Exploring the Relationship between Sport Event Quality and Sponsorship effectiveness: The case of a Kick Boxing Event

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the quality of a sporting event and the effectiveness of sponsorship, as defined by the attitude towards the sponsor, the development of word of mouth communications and the intentions to buy the sponsors’ products. The data were collected by spectators of a Kick-Boxing event that took place in Thessaloniki. An adjusted version of Shonk & Chelladurai’s (2008) questionnaire was used to measure sport event quality (four dimensions: Competition quality, Administration Quality, Accessibility Quality and Facility Quality). The attitudes towards the sponsor were measured with the questionnaire of Alexandris et al., (2015). The results indicated statistical significant correlations between all the dimensions of service quality and thee three sponsorship effectiveness variables (attitudes, intention and word of mouth). These results show the importance of developing quality sport events, in organizers’ efforts to attract sponsors.