Abstract
While professional sports clubs in Europe and the U.S. have attained marketability and a public nature simultaneously, many clubs in Japan are struggling to achieve either or both these two values. This study explores the businessization and localization strategies of professional football clubs belonging to the J. League, categorizes the clubs into several types, and examines their marketing dilemmas. A quantitative survey of 35 clubs was conducted from managerial and social marketing perspectives. The findings are as follows: First, through exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis, three factors were extracted as businessization indexes: stable supply of sport services, rationalization of management, and establishment of a management base. Additionally, two factors were extracted as localization indexes: building a platform for regional cooperation, and promotion of local sports activities. Second, using the geometric means derived from the businessization indexes (three factors, eight items) and the localization indexes (two factors, nine items), a correlation analysis was conducted. The clubs were classified into four types: Advanced club (Type-A), Business-oriented club (Type-B), Community-oriented club (Type-C), and Developing club (Type-D). Finally, from the viewpoint of the ABCD model, an analytical model for professional football club management is proposed. We suggest that there can be both synergies and trade-offs between businessization and localization.
