A new love–hate scale for sports fans

Abstract

PurposeThis study, an empirical research, aims to construct and validate a new love-hate scale for sports fans and tested its antecedents and consequences.Design/methodology/approachThe scale was designed and validated in three separate empirical survey studies in the context of Israeli professional basketball. In Phase 1, the authors verified the factorial validity of the proposed scale using exploratory factor analysis. In Phase 2, the authors conducted a confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling. In Phase 3, the authors tested the nomological network validity of the scale.FindingsThe findings show that fans' involvement, loyalty and fandom significantly predicted their love–hate, which in turn significantly predicted self-reported fan aggression, fans' acceptance of fan aggression, price premium and frequency of watching games.Research limitations/implicationsThe model was tested on a relatively small sample of fans within a single country. This lack of generalizability should be addressed in future studies by examining the model in other sports contexts and countries.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that understanding the properties of the love–hate measure may assist team sports clubs in identifying, preventing and controlling potential fan aggression.Originality/valueThe study provides three incremental contributions above and beyond existing research: it develops and validates a scale for measuring the phenomenon of sports fans' love and hate as mixed emotions; it makes it possible to capture the variations in the magnitude of fans' love–hate; and it relates fans' love–hate to important attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.

The positive and negative impacts of social and personal self-categorizations on sport fans' experience

“…Fan love was measured with three items on a 10-point agree-disagree scale adopted from Shuv-Ami et al (2018) and Shuv-Ami et al (2020). Sample items include: “I love my favourite football team” and “I would miss my favourite football team very much if it ceased to exist”.…”

“…Importantly, despite our understanding that social identity salience is positively related to hatred of a rival team, the magnitude of hatred may vary. It has been argued that while highly involved fans are expected to hate their team's main rival, those whose love for their sport team is relatively weak may not necessarily hate rival teams in the same way and with the same intensity as those whose love for their team is relatively strong (Shuv-Ami et al , 2020). In fact, ingroup love is not a necessary precursor of outgroup hate (Brewer, 1999).…”

“…love for a favourite team) and attitudes (e.g. loyalty and team identification) foster fans' desire to attend sporting events (Bee and Kahle, 2006; Bristow and Sebastian, 2001; Mahony et al , 2002; Shuv-Ami et al , 2020; Wakefield and Sloan, 1995; Wann et al , 2001). For example, it has been demonstrated that increased levels of love for a favourite team are positively related to sport fans' frequency of watching games (Shuv-Ami et al , 2020).…”

“…loyalty and team identification) foster fans' desire to attend sporting events (Bee and Kahle, 2006; Bristow and Sebastian, 2001; Mahony et al , 2002; Shuv-Ami et al , 2020; Wakefield and Sloan, 1995; Wann et al , 2001). For example, it has been demonstrated that increased levels of love for a favourite team are positively related to sport fans' frequency of watching games (Shuv-Ami et al , 2020). Similarly, it has been shown that fans who feel love for their team are willing to invest time, money and effort to be close to their team's brand.…”

The impact of ageing on aggression among sport fans: the mediating role of fan hatred

“…the world's most serious problems" (Sternberg and Sternberg, 2008, p. 3) and fan hatred may be at the heart of fan aggression, the phenomenon of sport fan hatred has been addressed in the sport marketing literature with insufficient levels of depth and detail (e.g. Cleland, 2014;Shuv-Ami et al, 2020).…”