New Stadiums for Africa? Analysing the Impact of Sportscape Features on Attendance Intention in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Numerous ample investments into the sports infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa have failed, not least because of sub-optimal requirement planning and low spectator demand, despite the popularity of sports in this region. In light of FIFA’s recently announced aim to considerably invest into football stadia in Africa and in the absence of relevant research, this paper investigates the facility-related and fan-related factors that influence intended attendance in a sub-Saharan African context.

The study uses SEM to analyse the relationship between several factors and their impact on repurchase intentions, as well as multiple group analysis to test for moderating effects of a high and a low performing country group based on a sample of 1,005 respondents from four sub-Saharan African countries.

The findings indicate certain facility- and fan-related factors to be more relevant for spectator behaviour than others, while some well-researched antecedents have shown no significance in the sub-Saharan African context altogether. In addition, country-specific peculiarities influence the variables’ impact on repurchase intentions through satisfaction and trust

The results provide a better comprehension of facility-, as well as certain fan-related variables and their effects on spectator demand in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which has seen very little investigation, despite the popularity of sports in this part of the world. In addition, the study is one of among a few that analyses the relevance of trust for purchase intentions in a sports setting.

Keywords: servicescape, repurchase intention, satisfaction, trust, sports demand