Articles in this issue:

• Franchise Ownership as Individual-Level Sport Brands: Exploring a Digitally Intermediated Process Model

  Ted Hayduk III

  Brianna L. Newland

  and Alex Yeh

  Research suggests when local consumers perceive professional sport team owners as like them, they are more likely to attend games and spend freely (Hayduk & Walker, 2021). We developed and tested an intuitive process model to examine how some owners are better able to increase profitability, incentivize attendance, and induce consumer spending. We built and tested a process model of owners’ individualized impacts on franchise outcomes using franchise-level panel data merged with city-level Google search traffic data. Early-tenure owners from the same franchise city demonstrated...Read more

• Applying the Consumer Brand Engagement in Social Media Scale to Professional Sport: A Psychological Approach to Measuring Social Media Engagement

  Rebecca M. Achen and Ashley Stadler Blank

  This research takes a psychological approach to measuring social media engagement in sport by applying the consumer brand engagement (CBE) in social media scale. We collected two samples to evaluate the psycho- metric properties of the CBE scale in a professional sport team context. After finding the CBE scale reliable and valid in both samples, we explored its impact on relationship quality, purchase intentions, and referral intentions. We found that an increase in CBE leads to an increase in relationship quality and subsequent purchase and referral intentions. After testing an...Read more

• Exploring Fans’ Experience of Toxicity in Women’s Sport Social Media Communities

  Megan C. Piché and Michael L. Naraine

  Women’s sport has newfound momentum and popularity, and fans are proceeding to engage through various channels like social media. However, social media is not always positive, and there exists a dark side to this online dynamic. Left unchecked and unexamined, it is possible that fans withdraw from these digital spaces, a potential critical problem for sport marketers seeking to build online fan communities. This study explored fans’ experiences of toxicity in women’s sport social media communities through semi-structured interviews with self-identified women’s sport fans. The findings...Read more

• Contextualizing Fans’ Divergent Experiences of Sport Activism Through a Social Identity Threat Lens

  Keegan Dalal and Michael L. Naraine

  This article examines how multiple intersecting social identities influence the fan experience of sport activism by incorporating the social identity approach (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner et al., 1987). To do so, a heterogeneous sample of 16 sport fans was interviewed, and qualitative data were analyzed following Braun and Clarke’s (2021) six-step reflexive thematic analysis. The findings revealed that participants’ alignments between sport activism and personal beliefs anchored their polarized interpretations of and responses to the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. Privileged...Read more

• The Value of the Call: An Examination of MLB Broadcasters as Points of Fan Attachment

  Michael Mudrick and Melissa Davies

  This study investigates the relationships between fans’ perceptions of the credibility and demographic fit of local sport broadcasters and their corresponding attachment to the broadcasters, along with their identification and loyalty to the team. A sample of 288 Major League Baseball (MLB) fans from the United States and Canada were recruited via Twitter and Facebook fan pages and surveyed to answer questions about their fandom, favorite team, and organization’s broadcasters. The perceived demographic fit with the locale of an MLB broadcast team was found to be significantly related to...Read more

• Brand Mark Comprehension: The Influence of Athlete Logo Understanding on Consumer Evaluations of Athlete Brands

  Zack P. Pedersen

  Antonio S. Williams

  and Kevin K. Byon

  The current investigation examines how consumers perceive various types of athlete logos based on the number and recognizability of different brand associations. With the growing number of athletes who utilize a logo to enhance their brand, generate additional revenue, and differentiate within a crowded marketplace, examining perceptions of logo characteristics is vital. A pre-post test experimental design was constructed using the results from a content analysis of current WNBA and NBA athlete logos, in addition to a free-thought listing exercise and a hypothetical logo creation/...Read more