Examining team identity level and its impact on the happiness and involvement of football spectators.

Abstract

Football spectators are in close and emotional interaction with teams and athletes. The sport team and the spectator are necessary to each other, and any play that has fewer spectators is less revenue. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interactive effect of team identity and play scenarios on football spectator's happiness and involvement. The research conducted by quasi-experimental method in which 120 football spectators responded to the 17-item questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale. To measure the interactive effect of play scenarios, four plays with scenarios (good play, good outcome), (bad play, good outcome), (good play, bad outcome), (bad play, bad outcome) were used. Multivariate analysis of variance used to test the data. Findings showed that the two levels of team identity (high identity, low identity) were different in spectator happiness (f(1,120) = 8.916, P = 0.003) and involvement (f(1,120) = 41.407, P = 0.001). Spectators with high team identity are happier and more engaged than spectators with low team identification when their favorite team wins or plays well. Levels of team identity and outcome of the play can be effective in the level of happiness and involvement of the sport spectators. Creating sport team identity in the spectators can play an essential role in their supportive behaviors of the team.