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Purpose Sport management research that examines children as a distinct group of sport consumers is sparse, and therefore the authors know relatively little about how and why children become fans of sport teams. The purpose of this paper is to explore the game-day experiences of children in order to better understand how these experiences allow children to socialize into the team community and become fans of the team. Design/methodology/approach The authors examine this through exploratory observational analysis and 26 semi-structured interviews with children at professional sporting events. Findings Among the results, it was found that children primarily focus on exploring ways to build membership in the fan community as opposed to initially building connections to the team itself. In addition, those children that watched the games with their peers demonstrated greater in-game emotional responses than those children that viewed the game with family. Research limitations/implications This study provides support for the importance of community membership in the initial stages of sport team fandom as well as the varying effects of different groups within fan communities on child fans. However, further research is needed to increase the generalizability of the results. Practical implications It is recommended that sport teams increasingly target groups that will bring children to games with their peers in order to enhance their game experience and increase their socialization into fandom. Originality/value This paper is one of the first in sport management to directly look to better understand children and the ways in which they become fans of sports teams.

Sports fans’ identification with their hometown is a very salient aspect of who they are, and thus, they are likely to be attracted to teams that represent the place they call “home.” Although recent sport marketing studies have shed light on the importance of home among fans, there is a void in the literature relative to “nonlocal fans.” This study aims to examine how geographic distance, geographic identity, and the presence of other local teams affect team identification for different types of nonlocal fans: displaced and nondisplaced fans. Nine hundred and twenty self-identified nonlocal US fans completed an online survey distributed via online discussion forums. Results revealed partial statistical support for the hypotheses. Increased distance was not negatively related to team identification no matter the type of nonlocal fan. Results also suggest that the presence of a local team in the same sport or different sports does not diminish team identification for nondisplaced nonlocal fans. The study signifies that nonlocal fans are a valuable segment for teams to target, whether displaced or nondisplaced. Further, results suggest that teams should encourage fans to geographically identify with the city in which a team resides.

This research examines the effects on team loyalty of two minor league branding strategies, naming the team after its parent major league team or naming it after the local community in which it exists. We propose a mediation model in which four constructs (i.e., team identification, social bonding, community group experience, and pride in place) mediate effects of brand type on team loyalty, predicting that local branding will generate stronger team loyalty through these constructs. We also propose that place identity moderates the mediating effect of each of these four constructs. Structural equation modeling was used to test the mediation model, and moderated mediation tests using the bootstrapping method were used to test the moderating effects of place identity. Results revealed support for the model, indicating partial mediation of brand type effects on team loyalty for each of the four constructs, as well as a moderating effect of place identity.