What Brings People Into the Stadium? a Social Science Perspective of Soccer Fans’ Motives for Attendance
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Joint supervision of doctorate thesis with award of a dual doctoral diploma What brings people into the stadium? A social science perspective of soccer fans’ motives for attendance Mariana Seabra Moreira Ferreira de Carvalho Supervisor Prof. Jeroen Scheerder, Ph.D – Policy in Sports & Physical Activity Research Group, Department of Kinesiology, KU Leuven, Belgium Co-supervisors Prof. José Pedro Sarmento, Ph.D – Department of Sport Management, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Portugal Prof. Filip Boen, Ph.D – Physical Activity, Sport & Health Research Group, Department of Kinesiology, KU Leuven, Belgium Doctoral dissertation in Sports Science, presented to the University of Porto, Faculty of Sport, according to the decree law nº 74/2006, March 24th. Doctoral dissertation in Kinesiology, at the KU Leuven. Porto and Leuven, 2014 de Carvalho, M. (2014). What brings people into the stadium? A social science perspective of soccer fans’ motives for attendance. Porto and Leuven: M. de Carvalho. Joint supervision of doctorate thesis between the University of Porto and the KU Leuven with award of a dual doctoral diploma. Doctoral dissertation in Sports Science, presented to the University of Porto, Faculty of Sport. Doctoral dissertation in Kinesiology, at the KU Leuven. KEYWORDS: FAN CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR, SOCCER ATTENDANCE MOTIVES, TEAM IDENTIFICATION, PLACE ATTACHMENT, SPORTSCAPE II Resources The author of this thesis was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Foundation for Science and Technology), Portugal, under grant number [SFRH / BD / 68925 / 2010]. This thesis was conducted under a cooperation agreement for a joint supervision between the University of Porto, Faculty of Sport, and the University of Leuven – KU Leuven, Department of Kinesiology, Policy in Sports & Physical Activity Research Group. The partner institution KU Leuven provided the means to conduct the data collection, and also provided some financial support for activities or tasks related to this thesis. III IV “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” Albert Einstein V VI Aos pais Carvalho e à mana Ana Ao Luís e à Luana VII VIII Acknowledgments When I was a child or a teenager, I have never had the dream of having a Ph.D. or becoming a doctor. I always loved studying, as I always loved learning, just out of curiosity and pleasure of knowing things, and being able to discuss about them. However, from the start of my academic path, it always seemed the path to follow. After the master degree, it just felt the natural thing to do. Likewise, sports were there all my life, managing events and people is an activity that was there since early, and soccer, sport management, and marketing as passions were easily turned into a professional and academic career. Naturally, not all the steps were easy. Certainly, I had some difficult times on the way thinking if I was going the right way (‘What am I doing in the Ph.D.? Where is this Ph.D. taking me? What will happen after? Did I make the right choices?’). Unquestionably though, there was a group of people who helped me throughout the way, and helped me to answer to these questions, and much more. Each one of them had an important role in the achievement of this thesis, and also in turning me into the person that I am today, after five years of research. I would like to thank all of them for their big or small support, either with a smile or with paper work, either with a contact for network or with a hint, either with a feedback or a word of courage after a bad day or another negative answer from a journal. I cannot mention the name of every single person who crossed the way with me during these years. Nevertheless, I would specially like to thank to people without whom it would have been impossible to complete this challenging but rewarding task. I would like to start by thanking people or institutions directly or indirectly related to the actual academic process of thinking the thesis, collecting data for the thesis, and writing the thesis. First, my words go to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Jeroen Scheerder. Thank you for believing in me since Torino, in 2007, and for trusting my work since our first meeting in Porto, where you agreed to be my supervisor, although sport IX sociology was only one part of the project. All these years you were not only a supervisor, guiding and helping from really close in all the process, but you were also a friend, supporting me when things could go better and I was feeling disappointed or hopeless. Thank you for accepting me to work at the KU Leuven, for all the projects you allowed me to be a part of, and for receiving me so well in Belgium, professionally and personally. Finally, thank you for liking soccer a little bit more now, and for always respecting my crazy passion for team sports, especially for soccer and handball. I know about and respect triathlon and cycling much more now! My next words go to Prof. Dr. Filip Boen. Thank you for accepting to be my co- supervisor already after the start of the process, in this multidisciplinary thesis, and to give your valuable input from the psychological field. Your help was always straight to the point, clear and useful, and I have learned a lot from you. Your enthusiasm about your work, your family and your soccer club, Beerschot, are an example to me. I hope I can manage as well in the future! However, if bears and dragons face each other one day, I do not have a doubt that dragons will win. I would also like to thank to my co-supervisor, Prof. Dr. José Pedro Sarmento. We know each other since more than 15 years, and I have always admired your teaching and management skills, your way of convincing people that they can do whatever they want and be whoever they want to be, if they work hard and put their minds to it. You were always an inspiration for your soft skills, and you helped me to become calmer, less impulsive, and to give problems only the importance they deserve. I know I will keep asking you for advice for my next challenges. I could not forget some Professors of FADEUP. Prof. Dr. Maria José Carvalho, who advised me when I was at the master of sport management and when I decided to start the Ph.D. Thank you for your talks and advice, either professional or personal ones. Thank you for your friendship and care! A word of thanks to Prof. Dr. António Fonseca, Director of the Doctoral Program in Sport Science at FADEUP, for all the help with the bureaucracies of the Ph.D., X and for always being so kind and effective in sharing information and advice about the organisation of the process. Finally, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Olímpio Bento for the support. To all the members of my thesis advisory committee at the KU Leuven, Prof. Dr. Bart Vanreusel as president, Prof. Dr. Stefan Késenne, Prof. Dr. Wim Lagae, and Prof. Dr. Tim Smits: Thank you so much for all your constructive comments and feedback on my intermediate presentations. Those sessions helped me to improve my thesis and to be a better researcher. I would like to thank my co-authors Prof. Dr. Nikos Theodorakis and Prof. Dr. Daniel Wann, for their input to my work. I would also like to thank Prof. Dr. James Gaskin, who helped me with the statistics: you are amazing by giving so much and getting nothing but appreciation in return! All the working force of the KU Leuven and of the FADEUP contributed for this process to flow smoothly. Special thanks to Annita Geuens, to Nele Nuyts, to Sonia Teck, from FaBeR, and to Maria de Lurdes Domingues, from FADEUP, for always being so supportive, with small details that make the big difference. A word to Mr. Jos Feys from the KU Leuven, for proficiently placing the survey online: without you, the data collection would have been impossible, so thank you so much. To all the stakeholders: without you, this thesis could not have been written. Namely, I would like to refer: all the schools and people in Aveiro, Portugal, and in Leuven, Belgium, for helping during Study 2 of this project; the city of Aveiro, Portugal and to the city of Leuven, Belgium, for helping me with the contacts with the schools; the Oud-Heverlee Leuven Football Club, for also helping with the data collection; the Royal Belgian Football Association, particularly to Steven Martens, for cooperating and believing in this project; Het Nieuwsblad, in Belgium, and Jornal Record, in Portugal, for including the link of the survey for Study 3, in their online and paper versions; the journalist Ludo Vandewalle, for being one of the enthusiasts about this project. XI I would like to thank to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, for assuring the minimum conditions for me to work in a fulltime basis on this project, during these last four years. At the almost 10,000 anonymous respondents who made this research possible, a huge thank you – it would not haven been possible without you! To all the reviewers who gave comments on my papers and helped me to improve my work, I would like to thank for making me a stronger person everyday. To the students I co-supervised along these years, namely, to René Baltis, Jelle Francis, Erik Jonkergouw, Sara Knaeps, Bram Maes, Jeff Van Thielen: working with you obliged me to know more about my own work, so thank you for that! Besides, it was a pleasure to be able to discuss some issues with you, and to communicate with you to improve your work and mine as well.