Special Sport Events—Part II

Introduction Journal of Sport Management, 2008, 22, 495-500 © 2008 Human Kinetics, Inc.

Special Sport Events—Part II Larry Dwyer University of New South Wales

Liz Fredline Griffith University As noted in Part I of Special Sport Events which appeared in Volume 22, Issue 4 of the Journal of Sport Management, sport events are increasingly contributing to the economic and social development of cities, regions, and countries. The justification to host large-scale sport events is often done on the role these events play in building social capital, attracting tourists, foster trade relations, enhance the host destination’s brand, and serve as catalysts for the development and improvements of infrastructures. It is imperative to understand the unique challenges of managing and marketing special sport events. We believe that Part I of the special issue on special sport events and this collection of articles (Part II) address many of the challenges related to these sport events. In the following pages, we outline the articles featured in the second issue devoted to the topic of special sport events.

Charity and Sport Events In their article “It’s Really Not About the Bike: Exploring Attraction and Attachment to the Events of the Lance Armstrong Foundation”, Kevin R. Filo, Daniel C. Funk, and Danny O’Brien note that participatory sport events have emerged as viable fundraising mechanisms for charitable organizations. There is a substantial consumer base for participatory sport events. It is important that event organizations understand the motivating factors that drive participation to effectively tailor the event and its supplementary activities to leverage these motives. The authors explore the impact that motives for charitable giving and sport event participation have on charity sport events. The research utilizes Funk and James’s (2001, 2006) psychological continuum model (PCM) as its theoretical basis. The PCM is founded upon the notion that both individual and social situational factors work together in the development of allegiance (or loyalty) in consumers. The PCM advances processes that operate within and among awareness, attraction, attachment, and Dwyer is with the School of Marketing, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia. Fredline is with the Dept. of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel, and Sport Management, Griffith University, Gold Coast, NSW, Australia.    495

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allegiance outcomes. The authors examine the factors that attract participants to a charity sport event, while the role of charity in fostering attachment to the event is analyzed. Focus groups were conducted with charity sport event participants to discuss what motivated their participation. The findings are that intellectual, social, and competency motives along with the motives of reciprocity, self-esteem, need to help others, and desire to improve the charity contribute to attraction. In addition, the results suggest that the charitable component influences social and competency motives and contributes to the development of attachment to the event. The authors recommend event managers work to foster and leverage the sense of community created through these events. This research can lead to additional work examining event linkages with charity that allow for leveraging of the symbiotic relationship for both the charity and the event organization. Because of the impact that the charity and its cause can have on participants, it is suggested that charity sport events be studied separately from other sport events. This can present researchers with the opportunity to highlight strategies for leveraging the different motives driving participation as well as the outcomes of charity sport event participation. A number of research issues arise. Future work might address how motives for participation are influenced by an event’s high profile ambassador. In addition to examining the influence of charity on the motives for sport event participation, the impact that charity has on constraints to participation can also be explored (Alexandris & Carroll, 1997). Quantitative data can be collected to determine the relative contribution of the different motives, specifically the motives for charitable giving. Research to evaluate the development of subcultures based on the charities benefiting from these events could illuminate how charity sport events can work to further leverage participants’ passion for the cause.

Event Brand Creation The concept of brand and its importance to marketing has been widely studied in the marketing industry (cf. Aaker, 1991, 1996; Aaker, 1997; de Chernatony, 1999, 2001; de Chernatony & Harris, 2000; Harris & de Chernatony, 2001; Kapferer, 2001; Keller, 2003a, 2003b). Likewise, sport consumers develop strong emotional attachments to sport teams, clubs, or events, which can build trust and loyalty toward a strong sport brand (Richelieu, 2004). This loyalty can be leveraged to generate additional revenues through the sale of a variety of goods (e.g., merchandise) and services (e.g., sponsorships), within and beyond the sport arena (Gustafson, 2001). Milena M. Parent and Benoît Séguin in their article “Toward a Model of Brand Creation for International Large-Scale Sporting Events: The Impact of Leadership, Context, and Nature of the Event” attempt to develop a model of brand creation for one-off large-scale sport events. Moreover, this article examines the beginning of a brand in a new context, an event and its organizing committee, that are in existence for only a short period of time, and a context where the brand must be created quickly to reap the benefits of having a brand (e.g., gaining the necessary resources). A case study of the 2005 Montréal FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) World Championships highlights the importance of the leadership group

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(which must include individuals with political/networking, business/management, and sport/event skills), the context, and the nature of the event for creating the event’s brand. The authors suggest that the importance of the leadership group, context, and nature of the event will vary depending on the situation. For example, the lack of an initial event brand will result in the leadership group having the greatest impact on the event’s brand creation process. Findings also highlight differing communication paths for internal and external stakeholders. This study contributes to the literature by focusing on brand creation and its related factors instead of the management and outcomes of a brand. This article fills a gap in the literature by providing key components for creating an event’s brand, as well as their interrelationships. Other factors that are likely to contribute to building an event’s brand need study. More specifically, an organization’s values (cf. de Chernatony, 1999, 2001) may be a component of brand creation and ought to be explored further. Understanding the barriers to international brand creation or the reasons for not wanting to create an international brand for an event should be examined. For most national sport organizations who host a world championship, they do so as a one-off event and with a largely volunteer workforce. Do these organizations have the necessary resources to properly build a brand for the event and, perhaps more importantly, to leverage the brand to build a legacy once the event is over?

Sponsorship Program Protection Strategies With each successive special sport event, arguably beginning with the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, new lessons have been learned and new strategies have emerged to enable event organizers to better protect their sponsorship programs from the negative impacts of ambush marketing. Concurrently, official sponsors have developed heightened expectations of event organizers to take increasingly aggressive measures to protect their financial investments. Given the significant financial investments of official sponsors, as well as the tremendous publicity and consumer audiences generated by major sport events, it has become increasingly important for event organizers to adopt proactive sponsorship program protection strategies. These include protecting the integrity and financial viability of the event, building the event “brand” and goodwill in it for the future; and fulfilling contractual obligations to sponsors. The contribution by Steve McKelvey and John Grady “Sponsorship Program Protection Strategies for Special Sport Events: Are Event Organizers Outmaneuvering Ambush Marketers?” begins with the observation that companies invest millions of dollars to become “official sponsors” of major global sport events. The tremendous publicity and consumer audiences generated by such events provide an attractive marketing opportunity for companies other than the event’s official sponsors that seek to associate themselves in the minds of the public with the goodwill and popularity of these events. This activity, known as ambush marketing, poses significant legal and business challenges for sport event organizers seeking to protect both the financial investment of official sponsors and the integrity of their sponsorship programs. Nike’s omnipresence at the Atlanta Olympic Games served as an alarming “wake-up call” for organizers of major sport events to not

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only acknowledge the potential negative impact of ambush marketers, but also to adopt more vigilant sponsorship program protection strategies that have evolved with each successive major sport event. With rising sponsorship stakes, event organizers have become increasingly proactive in their efforts to combat ambush marketing. This article examines the implementation and effectiveness of a variety of evolving sponsorship program protection strategies including: preevent education and public relations initiatives; on-site policing tactics; contractual language in athlete participation and spectator ticket agreements; and the enactment and enforcement of special trademark protection legislation. While the strategies examined in this article provide organizers of special sport events with some measure of sponsorship program protection against nonsponsors, the legal gray areas and practical loopholes that surround the practice of ambush marketing make it impossible for event organizers to ever entirely eradicate it. Ultimately, and ironically, it is the mere threat of ambush marketing that serves to benefit event organizers by keeping them vigilant in their efforts to protect the investments of their official sponsors. The theoretical and conceptual basis for understanding the nature of the sport tourist is still in the developmental stage. The proposed model seeks to fill the gap and provides a framework for the study of the dynamics of sport tourism. The model has wide application for practitioners as they constantly strive to provide the very best experience for sport tourists.

Service Quality and Satisfaction One way that a sport event can be differentiated from another event is on the basis of providing a high quality of service. One could argue that it is the only way for event planners to gain a competitive advantage. Providing the visitor with a superior experience is based upon the event planners’ ability to help coordinate or provide a bundle of high quality services that meet or exceed the expectations of the guests visiting the city. Sport tourism is a service industry which is influenced by the quality of services provided (Kouthouris & Alexandris, 2005). The article “Service Quality, Satisfaction, and Intent to Return in Event Sport Tourism” by David J. Shonk and Packianathan Chelladurai proposes a conceptual model of quality in event sport tourism wherein perceived quality of sport tourism (Sport Tourism Quality) is said to influence tourist satisfaction which, in turn, influences the tourist’s intention to return to the place of the event or the event itself. Sport Tourism Quality is indicated by four primary dimensions each of which is defined by two or more subdimensions. The primary dimensions are (a) access quality (composed of access to destination, sport venue, hotel), (b) accommodation quality (including the environment, interactions, and value), (c) venue quality (comprised of environment, interactions, and value), and (d) contest quality (indicated by process of the contest and the product of the contest). The theoretical and practical utility of the model is largely dependent on qualitative and quantitative research to substantiate the validity and reliability of the model and its variables. A preliminary effort in this regard could involve qualitative work including interviews and focus groups with critical informants such as the tourists themselves, the organizers of the event, the city officials, and the media. Such efforts would enable the researchers to

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refine the model by adding or deleting dimensions. In addition, the interviews and focus group deliberations would yield the substance for the generation of items for subsequent empirical research. The obvious next step is to develop the scales and subscales by collating and modifying items from existing scales or generating new items as appropriate. The items could then be subjected to psychometric testing through confirmatory factor analysis and reliability estimates. Finally, the entire model could be tested through structural equation modeling procedures. The challenges addressed within this two-part special issue represent only a fraction of the potential research agenda on the topic of managing special sport events. The articles comprising this special issue and the previous issue (22[4]) individually and collectively make valuable contributions to our knowledge of special sport events. They indicate the richness of the literature on this topic and the challenges that await further research.

Editor’s Note To complete part II of the special issue on special sport events, a relevant manuscript already accepted for publication in the Journal of Sport Management was added. In their article titled “Urban Regimes and the Sporting Events Agenda: A Cross-National Comparison of Civic Development Strategies,” Laura Misener and Daniel S. Mason investigate sport event strategies in the context of local development agendas. In their study, the authors compare the urban regimes for three different cases: the cities of Edmonton (Canada), Manchester (United Kingdom), and Melbourne (Australia).

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