ANDY RUPERTTHE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI

HPR 682

The United States Recession and It’s Influence on Sports

Consumer Behavior

Introduction

The study was conducted based off of the researcher’s experience and interest in sports media.

The U.S. recession has been newsworthy for years and has made an impact on most American lives.

Organizations have been making all kinds of changes to keep fans coming out to the ballpark from promotions to ticket packages.

The innovation of satellite radio and internet coverage presents a new outlet, but a potential barrier for teams to deal with.

The Problem

With the country in an admitted recession, how has the consumer adjusted the amount and type of sports they spend their money on in the past five years?

Have media sources such as TV, local radio, satellite radio and live internet coverage by media sources made an impact as an alternative to going to a game?

The Purpose

To find if there has been much, if any change in the way consumers spend their sports entertainment dollar.

Investigate if consumers are still concentrating their money in the same sports or if they are reinvesting in other sporting opportunities.

Significance of the Study

The study is applicable to many people throughout sports organizations.

Useful for organizations looking at where the customer’s sports entertainment dollar is going.

To investigate if media sources are being used more, so marketers know they can reach fans through those sources.

Independent Variables

The time frame of five years.

The differentiation by the researcher defines what is believed to be top-level sports and second-tier sports

Dependent Variables

Economic status being impacted by the recession before five years ago, thereby taking out the element of the economy becoming a barrier.

Potential relocations within the five year period.

Definition of Terms

Top level sports defined are Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), NASCAR, and Major League Soccer (MLS)

Second-Tier Sports: Minor League Sports, Arena Football, Professional Wrestling, Any non-NASCAR racing, NBDL, ABA, etc.

Collegiate Contests are any Collegiate Sporting EventHigh School Contests are any High School Sporting

EventMedia sources: Television, AM/FM Radio, XM and Sirius

Radio, and Live Internet Content

DelimitationsDelimitations LimitationsLimitations

Looking at only five years to gain a time frame of reference.

Separating professional sports into two categories

Generalizing high school and college events into separate, yet broad, categories.

The number of available sports venues in a consumer’s range of travel.

The lack of available media sources for every consumer’s supported teams.

Household changes from an independent to a dependent for the participant.

Delimitations and Limitations

Literature Review Summary

Economic downturn due to various variables, but the crashing of housing bubble is seen as the catalyst (Appelbaum, Baker, Schmitt, 2008).

More houses on the market than people can afford and the manufacturing industry has taken a major hit.

People most likely to make adjustments for barriers to seeing a sporting event are usually young , healthy, and well educated. (Godbey, Raymore and Crawford, 1994)

Gender differences: Men will tend to stop following a team if they are having a losing season, women put more emphasis on weather as a barrier. (Trail, Robinson, and Kim 2008)

Literature Review Cont’d

According to (Buraimo, 2007):

The relationship between sports and television audience show that highly attended events typically have a high TV audience, while an event that is not well attended will most likely have a low TV audience.

Attendance numbers typically increase with the skill level of the athletes.

The United States has far greater access to free sporting event television coverage than do European countries.

Literature Review Cont’d

Starting in the 1980’s broadcast coverage has been a greater source of income for leagues than gate receipts. (Dietl and Hassan, 2007)

With a new emphasis on broadcasting by the league, it creates a larger barrier for a team’s attendance.

Satellite radio is coming onto the scene allowing customers to hear coverage of their favorite sports teams anywhere in the world.

Internet coverage not seen as making much of an impact on a customer’s opinion to come out to the ballpark. (Filo, Funk, and Hornby, 2009)

Research Relevant to the Issue

Not any that significantly contributed to the topic.

All sources had a very specific study performed that contributed to a portion of the researcher’s topic.

Sources provided a very good portrait of trends to develop a well-rounded hypothesis.

Weaknesses in the Topic

There was no significant research done for satellite radio’s relationship to attendance.

It was difficult to find a general change in household income from the time the recession started in 2001, or when the study’s time frame starts (2004). to 2009.

Need for Study

There were no general studies found from the consumer’s viewpoint on the effect of the recession.

Most previous studies involved looking at attendance numbers from selected venues.

To determine if the consumer barrier of economics have been a sacrifice to save money in the household.

Hypothesis

Based off of research it is assumed that there will be some change in the way the sports entertainment dollar is being spent.

The amount of events attended will probably be fairly similar. The types of events attended live could quite possibly be different due to various barriers and adjustments made by participants

The use of internet and XM radio sources will rise, but it will not make a significant impact on going to live events.

Research Design

Categorical variables will first be taken.An estimate will be provided by participants

to see their sport attendance at various venues both five years ago and presently.

The use of sports media outlets will be taken.The responses to the attendance and media

use will be related back to the categorical variables to find trends.

Survey Sample

About half of the surveys will be answered by people from the southern United States and the other half from the northern United States. (defined by the Mason-Dixon line)

Expected results are between 40-60 surveys completed

The sample will be young and well-educated men and women with at least some college education as Godbey, Crawford, and Raymore suggest as showing the most flexibility to take different avenues to view sports.

Instrumentation

Questionnaire that is two pagesMeasures Age, Gender, Household Income,

Sporting Spectator Participation both five years ago and the past 12 months, and Sports Media Consumption Rates

Data Collection

In person (for southern participants) and through E-mail (for northern participants).

Data Analysis

Take into account categorical variables such as sex, age, and household income.

Determine if these categorical variables show a trend in cutting back on spending on sports.

Determine how people are supplementing their spending into other sporting venues, if in fact they are.

Determine if there has been a rise in the use of media content that correlates with the attendance of sporting events.

Try to find trends by assigning a number between 1-5 to the questionnaire questions that all have five options, other than gender. This will serve as the scale