Research On Current Situation And The Affections Of Audience' Sports Consuming In Chinese Volleyball Competitions

Playing volleyball is a significant sport for the people. In the early 1980s, Chinese Women Volleyball Team won the championship for five consecutive years, which was a glory and impressed Chinese people greatly. After that, Women Volleyball Team went through a long period of ups and downs. Chinese Volleyball Association carried out reforms at the end of 1996, marketizing the volleyball league, which broke the traditional pattern of organizing sports. For sports events, the audience are the consumers, the main buyers in the competitive market, the most important part in the commodity circulation. Whether the value of goods can be achieved or not lies in the number and the consumption ability of the purchasers of this product. The number of the audience has a significant impact on the income of club as well as the sustainability of the match. However, the number of the audience of the volleyball match is not optimistic, which restricts the development of China's volleyball tournament, and influences the marketization and industrialization of the volleyball league directly. Therefore, the research on the state of the consumption of the audience and the related factors of such a kind of consumption is a priority.The present study takes the follwing menthodologies, such as literature review, questionnaires, expert interviews, mathematical statistics, logical analysis and comparative analysis and other methods. With the aim of analyzing the consumption state of sports, especially of volleyball, the present study considers the audience of men/women volleyball championships and Grand Prix as the subjects. To analyze the consumption state deeply and find some reasonable strategies to promote the development of volleyball tournament rapidly, the present author studies several factors carefully, such as population structure, social classes, cultural factors, economic factors,family factors,sports-consumption environment and the mass media.The results show the following aspects. Firstly , the male audience are significantly more than the female ones; young people are more than middle-aged, with the elderly to be the least; students, scientists, teachers, doctors, managers and officers constitutes the main profession of the audience; the education level of the audience is comparatively higher, with 49.8% aducated in the college education and above; the income level of the audience is, to some extent, lower, mostly with a monthly income below 1,000 yuan, and followed by between 1001 to 2000 yuan. Secondly, the attitudes toward sports-consumption of the audience is more clear with a higher understanding of sports-consumption; the motives of sports-consumption of the audience are to enrich the life, to build the body, to relieve the physical and mental stress, and so on, which shows the diversity and differences of the motives of sports-consumption. Thirdly, the level of sports-consumption of the audience needs to be further improved. The amount of the audience in sports-consumption in a year between 201 to 500 yuan accounts for 25.9%, followed by the consumption between 101 to 200 yuan, accounting for 21.6%. Most audience spend 50 yuan or less on volleyball-sports. Audience are more likely to take part in material-type sports-consumption than the participatory and observatory sports-consumption. Fourthly, there is a significant correlation between the social classes and the audience. The upper class take up a higher proportion of the audience in the volleyball-related consumption; the middle and lower classes is lower in the proportion of the audience. Fifthly, the living environment of the audience is relatively good in economic development, with a high awareness of sports-consumption; but the enthusiasm of the government in carrying out volleyball-sports is not enough; there is a lack of volleyball venues, volleyball instructors, volleyball-sports knowledge and technology, and the atmosphere of volleyball-playing. Sixthly, volleyball-sports are seldom carried out in the home, and due to the transient leisure time, the time and the possibility of the audience in participating in sports-consumption is restricted. Seventhly , the organization and management of volleyball-tournaments needs to be improved, with more content of the product, a higher exploration in the by-products with more Chinese characteristics, an improvement of the competition level. Eighthly, there is a significant correlation between the mass media and the material-type sports-consumption. The audience obtain the information of volleyball-tournaments usually through traditional ways, so the applications of Internet, mobile media and other new media need to be improved.The following is the suggestions. Firstly, the attention of the female to the volleyball-tournaments should be highly drawn, and the active guidance to the female should be given. The occupational structure of the audience should be widened; the interest and awareness of different occupations in the volleyball-sports should be enhanced; the market share of volleyball-sports in all occupations should be improved, especially that of the middle-class audience. Secondly , the structure of sports-consumption of the audience should be perfected, not only in the material-type sports-consumption, but also in the participatory and observatory sports-consumption. Thirdly, foreign aid should be actively introduced to improve the level of competition; at the same time, during the match, flexible and attractive activities should be reasonably carried out, such as cheerleading between the intervals, sweepstakes, the release of the signature of sports stars, and sharing sessions for players and audience after the game. Fourthly, there should be a reasonable workload of the audience with a high efficiency and more free time; at the same time, the forms of volleyball entertainment should be explored, to make volleyball-sports to be one of the main sports in people's daily life. Fifthly, on the basis of the"three major media", a full use of Internet, mobile phones, mobile TV and LED and other new media, should be adopted to actively promote the related information and products, to build the brand of volleyball-tournament, and to strengthen the influences on the consumers. Sixthly, the propaganda of volleyball-sports should be increased; the audience's knowledge and participation of volleyball-sports should be raised; efforts on the development of the by-products of volleyball, such as volleyball-sports souvenir, picture albums, animation, signature products, should be made.