Meier, Henk Erik; Konjer, Mara
Forschungsartikel in Sammelband (Konferenz) | Peer reviewedOften by relying on Anna Kournikova as primary proof, conventional wisdom about sport stardom claims that sexual appeal of athletes plays an increasing role for marketing and consumption of high performance sport. We examine these ideas by analyzing German TV ratings for livecasted tennis matches. We find that female athletes are perceived to be sexier than male athletes and non-white athletes sexier than white athletes. We find very limited support for a ‘Kournikova effect' on male demand in our bivariate analyses. In contrast, multivariate analyses suggest that tennis players' sex appeal does not matter for TV audiences. Thus, while sexualized marketing might benefit the individual player's popularity and marketing value, there is no transfer of athletes' sex appeal in favour of demand for sport entertainment. In addition, the limited explanatory value of our canonical models call for a refinement of sport economic models developed in order to explain demand for team sports.
Konjer, Mara Verena | Professur für Sozialwissenschaften des Sports (Prof. Meier) |
Meier, Henk Erik | Professur für Sozialwissenschaften des Sports (Prof. Meier) |