• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Abstract The aim of this thesis is to show what factors should be prioritized when increasing fan engagement in the North American Soccer leagues. A qualitative method research design has been employed, involving only primary qualitative methods, studying two club case studies, namely: Vancouver Whitecaps FC, represented in Major League Soccer and Hartford Athletic, represented in United Soccer League Championship. Theories, models and researches from Giulianotti, Sashi, Cialdini et al. and Funk & James have been used to support our analysis of the two clubs. To find out what factors should be prioritized to increase fan engagement, a spectrum model has been developed. This was done with the help of the respondents, to find out what kind of soccer fans exist. Four categorizations have been defined; The Entertainment Seeker and The Soccer Fan on the far left as low, committed fans and The Active Follower and The Devoted Supporter on the right wing of the model as highly committed fans. Research on BIRGing and CORFing has assisted us in developing the model. Additionally, the Psychological Continuum Model has been used, since it is important for the two clubs to gain fans from the awareness stage through to the allegiance stage. The third stage, Attachment, is a central stage for clubs when trying to increase fan engagement through social media platforms. However, Sashi’s Customer Engagement Model is also essential for this. Designated Players are also one of the key findings from the interviews and are a crucial factor in the North American soccer league to increase fan engagement. The history and the community associated with a club is a factor both clubs use as a highly prioritized tool. With Whitecaps’ long history in soccer, it is a tool for them to create a conversation with fans, but whereas Hartford is a newly founded team in 2019 with barely any history. The absence of the promotion/relegation system in North American soccer results in the lack of attracting both players and fans from outside of the continent. The focus then becomes community rather than international based, and the teams both make great efforts to enrich their respective communities which contributes to increasing fan engagement. 2 Acknowledgement First of all, we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to our supervisor and coach Sven Junghagen (Professor in department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, at Copenhagen Business School) for his coaching, support and contribution to our thesis. If it weren’t for his contagious passion for the beautiful game, and if we hadn’t had him for our selected course in Sport Management and Marketing during our 3rd semester, we would not have chosen Prof. Junghagen or the field of Sports Management and Marketing to do our thesis. Furthermore, we would like to thanks our two club case studies, Vancouver Whitecaps FC with Mikkel Strøjer and Hartford Athletic with John Ponziani in led. With their dedication and time for providing us valuable and valid information, it has made this an interesting 5-month long journey in the spring 2019. Lastly, we would like to give a big thanks to the soccer players, experts and supporter groups for their cooperation and dedicating their time to be interviewed, although the great time interval from Denmark to the United States and Canada. Finally we would like to thank family and friends for their understanding and patience. Greta Benediktsdóttir Simon Rubæk 3 Table of Contents History and Organization of the Leagues - Introduction .................................................................... 7 Background and the emergence of the modern definition of Soccer ............................................................................. 11 Commercialization aspect of fans .................................................................................................................................................. 12 Disadvantaging the fan ....................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Soccer United Marketing ................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................... 19 Intro and Overview .............................................................................................................................................................................. 19 Sociology of fans and the taxonomy of spectators ................................................................................................................. 20 The fan as a consumer: Segmentation in Marketing (Tapp & Clowes) ......................................................................... 23 Basking in Reflected Glory ................................................................................................................................................................ 25 Audiences .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 26 Sashi and the Customer Engagement Model ............................................................................................................................. 27 Psychological Continuum Model .................................................................................................................................................... 29 Methodology .................................................................................................................................. 34 Purpose of our research ..................................................................................................................................................................... 34 Research Strategy ................................................................................................................................................................................. 36 Research Design .................................................................................................................................................................................... 38 Qualitative approach ........................................................................................................................................................................... 38 Collecting the evidence ........................................................................................................................................................................ 39 Sample collection ................................................................................................................................................................................... 40 Analyzing Case study Evidence – strategy and techniques ................................................................................................ 42 Reliability .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 43 Philosophy of Science ........................................................................................................................................................................... 44 Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 45 Vancouver Whitecaps FC ................................................................................................................................................................... 45 Background .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 45 Designated Player Rule and its importance in MLS today ................................................................................................... 47 The Adidas Agreement - Change of MLS and Whitecaps ...................................................................................................... 51 The strength of storytelling through social media .................................................................................................................. 55 Levels of commitment and how Whitecaps fans fit into the PCM model ....................................................................... 57 Creating a community ......................................................................................................................................................................... 58 Building Fan engagement .................................................................................................................................................................. 64 The ongoing promotion/relegation debate ............................................................................................................................... 67 Hartford Athletic ................................................................................................................................................................................... 69 Background .............................................................................................................................................................................................

Load more

  197

Copy Link