Evaluating the Effectiveness of Corporate Sponsorships at a Minor League Baseball Park

Corporate sponsorships are vital to the success of minor league sport businesses. As competition for sponsorships intensifies in these venues, there is a need for minor league sports to demonstrate a return on the sponsorship investment based on fan purchase intentions and behaviors. Prior research has identified fan involvement, goodwill, and sponsor attitudes as key predictors of fan purchase intentions. However, the potential of image transfer suggests that attitudes toward sport properties might also shape purchase intentions. This study replicates and extends prior sport sponsorship research by assessing the contribution of these constructs to fan purchase intentions at a Minor League Baseball park. A path model was proposed whereby the impact of fan involvement and goodwill upon purchase intentions is mediated through both sponsor and sponsee attitudes. On-site surveys were completed by 246 fans at a Minor League Baseball park in summer 2012. Consistent with prior literature, goodwill, fan involvement, and sponsor attitudes were significantly related to sponsor purchase intentions. The effect of goodwill on purchase intentions was partially mediated through sponsor attitudes. However, attitude toward the sponsee was not a significant predictor of purchase intentions. Minor league sport organizations should consider enhancing fan perceptions and attitudes as a means to increase sponsor purchase intentions.