Kickin’ It with the Family: Motivations and Constraints of Parents’ Game Attendance at Sporting Events

The current project explored parents’ motivations and constraints of game attendance at professional/collegiate sport. Further, the sample had representation from both mothers and fathers, which has been neglected in the literature. The qualitative design included 14 semi-structured interviews evenly split between mothers and fathers who currently had a child under 18 in their home. The findings identified key thematic areas which included motivations of family leisure activity and socialization, constraints of family-life activities, substantial investment, and health/safety, as well as motivations and constraints of interest, developmental capabilities, and gameday environment. The prevalence of resulting themes existing on an attendance spectrum as both motivations and constraints to attendance behavior of the parent consumer segment is an important theoretical finding. Moreover, the mixture of themes not denoted in the literature is a key takeaway on consumer decision-making to attend a sport contest, and provides a broader parent perspective on spectator decisions.