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Sport Marketing Quarterly, 2014, 23, 138-147, © 2014 West Virginia University

Marketing a Social Experience: How Celebration of Subculture Leads to Social Spending During a Sport Event

Xiaoyan Xing, Laurence Chalip, and B. Christine Green

Xiaoyan Xing, PhD, is an associcate professor in the School of Sport Management and Communications at Capital University of Physical Education and Sports. Her research interests include the effects of culture and subculture on sport consumption. Laurence Chalip, PhD, is a professor and chair of the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on sport policy. B. Christine Green, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois. Her research focuses on the intersection of sport and development.

Abstract The social experience that attendees obtain at a sport event has been shown to play a vital role in their over­ all evaluation of an event and the likelihood that they will return in the future. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that determine the amount of spending to support social experiences at an event. Spending to support social experience includes nonessential spending to eat in restaurants, drink alcoholic beverages, shop, and take tours. These categories of spending (as a percent of total spending) at an event are expected to derive from attendees’ identification with the sport’s subculture, their level of social motivation, and the sense of community that is fostered at the event. These expectations are tested using SEM on data collected from 218 adult women at a national women’s football tournament. Results revealed that identifi­ cation with the women’s football subculture significantly predicted social motivation; social motivation sig­ nificantly predicted sense of community; and sense of community significantly predicted social spending. Findings suggest that event management fostering a sense of community among attendees will enhance social spending, and that appeals to social motivation and subcultural identity are useful tools to promote a sense of community among attendees.

Introduction Attendees at sport events typically do more than watch sport or attend ancillary activities arranged by event organizers. Attendees also socialize, dine out, shop, join local tours, and drink. The event goer’s overall experience therefore incorporates these experiences as well as event entertainments. Indeed, the attractiveness of events is elevated when attendees can incorporate an array of tourism experiences when attending an event (Chalip 8c McGuirty, 2004), particularly when the experiences impart a sense of festivity (Handelman, 1990). Festive experiences are important not merely because they are an added attraction to the event, but also because they engender positive emotions that can stimulate spending by attendees, which enhances the economic value of the event (Chalip 8c Leyns, 2002; Taks et al., 2013; Wang 8c Kaplanidou, 2013).

The opportunity for attendees to parade and celebrate subculture is a key to the sense of festivity, and is there­

fore core to an event’s appeal (Green, 2001). Green and Chalip’s (1998) ethnographic account of a women’s foot­ ball tournament demonstrated that participants came to the event to share and affirm their identities as football players. Thus, they were motivated to travel to the event, rather than to the site, in order to socialize with other players who shared similar identities. Tournament par­ ticipants who used the tournament as a social opportuni­ ty focused their activities and, presumably, their spending on socializing through which they could parade and celebrate their shared identities as football players, such as drinking, shopping, dining out, and joining tours. We define spending for these activities as “social spending.” This is consistent with other work showing that subcultures can organize themselves around shared forms of consumption (Algesheimer, Dholakia, 8c Herrmann, 2005; Yoder, 1997).

Although the literature demonstrates that events can be organized to enhance a sense of festival (Ehrenreich, 2007; Veno 8c Veno, 1992), the pathways by which

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social spending is motivated remain unidentified. Previous work has focused on social behaviors associ­ ated with celebration and spending, but has not deter­ mined the underlying psychological bases for spending that can support socializing at an event—that is, social spending. From the standpoint of marketing commu­ nications and event design, it would be useful to understand the precursors to social spending in order to lay the necessary foundation for formulating mar­ keting communications and designing event elements. So doing should enhance the event’s appeal, and increase the aggregate economic impact (Green, 2001; Taks et al., 2013). The purpose of this study is to test a model of social spending at an event. The model is tested in the context of a national women’s flag foot­ ball tournament for which the football player identity and a sense of festival have previously been shown to be salient and intertwined (Green & Chalip, 1998).

Literature Review

Sport Subcultures and Social Motivation Participants in a sport become socialized into sets of values and beliefs that are particular to that sport (Fine, 1987; Wheaton, 2007). They learn and internalize the language and behaviors that mark them as insiders. Their involvement in the sport’s subculture can thereby affect their consumption choices (Schouten 8c McAlexander, 1995; Wheaton, 2000), including their preferences for sport-related travel (Green & Jones, 2005; Kim 8c Chalip, 2010). In order for sport events, especially those that seek participants, to become opti­ mally attractive to their target markets (Green & Chalip, 1998; Veno 8c Veno, 1992), they need to foster social spending by attendees (Green, 2001; O’Brien, 2007). This is important because it enables the event to instantiate the sport’s subculture by cultivating social­ ization through which attendees can parade and cele­ brate their shared involvement in the subculture (Kemp, 1999; Snelgrove 8c Wood, 2010). This is a form of social motivation, which has been shown to play a vital role in leisure behavior generally (Beard 8c Ragheb, 1983), including travel (Ryan 8c Glendon, 1998) and sport event participation (Fairer-Wessels, 2013).

Identity As participants become socialized into a subculture, they incorporate it into their identity (Donnelly 8c Young, 1988; Merolla, Serpe, Stryker, 8c Schultz, 2012). Thus, the values and beliefs associated with the subculture become integral to their sense of self. The more highly involved they are in the subculture, the greater their identification with it (Anderson, 2009; Stryker 8c Serpe, 1982). An ath­ lete’s identity as a participant in a particular sport is con-

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sequently a useful proxy for the salience and significance that participation in the sport has for them.

Identity has two aspects, which are closely related to one another (Shamir, 1992; Stets 8c Burke, 2003). The first has to do with sense of self, which is self-identity; the second has to do with how people believe them­ selves to be viewed by others, which is social identity. So, for example, “I am a football player” would repre­ sent self-identity as a football player, and “Others see me as a football player” would represent social-identity as a football player. Since the two forms of identity are jointly represented in identity, both need to be meas­ ured in order to obtain a balanced appraisal.

Since identity can be a proxy for subcultural involve­ ment (Anderson, 2009; Stryker 8c Serpe, 1982), which is expected to result in a desire to socialize with others who share an identification with the subculture (Green 8c Chalip, 1998; Schouten 8c McAlexander, 1995), the first hypothesis to be derived from the literature is:

HI a: Higher levels of identity with the sport sub­ culture will lead to stronger social motivations for attending an event.

Sense of Community Sarason’s (1974) seminal work demonstrated that a sense of community is fundamental to the effective function of human groups. He defined it as the feeling of being supported by a larger community who share a sense of emotional connection. It is experienced as affection for and attachment to the community (Townley 8c Kloss, 2009)—emotions that are nurtured by a shared system of practices, concerns, resources, and interests, which engender a binding sense of mem­ bership (Nowell 8c Boyd, 2010; Xu, Perkins, 8c Chun- Chung Chow, 2010).

Sense of community has been found to be strongest in settings with strong social support and a focus on members’ performance (Pretty, 1990). Not surprising­ ly, then, recent studies (Chalip, Lin, Green, 8c Dixon, 2013; Green 8c Chalip, 2004; Warner, Dixon, 8c Chalip, 2012) have found it to be vital for the effective func­ tioning of sport organizations. Sense of community has been shown to drive the satisfaction and commitment of event volunteers (Green 8c Chalip, 2004), organize the ways that varsity and club athletes interpret their sporting experience (Warner, Dixon, 8c Chalip, 2012), and mediate the effects that friendships and coaching have on the satisfaction and future intentions of fami­ lies in a community sport club (Chalip et al., 2013).

Identification with a group (Mannarini, Rochira, 8c Talo, 2012; Obst 8c White, 2005) and social motivation (Fairley 8c Tyler, 2012; Rosenblatt, Cheshire, 8c Lawrence, 2009) have each been shown to affect sense

139

Figure 1. The Hypothesized Model.

of community. These findings lead to the following two hypotheses:

Hlb: Higher levels of identity as a football player will lead to a higher level of sense of community at the event.

H2: A stronger social motivation for attending the event will lead to a higher level of sense of community at the event.

Spending at Events A great deal of research has been done on spending by event attendees, largely to determine if the aggregate spend by attendees renders a positive economic impact, because an event’s economic impact depends on the volume of attendee spending (Mondello 8c Rishe, 2004). Less work has been done to break down the ways that budget allocations may be affected by variations in the experiences an event affords. This is important because some work suggests that the quality of social experiences at an event are affected, at least in part, by the nature of consumption at the event (Green 8c Chalip, 1998; Schouten 8c McAlexander, 1995). So, for example, female football players at a national tourna­ ment find added value in the event when they invest in social interactions by dining, drinking, shopping, and/or touring together (Green 8c Chalip, 1998). Further, spending patterns at an event can vary sub­ stantially among attendees with the result that the qual­ ity of social engagement also varies (Taks et al., 2013).

Although higher levels of total spending can have a negative effect on attendees’ evaluation of an event, higher levels of social spending by attendees, especially on food and drink, can positively affect attendees’ eval­ uation of an event (Rong-Da Liang, Chen, Tung, 8c Hu, 2013). Thus, event budgets that skew toward social spending render more positive overall experiences for attendees than do event budgets that do not. Recent

research demonstrates that the social interactions enabled at a sport event do affect attendee spending (Uhrich 8c Benkenstein, 2012), although research has not yet examined the effect on allocations specific to social spending. Nevertheless, the underlying theory (Uhrich 8c Koenigstorfer, 2009), suggests that they should. This leads to the following two hypotheses:

H3a: Participants with a stronger social motiva­ tion for attending the event will allocate a greater proportion of spending on social activities during the event.

H3b: Participants with a higher sense of commu­ nity at the event will allocate a greater proportion of spending on social activities during the event. The five hypotheses predict a set of relationships

among the variables. Those are illustrated in Figure 1.

Method

Context The three-day event is a national women’s flag football tournament that has been hosted annually in Key West, Florida, since 1992. The tournament takes place over President’s Day weekend in February. It is open to any women’s flag football team that chooses to enter. All players must be over 18 years of age. It is estimated that the event brings over 1,000 tourists to Key West, including the women football players, team supporters, and officials. Ethnographic descriptions of the host city, the format and structure of women’s flag football, and the social context associated with the tournament have been reported elsewhere (Green 8c Chalip, 1998).

Sample Data were collected from 299 women football players competing at the tournament. They ranged in age from

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19 to 38 years (M = 28.7). They had participated in the event for an average of 3.35 years (SD = 2.42). The majority of the participants had a high school educa­ tion (42%) or a college education (34%) with an annu­ al personal income of between $20,000-$34,999 (34%) and $35,000-$49,999 (32%). As a result of incomplete responses to the itemized expenditure questions, 81 cases were excluded from data analysis. Independent t- tests comparing levels of age, education, and personal income between the dropped group and the retained group showed no significant differences (p > 0.05). Thus, it is assumed that the 218 surveys retained for analysis are a representative sample.

Procedure This study used a self-administered survey instrument. Specifically, each respondent was provided a copy of the survey with a clipboard and a pencil so that they could complete the survey at the football field. Two graduate students were trained to collect the data. The graduate students delivered and collected the surveys over the three days of the tournment. Team captains of all the registered teams were contacted in advance by the third author, informed about the study, and asked for their cooperation. The questionnaire was adminis­ tered at the field immediately after each of the two competing teams at a game finished their competition. This timing of questionnaire delivery was recommend­ ed by event organizers and endorsed by the team cap­ tains. Consequently, data collection occurred throughout the day. A total of 24 teams participated in the survey with an average number of 12 players per team (SD = 4).

Materials The instrument was designed to measure the partici­ pants’ football identity, social motivation for attending the event, sense of community at the event, total spending and patterns of spending during the event. All the psychological constructs (i.e., football identity, social motivation, and sense of community) were measured on six-point Likert-type scales ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” In order to con­ trol for response biases, a few items were reverse scored. Before data analysis, reverse scored items were recoded to be consistent in direction with other items such that stronger effects were represented by greater numerical values.

Football identity. The football identity construct used composite measures consisting of items from the Identity Salience Scale (Shamir, 1992) and the Social Commitment Scale (Callero, 1985; Shamir, 1992). Both scales have been shown to have internal consis­ tencies ranging from 0.82 to .89, and to show expected

patterns of relationships to other measures of role identity in a leisure context. Because the two scales have previously been found to be highly correlated (Shamir, 1992), we checked their correlation in this study. The two were highly correlated; r= .74, p < .001. Thus, in this study the sums of item scores from each scale were used to measure the latent football identity factor in data analysis.

The original Identity Salience Scale consists of seven items measuring a person’s social identity (Self ID). Four items were selected from the original scale inde­ pendently by the last two authors. Their choices were identical, and it was agreed that these were most appropriate for describing women’s identity as a foot­ ball player. Three items asked the participant to rate whether being a football player: (1) describes the par­ ticipant, (2) allows the participant to express the self, and (3) affirms the participant’s values. The fourth item asked the participant whether she had strong feel­ ings about her identity as a football player.

The Social Commitment Scale measures the extent to which a person perceives it to be important for oth­ ers to view her in terms of a given identity (Social ID). Four items were independently selected from the origi­ nal 8-item scale by the last two authors. Their choices were identical, and it was agreed that after being word­ ed specifically for the women’s football context, these were the most appropriate: (1) many people think of me in terms of being a football player, (2) other people think that football is important to me, (3) it is impor­ tant to my friends that I continue as a football player, and (4) many of the people that I know are not aware that I play football.

Social motivation. Social motivation for attending the tournament (SOC) was measured by three items from the social motive subscale of the Leisure Motivation Scale (Beard 8c Ragheb, 1983), for which the internal reliability is reported to be above .90. The subscale has been shown in other work to predict sig­ nificantly travel choice and preferred tourist activities (Kim 8c Chalip, 2004; Ryan 8c Glendon, 1998). The three items used to gauge participants’ social motiva­ tion asked the participants to rate the degree to which each of the following was a reason that they came to the tournament: (1) to gain a feeling of belonging, (2) to interact with other women football players, and (3) to gain the respect of others.

Sense of community. The women football players’ sense of community at the event (COM) was measured using four items adapted from the Sense of Community Scale (Nasar 8c lulian, 1995). The original scale consists of 11 items. Nasar and Julian report that the scale has satisfactory internal reliability (a = 0.87), as well as good discriminant and convergent validity.

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Table 1 Average Personal Spending in Each Category

Spending Item Dollars Proportion of total spend

Lodging 229 .19 Transportation 774 .46 Equipment 20 .02 Groceries 31 .03 Eating out* 116 .10 Drinking* 70 .07 Shopping* 61 .06 Tour* 90 .07 Total social spending 337 .29

* These are the categories of social spending

Applications of the four items used in this study have also demonstrated good predictive validity in sport contexts (Costa, Chalip, Green, & Simes, 2006; Green & Chalip, 2004).

Participants were asked to rate four statements: (1)1 am quite similar to most people attending the tourna­ ment, (2) if I feel like talking, I can generally find someone at the tournament to talk to right away, (3) if there were a serious problem at the tournament, the people here could get together to solve it, and (4) if I had an emergency, even people I do not know at this tournament would be willing to help.

Event spending. Total spending and the pattern of spending were determined by using Turco and Navarro’s (1993) measure of event spending activity. The participant was first asked to report the number of people who were non-players accompanying her to the event. The participant was also asked to estimate the dollar amount she and the accompanying persons spent in total during their stay in Key West in each of eight categories: (1) lodging, (2) transportation, (3) groceries, (4) equipment, (5) meals, (6) retail shopping and souvenirs, (7) alcoholic beverages, and (8) tour packages. Total spending for each participant was determined by summing spending in all eight cate­ gories and then dividing by the number of persons associated with the spending. Social spending was rep­ resented by the total proportion of each participant’s spending at the event that was allocated to discre­ tionary activities (i.e., dining out, drinking alcoholic beverages, retail shopping, and purchase of tour pack­ ages).

Data Analysis Means and standard deviations were calculated for each spending category in order to identify the partici­

pants’ overall spending profile during the event. AMOS was used to model the hypothesized relation­ ships among the constructs. The fit of the measure­ ment and structural model was tested simultaneously. Data analysis began with the test of the conceptual model specified in Figure 1. Items (i.e., indicators rep­ resenting the latent factors) and relationships (paths specifying effects between constructs) were eliminated from the model based on associated Lvalues, overall improvement in the model fit, and conceptual integri­ ty. Modification indices provided by AMOS were con­ sulted for model changes. Changes to the model were made sequentially. Fit statistics were calculated after each change. The process iterated until a satisfactory fit to the data was obtained (Byrne, 2013). A detailed presentation of the analysis follows.

Results

Spending Profile Participants reported an average of five nights’ stay at West Key for the tournament. They spent an average of $1,394 in total (Table 1). The largest amount was spent on transportation ($774), followed by lodging ($229). On average, the participants spent $337 on social activ­ ities (i.e., eating out, drinking, shopping, and tours).

While the absolute amount spent rendered an esti­ mate of how much each participant spent at the event, it obscured the proportional amount that each partici­ pant allocated to spending categories in relation to their total budget. For instance, a participant with an $800 budget who spent $250 on social spending (31%) would demonstrate a stronger propensity to allocate their spending for socializing than would a participant with a $1,600 budget who allocated $300 for social spending (19%). Therefore, for purposes of the analy­ sis here, spending items were calculated as the propor­ tion of total spending. Similar to spending in dollars, traveling to the event took the lion’s share of the budg­ et (46%), followed by lodging (19%). On average, social spending (i.e., eating out, drinking, shopping, and touring) accounted for 29% of the participants’ total event budget.

Measurement and Structural Model The conceptual model based on literature review hypothesized positive effects from football identity to social motivation (Hla), from football identity to sense of community (Hlb), from social motivation to sense of community (H2), from social motivation to social spending (H3a), and from sense of community to social spending (H3b). Football identity was represented by two composite scores: the sum of the four Social ID items, and the sum of the four Self ID items. Social

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Table 2 Regression Coefficients and Variances in the Final Model with f-values in Parenthesis

Social spending Sense of community Social motivation

Sense of community .036** (2.758)

Social motivation .583*** (5.072)

Football identity .164*** (4.497)

R 2 .053 .322 .199 Residual Variance .029*** .847*** .945***

(10.169) (3.720) (4.885)

*** p .001, ** p <. .010, 2-tailed test.

motivation was measured by the three SOC items. Sense of community was represented by the four COM items. The initial model rendered a poor fit to the data: X2(31) = 76.316, p < 0.001, CFI = .889, RMSEA = .082.

Modifications were first made to the measurement model. Two COM items were removed because of their low factor loadings: the standardized factor load­ ing for COM1 (I am quite similar to most people attending the tournament) was .431, and .379 for COM2 (if I feel like talking, I can generally find some­ one at the tournam ent to talk to right away). The modified model (with all errors uncorrelated) substan­ tially improved the fit to the data and produced an almost perfect representation of the data: x 2(16) = 7.942, p = .951, CFI = 1.000, RMSEA < .0001.

Nonetheless, two paths in the structural model were insignificant: the path from football identity to sense of community (H lb), and the path from social motiva­ tion to social spending (H3a) (.784 > p > .146). Thus, Hypothesis lb and 3a were rejected. The model was refit after removing one path at a time. The resulting model after removing the two paths (with all errors uncorrelated) produced a satisfactory fit to the data: X2(18) = 10.210, p = .925, CFI = 1.000, RMSEA < .0001. It was noted that the current model had a larger chi-square value compared to the previous model. However, this difference was not significant; Xft2(2) = 2.268, p = .322. Based on the parsimony principle that given two different models with similar explanatory power for the same data, the simpler model (the one with greater degrees of freedom) is to be preferred (Byrne, 2013), the current model is retained. All three remaining paths in the model are significant (p < .01) (Table 2). The model explains a small but measurable

variance in social spending ( R 2 = .053, p < .01), a con­ siderable portion of variance in the sense of communi­ ty at the event ( R 2 = .322, p < .001), and a moderate proportion of the variance in social motivation ( R 2 = .199, p < .001).

All factor loadings and standardized path coefficients are presented in Figure 2. Examination of Figure 2 shows that the factor loadings range from .55 to .81, attesting to the quality of the final measurement model. The final structural model reveals a simpler pathway of relationships than were hypothesized: A participant’s football player identity predicts her social motivation to attend the tournament, her social moti­ vation positively correlates to the sense of community at the event, and consequently the sense of community directly and positively affects the extent to which the participant allocates spending to discretionary social activities when attending the event. Thus, HI a, H2, and H3b are supported, but H lb and H3a are not.

Discussion The relationships among the variables predicted were less complex than those hypothesized. Whereas foot­ ball identity was expected to drive both social motiva­ tion for attending the event and sense of community while attending the event, only social motivation was directly influenced by one’s identity as a football play­ er. Sense of community was shown to be a direct effect of social motivation. Similarly, social spending was expected to be a function of both social motivation and sense of community. However, sense of communi­ ty was the only variable to have a direct effect on social spending. The effect of social motivation on social

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spending was indirect, as it occurred through sense of community.

From a conceptual standpoint, this suggests that social motivation fosters the requisite conditions for participants to seek and find a sense of community, and that social motivation is cultivated by identity. This is consistent with ethnographic data from events (Green & Chalip, 1998; Kemp, 1999), and with work demonstrating that opportunities to socialize are piv­ otal for event marketing (Snelgrove & Wood, 2010; Veno & Veno, 1992). It suggests that marketing com­ munications appealing to identity and displaying opportunities the event affords for socializing will be particularly attractive to potential participants.

The higher the sense of community players felt at the event, the more players allocated from their budgets to social spending. This makes intuitive sense insomuch as camaraderie at an event should foster social engage­ ments with other attendees and consequent spending to initiate and sustain social interaction (Uhrich & Benkenstein, 2012; Uhrich & Koenigstorfer, 2009). Thus, the social quality of the experience and the spend that an event generates are interrelated, but it depends on the type of spend. Expensive registration, high cost

hotels, and costly transportation may increase total spend, but not in the categories that matter most from a marketing standpoint. Indeed, these may require budgets to be reallocated in ways that undermine over­ all event satisfaction (Rong-Da Liang et al., 2013). In order to enable a socially rewarding experience for event attendees, event organizers need to create condi­ tions that encourage socializing which can be supported by event participants’ social spending.

It is not uncommon for events to incorporate ancil­ lary official activities (mixers, dances, concerts, parades, workshops, etc.) as a means to enhance the quality of attendees’ experience and to encourage longer stays and, thereby, more spend (Chalip, 2004). These may have value, but it has been demonstrated elsewhere that the quality of social experience at events depends particularly on a festive atmosphere that imparts a sense among participants that they are active celebrants (Green & Chalip, 1998; Veno & Veno, 1992). Sport events will benefit if festive celebrations are incorporated.

It is useful to note that the two hypotheses that were not confirmed do not negate the expectation that iden­ tity, social motivation, and sense of community consti-

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tute a system of variables that affect social spending. The effect of identity on sense of community is indi­ rect, as it occurs solely through social motivation. Similarly, the effect of social motivation on social spending is also indirect, as it occurs solely through sense of community. The relationships are present, though not always direct. It would seem that identity is insufficient to enable a sense of community unless it provides a foundation for seeking social interaction. Seeking social interaction is insufficient to foster social spending unless the conditions enable a sense of com­ munity to form.

Limitations Sport subcultures are neither singular nor isomorphic. This study examined the identity, social motivation, sense of community, and spending of female football players at a national tournament. The effects found here could be stronger or weaker for males, for athletes from different sports, and/or for athletes participating in a sport at different competitive levels.

Social class, ethnicity, and education level might also cause findings to vary. These were not studied here.

Self-reports are potentially fallible indicators of behavior or attitudes. Spending and budget allocations, as well as player attitudes, were measured using self- report. Although the measurements were standard and based on previously validated instruments, the preci­ sion of measurement is not clear.

Future Research The limitations noted above have to do with the gener- alizability and boundary conditions on findings here. Future research should examine other contexts, other market segments, and non-self-report forms of meas­ urement.

Although the importance of socializing in an atmos­ phere of festival has been discussed elsewhere in the events literature (e.g., Ehrenreich, 2007), the means to enable socializing via festival have not been elaborated for event organizers. If official event activities crowd out festival, then the event’s attractiveness and its over­ all economic value may become compromised. Further work is needed to identify the means to build and sus­ tain festivity, and to enable a productive interplay between social activities organized officially and those that coalesce informally.

The pathway of effects found here is consistent with work suggesting that a similar direction of effects can also reduce risk at an event (Veno & Veno, 1992). The utility of catering to subcultural identity, nurturing social motivation, and enabling a sense of community may therefore extend beyond merely encouraging event attendees to spend. It may be useful for future

work to examine whether social spending and reduced likelihood of attendee misbehavior can be jointly pro­ moted using the pathway demonstrated here.

Some events include workshops, clinics, exhibitions, or other opportunities for attendees to share their involvement in the sport and its subculture. These have been shown to be attractive to some attendees (Chalip & McGuirty, 2004; Kim & Chalip, 2010). They were not incorporated into the event studied here. Their utility as places for social interaction and as a means for attendees to find a sense of community should be considered in future studies.

The effect of sense of community on social spending was small (albeit statistically significant) in this study. There are undoubtedly other factors that drive atten­ dees’ decisions about how to allocate their spending. Expectations of peers and family, traditions of sport and team, activities and attractions available may be among those other factors. More work is needed to identify the bases for event attendees’ choices when formulating their budgets and allocating spending for purposes of socializing.

Nevertheless, it is also likely that the effect of sense of community on social spending was underestimated here. Two of the original four items loaded poorly in the context of this model, and had to be dropped. If the social experiences that events afford depend on characteristics that distinguish events from other forms of human endeavor (viz., Chalip, 2006; Handelman, 1990), then it may be useful to develop a more event- specific measure of the sense of community obtained at events.

Over time, there may be a dialectical relationship among identity, social motivation, and sense of com­ munity such that each supports development of the other (Nowell & Boyd, 2010; Obst & White, 2005; Stryker & Serpe, 1982). The process clearly takes place over time, and well in advance of a short national tour­ nament (Green tk Chalip, 1998). Yet, if socializing at a tournament is important to participants, then the tournament may play a role in the overall process of building each. Future work should explore the contri­ bution that sport events play in this process, and should identify implications for event marketing and management.

Conclusion Spending at events is an important aspect of event marketing. Future studies of the ways that event atten­ dees allocate their budgets, including the impact of event elements on attendee spending, will provide added insight into the experiences that varied events do (and do not) enable. It is particularly important that enabling (and perhaps even prompting) budget

Volume 23 • Number 3 • 2014 • Sport Marketing Quarterly 145

allocations to categories likely to be associated with positive social interactions have the potential to enhance the quality of attendees’ overall experience. Delineating the interrelationships between event expenditures and the experience that event goers obtain can enhance our understanding of the ways that event design affects the efficacy of particular event marketing strategies.

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