Colts Fan Experience

Using the principles of design thinking, the researchers recruited 23 season ticket holder to participate in the study. Each season ticket holder completed a photo journal by texting in their photos and opinions every hour and completing a 30-minute interview. From this data, four primary motivations for being a season ticket holder emerged:

  • Civic Pride: A concrete sense of pride in the city of Indianapolis is amplified by the Colts history and achievement
  • Game experience: Seeking an immersive experience through game atmosphere, outcome, and community
  • Friends and family experience: Regard for the Colts game as a platform to nurture family relationships and family tradition throughout generations.
  • Business: Using the Colts game as a vehicle to sustain and develop a personal and social community.

While motivations are the internal state or drive for a fan’s decision to buy tickets, value is a variable for fan’s valuation of their decision. Knowing and responding to these variable is important to sustain a fan’s motivational decisions.

  • Convenience: An easy and optimal game experience provides convenience to fans. These conveniences often include access, location, and familiarity
  • Budget: Monetary value related to opportunity cost. Fans with family experience as a primary motivator often value this factor as they are juggling alternative experiences and costs
  • Product: The quality of the game and team performance are viewed as a consumable product. This factor is critical for fans whose primary motivation is “game experience.” Alternatively fans who are not affected by the team’s performance generally view the product as a social experience.
  • Presence: Immersion into the ephemeral atmosphere, culture, and community cultivated by the Colts games is a value that serves fans across all primary motivators.