Dataset Information

Exploring the components of brand equity amid declining ticket sales in Major League Baseball

ABSTRACT: Ticket sales for Major League Baseball (MLB) games are decreasing annually, yet baseball fans have increased team interest and following in other ways. Instead of following from the stands or on television fans are choosing to follow, for example, via social media. The emerging unified theory of brand equity offers a framework to examine the mediating role of attendance and local television and the moderating role of Twitter followers on the relationships between MLB marketing assets (MA) and team financial performance. Publicly available secondary data are analyzed with PLS-SEM. The results indicate attendance and local TV partially mediate the relationship between non-seasonal MA and team financial performance, whereas attendance and local TV fully mediate the relationship between in-season MA and team financial performance. Furthermore, the number of Twitter followers for each MLB team moderates various relationships within the MLB brand equity research model. Findings suggest MLB sales and marketing professionals should design ticket sales initiatives that not only promote attendance in the short-term but, more importantly, build upon non-seasonal sources of team brand equity for the long-term.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1057/s41270-020-00083-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

SUBMITTER: Merkle A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7372547 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:The road to professional baseball illustrates the complexity, variability and non-linearity of athlete development, as players may be drafted from various high school, 2 year, or 4 year programs and then placed into extensive minor league systems. The purpose of this study was to identify the different pathways to Major League Baseball (MLB) and explore their influence on career success. Performance and developmental data of 2,291 American-born MLB players who debuted between 1990 and 2010 were collected using baseball-reference.com. Three performance indicators, career games played (GP), age of debut, and wins above replacement (WAR; player's total contributions in wins), were coupled with high school, post-secondary, and Minor League Baseball (MiLB) data. Analyses revealed 17 descriptively different pathways to MLB, which were grouped into three main streams based on the last institution attended before entrance into professional baseball. Overall, 63% of the athletes started their career directly after attending a 4 year higher education institution, 23% after high school, and 14% directly after attending a 2 year institution. Interestingly, 78% of the athletes did not sign or were not selected as high school draft picks. Position players drafted or signed from high school debuted in MLB younger (M = 23.99) and averaged significantly more MiLB GP (M = 909.13) than those drafted or signed from a 2 year (M = 25.67 and 834.41 GP) or 4 year institution (M = 25.95 and 752.33 GP). Pitchers signed or drafted from high school also debuted in MLB younger and played more MiLB games, as well as played in more MLB games than players from a 2 year or 4 year institution, F(8, 3,082) = 31.96, p ? 0.001. No significant differences of WAR were noted in position players or pitchers. Perhaps pitchers who are drafted from high school are afforded more opportunities to succeed, which may be indicative of sunk cost effects. This is conceivable as these players had the highest average GP but did not accrue a higher WAR. Future research may benefit from the consideration of post-secondary and/or high school statistics in combination with draft selection data, which may have important implications for improving talent identification accuracy.

Project description:BackgroundBaseball is one of the most popular boy's youth sports, and there has been a rise in the rates of certain overuse injuries among players. Specialization has been identified as a risk factor for overuse injury in high school athlete populations, but there is little understanding of the prevalence or consequences of sport specialization in Little League baseball players.HypothesisSport specialization will be highly prevalent among Little League baseball players and specialization will be associated with worse throwing arm health.Study designCross-sectional study.Level of evidenceLevel 3.MethodsA total of 246 Little League baseball players (male; N = 241; age, 9.5 ± 1.6 years) between 7 and 12 years old completed an anonymous, online questionnaire with their parent's assistance. The questionnaire consisted of participant demographics and baseball participation information, including sport specialization status and the Youth Throwing Score (YTS), a valid and reliable patient-reported outcome measure for youth baseball players.ResultsOnly 29 (11.8%) players met the criteria for high specialization. Approximately one-third of all players (n = 77; 31.3%) reported participating in baseball year-round or receiving private coaching outside of their league (n = 81; 32.9%). Highly specialized athletes demonstrated worse scores on the YTS on average compared with low-specialization athletes (mean [SE]: 56.9 [1.6] vs 61.1 [1.2]; P = 0.01). Similarly, pitching in the previous year (P < 0.01) or traveling overnight regularly for showcases (P = 0.01) were associated with a worse score on the YTS.ConclusionWhile the prevalence of high sport specialization was low among Little League baseball players, other behaviors associated with specialization such as year-round play and the receiving of private coaching were more common. Highly specialized Little League players demonstrated worse throwing arm health compared with low-specialization players.Clinical relevanceLittle League players and their parents may represent a potential target audience for dissemination campaigns regarding sport specialization.

Dataset Information

Exploring the components of brand equity amid declining ticket sales in Major League Baseball

Electronic supplementary material

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets