Growing the Nigeria Sport Market through Audience Participation at Sports Competitions
Emmanuel O. Akarah
ABSTRACT
Audience at sports competitions which comprise of spectators and fans imply the situation where persons attend sports venues (stadia) to watch sporting activities as passive participants/supporters was hypothesized to help grow the Nigeria sport market and established as a veritable tool of economic development in Nigeria. The target population comprised of all employed coaches, athletes, sports psychologists, sports journalists, workers in corporate and private organizations with sport concerns and educational institutions and departments involved in educating persons in sports disciplines were studied using the descriptive survey research design. The purposive multi-stage random sampling method was used to select a sample size of 674 respondents from the target population of 3,372 . The instrument for the study is a 47 -item questionnaire which construct validity was determined using the factor analysis and a reliability index of 0.87 at P<0.05 established with the Cronbach Coefficient Alpha. The data analysed with multiple regression showed that audience participation at sports competitions would indeed grow the sport market in Nigeria. The study concluded that, government should establish policies governing the sports sector, specify the roles expected of sports producers/marketers as well as taxes and tariffs to be paid to enable corporate, private organizations and individuals invest in the sports market by building stadia and organizing competitions so as to grow the economy and boost the sports market sector.
