Research identifies fan engagement and motivations influencing spectatorship in bass fishing tournaments, suggesting implications for fostering fandom.
The current research profiles professional bass fishing fans and examines the factors (motivations and fan engagement) underlying their fandom. Data were collected from fans attending two top-level professional bass fishing tournaments. Results showed that identifying with bass fishing as one's favorite sport is positively related to spectating, as is to a lesser degree acquisition of knowledge and viewing pro anglers as role models for children. Other motivations such as aesthetics, drama/eustress, and vicarious achievement were found to be less important in their relationship to spectating. Results also indicate that fan engagement variables of fishing organization membership, participation in fantasy fishing sponsored by the tournament organization, having a favorite pro angler in the top-level tournament series, and amount of bass fishing done by fans are positively related to spectating behaviors, and that those fans engaged vs. unengaged in each of these four variables differ with regard to motivations related to spectating.
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Bernthal et al. (2015) studied this question.
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