Spectator attendance without spectators: stakeholder insights from a national athletics championships

Spectator attendance at the national athletics championships in Slovakia has been low for a long time, despite free admission. Not even the elevated performance of Slovak athletes in certain disciplines and the growing media interest in leading Slovak athletes has contributed to higher spectator attendance at these events. For this reason, the aim of this study was to map the current state of attendance, to identify satisfaction with selected factors that condition low spectator attendance and to develop recommendations for the Slovak Athletics Federation.

The study employed cross-sectional ex post facto research, which was based on questionnaire data collected during the Slovak Athletics Championships. The Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption questionnaire, which is focused on surveying basic data about the respondents, their motivation for attending an athletics event, their satisfaction with the championships with regard to selected aspects of the event and their motivation to consume sport, was used. The research sample comprised 39 respondents from among athletes, coaches, family members and friends. The Chi-square goodness of fit test and Mann-Whitney U-test were used to analyse the data.

The results indicated that all respondents had a direct personal or professional connection to athletics, and independent spectators were not represented in the set. Through the questionnaire, we determined that the accompanying programme of the championships had a statistically significant negative impact on the satisfaction of stakeholders (p = 0.003). In contrast, the positive satisfaction of stakeholders with the date and venue of the championships was statistically significant (p = 0.003). Direct participants expressed statistically higher satisfaction compared to indirect participants in the areas of event organisation (p = 0.004; r = 0.46) and transportation and parking (p = 0.039; r = 0.33).

Direct and indirect participants have a similar psychological profile, since they are motivated by the same areas, particularly the physical attractiveness of the athletes and the drama of the competition. The low attendance at Slovak Athletics Championships is a result of the event's limited attractiveness to the wider public and its poor promotion. The audience is comprised exclusively of people with a direct relationship to athletics, which suggests the absence of effective strategies aimed at reaching potential spectators. What's more, the results of the study indicate that the sporting experience itself is not enough to create a comprehensive spectator experience and highlight the need for appropriate promotional activities. On the basis of these results, recommendations were developed for the Slovak Athletics Federation.