Case study of a new project entitled “Fagiversity” at Fagiano Okayama Sports Club: Reexamining the concept of spectator-sport products

Abstract

Multiple researchers have reported that acquiring new spectators is a significant management issue for J. League clubs. To address this issue, the development of new spectator-sport products must be promoted. Although spectator-sport products have been studied in sport management literature for decades, the actual practices regarding the development of spectator-sport products is not yet fully understood. There seems to be a discrepancy between academia and practical use in terms of how spectator-sport products are perceived, but theoretical examination of the concept of spectator-sport products themselves is also insufficient. The present study aimed to clarify the practices of spectator-sport product development and reexamine existing theoretical models of spectator-sport products through the case study of a new project entitled “Fagiversity”, which succeeded in attracting college students (new participants) at Fagiano Okayama Sports Club. To do so, we collected data through fieldwork centered on semi-structured interviews with the project’s members (N=4).

The study results are summarized as follows. The club assessed difficulties in attracting college students to attend home games, even if entrance was free. However, for the project’s target home game, approximately four times more students attended than for regular home games. In addition, the students enjoyed the new benefit that participating in cosplay and other activities at the stadium. This study clarified in detail the process for obtaining ideas and promoting the project. Remarkably, this project’s front staff considered their own products as a method to achieve the club’s objectives. The front staff considered the products is highly flexible because it provided various fun as entertainment. Furthermore, the front staff paid attention to the power balance among spectators who enjoyed different benefits.

Based on the above results, we compared the existing concept of spectator-sport products, which is characterized by a concentric circle structure, with the perspective of spectator-sport products in practice sites, and identified the limitation of essentialism in an existing concept. In order to resolve this limitation, we discussed the possibility of a new conceptualization of spectator-sport products based on the perspective of chain mountain-type stadiums proposed by Nakazawa (2015). Future research should clarify the development theory of spectator-sport products through further case studies.