Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2024

Publication Title

International Journal of Sport Management

Publisher

American Press

Abstract

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has long been concerned with the prac­tice of sportsmanship. However, frequent displays of spectator aggression at collegiate sport events demonstrates a grave contradiction. Fans level of team identification is considered a key influence on spectator aggression. Alternatively, sport marketers have found that team identification plays a vital role in fan consumption (e.g., tickets and merchandise). In the interest of reducing aggressive fan behavior without damp­ening the sport managers' need for highly identified college sports fans, we sought to assess how spectator sportsmanship attitudes might serve to moderate the relationship between team identification and spectator aggression attitudes such that the relation­ship between team identification and attitude towards aggression would be negligible for individuals scoring high in sportsmanship attitudes. Results showed that sports­manship attitudes were not a statistically significant moderator of the relationship be­tween team identification and attitudes towards aggression. However, there was a large negative relationship between attitudes towards aggression and spectator sports­manship attitudes suggesting that fostering sportsmanship could help reduce aggres­sive fan behavior at college sporting events.

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