Attendance to Football Matches and the Performance of the Football Teams - Research Proposal Example

This research proposal intends to investigate what influences foot ball attendance. Foot ball has been a long played sport with its history coming far back from the Ancient Greek and Roman times. This research is based on four specific objectives that are generated from the study's aim of trying to find out how foot ball attendance functions. The specific objectives are, namely: why when a foot ball team is performing well my still be seeing a decline in ticket sales, why there are uncertainties in outcome from demand of tickets with performance levels of the competing teams, to find out the correlation of ticket costs, weather, day of the week, and employment status to attendance and finally, to research with focus of a football club to assess what influences are impacting on the attendance in order to develop a simple but comprehensive model of influences. The research would use interviews with officials of the stadium and a local foot ball club as a tool to try and answer the specific objectives of the research. Use of secondary sources of data such as magazine journals, books, and reliable internet sources to obtain relevant information to back the primary data sources in theoretical concepts. When it comes to data analysis, the casual design of the research will begin with checking for the accuracy of the obtained primary data from interviews before it can be fed into the computer. The data will then be inferred to describing the important points that where obtained from the interviews to achieve the objectives and the aim of the research. Ethical issues will be emphasised in the researched through referencing of sources of information in the bibliography. The research will be conducted through a period of nine weeks where the final printed and bound report would be ready for submission in the ninth week. 1.0 Introduction The term foot ball is applied differently all over the world in terms of the sport, for example in the US it refers to the sport that involves running and kicking the ball in a competition between two teams in their attempt to score a goal. However, to its generality in the UK and other English speaking nations, foot ball also known as soccer is a sport like any other that involves manoeuvring a ball with ones foot with the aim of making goal. The game is characterised by two competing teams that comprises of eleven players. The players are usually males but with the course of time, it has seen females engage into the game. The players are restricted to a field of play where certain rules that govern the game are employed through its monitoring by a referee. The game usually lasts for ninety minutes with a half time break of fifteen minutes. However, in some instances the game can go beyond ninety minutes in what is referred to as extra time and this is usually influenced by time that is wasted due to injuries or substitutions during the course of the match that prompts the referee to halt the game for a while. This causes the referee to compensate the wasted time by extending the length of time of the game. Foot ball's origin dates back to the times of the Ancient Greeks and Romans in medieval Europe who are considered to be the inventors of this game that has seen its popularization because of the large numbers of fanatics all over the world. This game was initially associated with peasants of the time who played it as a form of leisure. It was not governed by any rules or guidelines. Many people would engage in the game at the same time making it be referred to at one time as mob football. The game would be played by teams of people against other towns which would see a chaotic game that resembled a struggle. At the time there where no goal scoring posts and would be characterized by an attempt by the players to move the ball to a certain geographical location of their opponents. The game further developed in other regions as indigenous people adopted different versions of the game such as playing it on ice or other surfaces or introducing tools that they would use to manuevour the ball instead of legs as it can be seen in hockey or tennis. The game foot ball is now internationally played as international tournaments such as the world cup has seen the sport grow to a profession in terms of the players and as a business for stadiums, sport wear manufacturing companies as well as TV networks through airing of live video coverage of the matches wherever they are being played . The high enthusiasm exhibited for the game by many people has seen recorded attendances into stadiums making this game the world's most loved. (Mulcaster, 2003) 1.1 Aim The overall aim of the research is to understand the way that Football Attendance functions. This is because the high attendance into stadiums as well as viewer ship on TV networks that air this matches have witnessed cases of violence break out as a result of a team losing the game where the funs tend to lay the blame on the referees judgment of the match. Cases of men who are the main attendees have been also blamed for ignoring their responsibilities in the society just so that the can attend foot ball matches. 1.2 Thesis Statement This research is based on the hypothesis that football attendance in sport stadiums has been diminished by its airing by TV networks and radio stations all over the world. That this has lowered business in stadiums and consequently significant losses are being incurred. 1.3 Research Objectives The general objective of this research is to find out the influencing factors to football attendance. Thus the specific objectives mentioned below are going to be the guide to ascertaining the hypothesis of this research. i. Why when a football team is performing well may still be seeing a decline in ticket sales ii. Why there is outcome uncertainty in relation to demand for tickets with performance levels. iii. The correlation of ticket costs, weather, day of the week and employment status and attendance. iv. Research with focus of a football club to assess what influences are impacting on the attendance in order to develop a simple but comprehensive model of influences 2.0 Literature Review This section of the research paper intends to look at the influence to football attendance with a specific analysis to the contributing factors. Factors of TV and radio airing will be considered. The weather conditions prior to matches in play, team level performance and financial factors will form the basis of the literature review. Before the advancement of new media technology, football attendance was generally constant and remarkably high. Sitting capacity was achieved by the played matches as stadiums continued to expand to accommodate more football fanatics. The growing numbers of football attendance of the yester-years saw the stadiums record high profits from tickets sales and made the stadium business a lucrative venture for government revenue acquisition in the respective nations more so in the UK. The advancement of new media in the twentieth century and the consequent digitization of the video filming came with an array of benefits that has also seen declining business in the foot ball industry. (Irwin, Sutton, Larry, 2008) Ticket sales have not been constant and the have been dropping ever since and losses incurred. New media has fostered globalization making football a loved game all over the world. The English foot ball leagues that have featured in local TV and radio stations have now reached the international seen in live coverage thanks to new media. Foot ball fans can now watch their favourite teams via the television instead of going to the stadiums where the squeeze with people and endure cold weather so as to watch the matches. This has increasingly seen the number of football funs deviate from going to watch the foot ball matches from the stadiums after buying tickets and rapidly opted to going to social places like clubs and pubs where there is live TV airing of the foot ball matches where they can enjoy in a comfortable environment with other viewers. Match airing networks such as ESPN and MNET air the foot ball matches live from the stadiums where the matches are taking place and hence a number of people have opted to connect the services of this TV networks to their homes at a reasonable fee instead of going to the stadiums. This has hence seen ticket sales go down despite of certain foot ball clubs perform well in their matches which would otherwise encourage foot ball fans come to support such teams. (Moran, 2004) The cost of tickets has at some point contributed to attendance of foot ball matches. High cost of tickets has caused a reduction in number of foot ball fans who have come to watch a match. This is because not every one of the same financial strength. The society is divided in to social stratifications that comprise the high class, middle to low class persons. These people have different levels of expenditure which can be limited to some point here being specific to the middle class and low class persons. Financial well being can contribute to the attendance of the matches as the costs of the tickets are dictated by ones ability to raise the required funds to occupy a seat in the stadium. Because of this factor of ticket costs, attendance could be severely impacted if it can not be achieved by the low and middle class persons who form the majority of any society. (Szymanski, Andreff, 2006) The issue of the global financial melt down is another factor that is still related to the ability to buy tickets to attend the foot ball matches. The global financial crisis that saw its origin in the US has significantly impacted the foot ball attendance seen. The globalized system of transacting business has seen this problem span out to other nations that have financial links to the US. Many nations all over the world use the US dollar a bench mark for transacting business in and out of their nations. The apparent depreciation of the US dollar in the global scene has certainly affected many nations, where inflation has rock many economies. This has resulted in job lay offs and consequently the lowering of the living standards of people all over the world. This has made the purchasing power of many people drop and hence tend to save their hard earned money for relevant use. Therefore, attendance into stadiums to watch foot ball matches has been hampered as this is just a luxury and people can afford to do away with it. A statement issued by Deloite Company (2007) however said that there was going to be a continued improvement in ticket sales for foot ball in the UK. This statement was attributed to the fact that cuts in the costs of ticket was being implemented along side other strategies to maintain the number of foot ball fans in to the stadiums. (Sport business, 2009) The factor of weather has also been attributed to the attendance of foot ball matches. Bad weather conditions such as rainy seasons usually see a drop in the attendance of foot ball matches. People do not like being rained on. This can cause discomfort while watching the matches let alone the health consequences of being wet and cold. Many sport stadiums are large and their design and size make it difficult for them to well secure from rain and other bad adverse weather conditions such as hot sunny days. (Maryland football.org, 2009) The consideration in terms of the time of week would also be another factor that affects the attendance to foot ball matches. During the beginning weeks of the month, many people are receiving their monthly salaries or pays. This means that they are financially well of at that time and often tend to spend the money because they have it. Hence, during the first weeks of the month sees the inclination inn ticket sales to foot ball matches. However, when it comes towards the end of the months, people are usually broke and their finances have been depleted from the expenses that the have incurred in terms of bills to be paid and other maintenance obligations that diminish their accounts. This translates to reduced ticket sales in to foot ball viewer ship. (Rail, 1998) The performance of the football teams has also been characterized as a factor that contributes to the attendance of foot ball fanatics into foot ball matches. Teams that often tend to perform poorly or are ranked low at the foot ball league often do not receive many supporters. However, the top teams that perform extremely well as well as portrayed a classical game often see a sporadic rise in attendance to the matches were such teams appear. People usually get enjoyment from watching games that are exciting and full of tension and surprises. Such games are noted by the skills that are portrayed in the players in the competing teams that strive to be victorious at the end of the match. Thus people feel they are getting their moneys worth due to the excitement they get from such games where the level of performance of the teams involved is high. A typical scenario is the one that involve Manchester United and Arsenal foot ball club. These two teams are there giants of the English football league and whenever there match fixtures materialize, high number of funs flock the stadium where the match is going to take place. This sometimes is characterized by tickets getting finished as the demand is usually high. (McNalty, 2009) 3.0 Methodology The research will basically employ the casual approach of doing research. The research will be carried out through a time span of nine weeks (approximately two months). The research will employ an unlimited number of secondary sources of data to obtain reliable data that will be used to come up to comprehensive conclusions that will try to answer each and every objective of the research in the literature review. The secondary sources of data will include journal articles, books, reliable internet resource sites and news paper articles. This would be undertaken through a series of readings to obtain relevant data sources that will be used in the research. The data sources would be obtained from the libraries and the World Wide Web. Personal interviews with some of the officials of the local stadiums will be conducted to establish back ground information as well as proving statements to the documents writings in the secondary sources of data. The interviews will be based on a pre-written list of questions that would guide a discussion with the intended officials of the stadiums. The questions will be presented in way that would seek to answer the specific objectives number one to three of the research topic. A personal interview with a representative of a local foot ball club would be under taken with the sole purpose of solving specific objective number five. 3.1 Data analysis The information obtained from secondary sources of data will be categorized in terms of relevance to objectives of the research. The literature will be written in accordance with the order of the research objectives. The information obtained from the personal interviews held with the officials of the sports stadium and that of a representative of a local foot ball club will be checked for accuracy before the data is entered in to the computer. (Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill, 2007) In analysing the results of the interviews carried out on the study subjects, descriptive statistic will be employed to describe the important outcomes of the discussions. The points that would have been raised in the course of the interviews will be correlated with information obtained from secondary sources of data. Analysis of the obtained information will follow a systematic approach of categorizing the relevant information got with the specific objectives of the research. After categorization of the relevant information with the specific objectives, the data will be entered into the computer. The data obtained will then be used to establish a conclusion that will focus on proving or disapproving the hypothesis stated in this research. (Myers, Well, 2003) 3.2 Work plan WEEK ACTIVITY ONE Collection and reading of relevant literature to the topic from the library and internet. TWO Preparation of interview question guide and its testing with sport stadium officials as well as that of a representative of a local foot ball club. THREE TO FIVE Holding interviews with officials in the sport stadiums concerning foot ball business related to the research objectives. Interview with a representative of a local foot ball club in trying to answer the study objective number four. SIX Analysing and categorizing the highlighted points from read secondary sources of data and linking them with the specific objectives of the research topic. SEVEN Typing of the first draft of the research paper. EIGHT Reading of the draft report and including left out points. NINE Typing of the final draft of the research work followed by proof reading and correction of mistakes. Printing and binding of the finished work ready for submission. 3.3 Ethical Issues In terms of following the codes of ethics that are employed in research work, a letter of introduction will be sought from the institution to facilitate personal interviews with officials of the sports stadium and a local football club. This will be important in portraying professionalism in executing the research and foster and environment whereby the interviews will be conduct freely without fear that the interviews are of an ulterior motive such as airing in the local media. Referencing of cited text would also be done in text and at the end of the written work to eliminate plagiarism for high ranking of work. Conclusion Attendance to football matches has been cited as being influenced by a majority of factors. These tend to make profits earned through the business of sport stadiums uncertain as the factors are abrupt in occurrence and can not be regulated such as weather conditions. However, this depends on the managerial structure of sports stadiums in trying to retain foot ball fanatics in to the stadiums than behind the screen of their television sets where new media has directed viewer ship. References Irwin, R., Sutton A., & Larry M., (2008). "Sport Promotion & sales management". USA.Human kinetics Publishing Maryland football, (20090. "Tuesday's football practise postponed due to weather conditions." Retrieved on May 2nd 2009. From http://www.umetreps.com/sports/m-footbal/spec-rel/041309aac.html McNulty, P., (2009). "Arsenal 2-1 man Utd. BBC news." Retrieved on May 2nd 2009. From http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng-prem/7697407.stm Moran A., P., (2004). "Sport & Exercise Psychology: a critical introduction." UK, Routledge Publishers Muclaster, R., (2003). "Football networking". Retrieved on May 2nd 2009. From http://www.footballnetwork.org/dev/historyof football/history8_18_3.asp Myers, J., & Well A., (2003). "Research design & Statistical Analysis." Lawrence Elraum Associates Rail, G., ( 1998). "Sport & post modern times". USA, SUNY Press Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A., (2007) "Research methods for business studies." Sport business group, (2009). "Deloite predicts continued strong football ticket sales in UK." Retrieved on 2nd May 2009. From http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/1691565/deloite_predicts_continued_strong ukfootball_match_ticket_sales Szymanski, S., & Anderff, W. (2006). "Hand book on the economics of sport". UK, Edward Elgar publishing. Read More