Articles in this issue:

• Motivations and Fan Engagement Related to Professional Bass Fishing Spectatorship

  Matthew J. Bernthal

  Todd Koesters

  Khalid Ballouli

  and Matthew T. Brown

  It can be argued that the birth of the modern bass fishing industry took place in 1967, when Ray Scott lever-aged the popularity of the sport and created the first modern bass fishing tournament (B.A.S.S. historical timeline, 2010). The success of this tournament led Scott to incorporate Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.) as a bass fishing tournament organizer, membership organization, and media company pub-lishing Bassmaster Magazine (B.A.S.S. historical timeline, 2010). The 1980s saw significant exposure for the sport and B.A.S.S. when ABC’s 20/20 broadcasted a feature on B.A.S.S...Read more

• The Effects of Gender and Social Roles on the Marketing of Combat Sport

  T. Christopher Greenwell

  Meg Hancock

  Jason M. Simmons

  and Dustin Thorn

  Once vilified for its no-holds-barred violence, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) has experienced dramatic growth over the past 20 years (David, 2012; Goyder, 2013; Sullivan 2011). Traditionally a male-dominated domain, women’s participation in MMA has increased substantially recently. In fact, on February 23, 2013, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featured a main fight card anchored by one of the most dominating mixed martial artists to enter the octagon. What made this fight, and this fighter, unique? It was a historic bout between two women, the first of its kind for the previously all-...Read more

• The Immediate Impact of Coach Succession Events on Season Ticket Holder Attitudes

  Adam Karg

  Heath McDonald

  and Geoff Schoenberg

  The hiring and firing of professional sport team coach-es and leaders is a commonplace occurrence (Bridgewater, 2010; Hughes et al., 2010; Maxcy, 2013) that attracts abnormal levels of media and fan interest. Less than 5% of coaches across the four major US professional leagues have tenures longer than a decade while less than ten percent of English Football league coaches have a tenure longer than four years. Although on-field performance is usually the key reason for changing coaches, the demands of modern coaching now extend beyond winning games, meaning the impact of the change may be...Read more

• A Comparison of College Football and NASCAR Consumer Profiles: Identity Formation and Spectatorship Motivation

  Shaughan A. Keaton

  Nichols M. Watanabe

  and Christopher C. Gearhart

  Knowledge of antecedents and outcomes of identification with teams or athletes, alongside motivations for spectatorship, allow organizations to adopt models of sport consumption that best meet tactical purposes (Stewart, Smith, & Nicholson, 2003). This strategy potentially increases sport consumption (Sutton, McDonald, Milne, & Cimperman, 1997) in part because understanding disparities in market segments is crucial to isolating consumers’ needs, identifying their foundations of loyalty and commitment, and exposing spending patterns (Pitts & Stotlar, 1996; Shilbury, Quick,...Read more

• Linking Fan Values and Sponsorship Effectiveness: The Case of Old School Values

  Damon Aiken

  Ajay Sukhdial

  Lynn Kahle

  and James A. Downing

  Sport sponsorship is an ever-increasing multibillion-dollar business worldwide. In North America alone, annual sponsorship spending is fast approaching $20 billion (IEG Sponsorship Report, 2013). Of course, given tough economic times, corporations are requiring evidence of the effectiveness of their sponsorship investments (McKelvey & Snyder, 2009). Moving away from purely financial analyses, some research in this domain has focused on understanding sponsorship effectiveness by examining perceived fan-to-sponsor connections (Cornwell, Weeks, & Roy, 2005; Olson & Thjømøe, 2011...Read more

• You Agreed to What? Implications of Past Agreements Between Donors and Athletic Support Groups

  Todd Koesters

  Matthew T. Brown

  and John Grady

  There is very little argument today that college athletics as a whole is big business, with the NCAA generating almost $1 billion annually in revenues (Alesia, 2014). More than 80% of this revenue is generated by the men’s championship basketball tournament alone. NCAA Division I-FBS football, which operates under its new playoff system utilizing the current bowl system, generates even more money for the “Power 5” conferences. As a result, the 15 highest grossing athletic departments combined to generate revenues in excess of $1 billion (Morgan, n.d.). These revenues have led to a dramatic...Read more