Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify characteristic traits of spectators of newly formed teams in professional sporting leagues. Subjects of this study were spectators at a pre-season match on August 13, 2011 played by Hyogo Prefecture's first pro basketball team, the Hyogo Storks. This game was the Storks first game to which admission was charged. The number of valid responses totaled 302 (97.4%). In order to identify the characteristics of the spectators, we used a cluster analysis using the Push-Pull factors set out by Yoon & Uysal (2005) to obtain a segmentation of the spectators. As a result, we categorized the spectators into four clusters; "spectators who had come to enjoy the game", "spectators who were interested in watching the Storks' first game", "spectators who had a secondary motivation to see the game" and "Hyogo Storks fans". The study revealed that it is possible to increase spectator satisfaction by providing more attractions for a fun day out with respect to spectators who had come to enjoy the game and by creating appeal for enjoying a new experience for spectators who were interested in watching the Storks' first game and Storks fans, who displayed the trait of being innovators. It also revealed that spectator satisfaction could be increased by providing more attractions for the children of spectators who had a secondary motivation to see the game.
