Abstract
“The V. League”, a volleyball league which is organized by Japan Volleyball League Organization, has two categories: “the Premier League” and “the Challenge League”. In this study, we hypothesize that spectators of matches have different characteristics in each categories. This study analyzed comparatively about the characteristics of spectators who attended the 2014–2015 V. League season held in Aichi Prefecture. The spectators were sorted into three categories : “the Premier Men’s League”, “the Premier Women’s League”, and “the Challenge League”. For all three categories, differences were observed in the spectators’ age range and gender ratio. Several Premier Women’s League spectators were from the Kansai and Kanto areas as well as from Aichi Prefecture, and many of these spectators had no experience of playing volleyball. While the motivation to watch for a large percentage of Premier Men’s League spectators was to see an exciting or high-level match, the motivation for a large percentage of Premier Women’s League spectators was to cheer for their team or players. For the Challenge League spectators, the motivation to watch was to interact and learn and because they had local pride. These findings indicate that differences exist in motivation for watching, attributes, and watching behaviors among the categories of spectators who watch V. League matches held in Aichi Prefecture.
