International Journal of Sport Management

A Needs-Based Contextual Approach
to Understanding Sport Fan Motivation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Keegan Dalal, Michael L. Naraine

Abstract: The COVID-19 global health pandemic impacted the delivery of sport, creating a condition to study whether sport fans’ motivations shifted. This study explores how highly-identified sport fans’ motives and behaviors changed in accordance to the pandemic by analyzing their needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness). Framed by uses and gratification theory and self-determination theory, qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 16 highly-identified sport fans revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic created barriers in participants’ abilities to satisfy their needs, especially, their relatedness. Accordingly, consumers’ consumption evolved; sport increasingly became a means to socialize and to escape the frustrating reality of the pandemic. Practically, sport organizations should continue to monitor fans’ situational factors contributing to their motivation, so that the sport product can better fulfill their sought needs.

Keywords: Professional Sport; Fan Behavior, Socialization, Uses and Gratification Theory, Self-Determination Theory

Citation: Dalal, K., & Naraine, M. L. (2024). A needs-based contextual approach to understanding sport fan motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Sport Management, 25(3), 197-224.

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