Developing co-production in professional sports: managing ritualized spectator behaviour for new teams

Our research suggests that for sport organizations, involvement in rituals is positively correlated with other positive business outcomes such as merchandise expenditure and game attendance. For sports marketing practitioners, the results indicate the importance of developing and managing consumption rituals tied to game day attendance, with a view to generating uncommon loyalty. New teams could be expected to have difficulties in building connections to their fans and developing long-term loyalty. Here, though, we see that inaugural members of a new team are already heavily active in pre and post game rituals. This study shows that sports marketers can be assisted in building attendance and retaining members by fostering and facilitating social rituals for fans on game days. Major sources of these rituals, in line with co-production, can include leveraging brand communities such as supporter groups, which were shown to arise in the absence of organized club-sponsored activities. In capitalising on the benefits of co-production, understanding ritualized groups and behaviors and how they evolve are particularly important for marketers of new teams given that once established, rituals are highly resistant to change