The impact of the national sports lottery and the FIFA World Cup on attendance, spectator motives and J. League marketing strategies

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the national sports lottery (toto) in 2001 and the 2002 FIFA World Cup for the Japan Professional Soccer League - J. League. In 2001 J. League attendances grew dramatically and were sustained in subsequent years, even though member clubs did not change many of their marketing strategies and chose to maintain a distance from toto. The evidence suggests that hosting the World Cup allowed the league to leverage the country's hosting of the event in order to generate long-term interest and attendance at J. League games. By contrast, toto appears to have had a short-term impact.

Citation

Funk, D.C., Nakazawa, M., Mahony, D.F. and Thrasher, R. (2006), "The impact of the national sports lottery and the FIFA World Cup on attendance, spectator motives and J. League marketing strategies", International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 115-133. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS-07-03-2006-B011