International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship

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Back issue Volume 6 Number 2 November 2004

Editorial

Editorial

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Just a few weeks ago, a global audience watched one of the greatest unfolding dramas in sport. The Boston Red Sox surprised every sports fan and expert by winning, in the most dramatic fashion, the Baseball Championship for the first time, after 88 years. Yet this was just one of a string of great and improbable sporting moments that we have witnessed over the last few months. To recap (in no particular order):

Top seed Roger Federer captured the first US Open title of his career, defeating 2001 champion and No 4 seed Lleyton Hewitt 6-0, 7-6, 6-0 to become the first man to win three Grand Slam titles in a year since Mats Wilander in 1988...

Completely dominating the court with her ferocious forehand, 19-year-old Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova became the most surprising winner of the US Open by knocking out Elena Dementieva, 6-3, 7-5...

Greece are European champions! Sensational! A footballing miracle... Greece deserved this unbelievable triumph...

The sun is setting on the Champs-Elysees, and Lance Armstrong has made cycling history. As he takes his final victory lap... the American can soak up the cheers of the thousands of fans and bask in his own satisfaction.. He has just accomplished something no-one has ever done before – win six Tours de France, the world’s greatest bicycle race...

Who can forget the three great weeks of the Athens Olympics? One drama after another, one great moment topped by the next. It would take more than a couple of Journal pages to list them: the gold medals won at last by Hicham El Guerrouj in the 1500 and the 5000 metres; Israel’s first ever gold, by Gal Friedman; and the 12.91 seconds it took for Liu Xiang to become the first Chinese man to ever win a track gold, with victory in the 110m hurdles. The list goes on and on...

And the world watched. The numbers of viewers of the various TV broadcasts, or surfers on the event websites, is mind-boggling. According to the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Athens 2004 Olympic Games global broadcast broke all records: over 300 channels broadcast to 220 countries and territories; 3.9 billion people watched more than 35,000 hours of dedicated Olympic coverage. Over 1 billion worldwide watched Lance Armstrong ride to history in France; and more than half a billion page views and over 40 million visits have been registered on euro2004.com since the site launched on 31 March 2004.

So what can we, academicians and practitioners in sports marketing, make of these great moments? For me there is first and foremost pride – in being part of a field of research and study, and an industry, that brings so much joy, excitement, drama – and unity – to people all over the globe. Second, I realise that the success of these sporting moments and many others besides lies in a combination of the unpredictability of the outcome and the predictability (such as financing) that the event, race or game will take place and that the viewers (stadium, broadcast, internet) will have a positive experience. As practitioners or researchers, we have no control in creating the drama, but we have an important role in delivering the more predictable elements.

Dr David Shani

Interview

John Constantinou, European Sponsorship/Promotions Manager, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

Paper 1

Internet sports marketing and competitive advantage for professional sports clubs: bridging the gap between theory and practice

Authors

Daniel M. Evans, Monash University

Aaron C. T. Smith, La Trobe University

Abstract

This research identifies internet based opportunities for developing competitive marketing advantages and provides recommendations for the use of the internet in sports marketing. A telephone-administered survey, constructed from an instrument developed by Sethi and King (1994), Caskey (1998) and salient literature, was employed. All 55 clubs participating in Australia's four largest professional sporting leagues formed the sample, with an 87% participation rate achieved. Results lead to several practical recommendations for professional sporting organisations seeking to improve their internet marketing opportunities.

Paper 2

The role of special programmes and services for season ticket holders in predicting game consumption

Authors

James J. Zhang, University of Florida

Daniel Connaughton, University of Florida

Carrianne E. Vaughn, University of Florida

Abstract

This paper assesses the quality of special programmes and services for season ticket holders and their predictability to game consumption. Participants were season ticket holders of an NBA team, who responded to a questionnaire that included six demographic variables, eight consumption variables and 15 special programme and service variables in two versions: importance and perception. The findings further emphasise the importance of providing quality programmes and services to season ticket holders, and point out specific programme and service areas for improvement.

Paper 3

The role of involvement and income in predicting large and small donations to college athletics

Authors

Rodoula Tsiotsou, Protathlitis

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to classify donors who make large donations and those who make small donations to athletics programmes. In particular, the study investigated the degree to which involvement with the athletics programme, income and donor type discriminate individuals who make large donations from those who make small donations in an effort to predict donation level of prospect donors. The hypothesis that the three variables (involvement with the athletics programme, income and donor type) would classify athletics donors of small donations from athletics donors of larger donations was confirmed. The findings of the study provide theoretical and practical implications in predicting donation size, determining donor cultivation strategies and increasing fundraising effectiveness.

Paper 4

Extract - Consuming Sport: Fans, Sport and Culture

Authors

Gary Crawford, Sheffield Hallam University

Abstract

Consuming Sport is the first book to explicitly and comprehensively address how sport is experienced and engaged with in the everyday lives, social networks and consumer patterns of its followers, the fans. It examines the process of becoming a sport fan, and the social and moral career that supporters follow as their involvement develops over a life course. As well as developing a new theory of sports fandom and presenting a case for new ethnographic approaches to the study of sports fans, the book includes a wealth of unique research material. The following extract (chapter eight) considers the social importance of sport related consumption.