Meta-Analytic Review of Sport Consumption: Factors Affecting Attendance to Sporting Events

Understanding what leads individuals to consume the product of sport is central to the study of the sport management discipline. Though the study of sport consumer behavior benefits from an extensive body of work, many key issues (e.g., external validity concerns) still require attention. This meta-analysis provides a comprehensive and systematic empirical review of the sport (mostly team sport) attendance literature. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between three categories of predictors (fan-focused, relationship-focused, and product-focused) and sport attendance. Also examined are four categories of moderators (sport level, culture, gender, and sample type). The present meta-analysis integrates 352 effect sizes based on 172,142 participants from 123 independent samples drawn from 119 studies. The results of this study, such as the relationship-focused factors of identification and commitment having the largest effects on attendance of all the proposed antecedents, offer a variety of important implications for improving how sport attendance is studied and marketing initiatives are planned and executed.