RUNNING HEAD: WOMEN’S SPORTING EVENTS

Personal Connection and Entertainment Value of Women’s Sporting Events

Rebecca Evanitsky

The Pennsylvania State University

Executive Summary

Despite the successful performances of elite female basketball, soccer, and softball teams

throughout the United States, they are often times overlooked by fans who tend to prefer their

male counterparts. Fan motivations are largely related to personal connection to the team and the

entertainment value they associate with the event. However, motivations for men’s and women’s

events do not line up exactly and the same procedures will not work for both.

To combat these issues a variety of solutions can be employed. Creating more

involvement between the team and the community and increasing game-day entertainment

factors would both have a positive impact on attendance at games. However, the differences

between men’s and women’s leagues is currently so dramatic that change will not occur over

night. These solutions will need to be implemented and constantly monitored if change actually

is to occur. There is no simple way to fix this problem, or else it would have already been done.

Patience and communication between fans and team officials will need to take place to find what

works best in each situation.

Introduction

The sports industry has historically always been dominated by men’s leagues with little

attention going to women. In 2018, Forbes put together a list of the top 50 most valuable sports

teams, which included zero female teams (Badenhausen, 2018). The fact that this list consisted

of teams from the NFL, NBA, MLB, and soccer leagues from around the world, but not one

single female league, is appalling.

Fan Motivation Background

Motivations behind fans attending sporting events have been studied for quite some time

now, although things are always changing and they need to be constantly monitored. Funk, Filo,

Beaton, and Pritchard (2009) focused on motivation to attend sporting events by looking at

factors of socialization, performance, esteem, excitement, and diversion; they coined these the

facets of SPEED. When conducting their research, they surveyed both people who had been to

preselected sporting teams’ events, and those who had not. Those who had previous game

attendance showed a significant increase in mean scores for all five of the SPEED facets, the

greatest increase in esteem, followed by excitement. This means that for an average fan to want

to come back to a future contest, they must have a “heightened sense of personal and collective

esteem based on vicarious achievement when his/her favorite team wins” and the event must

“provide excitement and drama with an element of uncertainty as to the outcome of the game”

(p. 138). While this may not hold true for every sport, fans of Australian Rules Football, A-

League Soccer, and the National Rugby League of southern Queensland supported these points,

and it is hypothesized that it can be applied to other action-packed sports as well. A study by

Wann, Schrader, and Wilson (1999) also found that aggressive sports such as these showed a

significant reliance on eustress, self-esteem, economic, entertainment, and group affiliation. The
WOMEN’S SPORTING EVENTS 4

only categories in the study in which non-aggressive sports had a higher average value were

escape and aesthetic. While this does not provide enough support to say that fans are more

motivated to attend events for aggressive sports, it has been shown that there are many more

reasons for motivation to attend an aggressive sport. A 2001 study by Tucker and Parks focused

on Division I collegiate athletes’ perceptions of aggression in sport and its legitimacy. For the

most part, the athletes did not consider aggression legitimate. However, generally females and

athletes in non-contact sports scored lower than their opposing counterpart (Tucker & Parks,

2001). Tucker and Parks summarized that men are taught to be tough, and women are taught to

follow the rules of the sport. Following gender role expectations and in-sport norms leads to

female sports being less aggressive than male sports, which could lead to fewer motivations to go

to women’s events, like previously discussed. This lack of motivation due to less aggression

must be supplemented in another way in order to maintain a good fan base.

Solution

So, how can the number of attendees at female sporting events be improved upon?

Sutton, McDonald, Milne, and Cimperman (1997) say that creating fan identification, the

personal commitment and emotional involvement customers have with a sport organization, is

the most important way to increase fan turnout. Creating a sense of connection and identity with

the team does not happen naturally and will take some time to fully show its success. Creating

this identification can be done by increasing the team’s time spent in the public eye, and

increasing entertainment value at the games themselves.

Hosting events for community members to meet and interact with players could increase

the likelihood they would continue to support the team during the season. Events created for

children would demonstrate that these are not only elite athletes but also individuals of a
WOMEN’S SPORTING EVENTS 5

community. This would encourage people to support the team more, along with make a lasting

impression on the young children. In today’s society it is very important for children to have

positive role models. If the children started to look up to these athletes and were excited about

going to games, their parents would take notice of the good coming from the team. Then, the

parents would want to continue to support the individuals who take the time to support their

children.

The studies previously mentioned, which covered the aggression and entertainment value

that comes with it, help explain why people often do not attend women’s sporting events as

much as men’s. While you cannot change the way these athletes have learned to play the game,

to compensate and increase the entertainment value, more funding could go to in-game

entertainment. Creating buzz by having more half-time performers, giveaways, and a more

electrifying atmosphere would greatly increase the number of fans who would return to another

game. Increasing entertainment value can also be done by simply having a team with a better

win-record. If the team and the attendance at games is bad enough, management may need to

step in and replace the coaching staff or members of the team. People like to associate with a

winning team, so there may come a time where that is the only feasible option in drawing people

to come to games.

Cost

Cost-wise, creating events for the community would likely be the least expensive option.

Events or clinics could have entrance fees, items for sale, or be sponsored by local or corporate

partners to help offset the costs of such great public relation opportunities. Bringing in half-time

performers would help draw people in, but the obvious cost of paying the performer would

depend on the act, and would be hard to judge for an entire season, overall. Giveaways at games
WOMEN’S SPORTING EVENTS 6

would also come at an extra expense for the team, unless they again could find sponsors for

items for individual games throughout the season. Additional mascots and themes for the games

would come at a minimal cost but would greatly impact the entertainment value for those who

may not be as excited about the particular sport. Changing personnel if the team was not

performing as well would likely come at the greatest cost, as good individuals do not come

cheap. However, if in a dire enough situation, new management could be an investment into the

team’s future.

Conclusion

Entertainment value of the event and personal connections to the team are largely tied to

fan motivation. These can be impacted by a variety of factors that all come at different price

points. By creating more community involvement and more entertainment at games fans will be

more motivated to attend and the popularity of women’s sporting events will increase. This will

not be an easy fix however, and trial and error tests will need to take place over a span of

multiple years. Communication between fans, both casual and season ticket holders, and

representatives from the team will be crucial in the duration of changes to see what is well

received so that these female athletes can thrive to their fullest potential, and inspire the next

generation of elite athletes.

References

Badenhausen, K. (2018, July 20). Full List: The World's 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams Of

2018. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2018/07/18/full-list-

the-worlds-50-most-valuable-sports-teams-of-2018/#75ea79d16b0e

Funk, D. C., Filo, K., Beaton, A. A., & Pritchard, M. (2009). Measuring the motives of sport

event attendance: Bridging the academic-practitioner divide to understanding

behavior. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 18(3), 126.

Sutton, W. A., McDonald, M. A., Milne, G. R., & Cimperman, J. (1997). Creating and fostering

fan identification in professional sports. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 6, 15-22.

Tucker, L. W., & Parks, J. B. (2001). Effects of gender and sport type on intercollegiate athletes’

perceptions of the legitimacy of aggressive behaviors in sport. Sociology of Sport

Journal, 18(4), 403-413.

Wann, D. L., Schrader, M. P., & Wilson, A. M. (1999). Sport fan motivation: Questionnarie

validation, comparisons by sport, and relationship to athletic motivation. Journal of Sport

Behavior, 22(1), 114.