Innovations in Sport Management: The Role of Motivations and Value Cocreation at Public Viewing Events

During mega-sport events, such as FIFA World Cup or Olympic Games, Fan Fests and other public viewing events have been developed as an innovative value proposition for watching sports. Those events attract millions of sport spectators worldwide. Event organizers have already realized the tremendous economic potential, yet sport management literature provides little empirical evidence on this innovation in sport management. Therefore, this study investigates motivational drivers for sport consumption of public viewing events and provides a better understanding of innovation-induced value cocreation at sport events. As public viewing represents an innovative mixture of stadium and television, we conduct a literature review of sport spectator motivations and study empirical findings in the stadium, television, and public viewing context. Based on this theoretical background we conduct a quantitative analysis. During the UEFA EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, 498 spectators were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire at official public viewing events. The findings of this analysis reveal two new motivational dimensions for passive sport consumption. Spectators of public viewing events enjoy the freedom to move around and the intercultural contact and therefore the chance to socialize with fan groups from different countries and cultures. Those new motivational dimensions represent key drivers of sport consumption behavior in the context of public viewing events. In addition to those empirical findings, we derive practical implications in order to understand how innovations in sport management such as public viewing events open new ways to create value at sport events.