American College Football Division I Team Attachment: A Model for Sponsorship Effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to examine sponsorship effectiveness at the Division I level, including the relationship between fans and sponsors. To collect the necessary data, the 13-item questionnaire was disseminated at two college football games by volunteer sampling at three Division I universities in the United States. With a total of 407 respondents, LISREL 8.52 and SPSS 17.0 were used to analyze the data for descriptive statistics, CFA, and SEM. By utilizing SEM, the variables of team attachment, sponsor image, word of mouth, and purchase intentions fit the proposed model. Pragmatically, the significance of team attachment can be understated in its role as an initial construct to begin the sponsorship process. Considering the construct of sponsor image as a mediating variable, sponsor image played an important role to anticipate an increase in positive word of mouth or an increase in consumer purchase intentions.