FAN MOTIVATION FOR ATTENDANCE TO MEN’S

ii Fan attendance rates are a vital part to college athletics. With most athletic programs already losing money for universities, the recent decline in attendance rates has added further stress to budgets (Fulks, 2010). Most of the research on sports fans examines the socio-motivational and psychological motivations for attending games. Fan research has primarily focused on English soccer and American baseball, with little focus being placed on college soccer. While sports like college soccer do not generate enough revenue to sustain themselves, athletic departments still need to maintain positive attendance numbers at these events. Non-revenue sports provide free publicity and advertisement for universities which is one reason why colleges increased their contribution to athletics by 28 % in 2009 (Drape & Thomas, 2010).This creates a need to understand college soccer fans. This study will look at nine Clemson men’s soccer matches using a one way analysis of variance for different psychological and physical variables that influence a fan’s attendance. This process will help identify what aspect