The rooted fan: Exploring suggested improvements to a professional sport team’s sustainability

Abstract

Sustainability initiatives in sport have the potential to tap large audiences and encourage climate action at events and in consumers’ daily life. However, their effectiveness depends on the acceptance of fans and other supporters (McCullough & Trail, 2021). Fans’ sustainable behaviors during sporting events and in daily life have been subject to researchers’ attention (Casper et al., 2021). Despite the many professional sport teams (PSTs) that have carried out campaigns to increase awareness of environmental problems (Cayolla et al., 2021), the effects of these campaigns among different types of fans are still unclear (Trail & McCullough, 2018). In addition, the suspension of almost all top sport leagues worldwide in the 2020–21 season (Weimar et al., 2021) limited the understanding of fans’ sustainable awareness and behaviors during sport events. Thus, this study aims to gain greater knowledge about the importance of PST sustainability initiatives for fans. [...]