Title: Team USA and the 2010 FIFA World Cup: an examination of TV fans viewing intention

Authors: Gonzalo A. Bravo; Doyeon Won; Cindy Lee

Addresses: Department of Sport Sciences, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6116, Room 268 Coliseum, Morgantown, WV 26506-6116, USA ' Department of Sport & Leisure Studies, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu Seoul, 120-749, Korea ' Department of Sport Sciences, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6116, Room 236 Coliseum, Morgantown, WV 26506-6116, USA

Abstract: The study examined how cognitive, affective, behavioural functions and patriotism influence viewing intentions to follow games of the men's US national team and games of the FIFA World Cup in general played during the 2010 World Cup. A questionnaire that included items in three dimensions of the attitude formation theory: 'sport knowledge', 'sport identification', 'frequency of viewing' and 'patriotism' was administered to 467 sport sciences students in the USA. Results revealed that sport identification was the strongest predictor followed by patriotism and sport knowledge when examining intention to watch the World Cup games. For intention to watch games of the US national team, results showed patriotism was the most important predictor followed by sport identification and sport knowledge. ANOVA results indicated there were gender differences. In both cases, male respondents showed significantly higher mean scores than female respondents. Practical implications and methodological limitations were also discussed.

Keywords: attitudes formation theory; consumer behaviour; soccer; Team USA; 2010 FIFA World Cup: TV fans; viewing intentions; fan viewership; football fans; football supporters; United States; sporting knowledge; sport identification; viewing frequency; patriotism; gender differences.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2013.060636

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2013 Vol.14 No.1/2/3/4, pp.169 - 187

Accepted: 26 Nov 2013
Published online: 05 Jul 2014 *

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