicate that the various facets of a sport sponsorship package, such as exposure of the brand and coverage of the sport, are perceived by sponsors to contribute differently to the impact on brand equity...Read more

An interview with Mike Sweeney, director of Cleveland WhiteCaps Premier Soccer.Read more

This paper examines the determinants of probability for sponsor brand recall at the Euro 2004 soccer tournament in Portugal. Using a sample of 1,000 people, a survey was administered in Portugal immediately after the tournament to ascertain the significant characteristics that influenced the aimed probability (e.g., age, income, education, perceptions of the event, perceptions of sponsors). Based on 676 usable responses, a random-parameter logit model (mixed logit) was used to deal with unobserved heterogeneity, together with a standard logit model which was also used to analyze the...Read more