Introduction

1. Factors Affecting Spectators’ Decisions in Attending NBA Home Games AAHPERD National Convention, Boston, Massachusetts (March 16, 2012) Eddie T.C. Lam1, Siu-Yin Cheung2, Demetrius Pearson3, & Sungwon Bae4 1Cleveland State University, 2Hong Kong Baptist University, 3University of Houston, 4Texas Tech University Introduction Previous studies indicated that four factors were significantly predicative of overall NBA attendance: game promotion, home team, opposing team, and schedule convenience (Zhang, Pease, Hui, & Michaud, 1995). Fans are more prone to attending NBA games when identity salience and satisfaction are enhanced by the game/arena experiences (Laverie & Arnett, 2000). Game attractiveness and marketing promotion variables have also generally been found to be positively related to game attendance; whereas economic variables such as ticket discount and income level have consistently been shown to be positively related to game consumption too (Noll, 1991; Zhang et al., 1995; Zhang, Pease, Smith, Lee, Lam, & Jambor, 1997). In the end, a variety of factors can influence NBA fans. Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine factors that might affect spectators’ decisions in attending future NBA home basketball games. Method A survey package included the 14-item Decision Information Scale and a few demographic variables was administrated to spectators during a regular season NBA home game in May 2009. The team was located in a large metropolitan area in the Midwest region of the United States. The surveys were distributed before the start and during the game, but were collected throughout the entire game. Random stratified and cluster sampling techniques were used with the attempt to cover different sections of the arena. Item responses were based on a 5-point Likert Scale (e.g., 1 = not at all important, 5 = very much important). SPSS 14 for Windows (SPSS, 2007) was used for data analysis. One-way ANOVA and one sample t-test were used to explore the mean differences between Demographic Information and the variables of Decision Information. Fisher LSD tests were used for post hoc comparisons. Table 1: Mean and Standard Deviation of Decision Information (N = 410) Results Results of one sample t-tests indicated 13 out of the 14 items were significantly (p < .001) different from the median score (except “Direct mail and notification”). Univariate ANOVAs showed that there were no significant (p > .05) differences in decision factors between male (n = 166) and female (n = 118) spectators. Similarly, no significant (p > .05) differences were found among spectators with different marital status, household size, household income, and occupation. However, significant differences were found among spectators with different ethnicities (F4,402= 4.29, p = .002) and education levels (F7,300= 2.93, p = .006). Post hoc multiple comparisons indicated that Caucasians in general had significantly lower mean scores than those Black/African Americans (p = .001) or Indian/ Alaskan Natives (p = .033); whereas high school graduates had significantly (p < .05) higher mean scores than those with advanced educational backgrounds. Conclusions The purpose of this study was to examine factors that influence spectators’ decisions in attending future NBA home basketball games. Results indicated that home team win/loss record, star players, and game promotion were the major factors that attracted people to the games. However, direct mail and notification have no impact on game attendance. Interestingly, Caucasians were "die-hard" fans and were less likely influenced by those factors than people of other ethnicity. The high score of the high school graduates was understandable since they were not financially independent and most game promotional activities would be attractive to them. Based on the results of this study, it is obvious that the team needs to do everything in their power to resign those star players since they are the leading factors in fan attendance. By focusing on those variables that yielded higher means, the team can better plan its fan focuses for the up coming season.