‘As American as Mom, Apple Pie and Dutch Soccer?’: The Team Identification of Foreign Ajax FC Supporters

Anthony K. Kerr, Narelle F. Smith and Alastair Anderson

Chapter 1 in Sport as a Business, 2011, pp 15-34 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Professional team sport, like other forms of popular culture, is attractive and highly marketable. Furthermore, technological advances and globalization have greatly expanded the potential marketplace for professional sport organizations. For instance, Barcelona FC is believed to have 70 million supporters worldwide’ and English rival, Manchester United, has seen its fan base double in the past five years to 139 million.2 Real Madrid could have a potential fan base of nearly half a billion.3 However, foreign interest extends beyond Association football, and the success of home-grown players such as Suzuki, Matsui and Matsuzaka has boosted the popularity in Japan of a number of Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Similarly, 30 million Chinese regularly watch the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Houston Rockets to cheer on their countryman, Yao Ming (Larmer, 2005).

Keywords: Sport Team; Brand Equity; Social Identity Theory; Sport Organization; National Football League (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1057/9780230306639_2

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