A Study to Determine the Incentives of Companies In Their Decisions to Either Sponsor or Not to Sponsor Professional Sports Teams

The purpose of this study was to determine the incentives of companies in either sponsoring or not sponsoring professional sports teams. The review of literature regarding the identification of incentives to sponsor professional sports teams revealed a lack of attention to this aspect. Substantial information was, however available regarding the related area of organizational buyer behavior. A pilot study was conducted consisting of five companies in the Fargo, North Dakota metropolitan area. A decision-maker from each company then responded verbally to each question's clarity and structure. No influential changes were made regarding the format of the questionnaire. Personal interviews were conducted with fifty companies in the vicinity of Fargo, North Dakota. Twenty-five of the companies were current sponsors and twenty-five were non-sponsors during the 2008-09 playing season. The data were evaluated by t-test analysis to determine significant differences between the companies' incentives to either sponsor or not to sponsor professional sports teams. The data collected revealed that there was a significant difference between local-based and national-based companies' incentives to either sponsor or not sponsor professional sports teams. It appears that the incentive of helping the community seemed to hold a considerable amount of influence in certain companies' sponsorship decisions. Perhaps more nationally-based companies are delegating their strategic operational planning to more regional or local franchises. Small and large companies also displayed no apparent differences in their decisions to sponsor. The implications for professional sports teams and for both current and potential sponsors are considerable if administrators and decision-makers are to understand the mechanism of professional sports sponsorship.