The club support intention of J. League spectators

An investigation of the relationship between attachment and team identification

Abstract

The objective of this study is to confirm the intentions of J. League spectators to support a club. Specifically, data was collected from 619 J. League supporters, and a hypothetical model that assumes a relationship among attachment, team identification, and club support intentions was examined using structural equation modeling. In addition, to verify the difference in the intensity of supportive behavior, supporter-club members and non-members and supporter-association members and non-members were compared. From the results, it was observed that team identification and attachment to a fan community affected club support intentions, and among the two, the effect of the former was stronger. Further, no differences were observed that compared supporter-club members and non-members. In the comparison between supporter-association members and non-members, differences were observed in the relationship between attachment to a fan community and club support intentions and that between attachment to a local city and team identification.