Andrew Rudd, Sarah Stokowski

Abstract: The National Collegiate Athletic Association has long been concerned with the practice of sportsmanship. However, frequent displays of spectator aggression at collegiate sport events demonstrates a grave contradiction. Fans level of team identification is considered a key influence on spectator aggression. Alternatively, sport marketers have found that team identification plays a vital role in fan consumption (e.g., tickets and merchandise). In the interest of reducing aggressive fan behavior without dampening the sport managers’ need for highly identified college sports fans, we sought to assess how spectator sportsmanship attitudes might serve to moderate the relationship between team identification and spectator aggression attitudes such that the relationship between team identification and attitude towards aggression would be negligible for individuals scoring high in sportsmanship attitudes. Results showed that sportsmanship attitudes were not a statistically significant moderator of the relationship between team identification and attitudes towards aggression. However, there was a large negative relationship between attitudes towards aggression and spectator sportsmanship attitudes suggesting that fostering sportsmanship could help reduce aggressive fan behavior at college sporting events.

Keywords: brand attributes, social media, crisis communication, nostalgia, sport organizations

Citation: Rudd, A., & Stokowski, S. (2024). Sportsmanship attitudes as a moderator of the relationship between team identification and spectator aggression attitudes. International Journal of Sport Management, 25(1), 1-23.

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