Abstract :
ABSTRACT: Sports organizations today operate in a complex leisure market, and must apply advanced marketing methods in order to survive. Sports fans are motivated to attend events for a variety of reasons, and understanding these motivations is important to sports managers and marketers. While much previous studies has focused on mainstream team sports, comparatively little is known about fansʹ motives for attending less famous, individual sports. This research assessed the motives of fans of darts in Iran. A modified version of Wannʹs (1995) Sport Fan Motivation Survey (SFMS) was used for collecting data. 83 respondents at a dart event were asked to answers of the questionnaire.Findings showed that darts fans are motivated by entertainment, self-esteem, group affiliation, eustress and appreciation of playersʹ skills. Escape from everyday life and family bondingwere shown to be relatively unimportant. These results differ from previous studies of fans of individual sports. Level of participation and identification with favorite sport is different by fans.Motives of fans with different levels of identification may differ.There were significant positive relationships between fan identification with the sport of darts and four motivational factors. It is suggested that sports marketers can use sports identification as a grouping variable in market segmentation. Few differences were found when fans were grouped by gender. The research has significant implications for sports marketers working in the field of competitive and recreational sports. Furthermore, the final result suggesting that the darts-relatedorganizations must devise new marketing strategies to survive and develop.
