PLACE BONDING, FAN IDENTIFICATION, NOSTALGIA AND FENWAY’S FUTURE: OBSERVATIONS ABOUT RED SOX NATION By DANIEL SARGEANT A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2012 1 © 2012 Daniel Sargeant 2 To my sister Lisa, without whom this would not have been possible 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank the chair and members of my supervisory committee for their assistance: my chair Heather Gibson, and committee members Stephen Holland, Jeffery Adler, and Kyriaki Kaplanidou. I also thank the staff in the TRSM department at the University of Florida particularly Julie McGarth and Donna Walker, as well as the participants in my survey for their honest participation. I thank my family and friends for their support and assistance in completing this project. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 11 Problem Statement ................................................................................................. 19 Conceptual Framework ........................................................................................... 21 Purpose of the Study .............................................................................................. 25 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 25 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................................... 26 Historical Context .................................................................................................... 26 Fenway Park ........................................................................................................... 27 Stadiums as Urban Identity ..................................................................................... 29 Sports Fans ............................................................................................................ 32 Psychological Motives............................................................................................. 40 Social Belonging Motives ........................................................................................ 41 Place Attachment/Bonding ...................................................................................... 43 Nostalgia ................................................................................................................. 57 Baseball, Place Bonding, and Fan Loyalty .............................................................. 62 3 METHODS .............................................................................................................. 68 Instrumentation ....................................................................................................... 68 Data Collection ....................................................................................................... 70 Sample Description ................................................................................................. 73 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................... 74 4 RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 79 Level of Fan Identification ....................................................................................... 79 Attitudes towards future modifications of Fenway Park .................................... 79 Nostalgia Levels ..................................................................................................... 81 Level of Attachment to Fenway Park ...................................................................... 82 Summary ................................................................................................................ 86 5 5 DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................... 112 Attitudes toward Future Modifications of Fenway Park ......................................... 112 Fan Identification .................................................................................................. 113 Nostalgia Level in Regards to Fenway Park ......................................................... 116 Place Bonding ....................................................................................................... 121 Implications of the Study ....................................................................................... 124 Recommendations for Future Research ............................................................... 128 Delimitations ......................................................................................................... 129 Limitations ............................................................................................................. 131 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 132 APPENDIX A SURVEY PARTICIPANT LETTER ........................................................................ 133 B SURVEY ............................................................................................................... 135 C SUMMARY OF CHANGES MADE TO FENWAY PARK SINCE 1945 .................. 140 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 142 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 157 6 LIST OF TABLES Table page 3-1 Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Participants (N=409) ........................ 78 4-1 Attitudes towards Future Modifications of Fenway Park ..................................... 88 4-2 Descriptive statistics for fan identification ........................................................... 89 4-3 Attitudes toward Future Modifications of Fenway Park by level of Fan Identification ....................................................................................................... 90 4-4 ANOVA of Attitudes towards Fenway Park -Fan ID ............................................ 90 4-5 Post hoc analysis of fan identification by attitudes toward Fenway modifications....................................................................................................... 91 4-6 Descriptive statistics for the nostalgia scale (NOST) .......................................... 93 4-7 Attitudes toward future modifications of Fenway Park by nostalgia level ............ 94 4-8 ANOVA Omnibus results (attitudes towards future modifications of Fenway - nostalgia) ............................................................................................................ 94 4-9 Post hoc attitudes towards future modifications of Fenway Park by nostalgia level .................................................................................................................... 95 4-10 Descriptive statistics for place bonding by dimensions ....................................... 97 4-11 MANOVA results for place bonding and attitudes toward future modifications of Fenway Park ................................................................................................... 98 4-12 Place bonding scores by attitudes toward future modifications of Fenway Park .................................................................................................................... 99 4-13 Post hoc analysis for place familiarity by attitudes toward future modifications of Fenway Park ................................................................................................. 101 4-14 Post hoc analysis for place belongingness by attitude toward future modifications of Fenway Park ........................................................................... 103 4-15 Post Hoc Analysis for Place Identity by Attitudes toward Future Modifications of Fenway Park ................................................................................................. 105 4-16. Post hoc analysis for place dependence by attitudes toward future modifications of Fenway Park ........................................................................... 107 7 4-17 Post hoc analysis for place rootedness by attitudes toward future modifications of Fenway Park ........................................................................... 109 4-18 Place bonding differences between attitude toward future modifications of Fenway Park..................................................................................................... 111 8 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy PLACE BONDING, FAN IDENTIFICATION, NOSTALGIA AND FENWAY’S FUTURE: OBSERVATIONS ABOUT RED SOX NATION By Daniel Sargeant August 2012 Chair: Heather Gibson Major: Health and Human Performance Fenway Park celebrated its one hundredth birthday at the start of the 2012 baseball season. It