Fans vs. Spectators: An Analysis of Those who Attend Intercollegiate Football Games

By M. Robinson, Galen T. Trail, Ronald J. Dick, Andrew J. Gillentine. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 2005

127 citations recorded by the source corpus.

During the 2001 college football season more than 40 million individuals attended intercollegiate football games across the four divisions sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Although it would be easy to classify all of these individuals as either being spectators or fans, that would be in accurate. Trail, Robinson, Gillentine, and Dick (2003) developed a model based on the relationship between motives and points of attachment that classified attendees as either spectators or fans. The purpose of this study was to use the model to determine how individuals who attend college football games should be classified at the four NCAA divisions of college football. Data were collected from spectators at games at the the four different NCAA college football divisions. A MANOVA was performed on the motive factors and on the points of attachment factors proposed by Trail et al., using the division level as the independent variable. Results indicated that there was some support for the Trail et al. model. In general, Division I attendees have motives and points of attachments that are consistent with what Trail et al. (2003) classified as a fan characteristics. Division III attendees have motives and points of attachment that are consistent with what Trail et al. (2003) classified as spectator characteristics. Division II and I-AA have motives and attachment indicative of both fans and spectators. Discussion of the results and suggestions for future research are presented.

Subfields: Gender Studies, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b063ac15bf0381e91be8b4b91324d2033c339c27

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Citations in the corpus

eSport vs. Sport: A Comparison of Spectator Motives (2018, background): “Theoretical Implications Sport marketing scholars have established the importance of spectator motives on game and event attendance, with individuals attending for different reasons and desiring different aspects of the experience (e.g., Robinson et al., 2005; Trail, Robinson, et al., 2003).”
Can service quality predict spectators' behavioral intentions in professional soccer? (2008, background): “In order to ensure representation of all fans in the stadium (Robinson et al., 2005), eighty questionnaires in each of the four major parts of the stadium were distributed.”
Difference in Interrelationship between Spectators’ Motives and Behavioral Intentions Based on Emotional Attachment (2008, unknown): “Robinson, Dick, and Gillentine (2005) examined consumers attending collegiate football games at Division I, Division I-AA, Division II, and Division III football games.”
How Visitors and Locals at a Sport Event Differ in Motives and Identity (2008, background): “Although sources of variation in fan motivation have been widely studied in the context of professional and school sport teams (e.g. Robinson et al., 2005; Wann et al., 2001), they have been less well studied in the case of one-time sport events, and variations among different types of event…”
Measuring the Effectiveness of Sponsorship of an Elite Intercollegiate Football Program (2008, unknown): “…Wann & Branscombe, 1993) may be due in part to their superior knowledge of the sport product (Meenaghan, 2001) or their desire to be affiliated or identified with the sport, team, coaches, and players (Johar & Pham, 1999; Robinson, Trail, Dick, & Gillentine, 2005; Trail, Fink, & Anderson, 2003).”
Factors Affecting Soccer Club Season Ticket Holders’ Satisfaction: The Influence of Club Image and Fans’ Motives (2006, background): “Wakefield and Sloan (1995) showed how team loyalty has a positive impact on the desire of the public to go to the stadium, as well as a positive impact on the desire to attend games in the future.”