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Abstract
Professional niche sports are tremendously reliant on the resources received via corporate sponsorship as they are unlikely to attract substantial revenue via media contracts, ticket sales, or merchandise sales, especially when compared to mainstream sports. Furthermore, niche sports are vying for the same corporate support as their more established mainstream counterparts. However, niche sports have been found to have the ability to provide sponsors with a more specific demographic of fans compared to mainstream sports. If that demographic aligns with a corporation's target market, the value of this relationship could increase substantially. Yet, the findings of the current study revealed nearly 60% of the 67 sponsors of two different niche sport teams indicated their target market included all of the categories provided for sex, ethnicity, education, and income, even though results also indicated the two teams were attracting statistically significant different fan bases: from a demographic perspective.
Keywords: sponsorship, niche sport, market segmentation, sponsorship objectives, exchange theory
Introduction
Sponsorship spending has consistently outpaced corporate spending on marketing or advertising (ESP Properties, 2018). However, this pattern does not indicate all sport properties are flush with funds from corporate partners. On the contrary, many sport properties are starved for corporate dollars. Several corporations have noted they receive so many sponsorship proposals they now look for reasons not to accept them (Lefton, 2014). According to Greenhalgh and Greenwell (2013), numerous niche sports (those that do not attract mainstream attention) struggle to secure sponsorship funding. Corporate sponsorship funding for these niche sports is viewed as vital capital for operations (Lough & Irwin, 2001) as these sports typically do not receive enough funding from ticket sales or broadcast rights to remain economically viable. Several niche sports have been forced to cease operations due to a lack of sponsorship funding (Greenhalgh & Greenwell, 2013; Stotlar, 2009).
Niche Sport
As noted by Greenhalgh and Greenwell (2013), professional niche sports within North America may be operationalized as any sport outside of the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and Professional Golfers' Association Tour (PGA TOUR). Miloch and Lambrecht (2006) defined niche sports as sports that lack mass appeal and receive limited media attention....