Products of Spectator-Sport and Spectator Satisfaction: A Case Report on an Osaka Evessa Home Game

Abstract

    In 2005, the bj-League, the first professional basketball league in Japan, was established on the three principles of professionalism, sports entertainment and globalization & community. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors of spectator-sport products based on Kotler’ s theory concerning structured products, and to clarify the factors related to the spectators’ satisfaction. The data was collected through questionnaires distributed to 1,000 people (843 effective answers) who attended a franchise game of Osaka Evessa belonging to the bj-League. The procedure of this study was, first, to locate the factors of product evaluations at Kotler’ s product-levels, and second, to identify which factors affected the spectators’ satisfaction by using multiple regression analysis. Seven factors were identified by using factor analysis. They were: ‘enjoyment of watching the game,’ which was presumed to be a factor of Core Benefit, ‘fascination of bj-League,’ and ‘amenity of the stadium,’ which were presumed to be Generic Products, and ‘local consciousness projected through the team’ and ‘pleasant entertainment,’ which were presumed to be Expected Products, and ‘charm of character goods’ and ‘ease of getting tickets,’ which were presumed to be Augmented Products. As results, it was found that the spectators’ satisfaction was mainly affected by the two factors which were not ‘pleasant entertainment’ but, rather, ‘local consciousness projected through the team’ and ‘enjoyment of watching the game.’ It might be suggested that the spectators didn’ t expect entertainment so much from the bj-League.