Examining consumer attributes associated with collegiate athletic facility naming rights sponsorship: Development of a theoretical framework

Facility naming rights sponsorship is one of the fastest growing and most valuable forms of sponsorships. The limited opportunities in major league professional sports have led corporations to seek opportunities with college sports. Although collegiate athletics have become increasingly attractive for sponsorship investment, they have also been laden with potentially negative side effects. How university stakeholders perceive and respond to stadium naming rights sponsorship is a major concern for both corporations and college administrators. This study reviewed the relevant literature to propose a theoretical framework incorporating multidimensional factors of assessing consumers’ perspectives (i.e., beliefs about naming rights sponsorship, attitudes toward commercialization, team and stadium identification, perception of financial status, and perceived fit) of naming rights sponsorship effectiveness. The relationships among variables were examined by reviewing related theories and previous research findings. The derived theoretical framework is expected to provide a research direction for comprehensively examining how stakeholders of intercollegiate athletic programs perceive and respond to corporate naming rights sponsorship of sport facilities.