Attachment to Sports Conferences

Abstract

This study examined points of attachment (POA), or how sports fans experience multiple types of identification beyond team allegiance (e.g., identification with players, coaches, levels of sport, the sport itself, and university/region) at different levels of fandom. More specifically, high school, collegiate (i.e., National Collegiate Athletic Association), and professional (i.e., National Football League) football fans ( N = 698) were asked to respond to items that have been associated with six POA in previous studies, as well as items that tested a new point of attachment to conference/division of a fan's favorite team. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that this revised seven-factor, 21-item points of attachment index demonstrated adequate overall fit. Our findings also indicated that multiple POA differed significantly among high school, collegiate, and professional football fans. Theoretical implications, future research, and limitations are also discussed.

From the land of Gama: event attachment scale (EAS) development exploring fans' attachment and their intentions to spectate at traditional gaming events

“…In sports marketing, different attachment types and dimensions are discussed that shape spectator behavior (Brown et al ., 2016). Studies indicate that sports consumers are strongly attached to their favorite game, which is the core reason they spend their resources to follow a particular sport (i.e., football) (Spinda et al ., 2016). Sports fans, such as soccer fans, consider themselves part of a game during and after the match, strengthening their attachment to the game and making them feel proud, happy, and satisfied (Marques et al ., 2018).…”

“…One weakness of this sample could be their biased opinions based on their extreme passion for the game. However, the idea of professionals is still more important, especially those regularly spectating the game because considering the views of professionals to understand a game and its psychosocial dynamics is not something which is widely practiced (Spinda et al ., 2016; Qian, 2022).…”

“…The results demonstrate that cultural, emotional, ground and player attachments positively contribute to fans' intentions to follow traditional games. Additionally, the previous conceptualization of attachment styles covered different aspects (Spinda et al ., 2016; Dansby et al ., 2017; Dwivedi et al ., 2018; Prayag et al ., 2020; Vahdat et al ., 2020). Thus, current study brings in new knowledge to measure fans' intentions to follow Kushti as a traditional sports event.…”

Global multi-sport events: content strategy for driving fan engagement on Twitter

“…Sport literature extensively investigates this affinity as a 'point of attachment' (POA) that details the psychological connection to a specific sporting entity (Kwon and Armstrong, 2004;Spinda et al, 2016). The sport fans' POA is likely to influence their fan engagement on social media as well (Li et al, 2017;Spinda et al, 2016). The focal point dominant in the social media content orients the communication to psychologically connect with the sport fan (Lee and Kahle, 2016).…”

“…The focal point dominant in the social media content orients the communication to psychologically connect with the sport fan (Lee and Kahle, 2016). Since the sport related behaviors are diverse depending on the attachment exhibited by the sport fan (Trail et al, 2003;Spinda et al, 2016;Kang et al, 2022), it is essential to study the influence of content orientation in social media communication (Kim et al, 2015).…”