Social media platforms offer a direct channel for broadcasting live content to followers, emphasizing the immediacy of interaction. Social live-streaming services present a unique opportunity for niche sport organizations to engage with their communities in real time, providing new opportunities for interaction and engagement. This paper employs a case study of the 2022 CrossFit (CF) Games to understand how social live-streaming services influence consumer engagement in niche sports. Using an online survey and content analysis, the study finds that viewing the CF Games inspires participation and that viewers with a stronger connection to CF are less likely to engage in chat functions. These insights highlight the potential for niche sports to leverage social live-streaming services for enhanced engagement, offering a viable alternative to traditional broadcasting. Although the focus is on CF, the findings may provide valuable lessons for other niche sports facing similar challenges in visibility and audience engagement.
Browse
CrossFit Games: A Case Study of Consumer Engagement on Social Live-Streaming Service Platforms
Sarah Wymer, Anne L. DeMartini, and Austin R. Brown
Marketing a Junior B Hockey Team After the Major-Junior Ontario Hockey League Relocates a Team to Your City: The Case of the Valley Brook Barons
Craig Hyatt, Chris Chard, and Nicholas Burton
After a major-junior hockey team relocates to their city, the well-established Junior B Valley Brook Barons hockey team’s attendance dropped 30% to only 350 fans per game, leading to a financial loss for the season. For the team to break even again, their Business Manager believes they need to restore their per-game attendance back to 500 fans. Consequently, she wants to implement a new marketing plan before the next season begins. She recognizes the opportunity of targeting their current and potential new market segments. Despite the urgency, the team’s owner will only budget $5,000 to implement a new marketing plan. Students are required to conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis, segment the market, analyze the five Ps of the marketing mix, pick one or more target markets, and develop marketing tactics that can be implemented on a very tight budget.
Tourism Touché: USA Fencing’s Delicate Dance With Tournament Site Selection
Bradley J. Baker and Ashley Gardner
This case explores the complex process of developing a national calendar of marquee events for the Olympic sport of fencing. USA Fencing, the national governing body, must meet diverse stakeholders’ needs while balancing competing priorities. Chief among the tensions is maximizing organizational revenues to fund operations versus minimizing costs and barriers to event access for participants. Suitable venues are scarce and clustered in major metropolitan areas with restrictive calendars. The limited number of potential locations impedes USA Fencing’s ability to extract concessions from host cities and negotiate hotel room rebates and venue rental fees. This also limits USA Fencing’s ability to accommodate other stakeholder preferences, such as attractive locations and adhering to a recently adopted policy to give preference to locations in states with inclusive laws regulating women’s reproductive health and LGBTQIA+ issues. With no perfect solutions, navigating these constraints requires judicious analysis of alternatives and artful negotiation between attendee demands and organizational imperatives to develop event schedules aligning with USA Fencing’s mission. By wrestling with this multidimensional resource allocation dilemma, students sharpen analytic skills and strategic decision-making competencies, grappling with the same complex questions event directors face in real-world scheduling environments marked by inadequacy and compromise.
Cross-Cultural Comparison of Satellite Fanship: A Consumer Culture Theory Perspective
Yiran Su, Xiaochen Zhou, Daniel Funk, and Jason Daniels
Satellite fans make up an important part of a sport team’s market, but little is known about how long-distance relationships are developed across different cultures. In this manuscript, we utilize the Consumer Culture Theory to examine how satellite fans develop fanship toward foreign professional sport teams. Drawing from 46 interviews with Chinese and American fans of European soccer teams, we developed four archetypal pathways through which fans form relationships with their beloved teams, reflected in the labels “Detached Admirer,” “Relational Networker,” “Industry Analyst,” and “Spiritual Follower.” The findings showed both cross-cultural and intracultural differences in the way satellite fans connect to their teams. In diverse ways, satellite fans construct their desired identities based on the meaning of their fandom, influenced by a variety of social-historical parameters. Accordingly, we bring theoretical innovation to sport fan behavior research and provide managerial actions for teams targeting the satellite fan base.
Fan Socializing and BIRGing: The Impact of Trait Competitiveness on Fan Behaviors
D. Todd Donavan, Mara F. Singer, and Brad D. Carlson
This research investigates the intricate dynamics between trait competitiveness and sport fan behavior, examining its relationships with situational and surface traits associated with sport consumption. By advancing our understanding of competitiveness as a key influencer in sport participation and entertainment seeking, the study contributes to our understanding of what drives sport fans. Utilizing Mowen’s 3M model and the Big Five personality traits, we explore the influence of traits on competitiveness, predicting its impact on participation and entertainment seeking and fan socializing and basking in reflected glory. The findings unveil the role of competitiveness in shaping behaviors, indicating that competitive individuals actively seek and enjoy competitive and entertaining situations. The research illuminates the paths by which personality traits affect sport consumption behaviors, providing theoretical insights into the complex dynamics of competitiveness in the realm of sport.
Baseball and Culture: A Case-Study Examination of the Korean Baseball Organization Documentary Full Count
Kevin Hull and Minhee Choi
During the 2022 season, a documentary crew followed the teams and players in the Korean Baseball Organization, resulting in a 10-episode series Full Count that debuted the following year. The series was broadcast initially in South Korea; however, a later international release through a streaming platform allowed for increased worldwide exposure for the league, teams, players, and, perhaps somewhat uniquely, the culture and traditions in the home country. Therefore, even though the focus was baseball, this program provided a unique opportunity for the world to learn about the people and values of South Korea. Using constant comparative methodology, the following themes emerged: (a) emphasizing team over individual, (b) respecting elders, (c) overcoming adversity, and (d) playing with honor.
Managing Sport Development: An International Approach (2nd ed.)
Christina Gipson
Diversity and Inclusion in Sport Organizations: A Multilevel Perspective (5th ed.)
Farah J. Ishaq
How Transfer Behavior Impacts Consumer Perceptions and Intentions Toward College Athletes Who Pursue Name, Image, and/or Likeness Activities
Andrea L. Matthews and Jodi Pelkowski
Recent changes to the National Collegiate Athletic Association policy on name, image, and/or likeness and transfer policies have transformed how college athletes may market themselves as human brands. Above all, branding success depends on consumer perceptions. Using a national survey of U.S. consumers and an experiment, we test how transfer behavior impacts consumer purchase intentions for a collegiate athlete’s brand. We find that transferring to a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I or Division II school decreases purchase intentions by lowering consumer identification with the athlete through perceived profit motive or perceived athlete quality, respectively. These findings contribute to branding theory and provide insight to players and schools, as they navigate the changing landscape of college athletics.