Development and Psychometric Evaluation of Football Stadium Atmosphere Scale (Marketing Approach)

The purpose of this research was development and psychometric evaluation of the football stadium atmosphere scale with the marketing approach.

The research was conducted in three sections. In the first section to identify the most important factors that shape the stadium atmosphere, a three-stage Delphi survey was conducted which in the first stage, semi-structured interviews with experts were done and in the next stages, a questionnaire was used and finally after the last review, 80 items were specified. In the second section, 80 items specified in the previous study, formed a questionnaire and after confirmation of its validation by experts it was distributed among spectators in two matches. To reduce variables, exploratory factor analysis was used and finally, 15 factors with 54 items were specified. In the third section, obtained questionnaires from the previous step, based on cluster sampling were distributed among Iranian Primer league spectators. Collected data was evaluated by confirmatory factor analysis in the partial least square method to confirm the main factors and to evaluate structural validation.

Based on the result of this test, 8 main affective factors on football stadium atmosphere in Iran were specified which include of sports club's Last performance, perceived respect, stadium, event, facility, organizer, stadium architecture and designing, and spectator’s behavior.

The scale designed in this research can be used in future research and help marketers and football clubs attract and retain their customers.