Articles in this issue:

• What Do Ticket Prices Reveal About the Growth in Women’s Sport? The Case of NCAA Division I Women’s College Basketball

  Nels Popp

  Chris Greenwell

  Adam R. Cocco

  and Nate Bonney

  Product prices convey important messages to consumers. Low prices project affordability, while higher prices indicate greater perceived quality. The current study examines the relationship between ticket price and attendance within NCAA Division I women’s college basketball. Advertised single game ticket prices, along with 10 control variables, were collected for 975 games played during the 2021‒2022 season. Both highest and lowest ticket prices were significantly related to attendance but in opposite directions. The lowest ticket prices had a negative relationship with attendance, meaning...Read more

• Get Your Tickets Here: An Examination of How Reputation and Pricing Strategies of Ticket Sellers Affect Consumers’ Willingness to Purchase Sport Tickets

  Koo Yul Kim

  Colin Lopez

  and Yo Han Lee

  The exponential growth of the secondary ticket market is primarily driven by proliferation of secondary ticket market companies (i.e., ticket resale platforms). With these different ticket resale platforms exhibiting varying levels of reputation, the role of reputation has become increasingly pivotal, influencing consumers’ decision making in the ticket purchase process. Utilizing signaling theory as a theoretical framework, this study employs a multi-study experimental design to examine the impact of reputation on consumers’ purchase decisions under different pricing conditions (e.g.,...Read more

• An Examination of the Impact of Ticket Reference Price on Fairness Perceptions for Sport Consumers: Assessing the Influence of Self-Construal

  Deukmook Bae and Stephen L. Shapiro

  Demand-based ticket pricing strategies have replaced the traditional cost-based approach in professional sports. As comparisons with constantly changing prices can potentially elicit negative consumer responses, the importance of reference prices as standards for judging price fairness is being raised. Guided by selective accessibility model, this research investigated the relative effects of two types of reference prices: internal reference price (IRP) and external reference price (ERP). Furthermore, the present study examines how a sport consumer’s self-construal interacts with the...Read more

• Immersive Impact: Sport Virtual Reality Effects on Brand Recall and Recognition

  Derek Walton

  As sports consumers seek alternative means of sports consumption through virtual reality (VR) experiences, this study seeks to understand how VR-induced psychological response affects consumer cognitive processing specific to sponsorship messaging. To achieve this, the medium of sport consumption was manipulated (i.e., 2D digital broadcast vs. VR) in which spectator telepresence, brand recall, and brand recognition of sponsorship messaging were compared. A significant MANOVA result was obtained (Wilks’ Lambda = .54, F(3, 62) = 17.49, p < .001, n2 = .46), and a...Read more

• Development of the Brand Equity Measurement Scale of the Premier League in the Chinese Market

  Bingxu Cheng

  Do Young Pyun

  and Serhat Yilmaz

  Despite the popular investigation of brand equity in team sport and domestic markets, few studies have provided insight into sport brand equity at a league level and in international markets. This paper is dedicated to the development and empirical validation of a brand equity measurement scale tailored for the Premier League in the Chinese market. A multidimensional measurement model for the league's brand equity was conceptualized. Using two sample sets from Chinese consumers of the league, the proposed measurement scale was tested by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor...Read more

• Consumer Responses to Sports Leagues’ Employer Branding: Psychological Contract Formation and Breach

  Akira Asada and Christopher M. McLeod

  Employer branding has recently begun to attract attention in sport management to explain unique branding efforts by sports leagues. Although previous research has discussed its effectiveness in athlete recruitment and retention, little is known about how employer branding affects consumers. In this study, we conceptualized a sports league’s employer branding as a psychological contract between the league and athletes and examined how consumers react to the formation and breach of such a contract. Our experimental studies suggested that sports leagues can improve their credibility and...Read more