| Sport marketers face a unique challenge with their product. The core product, or the game itself, cannot be controlled. Product extensions, or the controllable elements of a sporting event, become the focus of sport marketers, looking to attract and retain fans to the stadium or arena (Mullin, Hardy & Sutton, 2007). Minor league baseball team administrators have an added dilemma. Due to the unique nature of minor league baseball industry's structure, typical sport marketing strategies such as star player recognition, win-loss record and rivalries are not sustainable.This study's purpose was to examine the attitudes of minor league baseball fans toward the impact of specific promotions on their decision to attend a game. The secondary purpose was to determine if minor league baseball team administrators understand which promotions are the most important in the fans' decision to attend a specific game The researcher was also looking to ascertain if there were any statistically significant differences among fan sub groups or between fans and the team administrators.Data utilized in this study came from two new quantitative instruments and on qualitative interview protocol developed by the researcher. Both quantitative instruments were self-report surveys. The fan survey assessed the attitude of minor league baseball fans toward the use of specific promotions by minor league baseball teams. The team administrator survey assessed the team personnel's opinion of fan attitudes toward specific promotions.T-tests, ANOVA and post hoc analyses were used to assess the attitudes of the fans and team administrators. In the fan survey, statistical significance was found on the attitude toward certain promotions based on fan gender, age, number of games attended per year and with whom they attended a game. In the team administrator survey, statistical significance was found on the perceive attitude by fans toward certain promotions based on team administrator age, number of years working in minor league baseball and classification of their team.In a direct comparison of fan attitudes and team administrator opinion of fan attitudes, statistical significance was found on the perceived importance of 11 out of 15 specific promotion types. |
