The Effect of Sporting Event Levels on Fan Motivation Factors

Over the years much research has been completed on the motivations sport fans have for attending different sporting events. However, very little has been completed in the area of fan motivation at different levels of the same type of sport. The current research study addressed the hole in the literature and examined the motivational profiles of sport fans attending different levels of the same sport. The research also addressed how event level affects the level of identification with a being a fan of a particular team. We asked 224 fans at five different levels of baseball games in the mid-south what was their motivation to attend that game. We found that the levels followed a similar motivational pattern. The researchers expected there would be a difference between the levels and while some differences occurred, all levels ranked entertainment as the highest level of motivation for attending the game and all levels ranked economic as the lowest level of motivation for attending the game. The researchers also expected that the higher levels of baseball would have high identification with the team they were supporting and the lower levels would have low identification with the team they were supporting. However, the highest level researched had a lower identification with the team than all the other levels