Ends and Means: Can Market Demand Satisfy Spectator Motives for Sport Consumption in the WNBA?

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and many other women’s sports leagues face a critical challenge in establishing itself as an autonomous entity. To ensure future success, it is imperative to focus more research on understanding the consumers of women’s sports. A clear picture of the consumers’ decision-making process is essential for league administrators and marketers to develop strategies that build consumer interest and foster a loyal fan base. This study aims to fill the gap in the literature by examining the structural relationships among socio-motivation, market demand, satisfaction, and consumption of WNBA game events. Adopting the goal system theory, this study contributes to the existing literature on sports consumer behaviors by considering the desired outcomes of sport consumption (e.g. vicarious achievement) and the means (e.g. home team quality) to achieve these outcomes. The resulting Motivation-Market Demand-Satisfaction-Consumption multi-stage consumer decision-making process provides a much deeper understanding of sports consumers’ decision-making process.