Bachelor’s thesis IDR600 Sport Management Norwegian Football Fans Attendance Case: Norwegian men's football Lars Neerbye Eriksen and Oscar Hesselberg Killingmoe Number of pages including this page: 51 Molde, 02/06-2020 Mandatory statement Each student is responsible for complying with rules and regulations that relate to examinations and to academic work in general. The purpose of the mandatory statement is to make students aware of their responsibility and the consequences of cheating. Failure to complete the statement does not excuse students from their responsibility. Please complete the mandatory statement by placing a mark in each box for statements 1-6 below. 1. I/we hereby declare that my/our paper/assignment is my/our own work, and that I/we have not used other sources or received other help than mentioned in the paper/assignment. 2. I/we hereby declare that this paper Mark each 1. 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Has the research project been considered by REK? yes no - If yes: Reference number: Publication agreement ECTS credits: 15 Supervisor: Harald Klaus Dolles Agreement on electronic publication of master thesis Author(s) have copyright to the thesis, including the exclusive right to publish the document (The Copyright Act §2). All theses fulfilling the requirements will be registered and published in Brage HiM, with the approval of the author(s). Theses with a confidentiality agreement will not be published. I/we hereby give Molde University College the right to, free of charge, make the thesis available for electronic publication: yes no Is there an agreement of confidentiality? yes no (A supplementary confidentiality agreement must be filled in) - If yes: Can the thesis be online published when the period of confidentiality is expired? yes no Date: Preface Dear reader, This bachelor thesis is written in connection with the final year of studying Sport Management at Molde University College, and constitutes the last 15 credits before we have completed our bachelor's degree. Writing such a task as we have done now is something we have not done before and have been very demanding at times, but together we have got through this with a good result in the end. Therefore, we would like to thank each other for the collaboration. We would like to thank our fellow students for three great years at Molde University College, both when it comes to collaboration around school assignments and the social outside the study itself. We must also thank our supervisor for help along the way. We hope that you who read our thesis will appreciate our contribution in this area, good reading! Abstract The main purpose of the research is to get a better understanding of why Norwegian football fans attend matches in Norway, focusing on the Eliteserien. We will look closer at four specific factors; entertainment value, sporting product, profiles, and uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. With these factors as points of departure, we will analyze the difference between each of the selected seasons. The selected seasons in our study are: 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019. In our findings we present a graph of the total attendance number from 2000 until 2019 visualizing a pretty rapid rise from 2000 to the peak in 2009. When analyzing the data, we saw a clear pattern between the rise in attendance and some sporting factors. In the years after 2009 and up until 2019 there has been a decline, and the curve is approaching the same level as it was in 2000. During our research process we have come across some interesting elements that seem to affect the demand for stadium football and could benefit from thorough research. Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research setting: Norwegian football .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research question ............................................................................................................................................................................ 3 2. Developing the theoretical framework for research ..................................................................................... 4 2.1 Sports spectators ............................................................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2 Demand for live football and TV football .............................................................................................................................. 6 2.3 Motivation ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.4 Entertainment value ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.4.1 Sporting product ............................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.4.2 Uncertainty of outcome hypothesis .......................................................................................................................... 9 2.5 Profiles effect on attendance .................................................................................................................................................... 11 3. Framework for research ........................................................................................................................................ 12 4. Methodology .............................................................................................................................................................. 12 5. Findings ....................................................................................................................................................................... 15 6. Analysis and discussion ......................................................................................................................................... 17 6.1 Sporting product ............................................................................................................................................................................ 18 6.2 Live attendance vs. televised broadcast ............................................................................................................................... 19 6.3 Uncertainty of outcome hypothesis ....................................................................................................................................... 20 6.3.1 League certainty of outcome effect on overall attendance .......................................................................... 21 6.3.2 Uncertainty of outcome effect on match attendance ..................................................................................... 22 6.4 Profiles effect on attendance .................................................................................................................................................... 23 6.4.1 Star players and local heroes ................................................................................................................................... 23 6.4.2 Club affiliation on Norwegian national team nominations ......................................................................... 27 6.5 Matchday attendance numbers – 2019 ............................................................................................................................... 28 6.5.1 Kick-off not