Date of Publication

Spring 2013

Document Type

Undergraduate Project

Professor's Name

Katharine Burakowski

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is the paper's first paragraph: One challenge many team’s in many different leagues face is the ability to recognize fan motives and fan attendance to their team’s games (Ouray 2006). Team owners struggle every year to find the best balance between winning games, winning championships, training players and hiring coach’s all on the base of making money. Teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) earn money through T.V contracts, licensed goods, and Ticket sales. Many different owners in different leagues have their own approaches and goals when the thought of raising attendance at games comes to the question. Mike Ilitch Sr., owner of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Detroit Red Wings and Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Detroit Tigers have approached revenue generation through building a team to win a championship with the idea that winning league championships results in increased ticket sales and attendance (Shea 2007). In soccer this trend of building a team to win a championship can be seen with the arrival of Freddy Adu (DeSchriver 2007) and David Beckham. The study done on David Beckham supports my research question looking at when joining the MLS. Since Beckham’s star power was already established the research found that bringing Beckham to the Galaxy increased its attendance because of his popularity and star power (Lawson, Sheehan, & Stephenson 2008). By using the information about Beckham and L.A. Galaxy of importing star power players to the MLS we should look at other leagues to see if similar results appear in other leagues like the NBA.

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