The purpose of the study was to examine and compare fan characteristics between two minor league franchises. Previous research has examined factors that influence fan attendance at minor league sporting events. To date, a comparison of minor league fan characteristics across sports in the same community has not been conducted.
The sample consisted of 980 fans attending AHL hockey and Arena2 Football in Manchester, NH, a community of 215,000 located 50 miles north of Boston, MA. Participants were surveyed at the downtown Verizon Wireless Arena during both weeknight and weekend contests and the data were analyzed using Chi Square, and an alpha value of .05 was used to determine significant differences. The independent variables were two groups: hockey (spectators attending an AHL hockey game) and football (spectators attending an Arena2 football game). The dependent variables included, where they obtained their information regarding the team(s); frequency of visits to the team web-site; decision making regarding game attendance; reason for game attendance; and demographic information.
The results indicate that hockey and football spectators were predominantly male with an average education level of college degree and average family income of $63,500. Significant differences were demonstrated in the spectator's use of team websites; 38.8% of hockey visited the team website more than 20 times per season compared to 11.7%of football. Differences were also observed in spectator's responses regarding reasons for attending; 45.7% of football and 29.3% of hockey cited “family entertainment” as their main reason for attending. While, “Socializing with friends” and “business” were cited as the main reason for attending by 11.8% and 1.4% of hockey and 18.5% and 9.9% of football respectively. When identifying the manner in which spectators obtained schedule information, the highest ranked response for hockey was “utilization of the internet” (36.4%) while the highest response for football (35.7%) was pocket schedules. A similar response was seen with both hockey and football selecting more than 31 days as the most frequent response for the decision to purchase tickets.
These results indicate that there are significant differences between individuals who attend Arena2 football games when compared to individuals who attend AHL hockey games as the same arena in the same community. Though most differences were seen in the manner through which individuals obtain their information and why they attend the games, this study demonstrates the need to further assess and determine the manner through which organizations can reach their target audiences.