A Case Study of NCAA Division I Women's College Basketball Fans: Sport Fan Motivation and Game Enhancers

Athletic competitions have an undeniable position of priority in our lives. An entire nation, state, region or demographic can fall in love with a player and team. Most previous research has failed to identify sport specific motivations of female collegiate basketball fans. Primarily, the purpose of this study is to present the results regarding what specifically motivates Division I women's basketball sport fans. Secondly, what game enhancers increase their levels of entertainment once fans enter the arena. Participants were two hundred people attending a top-tier Division I women's basketball regular season game. Four hundred and thirty-eight subjects completed a multi-section questionnaire containing demographic information, the Sport Fan Motivation Scale (SFMS; Wann, 1995), Game Enhancer scale, season ticket status, attendance habits, and the Sport Fandom Scale (Wann, 2002). The questionnaires from 100 male and 100 female participants were randomly selected from the group. Although some consistent themes emerged, results from this study varied from past research on sport fan motivation. Unlike previous research in this area, male participants were more likely to be motivated by spending time with family whereas, female participants scored higher on the economic subscale (SFMS, Wann, 1995). Women's collegiate basketball programs, the programs with the most potential for fan growth, can use the results to create research-based marketing plans.