Identifying and Prioritizing the Factors Influencing Attendance in the Iranian Basketball Super League

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the presence of spectators in Basketball Super League matches in Iran.
The approach was a descriptive survey. The questionnaire of this study was previously used by Green (1995), Hansen and Gautheir (1992), Scofield (1983), Coasky (1994) and Xhaung et al. (1995) to investigate the influential factors on the attendance of spectators for ball sports in the stadiums. After determining the sample size by random sampling method, the questionnaires were distributed between 370 existing spectators in two stadiums of Tehran and Isfahan cities. Reliability of the questionnaire measured by Cronbach's alpha was 0.79. Data was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, Friedman test, and Wilcoxon.
The results showed that factors such as order, moral security and discipline (regular and appropriate management in league, and appropriate conduct to control the spectators by security personnel and officers) were most important reasons for attendance at stadium. The most effective factors impact on attendance of spectators at the stadium included services, facilities and amenities of Stadium (suitability and comfortable access for buying tickets), achieving sport identity, and spending leisure time (Stadiums have facilities and modern equipment, and accompany with friends for attendance in competitions), the sensitivity of competition and its result, the presence of big players (stars) in sports teams, appropriate space and time for competition, the desirability of heating / cooling condition of saloon, playing games on weekends, and updated and suitable awareness of information about time and place of competition.
According to the official results of this study, for increasing attendance of spectators at stadium, it is expected that authorities and the officials of games adopt appropriate planning for the promotion of order and moral discipline. Moreover, providing facilities for sports competitions and proper advertising about the time and place of competitions can increase the number of fans at stadiums.