Identifying attendance motives for an international league fixture

Purpose – Whilst the impact of motives on sports attendance has received due scholarly attention, one context that appears to have been overlooked is the growing trend towards playing domestic league fixtures in an international setting. The purpose of this paper is to address this oversight by exploring how four different categories of motives distinguished attendees from non-attendees for an Australian Rules football game played in New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach – A stadium-intercept method at a St Kilda home game was used for the purposes of data collection. In total, 2,000 survey invitations had been distributed. Of these, 381 usable online surveys were received. The resulting data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings – This study found that the lower fans’ expectations of their team winning, the less likely they were to travel internationally to watch their team play. Furthermore, it also support that sport tourism is influenced not only by the event itself but also non-event attractions offered by the host destination image. Research limitations/implications – The limitation applies to the research context in which the respondents were selected from one of the two competing teams. Practical implications – This study confirms the importance of “special occasion” and highlights that an Australian Football League game played in New Zealand on ANZAC Day should continue to serve as a special occasion due to the historical significance of that day. Originality/value – The results from this study confirm the importance of adding a fourth category of motives – contextual factors – to the existing list of push, pull and sports motives. The findings also support the obvious distinction between attending a domestic event vs attending an international one