Articles in this issue:

• View from the Field: Stacey Allaster

  Stacey Allaster

  This article is adapted from Stacey Allaster’s Mark H. McCormack Innovators Lecture delivered at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on April 7, 2015.Read more

• Effects of Sport Celebrity Transgressions: An Exploratory Study

  A. Sassenberg

  This paper has developed a conceptual model that has been based on the perceptions of consumers about the impact of different types of sport celebrity transgressions (SCTs) on their sport celebrity brand image. Focus group results have indicated that when SCTs ensue, consumers may have a positive attitude towards the sport-related brand attributes, while at the same time a negative attitude towards the non-sport-related brand attributes. Furthermore, SCTs seemed to impact negatively on consumers’ attitudes towards both the symbolic and experiential brand benefits. Findings showed consumers...Read more

• Identifying Key Market Demand Factors Associated with High School Basketball Tournaments

  Beth A. Cianfrone

  James Zhang

  Brenda Pitts

  and Kevin K. Byon

  High school sports are popular in the United States and the associated state championships are often publicized, well-attended special events providing an economic impact on host communities. Understanding attendees, particularly those variables affecting market demand for high-profile interscholastic sporting events, would help athletic directors and state associations improve marketing efforts. Through an abridged adoption of the Theory of Reason Action, this study was conducted to develop a consumer profile of high school tournament spectators by understanding their sociodemographic...Read more

• Fan Community Identification: An Empirical Examination of Its Outcomes in Japanese Professional Sport

  Masayuki Yoshida

  Brian Gordon

  Bob Heere

  and Jeffrey D. James

  Understanding why sport fans socially interact with other fans, participate in team-related discussions, recruit new members, and retain membership in sport fan communities is an important issue for sport marketers. In this study, we tested a model of fan community identification that included outcome and moderator variables in the contexts of two major professional sport leagues (soccer and baseball) in Japan. Based on the results, in both settings, fan community identification had positive effects on team brand equity and four fan community-related consequences: fan community engagement...Read more

• An Examination of Fantasy Sport Participation Motives and Substitution versus Attendance Intention

  Ben Larkin

  Fantasy sport users have been shown to exhibit both heightened sport media consumption (Drayer, Shapiro, Dwyer, Morse, & White, 2010, Dwyer, Shapiro, & Drayer, 2011), and a greater propensity to attend live events (Drayer et al., 2010; Shipman, 2001). Therefore, it seems something of a paradox has emerged, whereby fantasy sport participation has been suggested to result in greater substitution through media (e.g., Pritchard & Funk, 2006), and yet it has been suggested that fantasy sport users attend more events. Accordingly, this study applied cognitive evaluation theory to...Read more

• Let’s Here It for the Home Team: Williams v. National Football League Upholds Geographic Ticket Sales Ban

  James T. Reese and Mark A. Dodds

  In March 2015, a marketing executive for the Atlanta Falcons was fired and the team was penalized by the National Football League (NFL) Commissioner’s office for piping artificial crowd noise into the Georgia Dome during home games (“Falcons Fined,” 2015). It is just the latest example of the lengths to which professional sports teams will go in seeking to gain a competitive advantage by creating a more hostile environment for visiting teams.Read more