Fan Loyalty in the Five Major European Football Leagues

FAN LOYALTY IN THE FIVE MAJOR EUROPEAN FOOTBALL LEAGUES

Artur Simonyan Hovakimyan

A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements to complete Honors in the Department of Marketing of the Cameron School of Business.

Approved By:

Examining Committee:

Dr. James Hunt Faculty Supervisor

Dr. Carlos Rodriguez

Dr. Brian Kinard

Dr. Lisa Scribner Chair, Department of Marketing

Dr. Ulku Clark Honors Council Representative

Dr. Katherine Bruce Director of the Honors Scholars College

University of North Carolina Wilmington

Wilmington, North Carolina

April 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... 1

LIST OF FIGURES ...... 4

LIST OF GRAPHS ...... 5

LIST OF TABLES ...... 6

ABSTRACT ...... 8

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION...... 9

1.1 Big 5 Overview ...... 9

1.2 English Premier League ...... 12

1.3 German Bundesliga ...... 14

1.4 Spanish La Liga ...... 15

1.5 Italian Serie A...... 16

1.6 French Ligue 1 ...... 17

1.7 Competitiveness in European Champions League ...... 18

1.8 Top Players ...... 19

1.9 Top Transfers ...... 19

1.10 Season Tickets, Single Tickets and Attendance ...... 21

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 28

2.1 What is a “Brand”? ...... 28

2.2 World´s Most Valuable Football Teams ...... 29

2.3 Fan Loyalty ...... 31

2.4 Motives of Attendance ...... 32

2.5 Types of Fans ...... 34

2.6 Fan Loyalty Development and Drivers ...... 35

2.7 Social Identity ...... 36

2.8 Fans Image: BIRGing, CORFing & Blasting ...... 37

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH HYPOTHESES ...... 39

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...... 41

CHAPTER 5: RESULTS...... 43

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS ...... 53

6.1 Conclusions ...... 53

6.2 Managerial Implications ...... 54

6.3 Limitations ...... 56

6.4 Recommendations for Future Research ...... 56

CHAPTER 7: REFERENCES...... 57

CHAPTER 8: APPENDIX ...... 64

8.1 Fan Loyalty Survey ...... 64

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Premier League Logo ...... 13

Figure 2: Bundesliga Logo ...... 14

Figure 3: La Liga Logo ...... 15

Figure 4: Serie A Logo ...... 16

Figure 5: Ligue 1 Logo ...... 17

Figure 6: Top 15 Transfers ...... 20

Figure 7: Single Tickets EPL Pricing ...... 22

Figure 8: Bundesliga Season Tickets Pricing ...... 24

Figure 9: La Liga Season Tickets Pricing ...... 25

Figure 10: Big 5 Attendance and Capacity Utilization...... 27

Figure 11: Most Valuable Football Teams ...... 30

Figure 12: Motives of Sports Events Attendance ...... 33

LIST OF GRAPHS

Graph 1: Big 5 Total Revenues ...... 10

Graph 2: Big 5 Revenues by League ...... 11

Graph 3: Revenues Broken Down ...... 11

Graph 4: Media Rights Values ...... 12

Graph 5: Average Attendance Big 5...... 26

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Responses by Nationality ...... 42

Table 2: Responses by Gender ...... 42

Table 3: Responses by Age ...... 42

Table 4: Descriptives of Main Reasons to be a Fan ...... 43

Table 5: ANOVA H2 ...... 44

Table 6: Descriptives for Price Sensitivity across Loyalty...... 44

Table 7: ANOVA H3 ...... 45

Table 8: Descriptives for Engagement across Loyalty ...... 45

Table 9: ANOVA H4 ...... 45

Table 10: Descriptives for Attendance across Loyalty ...... 46

Table 11: Correlation between Loyalty and Expenditure ...... 46

Table 12: ANOVA H6 ...... 47

Table 13: Descriptives for Loyalty across Nationality ...... 47

Table 14: Teams supported...... 48

Table 15: Fan since the beginning ...... 48

Table 16: Fan of another team ...... 49

Table 17: Attendance Company ...... 49

Table 18: No Attendance reasons ...... 49

Table 19: Re-Attendance Factors ...... 50

Table 20: ANOVA...... 50

Table 21: Descriptives for Attendance across Gender ...... 50

Table 22: ANOVA...... 51

Table 23: Descriptives for Engagement across Age ...... 51

Table 24: ANOVA...... 52

Table 25: Descriptives for Loyalty across Income ...... 52

ABSTRACT

The following Honors Thesis is a research study about Fan Loyalty in the football (soccer) industry. The research application focuses on the Major European Football Leagues, the

“Big 5”. The purpose of this study is to understand the insights of a football fan and what makes them loyal to their team. This Honors Paper is broken into 6 main sections. The first part includes an overview of the football industry in Europe, an introduction of the

Big 5 Leagues and their most important teams and data about revenues, media rights and attendance. The second section is the Literature Review related to fan loyalty. The third section explains how data was collected and the analysis methods used. The fourth section includes the development of the hypotheses that are going to be tested. The fifth section refers to the results and statistical tests. The last part includes the final conclusions and managerial implications, the limitations that I had doing this research and some recommendations for future research.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This paper involves the study of the 5 Main European Soccer Leagues (English Premier

League, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, Spanish La Liga and French Ligue 1) and their fans. The purpose is to analyze the football industry as the business and the fans as the customers. Some factors that are studied are what are the main reasons and motivations to be a fan of a team, which are the different fan types and what make fans loyal to a team in order to use that loyalty to increase profits.

1.1 Big 5 Overview

There are many reasons for choosing soccer as the context for our study. The key reason is that European soccer clubs enjoy an extensive global popularity and generate high incomes and revenues. Sports during past history haven´t always been seen as a business but as competition and entertainment. However, in the last years football is changing, and every year is closer to being a business rather than a sport because of rich people from

Middle East buying soccer teams and investing in them as a way of diversifying their portfolio and risk. Football, especially the Big 5, moves huge amounts of money which has grown by a big percentage during the last years. That increase can be seen in all sectors of the soccer industry: media rights, sponsorships, transfers of players, ticket prices, merchandising and revenues.

As shown in the Graph 1, the revenue of the top European soccer leagues (Big 5) is 15 billion euros for this season 2017/2018 which is the double as it was 10 years ago when

the revenues of this leagues were 7.7 billion euros during the season 2007/2008. (Statista,

2017)

Graph 1: Big 5 Total Revenues

The Big 5 European leagues move huge amounts of money as is shown above but there are differences between the leagues regarding revenues. As shown in Graph 2, the English

Premier League is the most successful league of the Big 5 with 5.08 billion euros in revenue for the 2017/2018 season. The Premier League had a big growth on 2012/2013 after signing a new contract regarding their media rights. The trend of all 5 leagues is positive with a constant increase every year. The German Bundesliga has the second place with 3.2 billion over the Spanish La Liga that has a 2.99 billion revenue. In the last places you can see the Italian Serie A with 1.98 billion and the French Ligue 1 with 1.75 billion.

(Statista, 2017) 10

Graph 2: Big 5 Revenues by League

Graph 3 represents how the revenues are broken down and one of the most important factors of their revenue growth during the last years which are the broadcasting media rights. The increase of the price of the broadcasting which represents about 50% of the revenues has pushed the Big 5 even further ahead of other leagues. (Deloitte, 2017)

Graph 3: Revenues Broken Down 11

Focusing on media rights, during the season 2016/2017 the estimated total football media rights expenditure was 14.6 billion and 75% (11.38 billion) was spent on the Big 5 plus the Champions League and the Europe League which are the European Competitions. As shown in the Figure 2, the Premier League had the best agreement for their media rights with a cost of more than 4 billion and a cost of 10 million euros per match. (Sport Business

Group, 2016) That factor is one of the most important regarding the difference in revenue between the leagues and the revenues their teams have which also influences players transfers and investments on the stadium or marketing. (Sports Business Group, 2016)

Graph 4: Media Rights Values

1.2 English Premier League

The Premier League is the first division of the English Football League and it was created in 1992. It is contested by 20 clubs with 3 teams relegated every year to the second division from where 3 teams are promoted to the Premier League. Only 6 different teams have won the Premier League after 25 seasons: Manchester United (13), Chelsea (5),

Arsenal (3), Manchester City (2), Leicester (1) and Blackburn Rovers (1). (Premier

League, 2018)

During the 90s and 2000s there was a big dominance by the Big 4, i.e., Manchester

United, Arsenal, Chelsea (after being bought by the Russian millionaire Abramovich) and the historic Liverpool. These teams were the owners of the title and the Champions

League positions and there was only one exception, the title won by Blackburn Rovers in

1995. In the last years, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur joined that teams as part of the Big 6 that controls the Premier League and are always the favorites for the title and the first 4 positions and give access to the Champions League. Manchester City have won

2 titles after being purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group because of all the money they invested buying great players. However, this has resulted in overpaying them and inflating the market. That is one of the factors that are changing Football from a sport to a business and making money the most important factor to win titles. However, sometimes football shows why is the most popular sport and the score is not predetermined before the game is played. One of the biggest surprises occurred in 2016 with the Leicester City winning the Premier League and showing that everything is possible and there is hope regarding the future of football. The Premier League is one of the most competitive leagues because of having 6 great teams that can go for the title.

Figure 1: Premier League Logo

1.3 German Bundesliga

The Bundesliga is the first division of the German Football Leagues where 18 teams play against each other to win the title, access to a European competition or not be relegated to the second division as the last 3 positions do. The Bundesliga was created in 1963 and since then 12 teams have won the title: Bayern Munchen (26), Borussia

Monchengladbach (5), Borussia Dortmund (5), Werder Bremen (4), Hamburger SV (3),

VfB Stuttgart (3), FC Koln (2), FC Kaiserslautern (2), TSV 1850 Munich (1), Eintracht

Braunsweig (1), FC Nurnberg (1) and VfL Wolfsburg (1). (World Football, 2018)

The Bayern Munchen has been the dominant of the competition winning 26 of the 54 titles and showing their dominance in the last years with 5 titles in a row and they are really close to their 6th title in a row. There is a big difference between Bayern Munchen and the other teams of the Bundesliga specially in the last years when Bayern buys the best players of the other teams using their economic power and their success as one of the best teams in Europe. Some teams that are in a second line in this league but they compete for access to European competitions are Borussia Dortmund, Red Bull Leipzig and Bayern Leverkusen.

Figure 2: Bundesliga Logo

1.4 Spanish La Liga

The Spanish Football League started in 1929 and Real Madrid is the most successful team with 32 titles and its rival Barcelona has 23 league titles. Both have been the most successful teams in the Spanish League and the dominants. However, La Liga was created in 1984 and since then 5 teams have won the title: Barcelona (15), Real Madrid (13),

Atletico de Madrid (2), Valencia (2) and Deportivo de la Coruña (1). Barcelona and Real

Madrid have won 11 of the last 12 titles with the surprise of the Atletico de Madrid title in the season 2013/2014. Real Madrid and Barcelona are among the most important football teams all over the world with a huge economic and social power which gives them an advantage at La Liga. (La Liga, 2018)

Figure 3: La Liga Logo

1.5 Italian Serie A

The Serie A or TIM Championship because of the TIM Sponsorship is the first division of the Italian Calcio (soccer) League. The Serie A was founded in 1929 and only 12 teams have won the Scudetto (small shield) title: Juventus (31), Internazionale of Milan (16),

AC Milan (15) , Torino (6), Bologna (5), Roma (3), Lazio (2), Napoli (2), Fiorentina (2),

Cagliari (1), Hellas Verona (1) and Sampdoria (1). Juventus is the most powerful and dominant team of the Italian Serie A having 6 titles in a row and being the only competitive team in Europe from the Italian league. The Serie A has been always an important league but it has lost power in Europe during the last years because of the poor performance of historic teams like Milan and Inter but they starting to grow again as they were bought by rich companies from Thailand and China during the last 2 years. Milan,

Inter, Napoli, Roma and Lazio are one step or two below Juventus regarding power and competitiveness. (Wikipedia, 2018)

Figure 4: Serie A Logo

1.6 French Ligue 1

The first division of the French soccer league was founded in 1932 but it was named

Ligue 1 on 2002. 16 different teams have won the Ligue but only 10 teams have won the title more than 2 times: Saint-Etienne (10), Marseille (9), Nantes (8), Monaco (8), Lyon

(7), Bordeaux (6), Paris Saint Germain (6), Reims (6), Nice (4) and Lille (3. The French first division doesn´t have a historical dominant because there are some teams with similar number of title. However, during the history, these teams have dominated the league during different periods of time. Saint-Etienne was the dominant during the first years but after the foundation of the Ligue 1 in 2002 we can differentiate 2 periods. The first 6 years Lyon the title but during the last years PSG has been the dominant after being bought by Qatar and investing huge amounts of money and overpaying players like

Manchester City did in the Premier League. PSG and Monaco (also purchased by a

Russian investor) are the most competitive teams in the French League because of their economic power. (Wikipedia, 2018)

Figure 5: Ligue 1 Logo

1.7 Competitiveness in European Champions League

The UEFA Champions League is the main European competition where the best teams of each European country compete in a group and play-off format with the purpose of winning the most important title. The number of participants of each league depends on their competitiveness. This European competition was created in 1956 but it was not named Champions League until 1992. The Big 5 teams are the dominants of this competitions since they have won 49 of the 62 titles (79%) but if we only take into account the last 20 years, Big 5 teams have won 19 of the 20 titles (95%) and the last 13.

The Spanish La Liga is the most successful league with 17 titles: Real Madrid (12) and

Barcelona (5). Also, Real Madrid is the most successful team in Europe winning 5 titles in a row between 1956 and 1961 (first 5 titles) and being the only team that has won 2 titles in a row since the creation of the Champions League in 1992 and is the actual champion.

The Italian and English leagues are tied in second position with 12 titles. Italy: AC Milan

(7), Internazionale (3) and Juventus (2). AC Milan is the second team with most titles after Real Madrid, but their last title was in 2007. England: Liverpool (5), Manchester

United (3), Nottingham Forest (2), Chelsea (1) and Aston Villa (1). The German

Bundesliga has won 7 titles: Bayern Munchen (5), Hamburger (1) and Borussia Dortmund

(1). The French league is growing in the last years but historically hasn.t been really competitive and only has 1 title won by Marseille in 1993.

Taking into account the teams that are dominating the Big 5 nowadays, that teams have won 43 of the 62 titles (69%). (Info Football, 2018)

1.8 Top Players

The Ballon d´Or is an individual title given every year by journalists, players and coaches to the best player of the year. Last year´s 30 nominees were all playing in the Big 5 leagues and in the best teams. The Spanish league was the most successful again with 11 players and being Real Madrid the most successful team with 7. The Premier League included 7 players representing 5 teams, thus being the league with more teams represented and showing their internal competitiveness. The Serie A had 5 players, the Ligue 1 added 4 players and the Bundesliga only 3 players. The winner of the last 9 editions has been

Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) or Messi (Barcelona). Recognition of the players and individual titles represents the power and success of a team and the competitiveness of the league. (The Guardian, 2017)

1.9 Top Transfers

The football transfer market is out of control during the last years because of the inflation and overpayment of players started after the purchase of football teams by Middle East investor. Big investments done by them have inflated the market because players want to play in the best-known teams like Real Madrid, Juventus or Manchester United. Some teams like PSG, Manchester City or Chelsea that don´t have history or were not the best teams before the purchase by these investment groups the only way they can attract great players is overpaying them. One of the most important reasons of the change of football from a sport to a business is the importance of money and players moving team to team easily. There are not any more players like Totti, Gerrard or Buffon that are symbols of their teams and examples for all the children of the world.

As shown in the Figure 6, the most expensive transfers are made by the most powerful and successful teams. Most of the most expensive transfers have been made in the last 3 years. Teams bought by group investors like PSG and Manchester City have inflated the market, as shown in the Figure 6, PSG has made the 2 most expensive transfers in the last year. Manchester City doesn´t appear in the list of the 15 most expensive transfers but between the 16th and the 38th most expensive transfers they have 8 players bought. It is really difficult for other teams to compete, and the difference is growing every year decreasing the competitiveness of the leagues. In the past, 10 years ago, teams paid 50-

70 million for the best players and now teams pay 85 million or more for a player that is not even a Top 50. (Doyle, 2018)

Figure 6: Top 15 Transfers

1.10 Season Tickets, Single Tickets and Attendance

One of the most important factors affecting attendance are the supply of season tickets and singles tickets and their prices. First of all, the English Premier League season tickets go from the 289 GBP that West Ham offers for its season ticket to the 891 GBP to watch

Arsenal´s home games. There is a big gap between the season tickets prices of different teams and the location of the team is an important factor. The 3 most expensive season tickets pertain to Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham which are teams located in London.

Another factor influencing prices is the performance of the team. Taking into account the best teams, is a great surprise that Manchester City offers season tickets starting at 299

GBP being the second cheapest one compared to the 539 GBP for a season ticket to watch their neighbor Manchester United games. (Watts, 2017)

Regarding single tickets prices, as shown in Figure 7, they go from the 9 GBP that

Liverpool offers for their cheapest tickets to the Arsenal´s most expensive tickets that are

97 GBP. Some teams like Huddersfield doesn´t take into account the rival and all their tickets are 30 GBP. Like the season tickets, London teams have the most expensive tickets. (Platt, 2017)

Figure 7: Single Tickets EPL Pricing

Regarding the Bundesliga, their season ticket prices are one of the most accessible for the fans. Figure 8 shows the different prices options for season tickets for the season 17/18.

The standing places are the cheapest ones having a season ticket starting at 130 euros for

Wolfsburg and only 140€ to watch all the Bayern Munchen home games. Comparing the

140€ for Bayern Munchen with the 1200€ for Arsenal´s season tickets there is a big difference between both leagues taking into account teams that are in the same level.

Bayern Munchen most expensive season ticket is 750€ which is cheaper than most of the

EPL season tickets in the worst sitting places. (Statista, 2017)

Figure 9 shows the cheapest and most expensive season ticket of each La Liga team for this season 2017/18. The pricing is really different for each level team because teams that have been promoted this year like Girona have a higher price for their cheapest season ticket than the most successful team which is Real Madrid. However, best teams have a higher price in their most expensive season tickets because of having bigger and better stadiums that offer entertainment to the fans. Having a bigger stadium offers the possibility of having different pricing regarding their seats and target different segments of the population. (AS 2017)

Looking at Serie A and Ligue 1 best teams season tickets, Juventus and PSG, the top teams of that leagues have a really high price for their season ticket that goes from 500€ to 1,800€. Other important teams like Roma or Milan have season tickets that go from

250€ to 700€. Football is a really expensive hobby but price sensitivity decreases when you are fan of a successful team.

Figure 8: Bundesliga Season Tickets Pricing

Figure 9: La Liga Season Tickets Pricing

Regarding attendance there are different factors to take into consideration: the average

attendance in the league that is strongly influenced by the stadium capacity and the

capacity utilization which will be the best factor to considerate when comparing

attendance between leagues to evaluate fan loyalty.

Graph 5 shows the average attendance for the Big during the last 20 years. The Bundesliga

had the highest average attendance with more than 41,000 spectators during season 16/17,

the Premier League is in the second place with an average of more than 35,000. La Liga,

Serie A and Ligue 1 have an approximate average of 27,000, 22,000 and 21,000

respectively. As shown in the graph there is a positive trend in the Premier League, La

Liga and the Bundesliga with an increase during the last years but the Serie A has

decreased its attendance in the last years. (Statista, 2017)

Graph 5: Average Attendance Big 5

Figure 10 shows the average stadium capacity, the average attendance and the capacity

utilization for each of the Big 5 leagues taking into account the data of the season 2015/16.

Premier League stadiums average capacity is the second smallest one but their fans go to

the stadium and they have the second highest attendance and the best capacity utilization

having a 96% average attendance which is the most important indicator. The Bundesliga

has great numbers too having the highest average attendance and the second best capacity

utilization with 96%. The Spanish and French leagues´ capacity utilization is low with a

72% and a 69% but the Italian Serie A is the one that has a serious problem because they

only have a 54.5%, that means than only half of the tickets are sold on average. Almost

half of the stadium on average is empty which is an alarm that something is done wrong

with marketing, performance or prices. (KPMG, 2016) The figure shows how well are

doing the Germans regarding price and the Premier League with their marketing and

competitiveness.

Figure 10: Big 5 Attendance and Capacity Utilization

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 What is a “Brand”?

“Brand” is one of that words that is difficult to define or understand by itself and its meaning has changed a lot over the time and the context where is involved.

The first definition of “brand” is the name given to a product or service from a specific source. Used in this sense, “brand” is similar to the current meaning of the word

“trademark.” At the beginning people were using “brand” as the non-generic name for a product like Coke for the carbonated drink but this shows that there is no difference between the “brand” and the “brand name”. At the end of the 20th century, “brand” started being attributed to perception of the customers´ minds regarding the qualities of the product. The brand name can be seen but the brand only exists in the minds of the customers. (McLaughlin, 2012)

A brand is seen as one of a company's most valuable assets. It represents the face of the company, the recognizable logo, slogan or mark that the public associates with the company. When a company decides to settle on a brand to be its public image, it must first determine its brand identity, or how it wants to be viewed. The goal is to make the brand memorable and appealing to the customer. (Investopedia, 2018)

2.2 World´s Most Valuable Football Teams

Football teams are brands in the soccer industry with their own logo, anthem, colors and stadium. Football teams inspire feelings and insights to the fans which are the customers that vary regarding the team they think about. That ability makes teams brands which also have a monetary value.

Every year, Forbes makes list of the most valuable brands, sports organizations, athletes and also the world´s most valuable football teams. For the 2017 list, as shown in Figure

11, Manchester United was again after 5 years the most valuable football team with a value of 3.69 billion dollars and a revenue of 765 million dollars during season 2015/16.

The 20 most valuable teams grew by 3% their values respect to the year before. The

English Premier League dominates the list having 6 teams (the Big 6) in the Top 10 because of their high contracts regarding media rights. Barcelona, Real Madrid and

Bayern Munchen are the next 3 most valuable teams showing their dominance and power in Europe and in their own leagues. Juventus is the only Italian team in the Top 10 (9th) showing their power in their local league. The first French team, Paris Saint Germain, is located in the position 11th position. (Ozanian, 2017)

This list shows the success of the English Premier League and its competitiveness compared to the other Big 5 leagues and the importance of these teams in the soccer industry and the world.

Figure 11: Most Valuable Football Teams

2.3 Fan Loyalty

Sports are an integral part of our society. Within the society, sports are a social subsystem that supports social recognition and identity reinforcement. (Weiss, 2001) Through engaging actively in sports or being a fan as a passive way identity reinforcement is achieved. Within being a fan, football plays an important role as it is widely recognized as the most important and popular sport in the world. (Shobe, 2008a) Football fandom is able to create high levels of identification and emotional attachment that will lead to really strong fan loyalty. (Sutton, McDonald, Milne & Cimperman, 1997)

Fan have a high importance for professional sports organizations like the football teams of the Big 5. Research literature considers brand loyalty as one of the most important keys for marketers and the greatest factor for brand equity. It is really important for professional sports organizations to create and maintain a large fan base. As this leads to financial security because it increases or at least secures attendance, merchandising sales and television ratings. (Funk & Pastore, 2000) However, all the fans don´t have the same feelings towards their football team and the relationship between fans and their team varies. (Wann & Branscombe, 1990)

A broad definition of fan in the sports context is someone who identifies him or herself as a supporter of a certain team or sport. (Dietz-Uhler, Harrick, End & Jaquemotte, 2000)

Fans can be differentiated in different ways, behavioral characteristics or by their degree of attachment to the team which is called attitudinal loyalty. That concept has only been examined recently but is a key concept in the sports context. Behavioral indicators like spectator attendance number are the focus for long time, sport management and

psychology research. (Funk, Mahony & Ridinger, 2002) (Hansen & Gauthier, 1989) The attitudinal dimension of fan loyalty refers to how close the fans feel to their teams and differentiates between spurious loyalty and true loyalty. Spurious loyalty refers to a sport spectator that doesn´t have a strong feeling to his team but watches most of the games.

(Backman & Crompton, 1991) Continuous attendance is one of the most obvious actions of a person´s behavioral attachment to a team but it ignores psychological processes like the solidarity with the team. Sometimes fans only go to the stadium because they have a season ticket and it was given to them by a familiar or friend or other fans go because of their personal attachment with the team. Therefore, attendance can´t be a reliable method to measure behavioral attitudes since it doesn´t include the insights and psychological patterns. The psychological commitment of a fan to a team presents the attitudinal dimension of fan loyalty. To capture the full meaning of the fan loyalty concept it´s necessary to include both behavior and attitude criteria when examining fan loyalty.

(Mahony, Madridal & Howard, 2000)

2.4 Motives of Attendance

There are some scales that assess the motives for sports consumption and attendance.

Some examples are the Sport Fan Motivation Scale (SFMS) by Wann (1995), the

Motivations of Sports Consumers scale (MSC) by Milne and McDonald (1999) or the

Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption (MSSC) by Trail and James (2001). These scales mostly focus on functional motives for attendance to sports events as shown in the

Figure 12:

Figure 12: Motives of Sports Events Attendance

Competition, having unpredictable outcomes and risk, has an effect of euphoric stress

that makes them more attractive and one of the main reasons of attendance. (Wann &

Branscombe, 1990) Comparing two teams that are not in the same level such as

Manchester United and Watford, Manchester United fans´ expectations are higher than

Watford fans prior to the game but there is no guarantee for a victory. Everything can

happen, and that uncertainty is affected by the degree of competitiveness within a league.

2.5 Types of Fans

Different types of fans and spectators exist. The main difference between fans and spectators is their emotional commitment during sport events. While spectators enjoy viewing the sport fans demonstrate a high level of enthusiasm. Furthermore, in contrast to spectators, fans perceive themselves as members of an existing fan community with which they form an alliance. (Krohn, Clarke, Preston, McDonald & Preston, 1998).

Sports fan is someone who feels part of the game and who experiences similar feelings as the players. (Beisser, 1967) In South America, fans refer to their supported teams as mothers, to themselves as sons and the stadium as their home. (Giulianotti, 2002)

Some researchers define fan groups on the degree of involvement of their group members.

Fans to which the identification with their team is highly relevant for their personal identity are called die-hard fans. Fans that only go to the games when the team is successful but stays at home when they are not performing well are called fair-weather fans. Fair-weather fans are the responsible of attendance changes mostly after very successful or very unsuccessful seasons. (Wann & Branscombe, 1990)

Giulianotti (2002) differentiates between supports, followers, fans and flaneurs (loungers) taking into account individual identification, solidarity and duration and investment on the relation with the team. Level of fan identification with the teams can be seen as the key difference between fans and spectators.

2.6 Fan Loyalty Development and Drivers

Fans are the key factor as they impact different areas of the success of the sport organization including revenues from ticket sales, merchandising or sponsorships.

However, many factors can reduce fandom like transfer of players, unsuccessful seasons, rule changes, increase of tickets prices or excess of commercialization. Therefore, professional football teams can´t rely on the facts that fans will be always loyal. It is necessary to understand the fan loyalty development process and improve attachment and the relationship between the team and the fans. (Van Leeuwen, Quick & Daniel, 2002)

Development of fan loyalty doesn´t happen in one night. It is the outcome of a cognitive and psychological process. Teams are compared and evaluated, and attachments are created. This psychological process is influenced by different factors like the games that are viewed, the success of the team, the location or social agents like family and friends.

Commitment to sports teams and preferences development can start at the age of 5, at that moment the biggest influence is the closest family, especially the father.

Furthermore, during adult life, communities and friends have a big influence in the cognitive process. Family and friends provide an environment of social interaction where team identification and loyalty are developed. During childhood, family structures are the most important influence on behavioral actions and later the social interaction is increased by the school and friends community. (James, 2001)

There are more drivers for team identification like geography, sociology or anthropology that have an important role in the creation of collective identities or communities. Football

Club Barcelona is an example of social construction which identifies the cultural, political and national identities of Catalonia. Football teams don´t only develop national identities, football and football clubs represent cities, towns or specific zones helping to create imagined communities where sports people connect and get together by the use of the same symbols, promoting communication and developing a feeling of solidarity. That solidarity can be expressed when there is a confrontation or strong rivalry between different cities or regions. Strong rivalries in football can be developed when their supporters represent conflicting political, cultural or religious identities. For example,

Barcelona represents Catalonia and the Independence and Real Madrid represents Spain and the Crown. There was already a big rivalry, but political and cultural movements made it stronger between fans. (Shobe, 2008a)

2.7 Social Identity

Social identity theory considers the implications of group memberships, how individuals see themselves and how are seen by others. Membership in a social group can both affect positively and negatively their own image. People strive to enhance and maintain their self-image positively, so they try to find group memberships that contribute to a positive social identity. Only with being a member of a successful group has a positive influence for its members and they don´t even have to interact or have a relationship with other members to get that benefits. Sports fans are part of particular fan communities. (Tajfel,

1970, 1981)

Individuals get attached to a bigger social network by identifying themselves with a local sports team. By creating a sense of attachment to these social networks fans are able to have a better psychological health. Football and being member of a football team is sometimes the only way to unify colleagues and coworkers since is a powerful topic of conversation and point of union. There is a positive correlation between the level of identification with a local sport team and a fan´s psychological well-being. (Wann, 2006)

2.8 Fans Image: BIRGing, CORFing & Blasting

Game outcomes affects mood and self-esteem of their fans as they perceive team success as personal success and team failure as personal failure. Team identification can be defined as the extent to which individuals perceive themselves as fans of the team, are concerned with the team´s performance, and view the team as a representation of themselves. (Branscombe & Wann, 1991)

Social psychology research has identified three mechanisms that help fans to maintain their positive self-identity. The first mechanism is called BIRGing, Basking In Reflected

Glory, and it refers to the tendency of fans to share the glory of a successful other with whom they are in some way connected. In football, the successful person can be the team, a player or the coach. Fans use the term “we” when talking about the team after a victory and the term “they” when the team has lost. (Cialdini, Borden, Thorne, Walker, Freeman

& Sloan, 1976) For fans that strongly feel attached to their team they are both affected by success and failure of the team and it has a strong impact on their feelings and self- identity. Any form of devaluation of the group is felt as a threat for the individual. (Wann

& Branscombe, 1990) 37

The second technique is called CORFing, Cutting Off Reflected Failure, and it refers to getting away from unsuccessful others to avoid negative associations that affect their own self-identity. Both techniques occur equal extents after victories and losses, fans identify themselves with the feeling of success and failure and this strong attachment causes distancing behaviors. Fans are exposed to low risk since they share success to improve their satisfaction and self-identity and their distance from failure to reduce emotional association in unsuccessful periods. The BIRGing process refers to an image improving strategy while CORFing process represents an image protection strategy. (Snyder,

Lassegard & Ford, 1986)

Higher team identification and attachment results in higher tendency to BIRG but a lower tendency to CORF because fans maintain their identification with the team even when they are unsuccessful. As these fans can´t distance from failure they suffer, and the negative association decreases their self-identity. (Wann & Branscombe, 1990) This inability leads to the third technique that is called Blasting or Derogation. Fans have bad and aggressive attitudes and behaviors against fans of opposites teams to improve their self-esteem and repair their damaged self-identity. Blasting creates a psychological perception that their own community is better than the other, enhancing self-identity.

(Wann, 1993)

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The main purpose of this research is to explore the insights of the fans of the Big 5

European Football Leagues. Fans are the key asset for football teams and is important to know what makes them loyal to a football team and the main reasons for attending games and buying merchandise. Also, this research involves a cultural differentiation between the 5 countries involved: Spain, France, England, Germany and Italy.

Considering the information from past research that is included in the literature review, the most important factors that make a person choose a team are family because of its influence at childhood and the location where you live in order to be part of the local community and feel part of that society. Therefore, the following hypothesis is offered:

H1: Family preference and local team are the main reasons when choosing a team.

Also, past research shows that loyal fans have lower levels of price sensitivity in regard to tickets and club merchandise. For that reason, loyal fans are the best segment of the market to target for football teams. The following hypothesis is offered:

H2: Fans with higher loyalty have a lower level of price sensitivity.

Taking into account the information of the H2 and the literature review, fans with higher loyalty are supposed to have a higher engagement with the team, having a season ticket and buying official merchandise like the official jersey, apparel and collectibles.

H3: Fans with higher loyalty have a higher engagement with their team.

Continuing with the same trend, more loyal fans are supposed to watch their team games on TV and attend to the games, following their team is an important part of being a loyal fan. So, the following hypothesis is offered:

H4: Fans with higher loyalty have higher attendance.

Therefore, if H2 and H3 are accepted that means that more loyal fans are going to spend more so is going to be a positive and strong correlation between Loyalty and Expenditure in the Club.

H5: When fan loyalty increases, expenditure increases.

When talking about league and country differentiation, literature review shows that attendance and capacity utilization is higher in the Premier League. Also league competitiveness and uncertainty are important factors for the fans and the Premier League is the most competitive one. Therefore, the next hypothesis is offered:

H6: British fans are more loyal.

In the next sections, these hypotheses are going to be tested statistically and numerically in order to accept or reject them. Also, other results and factors are going to be analyzed looking for statistically significant data about different types of fans including gender and age comparison or differentiating countries in regard to attendance, engagement or expenditure.

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

First of all, since the objective of this research is to get more information about the insights and motivations of the fans in the top football leagues, primary data was collected using surveys.

Five different surveys were created, one for each country of the Big 5, in order to understand their differences in regard to fan loyalty. Qualtrics was used to create the surveys which were almost the same except to small changes in wording because of the country differentiation. In the Appendix is shown a general example of the survey created which includes the reasons and motivations for being fan of a team, engagement with the team, attendance, price sensitivity regarding tickets and merchandise, fan loyalty in different situations and when being relegated to a lower division, factors affecting attendance and attendance and demographics.

Amazon MTurk was used in order to get reliable responses and a heterogeneous sample to have a broader range of responses and get more useful information. A total of 123 responses were collected after 2 weeks. However, after cleaning useless data the final number of responses used in the statistical analysis is 94. As shown in the Tables 1, 2 and

3, the sample includes male (77.75) and female (22.3%) from the 5 countries of the Big

5 and a mix of nationalities that is included in other. The range of age of the respondents is between 18 and 64 years old but the biggest part are included between 18 and 44 years old.

The statistical analysis used to test the hypotheses is SPSS. The methods used in the analysis include Frequencies, Descriptives, ANOVA and Bivariate Correlation. These analyses and their results are shown in the next sections

Frequency Percent British 27 28.7 French 4 4.3 German 13 13.8 Italian 17 18.1 Other 15 16.0 Spanish 18 19.1 Total 94 100.0 Table 1: Responses by Nationality

Frequency Percent

Male 73 77.7

Female 21 22.3

Total 94 100.0 Table 2: Responses by Gender

Frequency Percent 18-24 years old 34 36.2 25-34 yates old 28 29.8 35-44 years old 24 25.5 45-54 years old 7 7.4 55-64 years old 1 1.1 Total 94 100.0 Table 3: Responses by Age

CHAPTER 5: RESULTS

This section is divided in two parts. First the hypotheses listed in section 3 are tested and the results shown. After that, the rest of the descriptive information is provided.

Hypothesis 1 is accepted. Table 4 shows the means of the main reasons to be a fan of a team after ranking them from most important (1) to least important (6). Family preference

(M=2.83) is the most important reason and being a local team (M=2.96) is the second most important factor. Recent success (M=4.40) is the least important factor when choosing a team to be fan.

Mean Std. Deviation

Local team 2.96 1.96

Family history/preference 2.83 1.74

Recent success 4.40 1.40

Favorite player 3.55 1.46

Team history 3.28 1.48

Game style preference 3.99 1.64

Table 4: Descriptives of Main Reasons to be a Fan

Hypothesis 2 is rejected, there is not statistically significant differences. The data of the

Tables 5 and 6 suggest that there is no relationship between Price Sensitivity and Loyalty

(F=1.58, p>0.05). There is a numerical difference, Medium Loyal (M=10.94) fans are

less price sensible than fans with Low (M=12.10) or High Loyalty (M=11.75). However,

this numerical difference is not significant.

Mean Sum of Squares df F Sig. Square Between Groups 22.90 2 11.45 1.58 0.21 Within Groups 643.83 89 7.23 Total 666.73 91 Table 5: ANOVA H2

95% Confidence Std. Std. Interval for Mean N Mean Min. Max. Dev. Error Lower Upper Bound Bound Low Loyalty 29 12.10 2.61 0.48 11.11 13.10 5 15 Medium Loyalty 35 10.94 2.94 0.50 9.93 11.95 3 15 High Loyalty 28 11.75 2.43 0.46 10.81 12.69 6 15 Total 92 11.55 2.71 0.28 10.99 12.11 3 15 Table 6: Descriptives for Price Sensitivity across Loyalty

Hypothesis 3 is rejected, there is not statistically significant differences. The data of the

Tables 7 and 8 suggest that there is no relationship between Engagement and Loyalty

(F=1.70, p>0.05). There is a numerical difference that shows that High Loyal (M=7.89)

fans have a higher engagement with their team. Also, High Loyal fans have less

fluctuations in their engagement as its low Standard Deviation (SD=1.64) shows.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 11.75 2 5.87 1.70 0.19 Within Groups 310.32 90 3.45 Total 322.07 92 Table 7: ANOVA H3

95% Confidence Interval for Mean N Mean Std. Dev. Std. Error Min. Max. Lower Upper Bound Bound Low Loyalty 30 7.33 2.11 0.385 6.55 8.12 4 12 Medium Loyalty 35 7.03 1.79 0.303 6.41 7.64 4 10 High Loyalty 28 7.89 1.64 0.310 7.26 8.53 5 11 Total 93 7.39 1.87 0.194 7.00 7.77 4 12 Table 8: Descriptives for Engagement across Loyalty

Hypothesis 4 is rejected, there is not statistically significant differences. Tables 9 and 10

suggest that there is no relationship between Attendance and Loyalty (F=0.67, p>0.05).

There is a numerical difference that shows that Medium Loyal fans (M=8.63) have a

lower Attendance than Low (M=9.33) and High Loyal (M=9.39) fans. However, that

numerical difference is not significant.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 11.80 2 5.90 0.67 0.51 Within Groups 787.52 90 8.75 Total 799.31 92 Table 9: ANOVA H4

95% Confidence Interval for Mean N Mean Std. Dev. Std. Error Min. Max. Lower Upper Bound Bound Low Loyalty 30 9.33 3.04 0.56 8.20 10.47 4 16 Medium Loyalty 35 8.63 3.15 0.53 7.55 9.71 4 15 High Loyalty 28 9.39 2.59 0.49 8.39 10.40 6 15 Total 93 9.09 2.95 0.31 8.48 9.69 4 16 Table 10: Descriptives for Attendance across Loyalty

Hypothesis 5 is partially supported, Table 11 suggests that there is a positive relationship

(r=0.04) between Loyalty and Expenditure but the correlation is really weak and the

Significance over 0.05 (0.69) shows that the relationship is not significant statistically.

Therefore, we can say that the hypothesis is rejected.

Loyalty Expenditure Pearson Correlation 1 0.04 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.69 Loyalty Sum of Squares and Cross-products 2746.13 16.74 Covariance 29.85 0.18 N 93 93 Pearson Correlation 0.04 1 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.69 Expenditure Sum of Squares and Cross-products 16.74 71.12 Covariance 0.18 0.77 N 93 94 Table 11: Correlation between Loyalty and Expenditure

Hypothesis 6 is partially supported, Tables 12 and 13 suggest that there is no relationship

between Loyalty and Nationality (F=1.19, p>0.05). There are numerical differences that

shows that British (M=27.62) fans are the most loyal and the Germans (M=26.62) are the

second most loyal. Italians (M=24.18) are the least loyal. However, these numerical

differences are not significant statistically.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 175.67 5 35.13 1.19 0.32

Within Groups 2570.46 87 29.55

Total 2746.13 92 Table 12: ANOVA H6

95% Confidence Interval for Mean N Mean Std. Dev. Std. Error Min. Max. Lower Upper Bound Bound

Spanish 18 24.39 6.03 1.42 21.39 27.39 12 35 British 26 27.62 5.69 1.12 25.32 29.91 17 40 German 13 26.62 4.65 1.29 23.81 29.42 18 33 Italian 17 24.18 4.95 1.20 21.63 26.72 18 34 French 4 25.75 6.90 3.45 14.77 36.73 17 33 Other 15 26.13 5.00 1.29 23.37 28.90 15 35 Total 93 25.90 5.46 0.57 24.78 27.03 12 40 Table 13: Descriptives for Loyalty across Nationality

Table 14 shows all the teams supported by the respondents, 43 different teams are

supported by the 94 respondents which shows a big variety. Barcelona (10), Real Madrid

(8) and Milan AC (7) are the most supported teams. Table 15 shows that 85.1% (80/94)

of the respondents are fans of their team since the beginning and Table 16 shows that

73.4% (69/94) of the respondents don´t have another team.

Team Frequency Percent Team Frequency Percent 1860 München 1 1.1 Liverpool 2 2.1 Arminia Bielefeld 1 1.1 Manchester City 1 1.1 Arsenal 5 5.3 Manchester United 3 3.2 Aston Villa 1 1.1 Marseille 3 3.2 Atletico Bucaramanga 1 1.1 Miami Hurricanes 1 1.1 Atletico de Madrid 2 2.1 Milan AC 7 7.4 Barcelona 10 10.6 Napoli 1 1.1 Bayern Munchen 5 5.3 Newcastle 3 3.2 Borussia Dortmund 3 3.2 Nottingham Forest 1 1.1 Celtic 1 1.1 Olympique Lyonnais 1 1.1 Chelsea 2 2.1 Ontinyent 2 2.1 Deportivo de la Coruña 1 1.1 QPR 1 1.1 Eintracht Frankfurt 1 1.1 Reading 1 1.1 FC Schalke 04 1 1.1 Real Madrid 8 8.5 FC St. Pauli 1 1.1 Roma 1 1.1 Glasgow Rangers 2 2.1 Sheffield United 1 1.1 Hertha berlin 1 1.1 Sporting Club Portugal 1 1.1 Huddersfield Town 1 1.1 The SeaHawks 1 1.1 Internazionale 1 1.1 Torino 1 1.1 Juventus 5 5.3 Tottenham Hotspur 2 2.1 Leeds Utd 1 1.1 Valencia 4 4.3 Leyton orient 1 1.1 Table 14: Teams supported

Frequency Percent Yes 80 85.1 No 14 14.9 Total 94 100.0 Table 15: Fan since the beginning 48

Frequency Percent

Yes 25 26.6 No 69 73.4 Total 94 100.0

Table 16: Fan of another team

Table 17 shows that fans mostly attend to the football games with their friends. Table 18 represents the main reasons that don´t allow fans to attend a game and Distance, Price and Time are the main limitations. Table 19 represents the principal reasons for re- attendance, Atmosphere and Entertainment Value are the most important. Price is also an important factor.

Friends Parents Children Partner / Spouse Alone N 65 26 9 14 19 Table 17: Attendance Company

N Mean Std. Deviation

Time doesn´t allow me to 93 3.33 1.27 attend

Match day prices 92 3.34 1.26

I work on match day 93 2.95 1.50

Family commitments 93 3.12 1.24

Other interests that overlap 93 2.96 1.17 with football match times Difficulty purchasing tickets 92 2.38 1.39 due to low supply

Distance to the games 91 3.38 1.54

Table 18: No Attendance reasons 49

N Mean Std. Deviation

Pricing of tickets 94 3.59 1.186

Quality of facilities 94 2.96 1.209

Atmosphere 94 3.70 1.125

Teams performance 94 3.36 1.125

Quality of opponent 94 3.29 1.206

Entertainment value 93 3.71 1.128 Table 19: Re-Attendance Factors

Tables 20 and 21 suggest that there is relationship between Attendance and Gender

(F=4.38, p<0.05). Male fans (M=9.45) are more likely to attend a football game than

Female (7.95). This difference is numerically and statistically significant.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 36.68 1 36.68 4.38 0.04 Within Groups 771.04 92 8.38 Total 807.71 93 Table 20: ANOVA

95% Confidence Interval for Mean N Mean Std. Dev. Std. Error Min. Max. Lower Upper Bound Bound Male 73 9.45 3.02 0.35 8.75 10.16 4 16 Female 21 7.95 2.38 0.52 6.87 9.03 4 12 Total 94 9.12 2.95 0.30 8.51 9.72 4 16 Table 21: Descriptives for Attendance across Gender 50

Tables 22 and 23 suggest that there is relationship between Engagement and Age (F=3.99,

p<0.05). Low Age fans (M=8.09) are more engaged with their football team than Medium

Age (M=6.93) and High Age (M=7.06) fans. These numerical differences are statistically

significant.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 25.97 2 12.98 3.99 0.02 Within Groups 296.47 91 3.26 Total 322.44 93 Table 22: ANOVA

95% Confidence Interval for Mean N Mean Std. Dev. Std. Error Min. Max. Lower Upper Bound Bound Low Age 34 8.09 1.71 0.29 7.49 8.69 5 10 Medium Age 28 6.93 1.88 0.36 6.20 7.66 4 12 High Age 32 7.06 1.83 0.32 6.40 7.72 4 11 Total 94 7.39 1.86 0.19 7.01 7.78 4 12 Table 23: Descriptives for Engagement across Age

Tables 24 and 25 suggest that there is no relationship between Loyalty and Income

(F=1.48, p>0.05). There is a numerical difference that shows that Low Income fans

(M=26.68) are more loyal than High Income fans (M=25.26). However, that difference

is not significant.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 44.63 1 44.63 1.48 0.23

Within Groups 2684.51 89 30.16

Total 2729.14 90 Table 24: ANOVA

95% Confidence Interval for Mean N Mean Std. Dev. Std. Error Min. Max. Lower Upper Bound Bound Low Income 38 26.68 5.59 0.91 24.85 28.52 12 40 High Income 53 25.26 5.42 0.74 23.77 26.76 15 36 Total 91 25.86 5.51 0.58 24.71 27.00 12 40 Table 25: Descriptives for Loyalty across Income

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS

6.1 Conclusions

After conducting all the analyses a number of interesting conclusions were found. Family

Preference and the Location or Community where the fan lives are the biggest influences when choosing to be a fan of a particular football team. There is no relationship between

Price Sensitivity and Loyalty. Also, there is no relationship between Loyalty and

Engagement and Attendance, but Higher Loyal fans are more likely to attend football games or engage with their teams taking into account the numerical differences which are small to be significant. There is a positive correlation between Expenditure and Loyalty but is too weak. Furthermore, there is no significant relationship between Nationality and

Loyalty but there are numerical differences that are big enough to take into consideration and they show that British and Germans are the most loyal fans what makes sense after seeing the attendance numbers in the Introduction.

Moreover, most of the fans are fans of that team since the beginning and they are not fans of other teams, so it shows that first impressions and influence by the family or the community in the childhood or low age is a determinant factor when choosing a football team. Regarding attendance, fans mostly attend to games with their friends; the most important reasons to attend again a football game are the Atmosphere and Entertainment, enjoying the game is key. Price is also important as is one of the important motives to re- attend a game or not go to the game, distance and lack of time are other reasons that influence negatively attendance.

Male fans are more likely to attend a game of their football team than Female. Younger fans are more engaged with their team. Low Income fans are more loyal to their team;

High Income, who are less sensitive to pricing and thus spend more, have less loyalty, so in bad situations and difficulties that fans are more likely to do CORFing and change their team.

Fan Loyalty is the only thing that separates football from being a business. Real fans are loyal to their teams in the difficult situations like being relegated to a lower division or selling their best players because of financial problems. Without real fans, only a few rich clubs will survive, the ones that always win the important trophies and have the best players. The hope and joy of fans of smaller teams feeling capable to beat better teams as football is an uncertain and unpredictable sport, nobody knows the result before playing, makes football the most important sport in Europe and in the World. Fan Loyalty is the key asset for the football teams and they have to do everything in order to keep them, attract new fans of the local society first and then from other locations.

6.2 Managerial Implications

This research has a purpose of getting more information about the insights of a football fan in order to market teams better. Local teams should care about the city and have a social responsibility sector in order to engage with the community and help the society which will be the biggest part of their fans. As this research and past research show that local team/communities/societies are really important when choosing a team, getting involved with the city will increase the awareness of the team.

Also, the other main factor to be a fan of a team is the family preference, so teams should supply family and group tickets or promotions which will increase expenditure, engagement, loyalty and attendance. Mostly, fans go to the games with their friends, so group tickets will have a big positive influence on the fans. These types of promotion can be used also in merchandise sales when buying more than 3 items, so fans go with their friends or family and they can spread their word. The success or failure in each moment will dictate the marketing strategies of the team since football results vary a lot and it´s like a rollercoaster.

Another recommendation is to reward loyal fans, for example, reward the fans that have attended all the home games or have been in more than 10. Reward to the fans that have bought more than 5 products or the official jersey 3 years in a row. Having a reward card for each fan will be a great promotion and will have and incredible positive influence on the fans. Making training for the kids and meeting the players they admire can be a great way to get involved with the community and be closer to the fandom.

It´s all about making fans part of the team, taking care of the loyal fans which will make sure that their kids are also fans from the same team since family is the main influence, increase positive word-of-mouth, be involved with the community, attract new fans and try to be successful in the competitions the team participates but fans will be there even when the team doesn´t win trophies.

6.3 Limitations

Some issues have limited the outcome of this research. First of all, the lack of specific and recent past research has conditioned the literature review and starting point of this research. Second, the lack of Amazon Mechanical Turk users in Europe conditioned negatively the number of data collected and the Sample size. The first idea was to have a big sample of each country of the Big 5 in order to compare Fan Loyalty between countries, but the lack of responses made me change the research purpose to a broader

Fan Loyalty context.

6.4 Recommendations for Future Research

For future research in this area, I would recommend to get a bigger Sample; don´t make limitations in nationality and location. Have a bigger variety of respondents regarding demographics (age, gender, nationality, income) in order to get more reliable data and get more significant results. Also, I would recommend making a longer survey, asking about future changes or what fans would like to see in their teams in order to get more feedback.

Everything can be improved and there is no perfection, the same is for the teams, they have to continue improving or at least make the effort for the fans.

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CHAPTER 8: APPENDIX

8.1 Fan Loyalty Survey

Instructions: Thank you for agreeing to take part in this survey which measures fan loyalty of football (soccer) fans of the European major leagues. The goal of this survey is to analyze what make fans loyal to their team and the magnitude of their loyalty in the major leagues.

This survey will take about 10 minutes. Be assured that there are no wrong answers. It is an anonymous survey so please read carefully and answer the questions honestly.

Thank you for your time and collaboration.

1. What is your favorite football (soccer) team?

2. Have you supported this team since you started watching football (soccer)?

Yes

3. Do you support more teams? If yes, which ones?

Yes (Specify teams)

4. Rank from most important (1) to least important (6) the factors that contribute to your

being a fan of this team:

Local team

Family history/preference

Recent success

Favorite player

Team history

Game style preference

5. To what extent do you agree with the following:

Neither Strongly Somewhat Somewhat Strongly agree nor disagree disagree agree agree disagree I support the club nearest to my place of birth/ or place of residence

I support my team because of

the influence of family/ friends

I support my team because it

recently has been successful

I support my team because of its

rich history of winning

I support my team because my

favorite player is on this team

I support my team due to its

style of game

6. Do you have a season ticket?

Yes

7. Mark all the statements that are true regarding your team merchandise.

I buy my team official jersey

I buy other clothing / apparel of my team

I buy miscellaneous merchandise of my team (e.g., banners, flags, pennants,

glassware, balls, keychains)

I buy collectable products of my team (e.g., jerseys, cards, autographed

items, game day tickets or programs)

I don´t buy merchandise or jerseys of my team

Select the answer that best fits for each of the following 3 categories regarding the relationship with your team:

8. TV

I watch all the games on TV

I watch half or more of the games

I watch only the most important games

I only watch the few games that are convenient for me

I only watch the highlights

I don´t watch

9. Home games

I go to all home games

I go to half or more of the home games

I only go to the most important home games

I only go to the few home games that are convenient for me

I go only to preseason games

I don´t go to any home games

10. Away games

I go to all away games

I go to half or more of the away games

I only go to the most important away games

I only go to the few away games that are convenient for me

I go only to preseason games

I don´t go to any away games

11. How much do you spend annually on club merchandise and tickets?

Less than 100€

Between 100€ and 249€

Between 250€ and 499€

Between 500€ and 999€

Between 1.000€ and 2.500€

More than 2.500€

12. How would you rate the prices of your team´s season tickets?

Too expensive

Expensive, but worth the cost

Affordable

Inexpensive

Unsure

13. How would you rate the price of your team´s single tickets?

Too expensive

Expensive, but worth the cost

Affordable

Inexpensive

Unsure

14. How would you rate the price of your team´s official merchandise?

Too expensive

Expensive, but worth the cost

Affordable

Inexpensive

Unsure

15. To what extent do you agree with the following:

Neither Strongly Somewhat Somewhat Strongly agree nor disagree disagree agree agree disagree Poor performance/lack of trophies would affect my support of my football club

I would consider not supporting my team if there were no local (same country) players involved in the squad.

Lack of transfers and new players would affect my support towards my club

Lack of ambition and higher goals would affect my support towards my team

16. If your club was relegated to a lower division, would this affect your support for the

team?

Neither Strongly Somewhat Somewhat Strongly agree nor disagree disagree agree agree disagree

I would maintain my level of

commitment to the club

My attendance to matches would be lower than if they were in a higher division

I would spend less money on

club merchandise

I would watch significantly fewer games and highlights on television

17. Who do you attend the game with?

Friends Parents Children Partner/Spouse Alone

18. For some fans, there are factors that hinder their game attendance. To what extent do

the following factors affect your attendance to games:

Not at all Slightly Somewhat Very Extremely

influential influential influential influential influential

Time doesn´t allow me to attend

Match day prices

I work on match

day

Family

commitments

Other interests that overlap with

football match times Difficulty purchasing tickets due to low supply

Distance to the

games

19. When deciding whether or not to return to watch another football game, to what extent

are the following factors important?

Not at all Slightly Moderately Very Extremely

important important important important important Pricing of

tickets Quality of

facilities

Atmosphere

Teams

performance Quality of

opponent Entertainment

value

20. What is your age?

Under 18 years old

18-24 years old

25-34 years old

35-44 years old

45-54 years old

55-64 years old

65-74 years old

75 years or older

21. What gender do you identify with?

Male

Female

Other

22. What is your nationality?

23. What is your annual household income?

Less than 10.000€

10.000€-24.999€

25.000€-39.999€

40.000€-54.999€

55.000€-69.999€

70.000€-84.999€

85.000€-99.999€

Over 1000.000€