The challenge of attracting football fans to stadia?

This article, which is based on an empirical survey of Norwegian football fans, illustrates that frequent viewership of football on TV can make it difficult to maintain attendance levels at the stadium. Fans of clubs that were featured the most often on free-to-air TV channels attended fewer matches...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of sport finance Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 3
Main Authors Solberg, Harry Arne, Mehus, Ingar
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Morgantown Fitness Information Technology Inc 01.02.2014
Fitness Information Technology, A Division of ICPE West Virginia University
Subjects
Football fans
Literature reviews
Market penetration
Market share
Professional soccer
Regulation
Soccer
Sports fans
Stadiums
Studies
Surveys
Technological change
Television broadcasting industry
Television broadcasting of sports
Viewers
Norway
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Summary:This article, which is based on an empirical survey of Norwegian football fans, illustrates that frequent viewership of football on TV can make it difficult to maintain attendance levels at the stadium. Fans of clubs that were featured the most often on free-to-air TV channels attended fewer matches than others. Hence, regulations on televised football might be necessary to maintain attendance levels. Fans that had strong preferences for foreign football attended less frequently. This represents a challenge for football clubs in smaller nations, such as Norway, for example, since they are unable to regulate televised matches featuring foreign leagues. Identification with the club was demonstrated to be the most effective instrument in maintaining attendance levels. As a result, a strategy aimed at strengthening the bonds between fans and clubs may be beneficial in the long run. No difference was measured between those who attended matches often and those who attended less frequently regarding the emphasis they placed on the uncertainty of outcome.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:1558-6235
1930-076X