Shifting Connections
The Effect of Brand Identity on the Football Club of Dumlupinar under 9 to 10 Year Old Players View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Suleyman Rebge
Sports marketing is essential for teams that want to increase their team's recognition, gain fans, or increase existing loyalty. In this context, it is very important to gain brand value and team loyalty. Many people choose their favorite team from a young age and support them for life. This study measures and analyzes the effect of the brand identity of Dumlupinar Football Club in Famagusta, Cyprus. Fifty Dumlupinar Football Club Academy football players, 9 to 10 years old, participated in the research. The main objective of the study is to understand how the football brands' identity levels affect football academies' football players' support and the brand identity level of their football teams. Social Identity theory is the theoretical framework of the study. Research has shown that brand identity has a direct relationship and preceding key to social identity. In this context, the loyalty of academy players who play for Dumlupinar football club to their clubs within their football groups will be investigated. In the study, this theory was chosen by assuming that if the social identity of this player group is strong, their commitment to the brand of their teams will also be strong. This study's qualitative and quantitative approaches will be applied through an interview and questionnaire of 50 football academy players.
Deck the Screens: Examining the Complexity of Holiday Programming on ESPN and TSN View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session James Killingsworth
Starting in the middle of December as the holidays approach, audiences in the United States and Canada are provided with a plethora of college football bowl games and the World Junior Hockey Championship on ESPN and TSN respectively. ESPN effectively controls college football at this time of year; Of the 42 bowl games, including the national championship playoffs, ESPN owns the broadcast rights to 39 of these games. This provides ESPN with a steady supply of programming at a time of year when it needs programming. And bowl games attract significant audiences, even if the matchups and actual attendance are lackluster. This ready supply of programming incentivizes ESPN to maintain the status quo rather than push for an expansion of college football’s playoff. Since acquiring the rights to the World Junior Hockey Championship in 1991, TSN has treated this event as one of its key properties. This tournament earns enormous ratings during the holiday season and following Team Canada has become a source of national pride. Revenues from this tournament have enriched Hockey Canada - perhaps leading at least indirectly to a huge scandal that involved the organization settling sexual assault lawsuits using a secret slush fund. Also surprising is the fact that this scandal was uncovered by a TSN reporter. This paper compares how ESPN and TSN approach their holiday programming to serve their own agendas oftentimes at the expense of their broadcast partners.
Balancing Local Identity and Globalization in Pro Soccer : The Arduous Path from Impact de Montréal to FC Montréal
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sébastien Arcand
In an era of globalization in professional sports, the Major Soccer League (MLS), North America’s top professional soccer league, aims at expanding its share of this strategic pro sports market and to increase its popularity abroad. Regarding the latter, multiple MLS clubs lately revisited their names and/or logos towards of a more “European” look and feel. The FC Montréal, formerly known as Impact de Montréal, proceeded with such major changes in 2021, widely rejected by the club’s fan base and the general population of Montreal. The club had to get back to the drawing board and came back in 2022 with a second version of their logo and identity, this time applauded by main stakeholders. Relying on conversations with FC Montréal’s managers, on analysis of reactions in local press and social medias, and on theoretical contributions, we mobilize sociological (identity, socialization, performance) and strategic (non-market strategies, globalization, values) lenses to illustrate decisions, tensions, turnarounds and trade-offs that FC Montréal had to go through, in order to crystalize its new identity, name and logo within a Montreal sociodemographic context in evolution. Our findings could provide pro sports organisations with clear guidelines as to how consider and balance their local context and their international presence when modifying or redefining their organisational identity. While this example is not unique, the Francophone and highly multicultural nature of a city like Montreal adds context and depth to the analysis of this case.
