What is the sports product and who buys it? The marketing of professional sports leagues

Abstract

Keywords Consumer behaviour, Corporate ownership, Global marketing, Marketing strategy,Sponsorship, SportAbstract Professional sports have emerged as a lucrative business, with many opportunities forsports marketers to flourish. As this paper will show, professional sports teams unite to produce aleague product that, while initially is produced to provide entertainment for spectators, is now soldto four distinct groups: first, fans who support leagues by attending games, following games ontelevision and other media, and purchasing league- and team-related merchandise; second,television and other media companies which purchase the right to show games as a programmingoption; third, communities which build facilities and support local clubs; and fourth, corporationswhich support leagues and clubs by increasing gate moneys, purchasing teams outright, orproviding revenues through sponsorships or other associations. As a result, professional sportsleagues provide a unique environment for marketing decisions and processes to occur, in anumber of markets and at a number of levels, and should continue to be a growing segmentwithin the broader, global, entertainment industry.