Marketing Pro-Environmental Venues in Professional Sport: Planting Seeds of Change Among Existing and Prospective Consumers
in Journal of Sport ManagementClick name to view affiliation
Professional sport organizations are showing increasing interest in proenvironmental strategies, as evidenced in part by the recent incorporation of sustainable design in many facilities. This interest may be driven by the perceived positive outcomes associated with the triple bottom line (TBL), which illustrates the environmental, social, and economic benefits of proenvironmental initiatives. The TBL has been the subject of both acclaim and criticism by scholars and practitioners, and this study provides new insight into its appropriateness as a reflection of proenvironmental organizations’ motives. Through standardized interviews, the authors found that professional sport organizations place particular emphasis on the TBL’s social component, which represents the objectives of increasing environmental awareness among fans and attracting new consumers. This study contends that the TBL’s three components are closely intertwined, and the implementation of commercial and social marketing strategies is necessary to attend to and realize the organizations’ stated goal of maximizing all three components.
Timothy B. Kellison is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Yu Kyoum Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sport Management, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
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