Abstract:
As early as the late 19th century, universities in the United States capitalized on the
popularity of college sports, especially football, through the sale of tickets and the collection of
donations from alumni and loyal fans. Today, the business model of college athletics remains
largely like the strategy used over a century ago, as ticket sales and athletic donations continue to
represent two of the largest sources of athletics revenues. However, a growing number of college
football fans are reporting dissatisfaction with their game day experience due to rising service
expectations, and declining college football attendance is threatening the success and
profitability of Division I NCAA athletics programs. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to
examine the relationship that the sportscape, service quality, and personal fandom have with
customer satisfaction of season ticket holders and athletic donors of NCAA Division I football
institutions, and whether customer satisfaction varies between different levels of D-I college
football competition (i.e., FBS P5, FBS G5, & FCS). Respondents indicated that aspects of
personal fandom (p=.002) and the sportscape (p=.018) had a significant positive relationship
with satisfaction, while the service influence (p=.509) did not. Additional results indicated that
significant differences were present between reported satisfaction among each competition level,
with FBS G5 respondents (M=5.50) reporting the highest levels of satisfaction, followed by FBS
P5 respondents (M=5.27) and FCS respondents (M=4.76). Further differences between the three
samples are analyzed and implications from the findings are discussed.
