Consuming sports: distinction, univorism and omnivorism

Sport consumption patterns in the Eastern Cape: Cricket spectators as sporting univores or omnivores

“…In terms of exclusivity of tastes, this finding is consistent with previous empirical research in the sporting context (Peterson, 1992;Lefevre & Ohl, 2011;Warde, 2006;James & Ridinger, 2002); however, it is inconsistent with the findings for the Conventional definition-live. The gender difference is, however, surprisingly, inconsistent with previous empirical research conducted in South Africa (Snowball et al, 2009;Antrobus & Snowball, 2010).…”

“…Lefevre and Ohl (2011:48) argued that 'the social ranking of sports is generally not very marked' and, consistent with Widdop and Cutts (2013), found that most distinct differences in terms of sports consumption appear to be in terms of age and gender. In this case, however, univorous traits were relatively more prevalent in women than in men (Lefevre & Ohl, 2011). Overall, Lefevre and Ohl (2011) found that univores were predominantly from the lower social classes, while the relatively higher social status individuals were predominantly classified as omnivores.…”

“…In this case, however, univorous traits were relatively more prevalent in women than in men (Lefevre & Ohl, 2011). Overall, Lefevre and Ohl (2011) found that univores were predominantly from the lower social classes, while the relatively higher social status individuals were predominantly classified as omnivores. Warde (2006) conducted a similar study but accounted for sport spectatorship.…”

“…Sports consumption, however, 'remains at large underdeveloped' (Widdop, 2010:2). Empirical studies of the omnivore/univore theory in sport have largely been focused on sports participation (Lefevre & Ohl, 2011;Widdop & Cutts, 2013), which has been argued to have a positive relationship to other forms of sports consumption (White & Wilson, 1999;Wilson, 2002;Thrane, 2001;Mehus, 2005).…”

“…Snowball et al (2009) defined univores as patrons with narrower cultural tastes (attending only one modern genre or two traditional genres of art), while omnivorous patrons were those that consumed a wider array (four or more types of art genres) of both popular and high cultural goods. Lefevre and Ohl (2011) classified individuals according to number of sporting activities that they participated in, where participation in two or three activities was indicative of low omnivority, whereas participation in four or more activities was indicative of high omnivority. Therefore, for this definition univores were spectators who choose to only watch cricket live to the exclusion of other sport (having a very narrow consumption demand for sport), while omnivores were those who choose to attend a wide range of sporting events (or general sports followers).…”