Date of Publication

Summer 2014

Document Type

Undergraduate Project

Professor's Name

Katharine Burakowski

Abstract

This research looked at the difference between how involved NFL fans are with their favorite/identified team, based on such team being either regionally or city affiliated. Prior to this study, it was known that sport fandom is positively correlated to a fan’s psychological well being, in addition to knowledge that fans who develop loyal relationships towards their team become increasingly involved with the team, resulting in positive identification with the team. The research conducted in the study was an attempt to uncover new knowledge on how the location affiliation of an NFL team relates to the team’s fans. For this study, fan data was collected for six regionally affiliated NFL teams and six city affiliated teams via the use of secondary resources. Descriptive statistical analysis, along with the creation of scatter-plots and trend lines, were used to differentiate between the types of team affiliation and led to an overall conclusion being drawn. Thus, such research conducted in this study found no undeniable evidence that fans of regionally affiliated NFL teams are move involved than fans of city affiliated teams, or vise-versa. Hence, the findings of this study allude to there being no difference in the involvement of a NFL team’s fans based upon the team’s location affiliation.

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