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Understanding factors that influence live game-day attendance has garnered significant attention from both researchers and practitioners in the sport industry. Despite the National Football League’s unprecedented annual revenues, league attendance remains down, spurring large-scale investment into the game-day experience (Florio, 2008). In this case, students will perform various statistical analyses (i.e., computing chi-square tests of independence, t tests, effect sizes [Cohen’s d], and confidence intervals) to determine which factors most strongly influence fan attendance at Jacksonville Jaguars home games. Specifically, this case investigates the degree to which stadium upgrades motivate fans to attend and explores the extent to which fans support the use of public funds for stadium upgrades. Answering these questions will further equip future sport managers to make data-driven decisions regarding the utility of strategies—such as stadium projects—to enhance the game-day experience. Furthermore, students can use the knowledge gained from the case to critically analyze public investment in sport stadia as well as the ways in which consumers’ preferences are either independent of or depend on categorical variables such as gender. The case is intended for use in research methods courses and is also applicable to sport marketing, sport facility, and sport finance courses.

This case explores the potential implications of the National Football League’s (NFL) domestic violence problem. The purpose of this case study is to introduce students to logistic regression analysis. The case uses this method to address if the NFL’s Ray Rice domestic violence scandal will impact consumer behavior and loyalty toward the league. Given the significant role loyalty and retention has on profitability, the case investigates whether the Rice incident influenced fan decision-making, paying close attention to female consumers. The framework of analysis considers fan perceptions of the Ray Rice domestic violence scandal and the league’s response as potential deterrents of NFL game attendance and consumption of league media. Students will consider a variety of predictors, such as gender, age, and fan perception of the league’s domestic violence problem, in an attempt to yield insight into the possible influence of the Rice events on the commitment level of NFL fans. This case study is intended for use in research methods and assumes knowledge of regression analysis. However, in the event an instructor does not wish to run a logistic regression analysis, descriptive statistics could be used to detect patterns of responses that illustrate variance in fans’ perceptions of how consumer behavior may be affected by domestic violence issues.