Scheduled for Sport Management/Measurement/Sociocultural Aspects of Physical Activity Posters, Friday, April 12, 2002, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM, San Diego Convention Center: Exhibit Hall


Development of a Scale Measuring Spectator Satisfaction Toward Support Programs of Minor League Hockey Games

James, J. Zhang1, Eddie T. C. Lam2, Dennis W. Smith3, Daniel P. Connaughton1 and Gregg Bennett1, (1)University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, (2)Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, (3)University of Houston, Houston, TX

Game attendance is a major income source for minor league hockey teams. To continue to attract spectators, it is necessary for a hockey team to evaluate various factors that affect game attendance. Although previous studies have primarily been focused on variables related to the core game function, recent attention has been directed to the game support programs and their relationship to game attendance. To enhance systematic investigation of the support program quality of hockey games, an instrument with adequate measurement properties is essential. The purpose of this study was to develop the Scale for Game Support Programs (SGSP) to measure spectator satisfaction towards support programs of minor league hockey games. The scale development was carried out in three steps: (a) formulation of a preliminary scale and a test of content validity, (b) initial test administration and an exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and (c) a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Through a review of literature, field observations, interviews, and the test of content validity by a panel of experts, a preliminary SGSP with 24 items was formulated. The preliminary scale was administered to spectators (N=2,098) of six home games of a minor league hockey team. The data set was randomly split into two halves: one for EFA and the other for CFA. Four factors with 23 items emerged in the EFA with alpha extraction and promax rotation: ‘Satisfaction toward Ticket Service’, ‘Satisfaction toward Game Amenities’, ‘Satisfaction toward Arena Service’, and ‘Satisfaction toward Arena Accessibility.’ The four-factor model with 23 items was proposed and analyzed based on the Weighted Least Square estimation method in CFA. The goodness-of-fit indexes of the model were in the uppermost ranges (e.g., RMSEA=.04, GFI=.96, and AGFI=.95), indicating that the model provided a good fit to the data. The lambda values of all the items were above .60 except one item, which was .44 and hence discarded. For the revised four-factor model with 22 items, good fit indexes remained unchanged and cross-validation indexes were yet enhanced. Discussions were made in the context of measurement quality and scale application in marketing studies.
Keyword(s): administration/mgmt, measurement/evaluation, sport management

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