An examination of dynamic ticket pricing and secondary market price determinants in Major League Baseball

Over the past several years, professional sport organizations have started to shift from cost-based ticket pricing strategies to a demand-based focus, where price considerations are driven, in part, by market demand. Dynamic ticket pricing (DTP), where prices fluctuate daily based on market factors, evolved from this transition. The motivation for DTP stems from the significant growth of the secondary ticket market, where ticket prices are almost completely demand driven. One issue with this strategy is the limited understanding of specific factors that influence dynamically priced tickets and secondary market tickets. The current study examined price determinants in the primary market where DTP has been implemented and comparable tickets in the secondary market. Four regression models were developed for this purpose. The first two models examined factors influencing dynamic ticket price. Both DTP models were found to be significant, explaining 91.4% and 70.8% of the variance in dynamic price, respectively. The second two models examined factors influencing secondary market ticket price. Both secondary market models were found to be significant, explaining 82.7% and 79.7% of the variance in secondary market price, respectively. There were many consistencies between models, including an emphasis on team and individual performance factors, ticket-related factors, and time-related factors. However, there were a number of unique aspects to each model, which may help sport managers develop pricing strategies that better reflect market demand for sport     

The uniqueness of sport: Testing against marketing's empirical laws

Two key law-like patterns – the double jeopardy and duplication of purchase laws – have consistently been found to explain and predict consumer behavior across a wide range of industries. There has been speculation that these empirical generalisations may not hold in the case of professional team sport brands. The reasons given include the passionate loyalty of sport fans, the fact that two sport teams must be consumed at once in any contest, and the strong geographic dominance of sport brands. In this study, we examine the applicability of these two law-like generalisations to professional team sport. With a few caveats, these law-like patterns hold, suggesting that sport team brands operate in line with what is known about other consumer markets. Results suggest the unique aspects of the sport market do not meaningfully impact consumer behavior and therefore sport brands should be managed in fundamentally the same way as most consumer markets.     

Investigating the role of corporate credibility in corporate social marketing: A case study of environmental initiatives by professional sport organizations

The purpose of this study is to understand how professional sport organizations might influence consumer voluntary behavior through their corporate social marketing (CSM) initiatives by focusing on the role of corporate credibility. The study examined consumer responses to environmental initiatives by two professional sport teams, and showed that organizational and program characteristics were associated with the corporate credibility of the teams in supporting environmental protection (i.e., environmental credibility). Environmental credibility, in turn, was found to have a positive association with consumer pro-environmental behavior measured by daily recycling involvement and recycling intentions during the teams’ home games. The results further revealed that environmental credibility was more strongly associated with recycling intentions during games for respondents who were less involved in environmental issues. Together, these findings suggest that professional sport organizations can be an effective vehicle for socially beneficial behavior by increasing their credibility in CSM involvement.     

NCAA football television viewership: Product quality and consumer preference relative to market expectations

The authors estimate the determinants of college football television viewership across the full quality spectrum of contests and test whether consumer preferences vary based on changes in the attributes of the core product. They utilize national television viewership data at the individual game level over a three season period and estimate numerous consumer demand models using zero-truncated negative binomial regression. The results indicate a lack of support for anticipated outcome uncertainty, but support for contests where actual outcomes are closer than market expectations. Consumer preferences are not consistent across game qualities, which may indicate that game type is linked to variation in the consumer base and reference-dependent preferences. The findings may also explain why the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis is supported in some contexts, but not others. Preference for absolute quality also dominates preference for relative quality. This finding has important implications for contest scheduling. Given the common practice of advance scheduling creates sub-optimal conference and network television schedules, stakeholders could be leaving television revenues on the table.     

标志性赛事观众市场需求的内涵、维度构成与本土量表的研制——基于形成性指标的新视角

采用文献回顾、验证性因子分析和结构方程建模等方法,构建标志性赛事观众市场需求的概念性框架,基于形成性指标的新视角,研制本土标志性赛事观众市场需求的初始量表（PSMD-HSE）并进行量表的信效度验证。研究发现：（1）标志性赛事观众市场需求包含7个需求因子,即赛事活动、球员质量、场地设施、赛事服务、经济因素、赛程设置、赛事推广;（2）基于概念性理论模型与验证性因子分析得到标志性赛事观众市场需求的初始量表;（3）初始量表具有良好的建构效度;（4）结构方程建模发现量表对观赛行为意向具有较好的预测效度。     

Establishing legitimacy in the secondary ticket market: A case study of an NFL market

As a result of the occasional unethical business practices of its members, such as price gouging and ticket fraud, the secondary ticket market for sporting events has struggled to gain legitimacy from the perspective of leagues, teams, and consumers. However, as this industry has grown exponentially in the past decade with the advent of the Internet, entities that resell tickets have implemented several strategies for improving the negative images resulting from these unethical practices. As primary and secondary ticketing operations continue to merge through secondary market sponsorships, teams and other sport properties must carefully consider public perceptions of this market before determining their own level of involvement with it. Understanding what strategies the members of the secondary market use to repair and enhance these perceptions is the first step in making that judgment. The purpose of this study was to examine the legitimacy-building strategies in a National Football League (NFL) market for each segment of the secondary ticket market (scalpers, licensed ticket brokers, and secondary ticket market websites). Additionally, a new strategy for legitimacy-building (legitimacy acquisition) is also presented.     

“If people are wearing pink stuff they’re probably not real fans”: Exploring women’s perceptions of sport fan clothing

Given the growth in the female sport fan base of North American major league sports and the development and expansion of women’s team-related apparel, the purpose of this study was to examine women sport fans’ perceptions of team apparel. The authors collected data through in-depth interviews with 16 Canadian women who self-identified as fans of professional sport teams. They perceived a lack of options in team apparel, despite the development of women’s clothing lines. Analysis of the aesthetics, symbolism, and instrumentality of team apparel using a third-wave feminist approach provides socio-cultural explanations for women fans’ dissatisfaction with existing offerings. This approach advances understandings of the social circumstances shaping women’s sport experiences as fans and the impact of gender on consumer engagement. Results suggest that sport teams need to recognize the diversity of women’s gender identities and expressions and provide a wider range of clothing that demonstrate their status as authentic fans.     

Exploring sport brand double jeopardy: The link between team market share and attitudinal loyalty

Marketers are charged with the responsibility of attracting consumers and encouraging loyalty for their brands. Double jeopardy, a marketing law observed across numerous product and service settings, contends that loyalty is largely influenced by a brand's market share. There have been suggestions that sport may be one of the few areas immune to such effects, providing researchers with an opportunity to test how sport brand loyalty may be impacted by market share. The current research capitalises on this opportunity by assessing the effects of market share on attitudinal loyalty reported by a sample of 794 Australian sport fans. ANOVA tests revealed that fans of high market share brands displayed higher levels of attitudinal loyalty towards their favourite teams in comparison to small market share team fans. Further tests revealed that differences existed in terms of the brand association perceptions held by high and small market share team fans, and how these contributed to predicting attitudinal loyalty. Consequently, sport marketers should be cognisant of double jeopardy effects when evaluating sport brands and formulating marketing strategies, though future research is needed to determine the full applicability of double jeopardy within the sport context.     

Will the real fans please remain seated? Gender and television ratings for pre-game and game broadcasts

Previous analysis of fan motivation suggests a number of differences exist in the sport spectatorship of female and male fans, however discrepancies are present in the collective findings. We extend the literature by drawing on sport economic demand research, testing how specific game characteristics influence consumption patterns for each gender. Through the examination of NCAA football game broadcasts, our results support the importance of female pre-game viewership to establish fan status. By contrast, among the many variables tested, gendered-differences in the impact on game viewership are evident only with respect to income and local team participation. Moreover, we do not find differences related to anticipated or actual game competitiveness. We conclude that within game viewership patterns are essentially similar for female and male fans and offer thoughts regarding the practical implications of this research.     

Dimensions of general market demand associated with professional team sports: Development of a scale

The purpose of this study was to develop the Scale of Market Demand to assess general market demand factors affecting the consumption of professional team sports, which was completed through the following five steps: (a) formulation of a theoretical framework, (b) development of a preliminary scale, (c) exploratory factor analysis (EFA), (d) confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and (e) examination of predictive validity through conducting a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Following a community intercept method, professional sport consumers (N = 453) in four southeastern metropolitan areas responded to the scale. Data were randomly split into two halves: one for EFA and the other for CFA. In the EFA with alpha extraction and promax rotation, six factors with 31 items emerged: opposing team, home team, game promotion, economic consideration, sport epitome, and schedule convenience. In the CFA with maximum likelihood estimation, five factors with 17 most pertinent items were retained, without the sport epitome factor. This five-factor model displayed good fit to the data, discriminant validity, and high reliability. The SEM revealed that home team, opposing team, and game promotion were predictive of game re-attendance behaviour.     

Role models in sports – Can success in professional sports increase the demand for amateur sport participation?

The determinants of the demand for sport participation have been extensively analyzed. This study intends to complement these determinants by examining the question of whether the success of professional athletes can spill over on the demand for amateur sport participation. A theoretical framework of sporting role models was developed and subsequently tested with a stated preference approach and primary data of N = 1413 amateur soccer players from Germany. The results show that past success of both the female and the male German national soccer teams had increased the demand for amateur soccer only slightly. However, present (hypothetical) success of the national teams considerably increases the demand for the frequency of soccer participation of already active players. The estimation of ordered logit regression models validates the constructed framework. Availability and relevance of the role models as well as similarity to the role models are the main predictors of their motivational effect.     

Market disruption as a regime for athlete activism: An economic analysis of college football player protests

In this study, the authors examine the market disruption of college football protests, under the belief the ability of market disruption can play a significant role for activism movements to challenge authority as well as expand opportunity for social change. Specifically considering game attendance as an important form of market demand, the authors employ regression modeling to analyze the relationship between game attendance and protests organized to struggle against racial injustices by football players at four Division I Football Bowl Subdivision programs. The results from the empirical models suggest that the voting demographics of the local market a team plays in have a significant relationship with attendance after a protest, with some schools experiencing declines in consumer interest. Results advance the current inquiry of athlete activism through an economic lens, which contributes to further discussions on the empowerment of athletes and their roles in social activism.     

南宁市羽毛球场馆体育消费的调查与分析

采用文献法、调查法、数理统计法,对南宁市羽毛球场馆的体育消费进行了研究.结果表明：场馆体育消费主要集中在青年人、中年人以及文化程度较高、职业稳定、中高收入水平的人群;其体育消费动机体现出趋同性,各年龄段的侧重点不同;大多数人了解羽毛球运动,有持久兴趣,但满足于业余爱好,接受专业指导的需求较弱;人群主要以随机方式到场馆进行消费为主,一半人每周到场馆消费2至3次;从消费的频率、规模等方面看,南宁市羽毛球运动的体育消费相对稳定且已具规模;消费结构以实物形式的消费资料为主,服务形式的消费资料比例较小,精神产品形式的消费资料有一定需求.     

体育赛事特许产品的经营与开发

体育赛事特许产品开发作为体育赛事资源开发的重要组成部分,是经营与开发体育赛事有形与无形资产,挖掘、整合各项资源的重要形式。随着体育赛事资源开发逐步走向多元化、市场化,特许产品作为赛事开发收入增长点的后发优势已经突显,对体育赛事资源开发收入的贡献逐步提升。在分析国内大型综合性体育赛事特许产品经营与开发的现状和存在的问题的基础上,对体育特许产品经营的过程进行了分析,并提出体育赛事特许产品经营与开发的相应对策。     

赛事转播权的价值规律与经营风险的规避

体育赛事的电视转播权是体育产业和传媒产业联系的纽带,它是现代职业体育的经济命脉,也是大众传媒的优质内容资源。转播权能够成为珍贵的商品,是由供求关系决定的,是体育组织和传播机构互助、博弈的结果。近年快速膨胀的赛事规模和动辄数十亿的转播费,放大了电视机构的经营风险,如果电视台稍有疏忽,就可能滑到破产的边缘。对此,体育组织和电视机构都要深入了解转播权背后的市场规律和定价策略,通过风险预测、互相支持、开发资源等途径帮助电视机构规避经营风险,共同推动现代竞技体育的发展。     

‘Competitive Balance’ in the Top Level of English Football, 1948–2008: An Absent Principle and a Forgotten Ideal

Competitive balance is thought to be an important aspect of sport. Notions of ‘equity’ or ‘fair play’ appeal to the concept of competitive balance. Focusing upon the period between 1948 and 2008, this paper uses data from the top division of English football to investigate what has happened to competitive balance through the use of three measures. The first measure is an index, similar to a concentration ratio, that seeks to capture the extent to which the four most successful teams, by decade, have dominated the league. The second measure uses the Herfindahl index to discover the number of competitive teams in the league over the six decades. The final measure looks, season by season, at the probability of repeat success. The results suggest, from all three measures, that competitive balance has decreased and that the ‘beautiful game’ in England is in danger of becoming a monopoly of the few.     

Getting Generation Y to attend: Friends,interactivity and half-time entertainment

People from Generation Y, given their number and stage in the family life-cycle, represent a key emerging audience for major sports. The study focussed on the effect of friends and half time enhancements on likely attendance at matches. The sport domain was the Australian Football League (AFL), the elite Australian rules football competition. The enhancements being tested were half-time entertainments based on performers from well-known television talent shows, Australian Idol and It Takes Two. Scenarios with and without interactive participation, based on short messaging service (SMS) messages, were tested. The study used a general population sample of 909 Generation Y people in a traditional AFL market and one where AFL is not the major winter competition. Previous attendance and sport orientation were the major influences on attendance at major sports, including the AFL. Friends influenced likely attendance at a game, but no effects were found for half-time entertainments. People who attended matches with friends typically had social activities before and after the game. This suggested that one promotional strategy to expand existing markets was to find and engage the social networks of existing fans, making sport attendance a broader part of an overall social event.     

Consumer experience quality: A review and extension of the sport management literature

Over the last two decades, the number of studies examining the roles of the core sport product, ancillary services, social interactions among consumers, and relationship marketing programs in the sport context has grown. However, it is also true that these topics have been advanced in many independent research endeavors depending on the touch points (e.g., sport, service, social, and communication encounters) being assessed. To integrate this body of research with sport consumer behavior, the purpose of this conceptual paper, which represents a contribution to the 20th anniversary of Sport Management Review (SMR), is to introduce the construct of consumer experience quality as consisting of four important dimensions – core product, service, social network, and relationship investment quality – into the sport management literature. In order to explain the utility of the proposed construct in the sport context, this article presents an integrative conceptual framework that draws on multiple theories and bodies of literature. A series of propositions are offered to not only understand the role of consumer experience quality in sport consumer decision-making, but also to specify the conditions under which sport consumers are more likely to be satisfied with the core sport product and ancillary services, feel and behave in response to brand-related stimuli, and engage in both transactional and non-transactional behaviors. The paper concludes that future research should be directed at testing the propositions offered in the conceptual framework.     

运动时尚与服饰流行及发展

以新的视角审视服饰的流行,分析了运动时尚的大众化与人们着装理念及消费形态的变化,揭示了运动时尚对服饰流行的深刻影响与驱动机制,以及对服装科技发展与创新的巨大推动作用.通过对运动休闲服饰消费市场的广泛调研,分析了运动时尚为服饰产业所带来的市场机遇以及对服饰消费市场的导向性,指出了这一市场变化所构成的新型消费结构与消费特征,并对目标消费群体进行了市场细分与重新定位,以有效地促进设计理念的创新与营销新模式的探索,进一步探讨并预测了未来的市场消费趋势.     

“人道”与消费者剩余理论对提升现代体育产业效益的启示

本文以体育消费者剩余理论为研究核心，即从体育消费者消费一定数量的体育商品时的期望价格与该商品的实际市场价格之间产生的差额，来考察体育消费者与体育产业之间的价值与利益的相持、分割与平衡，揭示体育消费者剩余对生产者剩余及其体育产业整体效益提高的重要意义。