Influence of the return of spectators from the physical quality of football stadiums with the mediation of satisfaction

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Sports Management, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

2 Associate Professor of Sports Management, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Iran

3 Ph.D. Student of Sport Management, Faculty of sport sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Abstract
Sports spectators are an important part of the professional sports landscape. Spectators are economically important to clubs, as clubs earn money through ticket sales and provide the environment for television broadcasts. Studying and discovering the needs of spectators of sports events and analyzing and predicting their behavior and intention to reattendance again is a process, as a result of which parameters such as the amount of services provided, satisfaction, and loyalty of the spectators are checked. The fact is that satisfaction is primarily perceived by product quality and event value. The attributes associated with event value are often unpredictable and beyond the control of sports managers. But the quality of the product is under the control of sports managers; therefore, adopting strategic decisions of sports managers to improve the quality of sports stadiums may lead to audience satisfaction. The physical quality of sports stadiums has a lot to do with the behavioral tendencies of people attending the games. It is important for stadiums to have a good physical quality that meets the needs and expectations of the spectators who attend the games. Stadiums that are designed at a high level and consider all the necessary aspects, create a positive environment for spectators and encourage them to have positive behavioral tendencies. Also, stadiums with good physical quality will create a more attractive experience for the spectators by making the game more exciting. Attending the game is the most important form of consumer behavior in spectator sports. Therefore, knowing the goals and needs of the spectators and the reasons for their reattendance or non-reattendance in sports events is the first step for clubs to increase the number of attendees. If the needs of the spectators are not assessed well and correctly, the spectators may not want to attend the stadiums and only follow the results and events of their favorite teams through the media, which will be detrimental to the managers of the sports clubs. Therefore, sports marketing managers should pay special attention to the quality of sports stadiums. Those in charge of organizing sports events should bring the quality of the stadiums to the level of international standards so that the spectators have the desire to return to the stadium with satisfaction. Therefore, the active presence of spectators in stadiums can be considered as the main and important factor in the flourishing of sports, which should not be neglected. Now, in order to witness the presence of spectators in the stadium, the quality of the event venue must be such that the spectators have the desire to watch the matches in that stadium. Also, in the discussion of the quality of the stadiums, in order to attract and identify the needs of the spectators and to host international events, a series of standards must be observed. ; Therefore, it is necessary to carry out continuous evaluation and measurement. In addition, considering that different spectators may come to the stadium in each match, for this reason, it is better to carry out evaluations in a suitable period of time to identify the strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, according to the stated content, the factors affecting the satisfaction and re-attendance of the audience should be investigated. On the other hand, reactions to sports services may be different in sports cultures and environments; For this reason, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of the physical quality of football stadiums on the re-attendance of spectators with the role of mediator of satisfaction. The method of conducting the present research was descriptive correlation type. The statistical population of the research included all the spectators of the premier football league matches; 325 people were selected by the non-random sampling of the Convenience type, and finally, 294 correct questionnaires were returned. The information was collected through a researcher-made questionnaire, which was obtained through interviews with experts (academic faculty members and sports managers) and library studies. The face and content validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by using the opinions of sports experts and sports management professors (10 people) after applying their corrective opinions. The internal reliability of questionnaire items was obtained in an experimental study using Cronbach's alpha method for the stadium characteristics questionnaire (0.97) and satisfaction questionnaire (0.87) and for Willingness to reattendance (0.88); used SPSS software in the descriptive and inferential statistics section, as well as Amos software to draw path analysis. The results showed that the characteristics of the stadium have a positive and significant effect on satisfaction; Also, the characteristics of the stadium have a positive and significant effect on the Willingness to reattendance of spectators. In addition, satisfaction has a positive and significant on willingness to reattendance. Finally, it is possible to confirm the mediating effect of satisfaction in the relationship between the characteristics of the stadium and Willingness to reattendance at the 95% confidence level. Therefore, according to the importance of the presence of spectators in stadiums, sports managers should periodically assess the needs and evaluate the satisfaction of the spectators as well as the quality of the stadiums, and by removing the shortcomings, witness the maximum attendance of the spectators. According to the obtained results, it can be said that paying attention to the needs of sports customers and providing good quality services can bring a special competitive advantage to the sports organization and bring many successes in the field of sports marketing.

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