A109: Toward a Better Understanding of Programming Sport ArtisticEntertainment

<bold>Background/Purpose:</bold> Artistic entertainment has been integrated into live sporting events for nearly a century, offering spectators a unique and engaging experience. Artistic entertainment activities serve to maintain audiences’ attention and interest, provide pleasure and delight, and help achieve gratification (Vorderer et al., 2004; Zillmann &amp; Vorderer, 2000). To boost attendance and enhance the overall game experience, event managers are updating artistic entertainment offerings (Haidary, 2015). However, the mechanisms of artistic entertainment in contemporary sports are not well understood. For example, there are difficulties in using artistic entertainment effectively because the nuances of programming it based on gender, sports fandom, or ticket types have never been explored. This study aimed to address this void by conducting an Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) to examine the relative importance of different aspects of programming artistic entertainment activities in enhancing sport spectators’ game-day experience. <bold>Method:</bold> Relevance, appropriateness, variety, local culture, sensory appeal and integration, information and guidance, engagement and interaction, evolution and innovation, and quality of sensory elements are the nine main factors identified in our previous qualitative investigation on the quality and programming of artistic entertainment. We recruited spectators who had attended at least one live sporting event in the past six months to complete a survey measuring these nine factors, consumption intentions and satisfaction, gender, sport fan identification, and ticket types. In conjunction with partial least squares structural equation modeling, data were analyzed using the IPMA, a statistical technique to identify and prioritize factors based on their performance and importance. The nine factors’ significance scores were compared across gender, sports fandom, and ticket types through significance testing, aiming to examine any notable differences in the perceived importance of these factors among different spectator groups. <bold>Results:</bold> The results of IPMA analyses, which are based on gender, sports fandom, and ticket types, depicted visual representations of the relative importance of the nine factors. For instance, when designing artistic entertainment, factors in the top right quadrant of a matrix were considered high importance and high performance and thus should be given priority. Low performance and low priority factors found in the bottom left quadrant indicated areas to be minimally addressed. <bold>Conclusion/Discussion:</bold> Our study adds to event management literature and emphasizes the benefits and necessity of understanding artistic entertainment programming for sporting events in a more nuanced way. Managerially, we will provide IPMA-compliant practical recommendations for better and seamless integration of marketing initiatives.