Craig Hyatt

Inventing Team Tradition: a Conceptual Model for the Strategic Development of Fan Nations

Abstract While the strong support of local fans will always be an important concern for big-league professional teams, new technologies are making it easier for distant fans to learn about and begin following teams from afar. To better ensure financial viability into the twenty-first century, we argue that major professional teams should create a strategy to build a fan nation containing both local and distant loyal fans. We argue that teams should invent traditions to entice both local and far-flung casual, and non-fans to become loyal members of a teams fan nation. The recent actions of the National Hockey Leagues Edmonton Oilers are used as a case study of how a team can use the invention of tradition to expand and enhance its fan base.

Expanding the conceptualization of nostalgia sport tourism: Lessons learned from fans left behind after sport franchise relocation

Abstract Current research in nostalgia sport tourism commonly focuses on individual and group travel to sport museums, halls of fame and fantasy camps (which occur as isolated events). However, there is a sector of sport tourists who travel to live sporting events for the nostalgic reflection of the game and its players. This behaviour is evident in individuals who considered themselves fans of the now defunct National Hockey League team the Hartford Whalers. As part of a larger study into fan loyalty, these individuals were interviewed. The results show that a large contingent of fans travel to see live NHL hockey because it was no longer available in Hartford after the Whalers relocated to North Carolina. This paper shows that the definition of nostalgia sport tourism should be expanded to include fans that travel to live sporting events as a means of reflecting on past experiences as sports fans.

How people raised and living in Ontario became fans of non-local National Hockey League teams.

Much of the research on how people come to support their favourite sport teams focuses on fans who attend games in person, thereby creating a local bias. Little is known about the process of how people raised in the vicinity of a team reject the local option in favour of supporting a distant team. In order to learn about this phenomenon, 20 Canadian ice hockey fans of non-local National Hockey League (NHL) teams raised and living in Ontario were interviewed. Six reasons for supporting their specific distant team were given by at least a quarter of the fans: an attraction to a specific player, the teams colours/uniform, the teams logo, meeting the teams players in person, seeing the team play in person and the teams status as an underdog. The findings provide further insight into why fans support the teams they do.

Assets and obstacles: an analysis of OUA hockey from the coaches’ perspective

Purpose – The passion of Canadians for ice hockey is well documented; however, university teams in Canada are routinely ignored by consumers and the media. The authors’ goal was to better understand the context in which Ontario university hockey struggles and to address the theoretical question of how best to examine and evaluate the problems of sport‐specific organizations. Using the Value Dynamics Framework (VDF), the purpose of this paper was to examine whether or not this framework fits well with the realities facing not‐for‐profit OUA hockey teams, and if not, to create a framework specific to these teams.Design/methodology/approach – Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with 15 of the 19 (77 percent) OUA hockey coaches during the 2010/2011 hockey season. The interview guide was drawn from the VDF elements and enabled the researchers to understand not‐for‐profit organizational assets, including physical, financial, employee/supplier, customer, and organizational.Findings – This paper of...