FiT Publishing

The rise in the number of new facilities built for professional sports franchises has significantly increased premium seating inventories in the United States. While the increased availability of premium seating represents an attractive revenue opportunity for teams and facilities, recent economic pressures and increased public scrutiny of corporate spending on sport-related entertainment and sponsorship has made the premium seating selling and retention environment more challenging. Because the current sports literature offers little insight into the motives of premium seating buyers or...Read more

In light of the economic recession, the sport of running has remained strong in the United States, experiencing growth in participation, number of races, and apparel sales (Running USA, 2010). Because this sport grew during a period of otherwise economic decline, and because sponsors are often vital to the existence of road races, the researchers sought to examine sponsor recognition, attitudes toward sponsors, and purchase intentions of road race series participants and to examine differences in these variables based on demographics, level of identification with the series, and usage of...Read more

Sponsorship of mega-sports events continues to be one of the most popular forms of marketing. The international appeal and reach of the Olympic Games, in particular, is amongst the top advertising and sponsorship opportunities in the world for international branding. In turn, the marketing value provided by the Olympic Games has attracted the interest of multiple sponsors in various categories, leading to competitive hosting bids and ambush marketing. This study examined mega-sports event interest as a determinant of sponsorship and ambush marketing attitudes, as well as the purchase...Read more

Sponsorship activity has increased dramatically over the last two decades, as has customer knowledge of this promotional activity associated with experiential consumption. While a number of studies have measured consumers’ understanding of how event marketing affects their evaluation of a brand, scant empirical attention has been paid to how consumers use sponsorships as signals of event quality. In a between-subjects experimental design, main effects were found for the sponsor’s functional similarity and regression analyses suggest that the strength of the sponsors’ influence predicted...Read more

The purpose of this study was to determine if personality fit between NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) drivers and their major sponsors affects the sponsorship outcomes of consumer attitudes toward the sponsor, attitudes toward the brand, and purchase intentions. Fan identification and product involvement were examined as moderators between personality fit and the sponsorship outcomes. The respondents (N=347) in this study were attendees at the NASCAR Samsung 500. Data analyses included a factor analysis, descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and...Read more

Between January 2001 and November 2009, players of Asian descent won nearly 30% of the 287 LPGA-sanctioned tournaments held during the period. By contrast, only 15 years ago (in 1995), an Asian player won only one of the 37 LPGA tournaments held that year (Ladies Professional Golf Association [LPGA], 2009). Clearly, a new generation of golfers has significantly increased the ethnic diversity of the LPGA and its tournament winners. This study investigated whether and how ethnic diversity in the LPGA has influenced the objectives and strategies of LPGA sponsorship decisions for the Anheuser-...Read more

The reliance on signage to generate spectator recognition of sponsors has become so commonplace that the concept of sponsorship is nearly synonymous with the use of signage in sport venues. A multitude of studies have measured sponsorship recognition and/or recall among sport spectators as the means to justify the practice (Bennett, Henson, & Zhang, 2002; Cuneen & Hannan, 1993; Nicholls, Roslow, & Dublish, 1999; Pitts & Slattery, 2004; Pitts, 1998; Stotlar, 1993; Stotlar & Johnson, 1989). Previous literature suggests more highly involved spectators, such as college...Read more

This study’s primary purpose was to examine the opinions of consumers toward the appropriateness of food and non-alcoholic beverage sponsorships of sporting events in relation to other products. Research of this nature is particularly timely in light of the current obesity issue because many food and beverage products contribute to the obesity problem. Phase one involved a written survey (N = 253) whereas phase two involved two focus groups (N = 12). Attitudes toward food and non-alcoholic beverage sponsorships of sporting events were more favorable than alcohol sponsorships, followed by...Read more

Brand use is a critically important measure of business and marketing success (Allenby et al., 2002), and the search for empirical evidence explaining product or brand use is a major stream in marketing literature (Fennell, Allenby, Yang, & Edwards, 2003). Over the past century, research has examined the relationship among several variables (e.g., psychographics, age, gender, and other demographics) in an effort to better understand consumption rates and brand use (Shaw, 1912; Smith, 1956) so strategies can be developed to increase brand use...Read more

In May 2005, Jon Goode, Director of Corporate Communications for the Lowell (Massachusetts) Spinners, the Class A New York-Penn League affiliate of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox, was taking part in a literacy program visit at a third-grade class in nearby Andover. He asked an innocent question to get the class warmed up: How many of you play baseball? Many raised their hands. Goode then pointed to one boy and asked, “What team do you play for?” “The Yankees,” the boy said. “That’s cool,” said Goode, a dyed-in-the-wool Red Sox fan trying to present a façade of equanimity. Deadly...Read more