Title: Membership retention in professional sports organisations

Authors: Mark Brown, Darian Misko, Dennis Lee

Addresses: UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, 4072 Australia. ' Eastlake Football Club, Griffith ACT, Australia. ' Department of Marketing, School of Business Administration, American University in Dubai, P.O. Box 28282, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Abstract: Considerable research has investigated factors influencing attendance at sporting contests and events. Surprisingly little research has been forthcoming, however, regarding factors that influence |heavy user| fans, manifested commonly as season ticket holders, to renew their season-long memberships. This paper presents findings of a study of season ticket holders of a professional football organisation. Employing partial least squares analysis, results indicate that team performance, sportscape features, and media advertising significantly influence decisions to renew season tickets. Fan identification and the presence of star players do not appear to have any such influence. Implications for managers and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: sport marketing; membership retention; soccer fans; attendance; relationship; partial least squares; professional sports organisations; season ticket holders; professional football; team performance; sportscape features; media advertising; season tickets; season ticket renewal; fan identification; star players.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2009.026756

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2009 Vol.6 No.1, pp.52 - 67

Published online: 25 Jun 2009 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article