The relationship between sport team identification and the need to belong

Because sport team identification plays an important role in facilitating higher levels of sport attendance and consumption (Wann et al., 2001), sport management and marketing professionals are often interested in determining variables that serve as antecedents of identification. Some authors have suggested that the need to belong may be one such variable (Gwinner and Swanson, 2003; Wann et al., 2001). Thus, two studies were designed to examine the relationship between need to belong and identification. Study 1 involved 119 US college students completing measures of demographics, identification, fandom, and the need to belong. Consistent with expectations, the need to belong was positively correlated with level of identification with a local sport team, but not identification with a distant team or mere sport fandom. Study 2 contained a sample of 100 Greek university students and replicated the positive relationship between identification with a local team and the need to belong. Discussion centres on the causal relationships among the variables, implications for fans of distant teams, and suggestions for sport marketers and managers.