Examining the behavioral manifestations of fan avidity in sports marketing

Purpose – The sports industry is one of the fastest growing business sectors in the world today and its primary source of revenue is derived from fans. Yet, little is known about fans' allocation of time, effort, and/or financial expenditures in regard to the sports they care so desperately about. The purpose of this paper is to explore the multidimensional aspects of such manifestations of fan avidity and examine the nature of heterogeneity of such expressions.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from a student sample of football fans from a well‐known US university.Findings – In total, 35 different expressions of fan avidity are developed related to how fans follow and support their favorite team. A spatial choice multidimensional scaling model is developed to uncover four latent dimensions of fan avidity expression.Originality/value – The managerial aspects of these empirical findings are provided, and the authors suggest several directions for future research.

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