The role of gender in determining season-ticket holder satisfaction

As professional sports seek to grow their fan base, the motives and behaviours of female sport fans are worth examining. Women are typically under-represented in the fan bases of most professional sports and particularly in the season-ticket holder (STH) ranks. In order to understand more about what attracts and retains female STH, and to identify any gender based differences, we examine the STH base of a professional football (soccer) club and compare male and female STH on a range of behavioural and attitudinal dimensions. Women made up only 11% of this clubs STH, and we find significant differences between genders in motives for joining, satisfaction and what drives it, loyalty and consumption. Accordingly, the marketing of season tickets to women may need to be adapted to cater for these differences.