dissertation tim kanters; “an exploratory study of football tourists; the case of...
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“An exploratory study of football tourists; the case of groundhoppers.”
A dissertation submitted by
Timothy Kanters
In partial completion of the award of
MSc Tourism Management and Marketing
‘I hereby declare that the dissertation submitted is wholly the work of
Timothy Kanters.
Any other contributors or sources have either been referenced
in the prescribed manner or are listed in the acknowledgements
together with the nature and scope of their contributions.’
School of Tourism
Bournemouth University
2015
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Dissertation Declaration
I agree that, should the University wish to retain it for reference purposes, a copy of my
dissertation may be held by Bournemouth University normally for a period of three academic
years. I understand that once the retention period has expired my dissertation will be
destroyed.
Confidentiality
I confirm that this dissertation does not contain information of a commercial or confidential
nature or include personal information other than that which would normally be in the public
domain unless the relevant permissions have been obtained. In particular, any information
which identifies a particular individual’s religious or political beliefs, information relating to
their health, ethnicity, criminal history or gender, has been made anonymous, unless
permission has been granted for its publication from the person to whom it relates.
Ethical and Health & Safety issues
I confirm that the on-line ethics checklist was completed and that any ethical considerations
associated with the proposed research were discussed with my supervisor and an appropriate
research strategy was developed which would take them into account. I also confirm that any
potential health & safety risks associated with the proposed research were discussed with my
supervisor and where necessary, appropriate precautions were documented, including an
appropriate risk assessment.
Copyright
The copyright for this dissertation remains with me.
Requests for Information
I agree that this dissertation may be made available as the result of a request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act.
Signed: _____________________
Name: Timothy Kanters
Date: 24 April 2015
Programme: MSc Tourism Management and Marketing
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Abstract
Groundhopping is a new segment of football tourism and is rapidly gaining popularity on a
global scale over the last years. In present times, more people are willing to travel to
destinations to watch a football game live at the venue. This scenario has risen due to the shift
in football cultures occurred by the continuous technological developments and the
commercialisation of the football industry. Nowadays an increasing amount of people
become more open-minded in the search for new experiences by starting to put a higher
importance on the external factors of a match. This scenario is especially the case for people
participating in groundhopping, as they hop from ground to ground in order to experience as
many different stadiums, atmospheres and matches possible.
The aim of this paper was to investigate the characteristics and motivations of groundhoppers
and the potential correlation between this segment and tourism. This study found that
applying the qualitative subjectivist, interpretivist and inductive approach were most suitable
in relation with the research of the paper and qualitative semi-structured interviews were
conducted. Additionally, thematic analysing was applied on the interviews by mean of
transcription and coding, which created seven themes covering the personal characteristics,
rationale for being a groundhopper, the search for personal satisfaction and the relation
between groundhopping and tourism.
The research objectives of the study have been answered by conducting a theoretical
background of groundhopping as secondary data and applying a qualitative approach using
ten semi-structured interviews as the primary data method. The study contributed to literature
by adding new theoretical insight of motivations regarding groundhopping; the findings of
differences in characteristics between fanatic and normal groundhoppers and new findings
regarding the correlation between groundhopping and tourism. Finally the recommendations
on future research suggested in this paper focusses on more specific research on football
tourists, the implementation of a larger sample size in order to gain richer data, further
research to the differences in characteristics of groundhoppers and supplementary research
towards the correlation of groundhopping and tourism.
Word count = 14.993 words
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratefulness to the persons that have supported me during the
writing stage of this dissertation.
First of all I would like to thank my parents, who have always supported me and
provided me the opportunity to follow this master.
To Ms Katherine King, who has been an amazing supervisor since the beginning and
has provided me with very useful feedback, which made it possible to end up with this
result.
To Mr Richard Shipway, who took me under his supervision for the last months and
has provided me with a helping hand regarding the findings and conclusion of this
dissertation.
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Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................ v
List of tables ................................................................................................................................................... ix
List of figures ................................................................................................................................................... x
Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background of the study ....................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Rationale for choosing the topic ........................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Aim and objectives ................................................................................................................................ 2
1.4 Structure of the dissertation ................................................................................................................. 3
Chapter 2: Literature review ........................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Sport Tourism........................................................................................................................................ 5
2.1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1.2 Tourism .......................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1.3 Sport tourism ................................................................................................................................. 6
2.2 Football Tourism ................................................................................................................................... 8
2.2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 8
2.2.2 Commercialisation in football ........................................................................................................ 8
2.3 Heritage Tourism .................................................................................................................................. 9
2.3.1 Heritage ......................................................................................................................................... 9
2.3.2 Nostalgia Tourism ........................................................................................................................11
2.3.3 Stadia heritage .............................................................................................................................11
2.3.4 Stadia Tours .................................................................................................................................13
2.4 Football Fandom .................................................................................................................................13
2.4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................13
2.4.2 Loyalty and passion ......................................................................................................................14
2.4.3 Motivations to travel for sport purposes .....................................................................................15
2.4.4 Type of fans ..................................................................................................................................18
2.4.5 Groundhoppers ............................................................................................................................19
2.5 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................................20
Chapter 3: Methodology ...............................................................................................................................22
3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................22
3.2 Aim and objectives ..............................................................................................................................23
3.3 Research philosophies ........................................................................................................................23
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3.5 Research approaches ..........................................................................................................................27
3.6 Research strategy................................................................................................................................28
3.6.1 Secondary research ......................................................................................................................28
3.6.2 Primary research ..........................................................................................................................28
3.7 Quantitative and qualitative research ................................................................................................29
3.7.1 Qualitative interviews ..................................................................................................................31
3.7.2 Semi-structured interviews ..........................................................................................................33
3.8 Participant recruitment and interview design ....................................................................................33
3.9 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................................................36
3.10 Ethical considerations .......................................................................................................................37
3.11 Limitations ........................................................................................................................................38
3.12 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................................39
Chapter 4: Findings .......................................................................................................................................40
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................40
4.2 Intrapersonal characteristics ..............................................................................................................40
4.3 Nostalgia .............................................................................................................................................42
4.4 Motivational factors ............................................................................................................................43
4.5 Sociability, belongingness and attachment ........................................................................................45
4.6 Personal identity .................................................................................................................................46
4.7 The search for the ultimate experience ..............................................................................................47
4.8 Secondary activities ............................................................................................................................49
4.9 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................................51
Chapter 5: Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................52
5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................52
5.2 Evaluation of the research objectives .................................................................................................52
5.2.1 Secondary research process ........................................................................................................52
5.2.2 Primary research process .............................................................................................................54
5.3 Contribution to the theory ..................................................................................................................57
5.4 Recommendation for future research ................................................................................................57
References ....................................................................................................................................................59
Appendices ...................................................................................................................................................64
Appendix 1: Interview guide .....................................................................................................................64
Appendix 2: Transcript interviewee 9 .......................................................................................................65
Appendix 3: Open coding interview 9 ......................................................................................................72
Appendix 4: Themes and sub-themes ......................................................................................................80
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Appendix 5: Ethics checklist ......................................................................................................................86
Appendix 6: Consent form ........................................................................................................................90
Appendix 7: Structure of the literature review .........................................................................................92
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List of tables
Table 1: Characterizations of sport heritage p. 10
Table 2: Experience types that create a fan’s identity profile p. 15
Table 3: Previous academic research on sport tourism motivations p. 16
Table 4: Key dimensions and motives of sport tourists’ p. 18
Table 5: Importance of understanding philosophies p. 23
Table 6: The research philosophies of epistemology p. 26
Table 7: Inductive and deductive approach p. 27
Table 8: Objectives met in the secondary and primary research stage p. 29
Table 9: Characteristics quantitative and qualitative research p. 31
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List of figures
Figure 1: Expenditure live spectators and methods of watching p. 7
Figure 2: Football Fandom Authenticity Scale p. 19
Figure 3: the building blocks of research p. 22
Figure 4: The research onion p. 24
Figure 5: Objectivist and subjectivist p. 25
Figure 6: The main types of interview styles p. 32
Figure 7: Sampling techniques p. 34
Figure 8: Conceptual framework of research p. 55
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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
Both sport and tourism can be considered as large components of serious leisure and have
always been in a close relationship with each other (Gammon and Robertson 2003; Gibson et
al. 2003; Higham and Hinch 2002). Over the last years this relationship has only strengthened,
as more persons are interested in combining the two aspects (Joseph 2011); so called sport
tourism, which is all about the participation in a sport, the people and the place (Weed and
Bull 2004). In present times, 54% of the people in the UK are willing to travel to destinations
for sport purposes in order to attend the match in person (Mintel 2014).
This scenario has especially been noticeable in the football industry, which have been
characterized by major changes in the last decades. The commercialisation of football, in
terms of global multinational involvement; broadcast contracts; and transnational
competitions, has evolved football into a sport with billions of fans globally (Crisp et al.
2007). Moreover the continuous technological developments have led to the fact that the
sport has become available for the majority of people in the world (Giulianotti and Robertson
2012). The increase of fans towards football went at the same time hand in hand with the
creation of football supporter types.
In the last years the new football supporter segment groundhoppers is growing rapidly. The
aim of these persons is to visit as many different stadiums and games as possible (Kren 2013),
have a neutral position towards football clubs (Bauckham 2014) and consider the sport as a
pleasurable activity (Wolf 2014). For these supporters, fandom to the sport goes further than
watching a football game; instead the football stadium and its aspects, e.g. atmospheres,
architecture and heritage are the most critical aspects (Kren 2013; Paterson and Johnstone
2009), which is driven by the search of remembrance and the identity of a place (Kren 2014).
Moreover these new football supporters are not characterized by an attachment to a specific
club, but rather to the history of stadiums or individual players (Fairley and Gammon 2005).
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1.2 Rationale for choosing the topic Groundhopping is a relatively new segment in the sport industry. Even though the activity is
rapidly gaining popularity globally, in the academic world research on groundhopping is still
practically non-existent. The researcher of this paper found this scenario a shame, as
groundhoppers are an interested segment to take into consideration by parties involved in the
sport industry. At the same time groundhopping is an interesting segment for the tourism
industry of destinations, as groundhoppers are characterized by the willingness to travel to
destinations for sport purposes. During their travel, these groundhoppers automatically
contribute to the destination by spending money. However the potential correlation between
this segment and tourism has not been investigated yet. This scenario provided the researcher
with the opportunity to investigate an aspect that was in line with his interest on one hand and
the possibility to create a useful investigation of groundhoppers for sport and tourism
organizations for future purposes on the other hand.
Secondly the choice of the topic was based on the personal preferences of the researcher.
Since his young ages, the researcher has developed a strong attachment and fandom towards
the sport football. The opportunity of combining the researchers’ two favourite interests, i.e.
sport and tourism, was something he could not resist. At the same time the researcher was
influenced by his circle of friends, of which several are fanatic groundhoppers. The
conversations, travel experiences and pictures of the groundhopping trips presented by his
friends has always fascinated the researcher, as he believed the activity covered most aspects
people search for in their leisure time. Moreover the fact of having friends that are well
situated in the groundhopping world provided the researcher with the necessary insight
knowledge required to do his research.
1.3 Aim and objectives
The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics and motivations of
groundhoppers and the potential correlation between this segment and tourism. The aim of
the study is supported by the following objectives;
To explore the reasons for the growth in football tourism fans
To investigate what defines a groundhopper
To examine the motivations of persons to participate in groundhopping
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To investigate in which ways groundhoppers participate in touristic activities when
visiting destinations
Develop a set of recommendations for management practice and implications for
future research
1.4 Structure of the dissertation
The dissertation is divided in 5 chapters with additional appendices and logically structured
to allow fluent reading.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The introduction is the initial chapter of the dissertation and provides an insight into the
background of the topic. Further it presents a brief description of the rationale for choosing
the topic, identifies the aims and objectives of the research and provides the structure of the
dissertation.
Chapter 2: Literature review
The aim of the literature review was to provide an insight in the existing academic research
done in relation to groundhopping. As research on groundhopping was limited, the literature
review starts with previous research done on the broadest dimension of groundhopping; sport
tourism. Secondly the literature review narrows down to the type of sport groundhopping is
part of; football tourism. Thirdly it presents the academic research done on heritage tourism,
which is an important aspect of groundhopping. The final section elaborates on football
fandom and football supporter types.
Chapter 3: Methodology
The methodology describes the research methods and practices applied in order to meet the
aim and objectives of this paper. It elaborates on the use of primary and secondary data and
provides the justification of implementing qualitative research in the study. Moreover the
chapter highlights the choice of participant recruitment and the interview design, followed by
the data analysis. Finally it provides a description of the ethical considerations and limitations
faced during the study.
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Chapter 4: Findings and discussion
This chapter identifies, clarifies and analyses the findings of the primary research conducted
in this paper and provides a discussion by linking and comparing the data to existing
literature and theory as described in the literature review.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations
The final chapter displays the conclusions of the analysis done in the previous chapters in
relation with the aim and objectives of this study. Finally the chapter provides a section of
recommendations for possible future research of the topic.
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Chapter 2: Literature review 2.1 Sport Tourism 2.1.1 Introduction
Sport and tourism have always been in a close relationship with each other (Gammon and
Robertson 2003; Gibson et al. 2003; Higham and Hinch 2002) and in recent years it has
become an interesting research topic among academics. Both aspects are extremely diverse
and influenced by the continuous changes on a social, cultural, economic, demographic and
technological scale, leading to the fact that sport and tourism continues to face a growing
interest in many people’s daily lives (Hadzik et al. 2011; Koc 2005). A clear definition of
sport has been a topic of discussion among academics, where some base the sector as a social
activity, while others emphasize on the competitive level of sport, the aim to strive for
something or the aspects of winners and losers (Ritchie and Adair 2004). Allan et al. (2007, p.
5) defines it as followed;
“Sport” can be considered a social construct (Weed and Bull, 2004) with
different meanings through history and in different societies.
2.1.2 Tourism
Tourism, due to the size and complexity of the sector, is hard to define. Burkart and Medlik’s
(1981) therefore concluded that tourism exist out of five elements; (1) the movement of
people to different regions and areas than their home; (2) the travel and stay in a destination;
(3) the place of visit has to offer other attractions than the place of origin; (4) the journey is
for a temporarily period of time with the aim of returning back home; and (5) the journey is
for other reasons than finding residence or employment (Hall and Page 2014). Boniface et al.
(2012) shapes the definition of tourism by linking it with recreation, which they describe as
the undertaking of activities outside a person’s daily routine and refreshes their health and
mind.
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2.1.3 Sport tourism
Another reason for the continuous closer relation between sport and tourism is the growing
interest of people traveling for sport purposes; so called sport tourism. This has not stayed
unnoticed in the academic world, leading to an increase of research in sport tourism. Gibson
(1998, p. 10) was one of the first academics on this topic and defines sport tourism as
“leisure-based travel that takes individuals temporarily outside of their home communities to
play, watch physical activities or venerate attractions associated with these activities”.
Moreover Weed and Bull (2004) link sport tourism to the interaction of activity, people and
place, which together with sport behaviour form the base of sport tourism.
Over the last years it has been obvious that there is on a global scale an increasing pattern
among people in travelling to destinations for sport purposes, whether it is for sport
participation or sport spectating (Joseph 2011). This statement is supported by Mintel (2014),
which researched and forecasted the increase of customer expenditure on attending live
spectators sports in the UK and the methods supporters use for spectating games (see figure
1).
According to their research over the next years the expenditure of people in the UK attending
sport games, whether it is domestic or abroad, will increase to a market value of 1,667
million Pounds. This forecast is based on the continuous growing amount of spectators
willing to pay to attend games combined with the growing prices of sport tickets (Mintel
2014). Although a majority of people prefer to watch a game from their television at home,
Mintel’s research shows that the second biggest segment (54%) is eager to watch a game live
at the event. This shows that people continue to be interested in attending games live and that
the number of people traveling for sport games continues to grow in the next years.
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Figure 1: expenditure live spectators and methods of watching
Source: Mintel 2014
Additionally, Gibson (1998) divides sport tourism in three typologies;
1. Active sport tourism refers to people that travel to destinations to participate in sport
themselves.
2. Event sport tourism is the movement of people towards sport events to watch or
spectate a specific sport.
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3. Nostalgia sport tourism refers to external elements outside the game, e.g. experiencing
atmospheres in stadia, stadia tours or visiting museums related to the sport.
The next sections of the literature review will elaborate on the typologies events and nostalgia
sport tourism and will provide a deeper insight in the psychological reasons of people
travelling for sport purposes.
2.2 Football Tourism 2.2.1 Introduction Football has always been one of the biggest and most popular sports in the world and reaches
every year new heights in terms of popularity (Crisp et al. 2007). In England only, around
650.000 people are spectating football games during match days in stadiums and millions
follow the game on television (SIRC 2008). However over the years the demographics of
football crowds and the level of intensity of football fandom has faced significant changes.
The changes on cultural and business level, which automatically affects football fandom, is
referred by Giulianotti (2002) as ‘glocalization’. This sub-section will elaborate in more
detail the changes in the football industry that caused the increase of football tourism as it is
in present times.
2.2.2 Commercialisation in football The existence of the sport football can be dated back to England, where middle class workers
enjoyed watching a football match on their day off (Duke 2002). However, nowadays the
traditional culture of football is losing ground in Europe (ibid). In his eyes, the football
industry is due to globalisation facing a stage of ‘Americanisation’, meaning the football
industry nowadays puts a higher importance on money and revenue than the game itself, and
therefore losing its original culture.
In present times, the football industry has grown so significantly in size, that large football
clubs (e.g. Manchester United, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona etc.) have become global brands.
According to Giulianotti and Robertson (2012) football is a rapidly growing element in
people’s everyday lives due to the increase of corporate global marketing and branding and
therefore reaching millions of people daily in different continents. These technological
chances have provided larger football teams the chance, by mean of merchandise, marketing
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and football camps, to expand their brand awareness on a global level. Moreover Giulianotti
and Robertson (2012) claim that the football industry is characterized by an increasing
number of multinational corporations investing in football teams.
The start of the new era of football as described above started in 1992, when the FA Premier
League was founded, the highest English competition existing out of 20 teams. This went
hand in hand with the creation of satellite television and major sport channels, like BSkyB
(Cleland 2010; Giulianotti and Robertson 2012; Hognestad 2012). The scenario made it
globally possible for people, fans and sport lovers to watch football matches from home for a
small amount of money (Ben-Horat 2000; Hognestad 2006). Moreover these sport channels
became powerful media channels, which together with football clubs signed lucrative
broadcast contracts for millions of pounds.
Moreover several academics have referred to the movement of a transnational Europe, where
football clubs of different European nations compete with each other (Brand and Niemann
2012; King 2000). Since the early 1990’s, FIFA (the global football association) and UEFA
(the European football association) put a higher importance on expanding football leagues
across national borders. This resulted in the creation of the Champions League, a competition
between the best football clubs of European countries (Izzo et al. 2011). Over time UEFA
expanded the number of teams playing in the Champions League and in present times it has
grown to the largest competition for football clubs in the world. Moreover the league led to
the fact that participating teams played a double amount of matches in a season. All of these
factors resulted to an increase of the European integration between football teams and cities
of different nations (King 2000).
2.3 Heritage Tourism 2.3.1 Heritage Heritage is also a recognisable aspect in the sport tourism industry, where it mostly refers to
sport sites with a significantly important past in sports and also museums and hall of fames.
According to research there is nowadays a growing interest among groups of football tourists
that goes further than normal fandom or interest in a match (Paterson and Johnstone 2009).
Some of the football tourists start to put a higher importance on external factors of a football
match, e.g. experiencing local atmospheres, architecture of a stadium or stadium museums
regarding the cultural and historic elements of a team (ibid). In terms of this growing segment,
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football stadiums are becoming a more important and interesting element for football tourists
that are searching for new experiences.
The increase of heritage tourism has been a popular topic of research in the academic world
over the last years. However due to the fact that heritage can refer to objects, traditions and
destinations, the term is hard to define (Ramshaw and Gammon 2005). According to Jamal
and Kim (2005, cited in Joseph 2011, p. 150) “Heritage can be classified as any element of
the natural, built, social, or cultural environment that deals with the past, represented and
interpreted through history, nostalgia, memory, myth, and tradition; it includes those
inherited elements we want to preserve for future generations”. Lowenthal (1985) found
three ways to experience heritage; (1) through memory, (2) by means of history and (3) by
objects (Ramshaw and Gammon 2005). Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996) expanded this
number by two experiences: cultural and art artefacts; and landscapes (natural and cultural).
Timothy and Boyd (2003) created, based on the five characteristics of Tunbridge and
Ashworth (1996), the scales of heritage. They found out that heritage can exist on a global
level all the way back to a local or personal level, meaning heritage can be interpreted
different by anyone. Based on the two previous studies, Ramshaw and Gammon (2005)
concluded that sport heritage exist out of four characterizations; tangible immovable, tangible
movable, intangibles and goods and services (see table 1).
Table 1: Characterizations of sport heritage
Types of sport heritage Explanation
Tangible immovable Sport venues or places with a significant
historic past
Tangible movable Artefacts and experiences that are not fixed,
i.e. sport museums and hall of fames, where
the objects in the buildings represent a
heritage purpose
Intangibles Factors that create the environment of a
place, e.g. atmosphere and people
characteristics
Goods and services Merchandise products referring to the past,
e.g. sport attributes of legendary players
Source: Amended from Ramshaw and Gammon 2005
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2.3.2 Nostalgia Tourism
According to Gibson (1998), the visitation of sport venues and sites with a strong historic
past in sports can also be referred as nostalgia sport tourism. Fairley and Gammon (2005, p.
182) have over the years researched nostalgia sport tourism and describe the segment as
followed;
“Nostalgia’s role in sport tourism is multifaceted and stems from the nostalgic
appeal of sport, tourism and related social experience. Two broad
conceptualizations of nostalgia in sport tourism have been used: nostalgia for
sport place or artefact, and nostalgia for social experience”.
Nostalgia refers to the aim of reliving or experiencing the past and is all about the memories
of individuals towards past events or objects. The past is by most persons considered as
something special, which strengthen the authenticity of the memories of individuals in the
sense that they witnessed it themselves (ibid). On the other hand nostalgia is also a process of
socialization, where people tell their nostalgic stories or experiences to others and therefore
nostalgia continues to reach a broader audience by word-of-mouth (Gordon 2013). Initially it
was thought that nostalgia sport tourism was referring to monuments and artefacts only, but
the social part of nostalgia makes the phenomenon increasingly larger in today’s sport
industry and therefore it has grown, together with active and event sport tourism to one of the
three most important sport tourism types (Fairley and Gammon 2005).
2.3.3 Stadia heritage
One of the fastest growing domains of nostalgia sport tourism is stadiums. John et al. (2007)
refer stadiums as “the sleeping giants of tourism”, due to the fact that stadiums are potential
attractions during all seasons, represent in some cases as the logo or eye catcher of cities and
are economically beneficial, as the tourism function of the station is an extra feature outside
ticket sales. In present times these settings have become an important aspect in terms of
tourism for many destinations (Gammon and Fear 2005; Ramshaw and Gammon 2010).
Oldenburg (1999) used in his research the term ‘third places’, which he describes as
“informal public places that host people beyond the realms of the home and work
environment – but are at the heart of a community’s social vitality” (Oldenburg 1999, cited
12
in Paterson and Johnstone 2009, p. 4). Oldenburg applied this term to bars, cafes, pubs and
other settings where people shared common interest in sport by socialization; however he did
not include stadiums. Meldick (1993) on the other hand sees the stadium as a third place,
where socialization plays an important role as people share a similar interest and knowledge
in terms of supporting a team and therefore easier participate in conversations (Paterson and
Johnstone 2009).
Other academics link stadiums and the feeling of people towards settings with the term
‘topophilia’ (Gordon 2013; Ramshaw and Gammon 2010). The term reflects to the certain
amount of attachment a human has with a place, which is created by the level of affection
created by the use of the five senses (Gordon 2013). According to Bale (2000), topophilia is
the love for a place where people feel home and secured when surrounded by other people
having the same interest. In his paper he noticed that the feelings and emotional ties of a
football ground for supporters goes further than just the place for spectating matches; instead
socialization and memories makes the stadium deeply rooted in supporters life’s (SIRC 2008).
Moreover the stadium represents an emblematic meaning to supporters that is created by the
remembrance and identity of the place (ibid). In terms of the level of attachment of a football
fan to the club or football ground is often determined by the team which is playing in the
stadium or past ‘legendary’ players or events that have occurred here (Fairley and Gammon
2005; Hognestad 2012; Nash 2000; SIRC 2008; Smith and Stewart 2007). However Smith
and Stewart (2007) emphasize on the fact that football tourists’ enthusiasm and travel
patterns can quickly change on factors such as location, presence of world class players or
even the weather.
Another reason for the increase of stadiums as tourism attractions is the growing number of
‘pilgrimages’ traveling to sport venues with a remarkable historic meaning (Gaffney and
Mascarenhas 2005; Gammon 2004; Gammon and Fear 2005). Additionally, for some football
fans, the attachment to a place can become so high that they perceive it as a sacred-place or
temple (Bouchet et al. 2004; Gaffney and Mascarenhas 2005; Gammon and Fear 2005;
Gordon 2013; Kren 2014; SIRC 2008; Westerbeek and Shilbury 1999).
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2.3.4 Stadia Tours
Another important element of heritage and nostalgia sport tourism is the rise of stadia tours as
part of a destination’s tourism portfolio (Fairley and Gammon 2005). Research has shown
that sport and its settings like stadiums, museums and hall of fames can be an important part
of the heritage of a city and can play an important role in the decision making process of
tourists to visit a destination (Ramshaw and Gammon 2005). The popularity of these settings
has led to the fact that stadium tours have become one of the most important tourist
attractions nowadays (Gammon and Fear 2005). As an example, Manchester United’s
stadium and football museum reaches an average number of 250.000 visitors annually;
making it one of the most visited attractions in England (Wood 2005). The increase of
popularity of stadia tours is due to the mysterious element it offers; as people can immerse
themselves into what normally happens behind the scenes (Gammon 2004; Ramshaw and
Gammon 2010). By the use of guides, which in some cases can be old players of the football
team, the aim of the tour is based on providing information, being educative and providing
visitors a fun time. It appears that allowing people the opportunity to experience the stadium
out of the eyes of their formal heroes and visit the areas that are normally forbidden is an
attractive tourism attribute. For many cities and football teams this new tourism segment,
especially when receiving international attention, can be a beneficial feature (Ramshaw and
Gammon 2010).
2.4 Football Fandom
2.4.1 Introduction
Over the last years, football fans spent a considerable amount of time, money and energy in
supporting their club (Vallerand et al. 2008). This scenario is caused by the fact that football
fans are characterised by psychological, social and cultural needs in their support to
something (Smith and Stewart 2007) and are in search for leisure time, socialization,
enjoyment and excitement when spectating the game (Chen 2006). Moreover Smith and
Stewart (2007) emphasizes on the fact that fandom goes further than simply supporting a club;
it is also strongly present in the daily lives and leisure time of the person.
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2.4.2 Loyalty and passion
Calhoun and Gorman (1997, p. 237) describe the loyalty and attachment of a person to a team
as fan equity, which is “the relentless emotional and physical investment that fans have in
their favourite teams, where fanaticism gives teams an added measure to prosper and
survive”. Porat (2010) defines a football fan as a person characterised by such a strong
passion towards a club that it controls his/her way of life. Furthermore, Hognestad’ (2006)
results suggest that that the passion towards a club often starts from a young age (below the
age of 13) and is often determined by the fandom of parents and family. Football is often an
important social aspect within families, where passion about the sport leads to attendance of
match days, which eventually becomes a family ritual (SIRC 2008). Furthermore football
fans often develop rituals, such as drinking and socializing with friends before or after the
game, singing and chanting, or become part of a fan community, so as to strengthen their
sense of being part of a brotherhood (ibid).
Vallerand et al. (2008) researched passion more in-to-depth and describes two different type
of passions; obsessive and harmonious. According to Vallerand and colleagues obsessive
passion refers to the urge of a person to participate in an activity. These persons have
difficulty controlling themselves towards their passion and are therefore highly involved and
engaged towards the activity. Harmonious passion on the other hand is a high interest
towards a certain activity, but without the uncontrollable urge to engage in it. These persons
see the activity more as a hobby and are able to combine this activity with their personal life
(Vallerand et al. 2008).
According to Giulianotti’s (2002), there are two sorts of spectators; hot (supporters) and cold
(followers) fans. The hot spectators have in general strong and long relations with a football
club and spend in overall a high amount of money in attributes for the club. The cold
spectator has a strong attachment with football and can have multiple interests in clubs from
different nations, becoming member of several communities and develop a transnational
network (Hognestad 2012). Porat (2010) links football fandom heavily with identity, which is
created by types of experiences that supporters face during their life; emotional-affective,
cognitive and symbolic experience (see table 2).
15
Table 2: Experience types that create a fan’s identity profile
Emotional-affective experience The strongest experience amongst fans.
Football fandom towards clubs and games
are characterised by emotional feelings of
people in terms of self and collective image
and being part of a society (bonding with
fellow supporters)
Cognitive experience The thoughts fans have about their
relationship with a club. It reflects to the
deeper insight of how fans think towards the
cost and benefits in relation to their fandom.
Symbolic experience For a fan a specific football club can
symbolise the sense of nationality or culture
Source: Amended from Porat 2010.
2.4.3 Motivations to travel for sport purposes
Sport fans are willing to travel far distances in their support to a sport or club (Smith and
Stewart 2007). In the academic world, a high amount of attention has been given to the
question of what motivates people to travel to places for sport purposes (Hoye and Lillis
2008). According to Crompton (1979), motivation plays the most important variable that adds
to the understanding of why people travel and how this impacts their behaviour (Kim 2013).
However the research on motives for people travelling for sport purposes is a very difficult
aspect to measure, as they are often related to the person’s individual preference and natural
environmental factors (ibid) and continuously new motives are emerging (Williams 2007).
This is noticeable in the academic world, as visible in table 3, where the abundance of theory
on sport fan motivations is continuing to grow (Smith and Stewart 2007).
16
Table 3: Previous academic research on sport tourism motivations
Sport tourism motives
Researchers Main motivators
Wann et al. (2001)
Entertainment, arousal and excitement, and
group affiliation (Williams 2007)
Crawford (2004)
Spectators as stadium performers and also
fans’ concerns for ‘guaranteed comfort,
entertainment and spectacle’ (Williams 2007)
Besancenot (1990)
The search for tranquillity, escape, adventure
and other fundamental expectations, such as
charm, comfort, security and health (Bouchet
et al. 2004)
Correia and Esteves (2007)
Material reasons, team affiliation, extra and
facilities, star players, and form of
entertainment (Kim 2013)
Wann (1995)
The Sport Fan Motivation Scale (SFMS);
eustress, self-esteem, escape, entertainment,
economic, aesthetics, group affiliation
and family (Hoye and Lillis 2008)
Trail and James (2001) The Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption
(MSSC);
social interaction; skill of players; acquisition
of knowledge; aesthetics; drama; escape;
achievement; physical attraction; and family
(Hoye and Lillis 2008)
Source: Amended from Bouchet et al. 2004; Hoye and Lillis 2008; Kim 2013; Williams 2007
Jones (2008) intensively researched sport motivation and cited that the literature proposes
three sorts of motivation types of why people attend sport games;
1. Motives towards the fandom of the sport
2. Motives to attend sport games for leisure purposes
3. Motives regarding the feelings of being part of a subculture
17
He moreover found out that being part of a subculture was considered the strongest variable
among people in their decision to attend or travel for sport purposes. This is in agreement
with Holt (1995), who refers to the fact that people who are travelling can be consumed by
classification (become part of a group), integration (belongingness of a subculture), the
search for experiences or relaxation.
Smith and Stewart (2007) emphasize in their study that the relation between sport and
sociability has always been a strong dimension. By a majority of persons, sport is seen as a
social occasion to share with their families, friends and other supporters, which led to the fact
that the sport provides a social aim that goes further than the activity itself (ibid). The social
purpose of the sport often leads to the creation of affiliated or emotional feelings towards
other supporters (Bouchet et al. 2004; Smith and Stewart 2007).
“Sport tourism is the opportunity to form relationships (friendly, affectionate, warm,
welcoming, cordial) with the other vacationers or native residents during the activity,
throughout or beyond the stay” (Bouchet et al. 2004, p. 131).
Moreover Stewart and Smith (2007) divide the sport consumer needs into three dimensions;
psychological, socio-cultural and social belonging (see table 4). The socio-cultural dimension
refers to the search of interaction, sociability and attachment when participating in a sport.
The psychological dimension refers to the achievement of emotional and mental needs
created by the participation of sports (ibid). It includes motives such as escape of daily life,
positive stress, enjoyment and fun. Moreover, research has shown that spectating sport is for
most supporters the best activity to escape daily life (Fink et al. 2002). Likewise, social
belonging appeared to be an important dimension among sport tourists. The level of
attachment a fan has towards a club often decides the strength of loyalty and the willingness
to travel for a team (ibid). As the psychological dimension refers to the intrapersonal
characteristics of a person, social belonging motives are all referring to the communication
between the fan and the club (Smith and Stewart 2007). A high level of social belonging to
the club automatically leads to a higher number of attendance, expenditure and loyalty of a
person (ibid).
18
Table 4: Key dimensions and motives of sport tourists
Source: Smith and Stewart 2007, p. 158
2.4.4 Type of fans
Giulianotti (2002) researched in his study the different types of spectators in the football
industry and concluded that there are four different types; Supporter, Follower, Fan and
Flâneur. Similarly, Wolf (2014) also researched the different types of football spectators and
conducted the football fandom authenticity scale (see figure 2). He created a pyramid formed
scale, which shows the spectator group with the lowest involvement or attachment to a team
at the bottom of the pyramid and the spectator type with the highest fandom at the top. The
spectator types of Wolf (2014) are armchair, groundhoppers, fairweather and diehard
supporters.
The armchair supporters are the less attached fans and are heavily media based fans. The
majority of this group supports a team by media, e.g. watching the games on television and
are in general not spectating their team in stadiums due to different reasons. The fairweather
spectators are fans that are emotionally and financially involved with their club. They are
often highly active in glorious times of a football club, but in times of failure they abandon
their club. The die-hard fans reflect towards the group with the highest fandom. Their support
is permanent, in good and bad times and the football club is part of the fans identity. In most
cases die-hard fans develop a life-long commitment with their football team and therefore
develop deeply emotional bonds and feelings towards the club and other supporters (Wolf
19
2014). As groundhoppers are a relatively new football segment and distinguish themselves
from all other fan spectator types, the next subsection provides a more detailed description on
them.
Figure 2: Football Fandom Authenticity Scale
Source: Wolf 2014, p. 35
2.4.5 Groundhoppers Especially the growth of the groundhopping scene has gone remarkably fast over the last
years and has become in present times an important segment within the football culture.
Groundhoppers, as the name suggest, prefer to hop from ground to ground to experience as
many different stadiums, atmospheres and football matches as possible (Kren 2013). These
people show in general a high dedication to the game itself, but do not strongly support one
team (ibid).
Football is in their eyes an entertainment-driven activity and the atmosphere in stadiums is of
a higher importance to them than the match itself (Wolf 2014). Kren (2014) mentions that the
atmosphere experienced by groundhoppers is dependent on two factors; the impression of the
atmosphere which is created by the environment of the stadium and secondly the mental state
of the person in the stadium itself. Furthermore a strong characterisation of groundhoppers is
the willingness to travel domestically and overseas for their hobby in order to experience new
destinations, football cultures and stadiums (Bauckham 2013; Kren 2013).
20
Schwier (2006) researched groundhopping more in-to-depth and describes the ‘mixture of
adventure, expedition, passion for football, pioneer romanticism and party culture’ (Schwier
2006, cited in Bauckham 2013, p. 446) as the main motives to participate in groundhopping.
According to Bauckham (2013) the demands of whether people can call themselves
groundhoppers are based on the amount of stadiums visited, with a higher importance on
stadiums that no longer exist or stadiums of teams that play in lower divisions of national
leagues. Moreover the groundhopping scene is characterized by different types of
groundhoppers; with some preferring to travel within a 24 hours period, while other more
fanatic groundhoppers participate in longer period trips (ibid).
2.5 Conclusion
The previous chapter provided a theoretical insight of groundhopping in terms of describing
the background of sport/football tourism, heritage tourism, passion of football supporters and
football supporter types. Over the years there has been an increasing pattern in people who
are willing to travel in order to spectate or participate in sport venues. Research on sport
tourists in the UK has shown that over 50% of the persons are interested in watching a sport
live at the venue. Moreover it appears that the continuous global developments, in terms of
increasing variety of stakeholders being active in the football industry; clubs becoming global
brand; and the rise of media channels or technological systems that communicate with the
clubs and supporters, have influenced the popularity of the sport in the daily life of persons
and changed the supporter culture in terms of behavior and motivations.
Nowadays, there is an increasing pattern of football fans whose interests goes beyond simply
spectating, but instead appreciate the external factors of the game. These factors include
experiencing local atmospheres, architecture of the stadium, stadia tours and sport museums.
The search for new experiences is created due to the fact football supporters try to fulfill their
psychological, social and cultural needs. Loyalty, passion, attachment, social aspect of the
sport, escape of daily life, relaxation, enjoyment and positive stress appeared to be the main
aspects among the support of people to a club and the willingness to travel. Due to the fact
that football become more diverse and the culture of supporters changed, a variety of football
supporters started to arise. One of the new supporter segments, that is gaining fast popularity,
are groundhoppers. They differ themselves from other supporters types, in terms that they
21
want to experience as many new destinations, football cultures and stadiums, consider the
sport as entertainment and watch the game with a neutral perception.
22
Chapter 3: Methodology 3.1 Introduction This chapter will provide an introduction into research, followed by a detailed description of
the research philosophies and approaches implemented, which accordingly to figure 3, are the
first three buildings blocks when conducting research. Moreover this chapter will elaborate
on the secondary and primary research conducted and will explain the choice for qualitative
methods for the research of this paper. Finally a description of the data analysis, ethical
considerations and research limitations faced during the study will be provided.
Figure 3: the building blocks of research
Source: Smith 2010, p. 24
23
3.2 Aim and objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics and motivations of
groundhoppers and the potential correlation between this segment and tourism. The aim of
the study is supported by the following objectives:
To explore the reasons for the growth in football tourism fans
To investigate what defines a groundhopper
To examine the motivations of persons to participate in groundhopping
To investigate in which ways groundhoppers participate in touristic activities when
visiting destinations
Develop a set of recommendations for management practice and implications for
future research
3.3 Research philosophies Research philosophies have everything to do with the evolution of knowledge and the
essence of it (Saunders et al. 2009). According to Easterby-Smith et al. (2002) having a clear
understanding of philosophies is of a high importance (see table 5).
Table 5: Importance of understanding philosophies
Understanding research philosophies
1. Helps defining and clarifying the research approaches of the study in relation with the
overall research strategy
2. Helps the researcher in understanding particular methods that suits best with the type
of research done
3. Enables the possibility for researcher to think outside the box and implement new
methods or strategies.
Source: Amended from Easterby-Smith et al. 2002
24
As visible in figure 4, the data collection and analysis is the centre of the research onion and
surrounded by other layers that need to be considered and implemented first before a
researcher is able to successfully analyse data. The first step researchers have to consider
when undertaking research is the type of research philosophy that suits the best with their
type of research (Saunders et al. 2009).
Figure 4: The research onion
Source: Saunders et al. 2009, p. 108
The first philosophy umbrella discussed in the literature world is generally ontology. Flowers
(2009, p.1) quoted; “ontology describes our view (whether claims or assumptions) on the
nature of reality, and specifically, is this an objective reality that really exists, or only a
subjective reality, created in our minds”. Basically, the focus of this approach is based upon
what we can learn from the social world and how the social world operates (Richie and Lewis
2003). Similar to epistemology, the ontology approach is characterized by different
philosophies; objectivist and subjectivist (Saunders et al. 2009).
Holden and Lynch (2004) intensively researched objectivism and subjectivism and
investigated the main differences (see figure 5). Subjectivism is characterized with a
qualitative research approach and takes the similar approach of the interpretivism from the
epistemology umbrella. The subjectivist approach recognizes that a phenomenon is created
25
by the values and beliefs of participants and that due to social interaction these values and
beliefs constantly change. Moreover it refers to the fact that the researcher first has to
understand what the participant’s perceptions are based on and where they come from before
the researcher can understand these perceptions (Saunders et al. 2009). The objectivist view
is the opposite and refers to the fact that the reality can only be scientifically proved without
the implementation of social actors.
The research of this paper applied the subjectivist philosophy, as the research process was
conducted with the perception that objects are shaped according to attitudes and opinions of
people, which are continuously changing aspects. Therefore the opinions and feelings of
people in the research of this paper a crucial role.
Figure 5: Objectivist and subjectivist
Source: Holden and Lynch 2004, p. 4
The second research philosophy umbrella that will be elaborated in detail is epistemology.
Epistemology focuses on what in the social world can and cannot be considered as acceptable
knowledge and whether the social world can be studied with the same principles and
practices as the science world (Bryman 2012). Saunders et al. (2009) distinguish the nature of
epistemological research in three research philosophies; positivism, realism and
interpretivism (see table 6).
26
Table 6: The research philosophies of epistemology
Epistemology
Positivism Realism Interpretivism
Assumes that a
phenomenon is fixed
(Rubin and Rubin 2012)
Scientific evidence is the
only possible truth (ibid)
Use of hypotheses and
modelling as research
tools (Richie and Lewis
2003)
An independent approach
to the research (Saunders
et al. 2009)
Believe feelings, attitudes
and emotions cannot be
measured
Senses show the reality,
object existence stands
separate from people’s
thoughts (Saunders et al.
2009)
Distinction between
reality and interpretation
of people towards an
object
Scientific approach,
knowledge is gained by
the collection of previous
theory and advanced by
the discovery of new
theories (Gray 2009)
Strongly related to
positivism as they
enhance the same
principles (Flick 2009;
Ritchie and Lewis 2003;
Saunders et al. 2009)
Deals with the
understanding of the
world through the eyes of
participants
Accepts the fact that
participants have different
opinions and views
(Brooker 2014)
Collection of data by use
of qualitative research
Research is provided with
feelings, beliefs and
values (Babbie 2010)
Approach for new
insights on topics
Enables researchers to
approach problems with
new or improved methods
or strategies.
Source: Amended from Babbie 2010; Brooker 2014; Flick 2009; Gray 2009; Ritchie and
Lewis 2003; Rubin and Rubin 2012; Saunders et al. 2009
In terms of the research of this study, the interpretivism philosophy was the most suitable to
implement. This is due to the fact that the research done in this study was characterized and
based on the opinions, feelings and emotions of the participants. The results of this study
were created by gaining an understanding through the eyes of the participants and by
recognizing the different views towards the topic, leading to the understanding that there is
not only one truth. This allowed the possibility to create new views and insights in the topic
outside the existing literature.
27
3.5 Research approaches
For the research approach, a researcher can either go for deductive or inductive research (see
table 7). According to Babbie (2010) these approaches are highly important to consider in
social research and are well present in daily life.
The inductive research approach has been applied in this study and is in line with the research
philosophies of subjectivist and interpretivism as explained in chapter 3.4. As the research
process of this paper was dependant of the different values and beliefs of participants, the
data derived from these persons was used for the creation of theories about groundhopping.
Moreover the research was based on the use of multiple cases, as a single case would not lead
to reliable findings. Finally the experiences of the participants formed the base of the research
and are used in the support of findings, as it represents the opinion, beliefs and feelings of
persons, in which there is no good or wrong.
Table 7: Inductive and deductive approach
Inductive Deductive
Strongly related with social sciences
(Saunders et al. 2009)
Researching a topic and with the produced
data deriving theories about that topic
A theory-building approach (Finn et al. 2000)
Qualitative research and is expected to be
supported with arguments gained from
investigation and experience
Use of multiple cases in order not to be
dependent on one single case (Gray 2009)
Applies when previous research is done by
mean of models and theory (Elo and Kyngäs
2007)
Researcher combine the knowledge and the
theoretical background of a topic and deduces
a hypothesis (Bryman and Bell 2011; Gray
2009; Jones 2015; Ritchie and Jones 2003)
Implementation of a research strategy to test
this hypothesis (Saunders et al. 2009)
Generally part of quantitative research and
the positivist approach (Jones 2015)
Moves from the “why” question to the
“whether” question (Babbie 2010)
Source: Amended from Babbie 2010; Bryman and Bell 2011; Elo and Kyngäs 2007; Finn et
al. 2000; Gray 2009; Jones 2015; Ritchie and Jones 2003; Saunders et al. 2009.
28
3.6 Research strategy
In general research is done over two stages; secondary and primary research. Secondary data
refers to information and data that is already existing of the particular topic and is used in
order to gain higher knowledge of the topic (Jones 2015). It involves archives data, published
articles, governmental reports and online information. Primary data on the other hand refers
to data that is collected during the research project by the researcher, in case of questionnaires,
or interviews, in order to gain a deeper insight in the topic.
3.6.1 Secondary research
Secondary data was the initial phase in the research process of this paper. Due to the fact that
the topic of this paper was a relatively new phenomenon, the theoretical data on the topic was
limited. Therefore this paper decided to investigate the phenomena by researching the aspects
that were closely related to the topic. This study started with gaining knowledge of sport
tourism and continued to narrow down the theory until football fan types (see appendix 7).
This process is reflected in the literature review of this paper and was conducted by
researching academic journals, books, blogs and online data relating sport, tourism or football
supporters. The secondary data research was conducted prior to the primary research in order
to form a theoretical background and gain a clearer insight of the topic. In terms of the
research objectives of this paper the secondary research was able to answer the first three
objectives (see table 8);
3.6.2 Primary research
When conducting primary research, the researcher has the possibility to go three ways;
quantitative, qualitative or a mixed approach. The decision to either do quantitative or
qualitative research is fully depended on the type of research done and the research
philosophies and approaches chosen prior to collecting the data (Saunders et al. 2009). The
primary research conducted in this paper has been included by the use of qualitative
interviews. The interviews were taken with participants who consider themselves
groundhoppers and are familiar with all aspects in the groundhopping scene. Conducting the
primary research enabled the researcher the answer the last three research objectives (see
table 8).
29
Table 8: Objectives met in the secondary and primary research stage
Research stage Answered objectives
Secondary research To explore the reasons for the growth in football
tourism fans
To investigate what defines a groundhopper
To examine the motivations of persons to participate in
groundhopping
Primary research To examine the motivations of persons to participate in
groundhopping
To investigate in which ways groundhoppers
participate in touristic activities when visiting
destinations
Develop a set of recommendations for management
practice and implications for future research
3.7 Quantitative and qualitative research
The choice of the researcher on implementing quantitative or qualitative research is
dependent on the type of research done and reflects to the way the research problem is
described and understood (Davies and Hughes 2014). Before deciding which type of research
to implement the researcher needs to have a clear understanding of the two types of research
and being able to link these to the research strategy.
Starting with quantitative research, Jones (2015, p. 23) mentions; “The use of numerical
measurement and analysis is referred to as a quantitative approach, that is research that
involves measurable ‘quantities’”. It further does not exist in naturally form and is therefore
necessary to statistically prove by the use of research instruments such as questionnaires,
modelling and hypotheses (Balnaves and Caputi 2001).
Qualitative research on the other hand approaches a phenomenon on a naturalistic and
interpretivist way by investigating through the eyes of the world, in terms of the perspectives
and views of participants (Ritchie et al. 2014). Berg (2001, p.3) describes qualitative research
as followed;
30
“Quality refers to the what, how, when, and where of a thing its essence and
ambience. Qualitative research thus refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions,
characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things”.
Punch (2014) emphasizes on the fact that the qualitative approach is more than just research
and that is represent an approach characterized by the collection of methods in order to
collect data in a non-numerical form.
Table 9 represents the characteristics of both research types discussed. Due to the fact this
paper aims to investigate the characteristics and motivations of groundhoppers and the
potential correlation between this segment and tourism, the qualitative approach appeared the
most suitable approach. The fact that groundhopping was a relatively new phenomena in the
literature and real world, data had to be collected by interviewing persons that were familiar
in the groundhopping world. The nature of the topic (emotional connections) determined the
choice of qualitative research, because by use of numerical and statistical analysis cannot
support the research aim and objectives. As explained in the research philosophy section, the
interpretivist approach was applied in this study. Due to the different perspectives and
opinions involved in the research, data was collected by a subjective perspective, realizing
the possibility of multiple realities, instead of only one reality (see table 9).
31
Table 9: Characteristics quantitative and qualitative research
Source: Jones 2015, p. 25
3.7.1 Qualitative interviews
Interviews have become a popular research method for students and researchers in order to
gain a deeper insight in the feelings and behaviours of participants and to find the meaning
behind these aspects (Jones et al. 2013). Moreover within qualitative research, interviews are
in present times the most used and popular research tool to implement for researcher (Jones
2015; Punch and Oancea 2015). In simple words, an interview can be seen as a conversation
with a specific goal (Berg 2001).
According to Veal (2006) there are three situations when interviews are the most appropriate
tools to use;
1. When the number of participants is limited in relation to the topic
2. When a broad range of information is expected from researching the topic, making
statistically research difficult
32
3. When the research of the topic is part of a larger study and will therefore be further
explored
Furthermore qualitative interviews are highly affective for topics that are hard to measure or
when limited information is available and focuses on questions ‘why’ and how’ instead of
‘how many’ (Jones 2015). This statement is perfect in line with the research of this paper, as
a new topic is hard to measure and a relatively small percentage of people participate in
groundhopping.
Interviews have been widely elaborated in the literature world and therefore different types
and terms of interviews occur. As visible in figure 6, the most common interview types are
structured interview, semi-structured interview and unstructured interview (Punch and
Oancea 2015). The structured interview contains fixed questions asked by the researcher,
making data analysing relatively easy (Finn et al. 2000). The semi-structured interview
contains questions leading to a specific area; however the questioning is more flexible and
allows the respondent more freedom and control in the answers (Jones et al. 2013). During
unstructured interviews the researchers does not have a fixed guide of questions, but lets the
respondent lead the interview. During the interview further questions are developed, allowing
respondents to freely reveal their perceptions, behaviours and beliefs (Saunders et al. 2009).
Figure 6: The main types of interview styles
Source: Punch and Oancea 2015
33
3.7.2 Semi-structured interviews
This study decided that semi-structured interviews were the most suitable method to
implement in relation with the aim of the research. Semi-structured interviewing is the most
common research type within the sport studies as it allows researchers to follow their
guideline of questions while at the same time respondents are able to freely elaborate their
thoughts and beliefs towards the topic, creating possible new insights (Jones et al. 2013).
Furthermore Veal (2006) mentions that one of the most important elements of interviewing is
the fact that the respondent is not totally led by the researcher, so the researcher is able to stay
neutral in the conversation. When relating Veal’s words to semi-structured interviewing, it is
obvious that this approach enables the respondent the freedom to share his beliefs and
perceptions, while the researcher is subjective towards the results and allows space open for
multiple realities. In order to keep some structure, a list of questions was conducted focusing
on different aspects of groundhopping, with the ability of the interviewees to freely give an
own twist to the interview (see appendix 1). The purpose of the interviews was to gain a
deeper understanding in the characteristics, motivations, travel behaviour and relation to
tourism of groundhopping. The use of qualitative semi-structured interviews allowed this
paper to approach the topic with a subjective mind-set and provided the opportunity to gain
more detailed information of the interviewees by providing them the freedom in showing
their beliefs, attitudes and emotions.
3.8 Participant recruitment and interview design
When considering the sampling techniques in relation with the qualitative semi-structured
interviews done in this paper, a researcher has the option to follow two paths; probability and
non-probability (Saunders et al. 2009).
The probability approach is associated with quantitative research, as it generally deals with
people sampling, is characterized with survey based research where the results of a sample
size represents a larger population (Punch 2014) and as figure 7 shows consist out of five
different techniques. The non-probability approach refers to an umbrella of sampling
techniques that is conducted by the subjective findings of the researcher (Saunders et al.
2009). Therefore the non-probability sampling is often used by researchers conducting
34
qualitative research. As this paper implemented qualitative research, the next section will
provide the non-probability techniques used in the research.
Figure 7: Sampling techniques
Source: Saunders et al. 2009, p. 213
In terms of finding respondents that were able to participate in the researcher interviews was
quite a challenge. First of all, the participants had to be active groundhoppers with the
experience of participating in foreign football trips. Due to the fact this study wanted to gain
a deeper understanding in whether groundhoppers act and behave as tourists during football
trips, this dissertation believed that clearer data was collected by deciding to focus on
groundhoppers that were familiar with leaving their home country. The first sampling method
used in this paper was the convenient approach, which refers to the fact that the researcher
chooses the most accessible persons in the field to be the participants, as accessibility and
quantity of the research group is scarce (Bryman and Bell 2011; Gray 2009). Snowballing
sampling, used in study, refers to the method of asking interviewees about their possible
friends or acquaintances which fit the criteria of becoming the next interviewees of the
research, which is also useful in terms of small sample groups (Ritchie and Lewis 2003).
35
This dissertation decided not to investigate more than one person of a groundhopping group
that generally travel together in order to receive a variety of perceptions, beliefs and
experiences. Instead, the participants’ knowledge and familiarity of the groundhopping world
was used in order to get in contact with other groundhoppers. Finally the opportunistic
sampling approach was included, which Jones (2015) describes as a method where the
researcher utilizes unexpected opportunities that pass his path during the research process,
e.g. the opportunity to suddenly include a key informant or high person as a participant to the
research. This happened to this study, when the co-owner of football club Swansea City, who
was in his early ages a fanatic groundhopper, was willing to participate as an interviewee in
the research.
Most interviews were carried out face-to-face, which is generally considered the most
common type of interview style (Punch 2014). The reason for choosing individual face-to-
face interviews was based on the fact that it builds trust between the researcher and
interviewees. Due to the fact interviewees can be sketchy in helping unknown researchers,
this paper believed that meeting the interviewees in person created a feeling of trust and
comfort, resulting to more openness during conversation and therefore resulting in the
collection of more rich data. Moreover conducting face-to-face interviews provided to
opportunity to observe the body language of the interviewees and respond on doubtful
responses.
However due to geographical distance two interviews were held over Skype. The date, time
and location were decided in consultation with the respondents and adapted to their
convenience, also in order to create a comfortable and trustworthy bond. The interviews were
based on 19 questions (see Appendix 1), however during the interviews the researcher was
free in adding new questions relating to previous ones. Therefore the time span of every
interview was different, varying between 20 – 35 minutes. The interviews, in consultation
and approval of the interviewee, were audio-recorded in order to transcribe interviews later.
The interviews were based on different aspects in relation with groundhoppers;
1. Their perceptions of defining a groundhopper
2. Their perceptions on the growth of groundhopping globally
3. Motivational factors for participating in groundhopping
4. Their activeness and passion towards groundhopping
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5. Previous trips, domestic and foreign, undertaken by the respondents
6. The set of criteria of the respondents towards the decision making process
7. Tourism activities undertaken by the respondents during trips
8. Their perception of whether the respondents consider themselves tourists during
groundhopping
3.9 Data Analysis
The data analysis plays an important role in the research process of a paper, as all the data
collected has to be analysed and the meaning behind the data has to be understood (Saunders
et al. 2009). Babbie (2015, p. 382) defines qualitative analysis as followed;
“The nonnumerical examination and interpretation of observations, for the purpose
of discovering underlying meanings and patterns of relationships”.
As the data analysis is characterized by a high number of approaches (Saunders et al. 2009),
this study applied thematic analysis in order to structure and analyse the gathered data.
Thematic analysis requires, compared with other approaches, a higher involvement of the
researcher, due to the fact it goes further than the search for single words or sentences;
instead the aim is to identify and describe ideas from the data, so called themes (Guest et al.
2012). Holloway and Wheeler (2010) mention that there is no good or wrong way to analyse
qualitative data, however they cited that generally most processes follow the same steps; (1)
transcription of interviews or field notes; (2) organising, ordering, and storing data; (3) repeat
going through the data to find new information; (4) coding and categorising; and (5) create
themes. The structure of the data analysis of this study was in line with the steps of Holloway
and Wheeler (2010).
The initial step of the research process was the transcription of the interviews in word
documents. The second step of the thematic analysis was to identify the collected data and
relate them to classified patterns (Aronson 1994). The third step focused on the repetition of
reading the interviews several times in order to gain a clearer view of similarities and
differences between feelings, emotions and opinions of the interviewees and at the same time
to get a better understanding of the meaning behind the sentences. Fourthly, this study
37
implemented the use of open coding. Marks and Yardley (2004, p. 75) defines open coding as
followed;
“Open coding involves going through the interview data systematically, listening to
the recording, reading and rereading the transcripts to become thoroughly familiar
with it, and assigning labels, or codes, to sections of the text”.
The coding in this study was based on examining the data to search for correlations and
inequality in the answers of the interviewees. As coding plays a crucial part of the data
analysis, the coding of all conducted interviews was done line by line (Marks and Yardley
2004). Based on the coding, all codes that were similar or related to each other were then
grouped into sub-themes or categories (Aronson 1994; Babbie 2015). This strategy was done
interview by interview and related codes were given a similar colour and then classified in
the appropriate coloured category they relate to. Finally a high number of sub-themes were
created, which in order to create themes, were revised or combined in order to come up with
the final themes
3.10 Ethical considerations
Ethical considerations are an important element for any researcher to consider and reflects to
all stages of the research process (Finn et al. 2000; Gratton and Jones 2010; Jones et al. 2013).
Finn et al. (2000) refers to two issues that every researcher needs to make clear before
conducting research; confidentiality and anonymity. Confidentiality is all about protecting the
respondents after the research is made public, which commonly is assured by keeping the
results confidential (ibid). Anonymity refers to the privacy of the respondents in terms of
mentioned names or data in the paper that reflects towards the respondent (ibid). The research
done in this paper was conducted under consideration of these points and respondents were
informed prior to the research about their confidentiality and anonymity rights in terms of the
consent form. Moreover, the respondents were prior to the interview asked for approval to
record the interview. Finally, the participation of the respondents in this research process was
purely voluntarily and all respondents had their rights to pull out of the research process at
any time.
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3.11 Limitations
A researcher face the chance to bump into difficulties or limitations during the research itself
or after the research is done. However documentation of these limitations is an important
aspect, as it helps the researcher to understand the barriers of the research and the
interpretation towards these limitations (Ritchie and Lewis 2003). As this paper applied the
most suitable practices and methods in terms of achieving the research aim, a couple of
limitations did occur.
Literature review
During the conduction of the literature review, it appeared that specific research on
groundhoppers was rather limited. Therefore this paper covers a low amount of theory based
on groundhopping and instead provides an theoretical background of the aspects in close
relation with groundhopping
Research method
As the number of participants was hard to find and the literature on the topic was limited, the
implementation of a focus group would have been the most suitable methods to apply in the
research, as it creates the possibility for discussion between the participants, leading to more
rich data. However due to the geographical distance and the unfamiliarity between the
participants this was impractical
Participant recruitment
As groundhopping is characterized by a tight community, getting in contact with
groundhoppers for an outsider was a challenge. This led to the fact that all groundhoppers
that offered to participate in the interview were welcome, creating a variance of ages, cultural
differences and demographics included in the interviews, leading to an abundance of different
opinions and feelings
Moreover some of the participants appeared to be fanatic groundhoppers in their young ages,
while in present times they retired from the activity. Due to the fact football cultures, persons
wealth, prices and peoples’ behaviour were different, an equation between groundhoppers
then and now was challenging.
39
Findings
In some cases, themes appeared to be strongly related or overlapping, e.g. motivations and
sociability. Even though in the interviews they were clearly mentioned as separate important
aspects, in terms of theory these aspects were sometimes considered the same, resulting in the
fact some academics were used multiple times over different themes
3.12 Conclusion
This chapter provided an insight of the research stages necessary in order to create quality
research and outlined the research strategies used of this study in order to meet the research
aim and objectives. In terms of the rationale of research philosophies and approaches, this
study found that applying the qualitative subjectivist, interpretivist and inductive approach
were most suitable in relation with the research of the paper covering all the related
methodology literature, as well as research design and constructs.
40
Chapter 4: Findings
4.1 Introduction This chapter will firstly provide an analysis of the primary data collected in this research and
secondly link this back to the secondary data conducted in chapter 2. As mentioned in chapter
3, the research of this paper was based on the use of semi-structured interviews, where the
participants were faced with questions regarding different aspects of groundhopping. By
mean of transcription and coding, the researcher was finally able to find the main themes that
all interviewees brought to light. The main themes that occurred and will be elaborated in the
following chapter are;
Developing intrapersonal characteristics
Feelings towards nostalgia
In seek of motivational factors
Inculcating a sense of sociability, belongingness and attachment
The development of personal identity
In search for the ultimate experience
Indulging in secondary activities
4.2 Intrapersonal characteristics One of the themes that were the strongest represented among all interviewees in terms of
being a groundhopper was the development of intrapersonal characteristics by the individuals.
The intrapersonal characteristics, as the word already says, are the existing or occurring
aspects within one person's mind or self which makes them crazy about participating in
groundhopping. Some of the strongest aspects relating to intrapersonal characteristics were
passion, loyalty, fandom and football being an important aspect in life. After interviewing all
the participants, the study found out that for every interviewee the passion towards the sport
football was enormous and appeared to be one of a key aspect in becoming a groundhopper.
Interviewee 9 can be seen as one of the most passionate groundhopper in the field and
mentions the following about passion;
41
“In the time I was a passionate groundhopper, the only thing I did is with the lowest
budget seeing as many games as I could, because football was my life and my love. I
can tell you this, all my friends went to the discotheques and I always went to football
games” (Interviewee 9).
This finding is in line with the research on passion done by Porat (2010), who mentions that
the amount of fandom for some fans can become so obsessive, that it will control the lifestyle
of the person. Moreover the finding supports the research on different types of passion by
Vallerand et al. (2008). Some people are characterized by obsessive passion, where the
person has difficulties to control his passion and therefore is characterized by a high amount
of activeness and engagement towards his passion in comparison with other persons (ibid).
Another important aspect of the development of intrapersonal characteristics was the
importance of football in the daily life of the interviewees and was considered a time-
consuming feature. Interviewee 1 mentioned the following about the role of football in his
life;
“Football is something I am busy with the whole week. I get up with it and I go to bed
with it. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is reading all the football
news in order to be fully updated. Moreover I try to watch as many football games on
the television and in the weekend to visit as many games as possible. So yes, you can
say that every minute of my leisure time I am busy with football” (Interviewee 1).
This statement shows that the fandom of the person towards football has become such an
important part in his life that the person is busy with the aspect even in his leisure time. This
is in line with the theory of Smith and Stewart (2007), who mentioned that fandom goes
further than supporting a club and has the possibility to become an aspect in the leisure time
of the person.
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4.3 Nostalgia Feelings towards nostalgia appeared to play an important role regarding groundhopping.
Nostalgia refers to elements regarding memories towards groundhopping. The main aspects
that came forth from the interviews in terms of nostalgia were having a role model, memories,
first experience and heritage. Five interviewees mentioned the importance of a role model in
their life in terms of the starting point of their passion towards football or groundhopping.
“For me everything with football started thanks to my father, who brought me to the
stadium to watch a friendly match between Malaysia and Thailand when I was eleven
years old. From that moment on, I feel eager to see live matches in the stadium and I
am always looking forward to the next match I am able to visit” (Interviewee 7).
This finding is in agreement with research done by Hognestad (2006), who found out that the
passion to football or the support towards a club often start from a young age of below 13
years and that it is generally influenced by the fandom of the parents and family of the person.
Moreover the memories that are created by participating in groundhopping appeared to play a
significant role among groundhoppers. Four interviewees quoted that previous
groundhopping trips provides them likable memories towards their hobby.
“In the past watching the Champions League and Uefa Cup on the television was
enough. But since I started to visit stadiums in person, these incredible structures
have become more for me. Nowadays when I watch football on the television, I get the
goosebumbs by the thought that I have been in that stadium personally. For example
when I watch a game of Chelsea, I always have the pleasant memory that I had a seat
on the second tier one day and the opportunity to experience the atmosphere, which is
a memory no one can steal from me” (Interviewee 1).
The memories individuals create towards objects, and specifically towards stadiums in the
above statement, is in line with previous research done on nostalgia of football fans by
Fairley and Gammon 2005; Kren 2014; Ramshaw and Gammon 2005; and SIRC 2008.
According to SIRC (2008) the attachment of persons towards a football stadium is created
and strengthened by socialization and memories of being present in the stadium. Once
individuals create pleasant memories towards the place and characterize it with being part of
a community, then persons quickly cherish the place. Moreover Gaffney and Mascarenhas
43
2005 emphasizes on the fact that the attachment to a place can lead to the fact that persons
start to see the place as something unique or special, for example a sacred place. Moreover
the attachment of individuals towards objects is in agreement with the findings of Ramshaw
and Gammon (2005), who divide sport heritage in four categories; tangible immovable,
tangible movable, intangibles and goods and services. Intangible aspects refer to all elements
that are created by individuals when being present in the stadium, e.g. memories, rituals,
chanting, singing and so on. These memories of traditions and rituals created in a stadium are
purely linked to that location and can be a strong aspect in the attachment to the place (ibid).
4.4 Motivational factors In seek of motivational factors were strongly present in the responses from the interviewees
regarding groundhopping. The motivational factors refer to all aspects that create the
satisfaction among the interviewees in terms of being a groundhopper. The diversity of
motives appeared to be high, however the most important motives that arose were atmosphere,
seeing world class players, escaping daily life and becoming part of the experience. Seven
interviewees mentioned that they considered the atmosphere in the stadium as their most
important motive.
“The main motivator for me in terms of groundhopping is the atmosphere that comes
with it. Every stadium is characterized by a different atmosphere, which is dependent
on the passion of the supporters. The interesting and fascinating thing is that the
atmosphere and passion of supporters of football teams are different as every club is
characterized by a large variety of supporters with different personalities, interests
and cultures clustered in the stadium” (Interviewee 10)
“Each stadium I have been to has this different atmosphere that I cannot explain, but
it hits you when you watch the game. It is that amazing atmosphere every stadium has
which differs. In the end the atmosphere and the fans make the stadium, so to be able
to experience that is what motivates me” (Interviewee 2).
These statements are in consonance with several theory regarding football fans and
groundhoppers. Paterson and Johnstone (2009) concluded in their research that there is an
increasing number of sport tourists that nowadays search for more than simply spectating a
match, but rather put a high importance on the external factors around the football game, of
which experiencing the atmosphere is one of these factors. Moreover they cited that there is
44
an increase of fanatic football fans traveling for stadiums, where the attachment of the
persons to the stadium is created by the history, architecture and atmosphere of the place.
Finally Wolf (2014) found out that groundhoppers consider groundhopping as an activity to
experience enjoyment and that in their eyes the atmosphere in a stadium is a bigger factor to
reach enjoyment than the game itself.
Moreover four interviewees mentioned the possibility to experience their favorite players on
the field as a motivational factor. In some cases the main decision to travel to a destination as
a groundhopping trip was based on the aim to see these players in real life.
“I am not denying that the ticket prices for the big football clubs were quite expensive
for a student like me, but that is the time for me to see my favourite players on the
field. Oh Messi, oh Cristiano. What a lucky person I am to see some of the great
players which I really adore and dream of meeting them. It was truly excited and I
have no words to describe it” (Interviewee 3).
Previous research found out that the presence of world class players, whether it is in the past
or present, plays an important role in the attachment of football fans (Fairley and Gammon
2005; Hognestad 2012; Nash 2000; SIRC 2008; Smith and Stewart 2007). Moreover Smith
and Stewart (2007) mention the fact that sport tourists are a fickle segment and generally
adapt their travel pattern on factors such as location, presence of popular players and weather
conditions. Therefore football tourists that travel and spend money on their hobby, will prefer
to pay for games where they have the possibility to see or meet their football heroes, however
when this player starts to play for a new team, generally these football tourists follow.
Escape of daily life or freedom was also a motive among several interviewees in order to
participate in groundhopping. As groundhopping is seen as an entertainment driven activity
(Wolf 2014), some interviewees quoted that going on a groundhopping trip gives them the
feeling of escaping the hectic life of home and provides them the freedom to do what they
want.
“I want to visit new grounds. With no order at all, or no bucket list. I look at a free
weekend and search if something is on nearby. I don’t consider myself as a real
groundhopper. I like a day out with my friends” (Interviewee 4).
The statement is in agreement with previous research done by Besancenot 1990; Smith and
Stewart 2007; Trail and James 2001; and Wann 1995, who found out that escape of daily life
45
played a central role for people to travel for sport purposes and that spectating sport is the
best way to achieve escapement (Fink et al 2002). Chen (2006) support these findings by
citing that football fans are characterized by needs they searched for in their support to
football, e.g. enjoyment, escape of daily life, free time and sociability. Therefore
groundhoppers consider a football trip as a short vacation, often with friends, where pleasure
and fun are the most important criteria.
4.5 Sociability, belongingness and attachment One of the strongest themes that arose from all interviewees was inculcating a sense of
sociability, belongingness and attachment. These aspects diverse from groundhopping trips
undertaken by the interviewees with their friends or family to the socializing aspect of
groundhopping with other footbal fans by sharing similar interests. All interviewees admitted
that by participating in groundhopping they felt part of something bigger, e.g. of a
community or brotherhood. Seven interviewees mentioned that during groundhopping trips,
they shared experiences with other groundhoppers or football supporters in local pubs or in
the stadium. This theme is strongly linked with the motivational factor theme in 4.4, as the
characteristic of socializing during groundhoppers appeared for most groundhoppers to be an
pleasant feature and a big motivator to continue the activity.
“From my own experience I can say that being a groundhopper is totally different
than being a normal fan. Because groundhopping is something special, you feel that
you are part of a community. During my groundhopping trips I noticed that people
with the same interests are easily drawn to each other and before you know you share
ideas and experiences about your hobby with others” (Interviewee 2).
Moreover the interviews showed that groundhoppers prefer to travel with a group they feel
comfortable and safe with. Nine out of ten interviewees mentioned that they do not prefer to
travel individually or with groundhopping tours, but rather stick with their fixed group of
friends.
“So far I only visited one match by myself, which attracted me a lot less than when
traveling with some mates. Entering a pub by yourself and the fact that you have no
one to talk to when the game is bad or good makes traveling by yourself less nice”
(Interviewee 10).
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The statements are in consonance with the findings of Jones (2008) and Holt (1995), who
mention that the feeling of affinity and belongingness is the main reason for people to travel
to destinations for sport purposes. Moreover, the findings are in agreement with research
done by Smith and Stewart (2007), who emphasize on the strong linkage between sport and
sociability, where people see the sport as a social occasion to share with friends and relatives
and consider the social aspect of a higher importance than the game itself. Due to the fact
people see sport as an activity for spending time with family and friends it automatically
drives the feeling of being part of a community (Bouchet et al. 2004).
4.6 Personal identity The development of personal identity was another theme that strongly came forth from the
research conducted by the researcher. Personal identity is somewhat related to the
intrapersonal characteristics in 4.2, as it includes aspects that are part of the persons
personality and identity, however the main difference is that personal identity refers to
aspects that (1) became a part of the personality of a person over the course of their life; (2)
choices made by the person; (3) the way they decide to spend their time and (4) the beliefs
they developed. The most important aspects from the interviewees towards their personal
identity in relation with groundhopping were rituals, emotions, being proud and having the
courage to follow your dreams. Rituals appeared to be a strong aspect among some
groundhoppers, which were often created over a longer time-span and were generally
originated by personal preferences and increased the satisfaction level of the person.
“When Swansea plays against Chelsea a game in London for example, I always make
sure that a couple of hours before the match I drink a beer at my standard pub at the
corner of Chelsea’s stadium in order to feel and experience the atmosphere before the
game. And this is something I have to do for myself before the match, so I have the
feeling” (Interviewee 9).
This statement supports the research done by SIRC (2008), which mention that football fans
generally create family and personal rituals over a longer period of time when supporting a
team in order strengthen their feelings of being part of a community or because it contributes
to the personal satisfaction level of the person.
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Moreover three respondents, mainly from the Asian continent, referred to the feeling of being
proud when being active towards football spectating. This feeling of proudness is often
expressed by the support of the local football club, but as well towards the sport football itself.
Therefore these persons are eager to further increase their activeness in football by expanding
their passion of spectating to other football matches.
“Like in my country itself, football is a proud of the state and the country. You can
feel the sense of proud and belonging when you are in a stadium sitting next to a same
individual who supports the same team as yours. The sense of belonging is created,
increasing my feeling of being proud towards football” (Interviewee 7).
The statement is supported by findings of Porat (2010), who links football fandom strongly
with identity, which is created by experiences during their support for a club. One of these
experiences is the symbolic experience, where a sport or club can create the sense of
nationality for persons, which strengthen the feeling of being proud. Moreover the statement
makes clear that the stadium is an important place where the feeling of proudness and
belongingness is created, which gives the interviewee a pleasant experience. This is in
agreement with the findings of Bale (2000), who found out that some fans develop a feeling
towards a place, as it provides them a comfortable and safe feeling when surrounded by
people with the same interests, which he called ‘topophilia’.
4.7 The search for the ultimate experience Another result that came forth from the conducted interviews, was the search for the ultimate
experience or the aim for more adventures. Due to the fact all interviewees have experienced
a high amount of football matches, atmospheres and stadiums, it is a natural human
characteristic of trying to exceed the future football trips in comparison with the past. All
interviewees mentioned that when participating in groundhopping they are looking for the
best experience as possible. In order to achieve this, all interviewees placed a high
importance on matches between rivalry teams, derby’s and games that are characterized with
a high amount of tension.
“For the trip to Czech Republic I visited a derby between Sparta Prague and SK
Slavia Prague. The game was characterized by a really great atmosphere and a friend
recommended me to join him to this game, so I decided to go as I was interested in
experiencing the football culture in a different country. As it was a derby, the rivalry
48
between the teams and the supporters was enormous and that was pretty impressive to
experience, as the police had to interrupt in order to keep the supporters away from
each other” (Interviewee 6).
The statement above reflects to the feelings of the interviewee towards the external
environment of the football match. The interviewee knew in front that the match was
characterized by a high amount of rivalry and tension and therefore the persons’ excitement
was purely based on the atmosphere around the match then the match itself. This view is in
agreement with the results found by Wolf (2014), who emphasizes in his paper that
groundhoppers consider their hobby purely as a fun activity and consider the external factors
around a match of a higher priority than watching the match. Moreover the statement is
consistent with the findings of Kren (2014), who mentions that the atmosphere among
groundhoppers is perceived by the environment in the stadium, e.g. behavior of the
supporters. Secondly the own perception and openness of the groundhopper to the experience
plays an important role in how he perceives the atmosphere. When a groundhopper is curious
and open beforehand to an experience then the experience will not disappoint him (ibid).
Moreover six of the interviewees highlighted the importance of quality games during their
groundhopping trips. In their eyes quality games are matches with a certain meaning (e.g.
finals, championship games, league games and transnational competitions), as these matches
are often characterized by a great atmosphere and the football game is a nice treatment for the
eyes. Interviewee 5 empasized on the importance of quality during his trips and mentioned
the following;
“When looking to the match itself, I prefer to go to games that have a meaning, in
terms of championship matches or games that on paper look really good. Moreover I
would love to go to a World Cup one time or the really big games in Europe, such as
Real Madrid - FC Barcelona or Fenerbache - Galatasaray. The tickets will of course
be much more expensive, but I consider it as a once in a lifetime experience and the
ultimate groundhopping experience” (Interviewee 5).
The aim of the interviewees to search for quality matches is in contrast with the research done
by Bauckham (2013), who found out that most groundhoppers consider visiting teams of the
lower national leagues as an important aspect in groundhopping. Of course there is a variety
in groundhopper types, where the most fanatic ones have the goal to finish all stadiums in a
country and therefore have to visit matches from lower divisions. However there are also
49
groundhoppers who participate in the activity more for entertainment purposes (Correia and
Esteves 2007; Crawford 2004; Wolf 2014) or do not have the financial resources to
accomplish this and therefore choose their games to their preferences.
4.8 Secondary activities As the aim of this paper is to investigate the characteristics and motivations of groundhoppers
and the potential correlation between this segment and tourism, the interviews were as well
focused on activities undertaken by the interviewees outside visiting the football match, e.g.
sightseeing activites at the visited place, accommodation, food and drinks, pubs and bars,
visited attractions and other activities where groundhoppers spend money on. Of all themes
arised from the interviews, the indulgment in secondary activities occured to be the most
diverse of all, as it appeared that the attempt of including secondary activities in a trip was
strongly dependant on personal preferences, group pressure and time. Therefore the answers
strongly diverse from each other regarding the undertaken activities in the free time of the
groundhopping trips.
“I consider myself on vacation when I am visiting a new ground in unfamiliar
surroundings and often try to enjoy being in new places by visiting different
attractions or just by exploring the city” (Interviewee 4).
“From all the games I have seen I only have indulged twice in tourist activities. I do
not know how you would categorize me, but chanting, cheering and screaming for a
full game takes a lot out of you, so after the match I just want to relax and drink a pint”
(Interviewee 2).
Furthermore some of the groundhoppers considered their groundhopping trip as a type of
vacation and did not mind to spend money on local attributes. However it appeared that the
persons who considered themselves as the more fanatic groundhoppers, purely visit a
destination with the aim of watching the football match and besides that try to spend as less
money as possible.
“From all the stadiums I have visited (Old Strafford, Etihad Stadium, Santiago
Bernabeu, Emirates Stadium) I never forget to bring some merchandises such as T-
shirts, key chains and others with me. Although my friends tell me that buying
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merchandises is a waste, for me it is a way to show I support the team. Last time I
bought a shirt at the Man Utd fan shop from Van Persie for 179.99 pound. Who cares?
As long as I am satisfied with it! (Interviewee 7).
“I never paid the train though, because every time the conductor showed up I made
sure I was not there, because else the costs of the trip would be too high. And I did the
same in the UK, because I worked for a company, but I did not get paid so well …. I
barely slept in hotels, hostels or guesthouses. I always just slept at the train stations,
because I wanted to do it as cheap as possible. In my young ages I was not scared”
(Interviewee 9).
Besides the touristic activities initiated by the groundhoppers, an important aspect of the
indulging in secondary activities theme was whether the interviewees considered themselves
as tourists during their groundhopping trips or believed they were simply football fans. Seven
interviewees responded that they considered themselves as tourists, as they believed
themselves to be in a different environment than home. However some of the persons
emphasized on the difference between a tourists and a groundhopping tourists.
“I think I am more than a tourist. Let’s say I am a guest. I am visiting a country for
football sake! A tourist is someone who wants to see as much as possible in little time
and is not really looking for company. A groundhopper is looking for company and
fun” (Interviewee 8).
Groundhopping is a relatively new football segment that started to gain popularity over the
last couple of years. In the academic world the phenomena is therefore scarcely investigated,
on the exception of research done by Bauckham (2014) and Kren (2013/14). Therefore the
statements above can only be linked towards general sport tourism theory. Chen (2006)
mentioned that football supporters have the need to search for different elements in their
support, e.g. free-time, sociability, pleasure, freedom and national pride. Smith and Stewart
(2007) support this theory and divide the needs of football fans in the categories
psychological, socio-cultural and self-concept motives, where supporters search for
enjoyment, escape of daily life and spectacle. Therefore most groundhoppers consider their
football trip as a type of short vacation, where they escape from their normal routine at home
and have the freedom to participate in secondary activities when time and money allows.
However in the end only Bauckham (2014) briefly links groundhopping to be an aspect of
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sport tourism, the main focus of the authors papers are based on identifying and linking
groundhopping to a sub-culture and serious leisure. A more detailed research of the potential
correlation between this segment and tourism in terms of travel behavior and touristic
activities undertaken was still nonexistent in the academic world. Therefore the results found
on this specific topic in this paper could be considered as the primary findings regarding
groundhopping in relation with tourism.
4.9 Conclusion
This chapter presented and discussed the findings that arose from the research conducted in
this paper. By mean of conducting interviews, the researcher was able to recognize the main
themes that were mentioned by the interviewees regarding groundhopping. The themes
appeared to cover a variety of aspects in terms of being a groundhoppers and were related to
(1) the individuals (intrapersonal characteristics and personal identity), (2) reasons for being a
groundhopper (nostalgia and motivational factors), (3) the search for the search for personal
aspects regarding satisfaction (sociability, belongingness and attachment and the search for
the ultimate experience) and (4) the relation between groundhopping and tourism (secondary
activities).
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Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.1 Introduction
This study has aimed to investigate and analyse the characteristics and motivations of people
to participate in groundhopping and the correlation between this segment and tourism.
Despite the lack of literature on groundhoppers, this segment seems to become a more
important aspect to consider for companies and organisations involved in the sport and
tourism industry.
This chapter will focus on the research aim and objectives set in the beginning and will
analyse whether the objectives have been met in relation with the findings and literature
reviewed in this paper. Moreover an explanation of the contribution to the theory will be
provided, followed by a list of recommendations for future research.
5.2 Evaluation of the research objectives
5.2.1 Secondary research process
As groundhopping was a relatively new segment in the sport tourism industry, the secondary
research stage of this paper, which was conducted in the literature review, played an
important role in answering the first three objectives of this paper. Due to the lack of
literature on groundhopping in specific, the secondary research started with the
primary/parent industry of groundhopping, i.e. sport tourism and continued to narrow down
the sub-industries. It continued to provide a theoretical background of football fan
characteristics, motives and types of football fans, in order to end with the activity
groundhopping itself (see appendix 7). The literature on the industries answered the first two
objectives and showed a strong shift in people’s preferences and behaviour in regards to sport
tourism. It appeared that a growing number of people in present times become interested in
spectating sport live at the venue and are willing to travel distances to achieve this. Moreover
the commercialisation of the football industry and the change of supporter cultures have
made football nowadays the biggest sport in the world, characterised by a fan base of millions.
It moreover became clear that an increasing amount of tourist fans started to show interests in
53
the external elements of a football game, which is driven by nostalgia (memories, legendary
players or games); heritage (stadiums, stadia tours, football museums and architecture); and
environmental aspects (atmosphere, feeling of affinity, sociability and supporter cultures).
The third objective was answered by the theoretical background of football fandom.
Literature showed that football fans are characterised by psychological, social and cultural
needs in their support to the sport (Smith and Stewart 2007). At the same time the fandom of
football fans is characterized by a certain level of passion and loyalty towards a club. Fans
categorised by an ‘obsessive’ passion have difficulties controlling their fandom and are
therefore highly active towards the sport, while persons with ‘harmonious’ passion are able to
control the urge to highly participate in the sport (Vallerand et al 2008). Furthermore the
social dimension of football appeared to play a crucial role in the choice of people to
participate and travel for sport purposes (Bouchet et al. 2004). The sport seemed to be the
perfect occasion for people to spend time with family, friends and other supporters and
fulfilled the satisfaction level of people by providing enjoyment, excitement, drama and
escape of daily life (Smith and Stewart 2007). At the same time the feelings towards affinity
and belongingness by spending time with people characterised by the same interest appeared
to be a high motive (Holt 1995; Jones 2008).
Finally, reviewing the conducted and combined secondary data, a theoretical description of
groundhoppers was covered. As most football fans, groundhoppers are characterized by a
strong passion and loyalty to the game. However, groundhoppers consider the sport as an
entertainment-driven activity and put a higher importance on the external factors of a game
than the game itself (Wolf 2014). Groundhoppers distinguish themselves from other
supporters in terms of their willingness to travel domestically and overseas for their hobby in
order to experience new destinations, football cultures and stadiums (Bauckham 2013; Kren
2013). In this regard, Fairley and Gammon (2005, p. 187) mention the following;
“The fact that their journeys and motives were primarily driven by the expectation of
visiting a sporting attraction suggests that they represent a fascinating and important
segment of sport tourism”.
54
5.2.2 Primary research process
The primary research process was conducted after the secondary research process. This paper
applied a subjectivist and interpretivist approach in terms of philosophies and followed the
inductive analysis, reflecting the implementation of qualitative research. The used research
method was semi-structured interviews as explained in chapter 3. All ten interviews
conducted in this paper were then transcribed one by one and by mean of organising and
ordering the data, rereading the transcripts and by the use of open coding, eventually the sub-
themes and main themes regarding groundhopping were created. In terms of using these
research strategies, the primary research process was focused on answering the last three
objectives of this study. The next section will summarise the findings of the study in relation
with the research aim and objectives. Furthermore, Figure 8 presents the conceptual
framework of groundhopping in relation with the themes and sub-themes that arose from the
findings of this study.
The intrapersonal characteristics of the individuals appeared to be the strongest theme in
relation to participate in groundhopping. They cover all aspects existing or occurring within
one person's mind or self. This study found that all interviewees participating in
groundhopping are characterized by a strong support to a club and have a strong passion
towards the sport. Moreover the sport football appeared to be an aspect that returned in the
daily lives of the interviewees, which showed that football plays an important role in the lives
of groundhoppers. It emerged that groundhoppers generally create rituals for personal
satisfaction or in terms of being part of a community. In some cases the sport football
represented a symbolic meaning towards nationality, which caused the fact that some
individuals put a high importance on spectating matches. The findings were in line with
previous findings in the academic world regarding passion, loyalty and the needs of football
supporters.
Secondly, nostalgia occurred to be a big factor in the life of groundhoppers, in terms of
having a role model, which generally influenced the passion and fandom of the individual. It
appeared that when a family is characterized by a strong passion or support, the individual is
more likely to create an interest to the sport football or the activity groundhopping. Moreover
the likeable memories created in terms of objects appeared to be an important aspect among
the interviewees in order to continue in the activity.
55
Figure 8: Conceptual framework of research
56
The importance of external factors outside the football match, specifically experiencing the
atmosphere, occurred to be the strongest aspect of the motivational factors. The ability to
experience the level of passion and loyalty of other supporters appeared to have a higher
importance than the football match itself. Moreover the importance of world class players
appeared to be a central aspect among some groundhoppers, as they preferred to spend
money on games where they have the ability to see their heroes. Finally groundhopping was
seen as an activity to escape daily life and as an entertainment driven activity with friends.
The findings were in line with previous theory on family fandom, sport nostalgia and the
search for needs of football supporters.
Thirdly, sociability, belongingness and attachment happened to be an important aspect of
groundhopping. Participating in the activity gave the interviewees the feeling of being part of
something bigger. Moreover groundhopping provided the interviewees with the possibility to
meet new people and more easily share experiences, which increased the satisfaction level of
the individuals towards groundhopping. Furthermore, the activity appeared to be a social
activity, as most undertake groundhopping with friends or family. Another finding was the
fact that most interviewees put a high meaning on quality matches or matches characterized
by an amount of tension. This finding is closely linked to the value of atmosphere, as the
interviewees appeared to put a higher emphasis on the external factors of a match. Most of
the findings were in consonance with previous theory on supporter needs, the importance of
places and objects and the search for characteristics of groundhoppers. However the finding
of the interest of quality games among groundhoppers was in contrast with previous findings.
Finally, the chapter linked the groundhopping activity towards tourism in the secondary
activities theme. It emerged that the decision to participate in secondary activities was
different for every groundhopper and was strongly influenced by personal preference, group
pressure, money and time. Although most interviewees mentioned to spend money on
touristic attributes and include sightseeing in their trips, the more passionate groundhoppers
cited their aim was purely to visit the football match and spend as less money as possible.
However the less passionate groundhoppers mentioned they considered themselves as tourists
during their football trip, where they spend money on accommodation, food and drinks and
attractions. The findings of groundhopping in relation with tourism were not covered in
previous research as can therefore be considered as the prime findings.
57
5.3 Contribution to the theory
This paper has intensively investigated groundhopping in terms of theory and practice. As
literature on groundhopping was almost non-existent, this paper aimed to provide a detailed
analysis of the characteristics and motivations of persons participating in the activity. It
appeared that groundhoppers share similarities with football supporters in general in terms of
interests in watching matches live, the willingness to travel for sport purposes, an increasing
interest in external factors and the characterization of a certain amount of passion. However,
theoretically this study presented a clear distinction between groundhopper and other
supporters in the fact that participate in the sport to obtain enjoyment and excitement and
perceive it with a neutral perception. Therefore the end score of the games is not of an
importance; however they are driven by nostalgic, heritage and environmental aspects.
The practical findings showed a high variety on the characteristics and motivations of
groundhoppers. It appeared that the level of passion and dedication among groundhoppers
has different levels, where persons with a lower passion consider groundhopping more as a
social activity or something in order to provide them an enjoyable time. However the more
dedicated groundhoppers were characterized by different thoughts towards groundhopping,
where the aim was purely based on the visitation of as many matches possible with the lowest
budget. Moreover it appeared that groundhopping and football occurred multiple times in the
mind-set of these persons and therefore being an important aspect in the daily lives. As the
different levels of passion within the groundhopping scene are scarcely covered in the
literature, the findings contribute to further research focused on this dimension. Moreover the
primary research of this study contributes the literature in terms of relating groundhopping to
tourism, as in present times this correlation has not been investigated
5.4 Recommendation for future research
As this paper has tried to cover the research study in the best way possible, several limitations
as described in chapter 3 did occur. In terms of future research, these shortcomings have to be
overcome in order to reach a more thorough research project.
One of the main shortcomings faced in this study was the lack of literature present in relation
with the topic. Therefore this dissertation has been unable to provide a thorough and detailed
theoretical background and in most scenarios general theory on football supporters has been
58
linked to groundhoppers. In terms of recommendations regarding this aspect is the increase in
research towards football tourists in specific and the potential beneficial elements linked to
this segment in relation to different industries.
Secondly, the scale of research in this paper, due to lack of money and time, was too limited
in order to provide a full analysis of groundhoppers. Future research should consider a larger
sample size in order to create richer data. Moreover the implementation of focus groups can
be an interesting element for future studies, as it provides the opportunity for discussion and
with that the possibility to gain new insights in groundhopping
Thirdly, this study found out that the differences in groundhoppers in terms of behaviour,
emotions and opinions are highly diverse when the person shows differences in age,
demographics or cultural background. Therefore future research should consider these
aspects in order to gain a clearer insight in the characteristics of groundhoppers and the
potential differences of groups within this segment.
Finally, a greater emphasize should be given towards the relation of groundhopping and
tourists. This study showed that the majority of groundhoppers consider themselves as
tourists when visiting a foreign country for sport purposes and were characterised by the
participated in touristic activities and the expenditure in local facilities and attributes.
Therefore future research on these aspects can be considered useful for destination
management organisations and organisations involved in the local sport and tourism industry
of destinations.
59
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Interview guide
1. How does football play a role in your life?
2. How would you describe a groundhopper?
3. How did the ground hopping scene started for you?
4. What motivates you to be a groundhopper?
5. How many matches do you visit per year approximately?
6. Do you travel abroad for groundhopping? Tell me about previous trips.
7. Are you participating in any other activities besides visiting the football game during
groundhopping (e.g. of tourism activities sightseeing, hotels, renting cars,
museums, attractions and so on?)
8. Do these trips include overnight stay in average?
9. Do you participate in ground hopping tours or do you prefer traveling individually?
Why? If you prefer tours, what are the reasons for this?
10. What is your overall picture of the ground hopping phenomena, is there a good
coherence or rather jealousy in comparison with other ground hoppers?
11. What do you think about the evolution of the ground hopping phenomena, e.g. that
more people from different countries and continents are participating in
groundhopping?
12. Do you have your particular ground? To which countries do you most prefer to travel
and why?
13. Which games have been great events for you? What impressed you the most?
14. How do you choose your games? What are the most important criteria?
15. How do you usually go (transport)?
16. How do you finance your hobby? do you find it an expensive hobby?
17. In what way do you think groundhoppers differ from away supporters that also travel
to see a football team playing?
18. Do you consider yourself a tourist during groundhopping trips?
19. Do you consider ground hopping as a hobby or is it more?
65
Appendix 2: Transcript interviewee 9
Researcher: How does football play a role in your life?
Interviewee 9: Football is the most important part of my life at the moment, because with the
involvement of the football club Swansea City as director and the other thing is I also have
another football shop to run, so yeah I am really busy with football on a daily basis.
Researcher: How would you describe a groundhopper?
Interviewee 9: For me a groundhopper is someone who was me when I was 16 years of age
and I visited the first stadiums. I did that because I like football ground, particularly the old
stadiums. But at the moment not many of these old stadiums are left anymore, like the
Fetchfield Stadium is gone and that is what is the main problem at the moment. In my time
when I was 16 years old, so late 70’s beginning 80’s, I tried to visit as many stadiums as
possible and I wanted to see the games as well. In present times I go with my son quite often
to different stadiums, but not as much as I did in the early ages, because we have to visit
every game of Swansea City.
Researcher: What motivates you to be a groundhopper?
Interviewee 9: For me I wanted to become the first Dutch guy to visit all the UK stadiums,
and that is what happened. I am still the only one and did it when I was 27 years of age. So I
did it to be honest really fast. There is one guy now who is coming really close, he said to me
he visited now over the 80 stadiums and that are a few stadiums I have not seen yet. The
thing is that there are new clubs in the football league, which I simply have not been able to
visit yet and some clubs have new stadiums, but in the end I did it because the old stadiums
and football was at that moment just a big part of my life and I wanted to see all game in
stadiums.
Researcher: Were you more interested in the football game itself or more the atmosphere?
Interviewee 9: Well what I always did were the stadium tours and I was always a few hours
before the game already at the stadium and tried to do as many tours as possible, which were
unusual to do on match days. When Swansea plays against Chelsea a game in London for
example, I always make sure that a couple of hours before the match I make sure I drink a
beer at my standard pub at the corner of Chelsea’s stadium from the early ages in order to feel
and experience the atmosphere before the game. And this is something I have to do for
myself before the match, so I have the feeling. Because football stadiums to me are very very
66
important. If I stand in an empty stadium I can feel satisfied you know. And some people
don’t understand that haha.
Researcher: How many matches do you visit per year approximately?
Interviewee 9: I visited at least during my young ages, when I was like 20 years of age,
around 25 matches a year. Now I visit even twice a week a game, but that is of course since I
am co-owner of Swansea City.
Researcher: Do you travel abroad for groundhopping? Tell me about previous trips.
Interviewee 9: Yes, in the earlier ages I was of course not shareholder of the football club, I
was just a big fan of Swansea City football club, even before I wanted to visit as many games.
So what I did, I only went to England, pure for the football. I was an einselganger, like a
lonely boy, because what I did is that from the early Friday afternoon I went from the The
Hague station straight to Vlissingen, from where I took the ferry to England, which in that
time only cost 60 guilder and I had 52 hours before I had to take the ferry back, so 52 hours
to see as many games as I could. I never paid the train though, because every time the
conductor showed up I made sure I was not there, because else the costs of the trip would be
too high. And I did the same in the UK, because I worked for a company, but I did not get
paid so well, so I wanted to do it as cheap as possible. And then I went to London where I
sometimes could see 3 or 4 games in a weekend. Some on Friday night and often two on
Saturday and if time allowed one on Sunday.
Researcher: Do these trips include overnight stay in average?
Interviewee 9: Yes, but then again, I nearly slept in hotels, hostels or guesthouses. I always
just slept at the train stations, because that was the cheapest option. In my young ages I was
not scared, in present times I will probably have to think twice about it, but that is because of
all the idiots walking around in the world at the moment. But what I want to say is, the only
thing I did is with the lowest budget seeing as many games as I could, because football was
my life and my love. I can tell you this, all my mates went to the discotheques and I always
went to football games
Researcher: Do you participate in ground hopping tours or do you prefer traveling
individually? Why? If you prefer tours, what are the reasons for this?
Interviewee 9: Quite often I did it individually, because most mates of mine were crazy about
football, but not as crazy as I was. They never wanted to sleep outside and all those sort of
67
things, and I just did not care about that, I slept everywhere and I drank with everyone I met,
so yeah I spoke with everyone and they spoke back to me. I’m quite the open guy and in the
pubs I just met a lot of other football fanatics. So traveling individually was never really a big
problem to me.
Researcher: Are you participating in any other activities besides visiting the football game
during groundhopping (e.g. of tourism activities sightseeing, hotels, renting cars, museums,
attractions and so on?)
Interviewee 9: No, football was for me just the most important aspect in my life and I really
did not care about any other activities to participate in. But to be honest, when I had time left
to spare, I did enjoy walking along the marine or walking through the center, so I did
participate in some sightseeing, but I really wasn’t the guy to go to cinemas or museums. I
think I know quite a lot about the world at the moment now, because I am interested in a lot
of things, but museums for example I do not visit in The Netherlands, so I also do not visit
them in England. Basically I really hopped between games, especially when I went to London,
as there are so many options for visiting football matches, so sometimes I was visiting a
match at noon and the next one was already at 6 pm. And believe me, after those busy days
you really tired and you can fall asleep everywhere.
Researcher: There has been some discussion on how to define a groundhopper as some
consider visiting half a match is enough in order to say you visited the place, while others say
in order to be a groundhopper you need to visit the full match. What is your opinion of this?
Interviewee 9: That is bullshit! I cannot understand the people that go to a game and then
only watch half of the match and then say they have been to the place. For me a
groundhopper is someone who especially has love for the game and therefore I never left a
game before the final whistle, whether the score was 0-0 or 6-0.
Researcher: What is your overall picture of the ground hopping phenomena, is there a good
coherence or rather jealousy in comparison with other ground hoppers?
Interviewee 9: Yeah there is actually a really good coherence between groundhoppers at the
moment. I quite often see in my email, because people know my connection with the football
and the fact I was the first guy completing all 96 stadiums in England, so I get often
contacted by The Dutch Continentals, which is a Dutch groundhopping group traveling all
over the world. And I really notice that groundhoppers, especially with the evolution of the
online world, much quicker and easier share their experiences and stories with each other. I
did not do it in the time I was groundhopping, because I preferred to keep everything for
myself. Once it went wrong though, when Wrexham United played against Holland in the
68
qualification game in what I thought 1986, so I went with mates to the Swansea guys to
Wrexham to see the Holland game and we were sitting at the Dutch end in the stadium. I
don’t have too much with Dutch football, so I supported Wrexham, while all my mates of
course supported Holland. And in order to prove that I was present at the game I needed the
match program, the match ticket and a picture of the football ground. So the thing is, I send
my photo to the members of the 96 Club and they told me that the match did not count,
because it had to be a league game between English teams and not with a national team. So I
had to go back to Wrexham to see another great game against Chester, which is a good derby
game and with that I finished my 96 club challenge.
Researcher: What do you think about the evolution of the ground hopping phenomena, e.g.
that more people from different countries and continents are participating in groundhopping?
Interviewee 9: A couple of years ago I went to turkey and we went to this city. The girls went
into town for shopping and my son, a mate and me we knew there was a professional football
club close by, so we went there to see that ground as well. So too be honest, it is a really bit
sick, because I initially thought that I only liked the English stadiums, but I do not. I actually
like every single stadium, so also the Turkish stadiums. The thing is, as soon as I entered the
stadium I noticed it was honestly a bloody awful stadium, because it looks like half an
athletics course and half a stadium. The security guy came to me and asked me whether I
wanted to see the stadium from the inside and he was able to explain me everything that ever
happened there in the deepest detail, so for me it really felt I was in an English stadium. But
if you ask me about groundhoppers, then groundhopping in the UK is for me the most
important thing. The only problem at the moment is that I am so often in the UK that I cannot
really visit the new stadiums as I am too busy with Swansea City. For example I have never
been to Colchester yet and that stadium is already there for 10 – 12 years. I have been to the
old stadium, but never to the new one yet and everything I drive to Swansea I always pass the
Colchester stadium as it is right next to the A12 highway. And every time I pass it I keep
telling myself; ok now is the time to visit it, but it never happened so far yet.
Researcher: Which games have been great events for you? What impressed you the most?
Interviewee 9: I don’t know, I can’t remember now. The thing is that I have visited so many
games, that some games are hard to remember for me. It is of course easy to say for me that
the best game I have seen is from Swansea City. But the most beautiful stadium I have ever
seen or been in is the new Emirates Stadium of Arsenal, because that is for me just absolute
stunning. The Fetchfield stadium, which is Swansea‘s old stadium, is also one of the best
stadiums I have ever been in. Funny thing was always when I went to the toilet there is to
make sure nothing falls of the ceiling or walls. But in the end I like almost all old stadiums,
but I say the Swansea stadium is the best stadium in the world.
69
Researcher: How do you choose your games? What are the most important criteria?
Interviewee 9: In my early ages there was of course no internet, so I bought every single
Thursday the Shoot, which is like the 442 magazine nowadays. In the Shoot I could always
find the match schedules for the following weeks and this way I could always choose which
games were possibilities and the distance to certain games. In most cases I went for a week
then and bought myself a ‘go as you please’ card in London, which was fantastic cause then I
was able to use all the trains. Now this isn’t possible anymore, because now you have
different companies who run the trains, but in my time there was only one company. I could
go to any destination in the UK if I wanted and was always rushing to be in time for the next
match. But I did everything with the Shoot, it was for me my biggest help as groundhopper.
Researcher: How do you usually go (transport)?
Interviewee 9: In the London area it was always by underground, never by bus or car,
because the underground was the easiest transportation. I knew the underground completely
out of my head and knew at which stops the different stadiums were. And for the rest of the
UK I always used the train. Nowadays that won’t be possible anymore, because it has
become too bloody expensive. They are probably the best trains in the world, but
unbelievable expensive.
Researcher: How do you finance your hobby? do you find it an expensive hobby?
Interviewee 9: It can be an expensive hobby, but all hobbies can be expensive. It depends on
what you want to do. Some people now call themselves groundhoppers, while they are
actually not. If you go to London to see one game and say I have seen a new game, you are
not a groundhopper, you just a football fan. If you want to be a groundhopper, and I can say I
have been a groundhopper, because I did 3 to 4 games in a bloody weekend. And yes then it
is an expensive hobby, because in that time I was in school, had a part-time job at the fish
shop and that was the money I made. I had to pay everything with that salary, so I had to be a
clever boy.
Researcher: How do you see the relation between tourism and groundhopping?
Interviewee 9: The thing is when you are a groundhopper, you normally go for a few days or
a weekend and tourists often go longer and sleep in hotels and go to restaurants and drink in
cafes. For me this wasn’t the case when I did groundhopping. I slept on the bloody floor; I
70
stole most drinks in pubs and supermarkets and that is how I was able to do groundhopping.
But for the tourism market in present days the groundhopping is brilliant. I recently spoke
with the guys from Continentals, which by the way is a The Hague based group and therefore
I am in close connection with them, but the groundhoppers from the Continentals these days
are really groundhoppers and want to see as many games. But they do tell me they stay in
hotels, eat in restaurants and drink in pubs, which is of course beneficial for the tourism
market of that destination. But nowadays before a game I also drink a couple of pints with
my mates first, but I am not really a groundhopper anymore. But I told my son a few months
ago, that when I am done with Swansea City which can be quite fast now as international
companies show interest, then we will visit the grounds in England I haven’t been able to
visit yet
But in the end everything I said is my own opinion of how I see groundhoppers of course.
Other people most likely have another opinion about how they see groundhoppers. But I have
been a groundhopper and I always had one target in my mind; I have to do the 96 English
clubs as soon as possible. And I always saw the game and never ever left in the half time of
the match
Researcher: I understood that you also offer your own groundhopping tours by working
together with local tourism agencies. Could you tell me a bit more about this?
Interviewee 9: It is a little bit different. What I do, I am of course director of the football club
Swansea City, and I can do what I want in Holland. I have made Swansea a popular football
club in the UK and in Holland. At the moment Swansea is playing in the Premier League and
because of that more people get to know what Swansea is. But already long before, people in
The Hague knew what Swansea is, because the two clubs from both cities had a friendly bond
with each other. Nowadays a lot of people from all cities in the Netherlands ask me questions
about the club. So I tell them they are able, for a low budget, to join me for a game in
Swansea. I help them with sorting the ticket out for the match, I help them with hotels and I
give them a free stadium tour on the Friday night. So every Friday people gather in the pub of
the stadium, I pick them up and give them a free stadium tour where I show them the dressing
rooms, the bar, the boardroom, the hospitality rooms and so on. The difference with other
clubs is that I do it for free, while other clubs ask money between 15-25 pounds per person.
And I have between the 100 – 150 people per home game that are interested in the stadium
tour and that are only Dutch people that were interested in joining me for a Swansea game.
But lately also more Swansea supporters themselves become interested, as they heard a lot of
Dutch people have seen the inside of the stadium, and then as a real Swansea fan they cannot
stay behind. Next week, for example, I have 60 people coming over from Newport, which is
an hour away from Swansea and they asked me if I was able to provide them with a stadium
tour. Two weeks ago we had 160 people from Heerenveen, which was unbelievable. 3
coaches full of business people from Heerenveen outside the stadium on a Sunday morning,
just amazing!
71
Researcher: Do you arrange everything for them or how does it work?
Interviewee 9: Well not everything, they do have to pay their own flights, but that is all. I tell
them exactly what flight they have to take. So I say you have to take the 6162 on the Friday
morning 8.30 flight and the 6167 from Bristol back to Amsterdam on Sunday. If you take that
one we will all stay in the same hotel, I make sure there is a coach waiting outside the airport
and I bring you straight to Swansea and back to the airport. And I do this all individually. I
went myself to the Dragon hotel and the Morgans hotel and I made a good deal for my Dutch
friends and I told them there are so many Dutch people coming here, so offer me a good price
and I make sure your hotel will be full. I did the same with a 5 star restaurants, which is
unbelievable, and I made sure my Dutch friends have a three meal course there for only
twenty pounds.
Researcher: Do you consider ground hopping as a hobby or is it more?
Interviewee 2: To me groundhopping was something I really wanted, since the moment I saw
my first English game, which was Chelsea – Man United in 1978 with my father. The same
day we also went to Fulham – Swansea, which was my first game seeing Swansea. And from
that day I realized this is something that I really want and the 96 English clubs became my
biggest target. It was a strong passion, I wanted to speak with English people and I wanted to
visit games and see as many stadiums as I could.
72
Appendix 3: Open coding interview 9
Question
number
Data item Initial codes
1 Football is the most important part of my life at the moment, because
with the involvement of the football club Swansea City as director and
the other thing is I also have another football shop to run, so yeah I am
really busy with football on a daily basis.
Passion
Leadership
Busy life
Love for the game
Personal
involvement
Work
2 For me a groundhopper is someone who was me when I was 16 years of
age and I visited the first stadiums. I did that because I like football
ground, particularly the old stadiums. But at the moment not many of
these old stadiums are left anymore, like the Fetchfield Stadium is gone
and that is what is the main problem at the moment. In my time when I
was 16 years old, so late 70’s beginning 80’s, I tried to visit as many
stadiums as possible and I wanted to see the games as well. In present
times I go with my son quite often to different stadiums, but not as much
as I did in the early ages, because we have to visit every game of Swansea
City.
Nostalgia
Heritage
Changing factors
Aiming for the max
Barriers
3 For me I wanted to become the first Dutch guy to visit all the UK
stadiums, and that is what happened. I am still the only one and did it
when I was 27 years of age. So I did it to be honest really fast. There is
one guy now who is coming really close, he said to me he visited now
over the 80 stadiums and that are a few stadiums I have not seen yet. The
thing is that there are new clubs in the football league, which I simply
have not been able to visit yet and some clubs have new stadiums, but in
the end I did it because the old stadiums and football was at that
moment just a big part of my life and I wanted to see all game in
stadiums.
Aim
Passion
Perseverance
Competition
Barriers
Aiming for max
4 Well what I always did were the stadium tours and I was always a few
hours before the game already at the stadium and tried to do as many
tours as possible, which were unusual to do on match days. When
Swansea plays against Chelsea a game in London for example, I always
make sure that a couple of hours before the match I make sure I drink a
beer at my standard pub at the corner of Chelsea’s stadium from the
Become part of
experience
Ritual
73
early ages in order to feel and experience the atmosphere before the
game. And this is something I have to do for myself before the match, so
I have the feeling. Because football stadiums to me are very very
important. If I stand in an empty stadium I can feel satisfied you know.
And some people don’t understand that.
Aiming for the max
Habit
Become part of the
experience
Satisfaction
Ritual
Heritage
5 I visited at least during my young ages, when I was like 20 years of age,
around 25 matches a year. Now I visit even twice a week a game, but that
is of course since I am co-owner of Swansea City.
Aiming for max
Opportunities
6 Yes, in the earlier ages I was of course not shareholder of the football
club, I was just a big fan of Swansea City football club, even before I
wanted to visit as many games. So what I did, I only went to England,
pure for the football. I was an einselganger, like a lonely boy, because
what I did is that from the early Friday afternoon I went from the The
Hague station straight to Vlissingen, from where I took the ferry to
England, which in that time only cost 60 guilder and I had 52 hours before
I had to take the ferry back, so 52 hours to see as many games as I could. I
never paid the train though, because every time the conductor showed
up I made sure I was not there, because else the costs of the trip would
be too high. And I did the same in the UK, because I worked for a
company, but I did not get paid so well, so I wanted to do it as cheap as
possible. And then I went to London where I sometimes could see 3 or 4
games in a weekend. Some on Friday night and often two on Saturday
and if time allowed one on Sunday.
Leadership
Fandom
Passion
Personal identity
Self-independence
Transport
Time
Stubborn
Insensitive
Thick skinned
Hard-boiled
courage
Money
Aiming for max
7 Yes, but then again, I barely slept in hotels, hostels or guesthouses. I
always just slept at the train stations, because that was the cheapest
option. In my young ages I was not scared, in present times I will probably
have to think twice about it, but that is because of all the idiots walking
Accommodation
Personal identity
74
around in the world at the moment. But what I want to say is, the only
thing I did is with the lowest budget seeing as many games as I could,
because football was my life and my love. I can tell you this, all my mates
went to the discotheques and I always went to football games
Courage
Money
Aiming for max
Passion
Different in interests
8 Quite often I did it individually, because most mates of mine were crazy
about football, but not as crazy as I was. They never wanted to sleep
outside and all those sort of things, and I just did not care about that, I
slept everywhere and I drank with everyone I met, so yeah I spoke with
everyone and they spoke back to me. I’m quite the open guy and in the
pubs I just met a lot of other football fanatics. So traveling individually
was never really a big problem to me.
Self-dependence
Passion
Barriers
Personal identity
Courage
Social
Congeners
Flexibility
9 No, football was for me just the most important aspect in my life and I
really did not care about any other activities to participate in. But to be
honest, when I had time left to spare, I did enjoy walking along the
marine or walking through the center, so I did participate in some
sightseeing, but I really wasn’t the guy to go to cinemas or museums. I
think I know quite a lot about the world at the moment now, because I
am interested in a lot of things, but museums for example I do not visit in
The Netherlands, so I also do not visit them in England. Basically I really
hopped between games, especially when I went to London, as there are
so many options for visiting football matches, so sometimes I was visiting
a match at noon and the next one was already at 6 pm. And believe me,
after those busy days you really tired and you can fall asleep everywhere
Importance
Passion
Time
Culture
Personal identity
Preferences
Aiming for max
Priorities
Exhausted
10 That is bullshit! I cannot understand the people that go to a game and
then only watch half of the match and then say they have been to the
place. For me a groundhopper is someone who especially has love for the
game and therefore I never left a game before the final whistle, whether
the score was 0-0 or 6-0.
Disclaim
Beliefs
Criteria
Passion
75
11 Yeah there is actually a really good coherence between groundhoppers at
the moment. I quite often see in my email, because people know my
connection with the football and the fact I was the first guy completing all
96 stadiums in England, so I get often contacted by The Dutch
Continentals, which is a Dutch groundhopping group traveling all over
the world. And I really notice that groundhoppers, especially with the
evolution of the online world, much quicker and easier share their
experiences and stories with each other. I did not do it in the time I was
groundhopping, because I preferred to keep everything for myself. Once
it went wrong though, when Wrexham United played against Holland in
the qualification game in what I thought 1986, so I went with mates to
the Swansea guys to Wrexham to see the Holland game and we were
sitting at the Dutch end in the stadium. I don’t have too much with Dutch
football, so I supported Wrexham, while all my mates of course
supported Holland. And in order to prove that I was present at the game I
needed the match program, the match ticket and a picture of the football
ground. So the thing is, I send my photo to the members of the 96 Club
and they told me that the match did not count, because it had to be a
league game between English teams and not with a national team. So I
had to go back to Wrexham to see another great game against Chester,
which is a good derby game and with that I finished my 96 club challenge.
Coherence
Congeners
Reputation
Online world
Self-dependence
Companion
Nostalgia
Preferences
Dedication
Aim
12 A couple of years ago I went to turkey and we went to this city. The girls
went into town for shopping and my son, a mate and me we knew there
was a professional football club close by, so we went there to see that
ground as well. So too be honest, it is a really bit weird, because I initially
thought that I only liked the English stadiums, but I do not. I actually like
every single stadium, so also the Turkish stadiums. The thing is, as soon as
I entered the stadium I noticed it was honestly a bloody awful stadium,
because it looks like half an athletics course and half a stadium. The
security guy came to me and asked me whether I wanted to see the
stadium from the inside and he was able to explain me everything that
ever happened there in the deepest detail, so for me it really felt I was in
an English stadium. But if you ask me about groundhoppers, then
groundhopping in the UK is for me the most important thing. The only
problem at the moment is that I am so often in the UK that I cannot really
visit the new stadiums as I am too busy with Swansea City. For example I
have never been to Colchester yet and that stadium is already there for
10 – 12 years. I have been to the old stadium, but never to the new one
yet and everything I drive to Swansea I always pass the Colchester
stadium as it is right next to the A12 highway. And every time I pass it I
keep telling myself; ok now is the time to visit it, but it never happened so
far yet.
Nostalgia
Ritual
Prejudice
Heritage
Personal opinion
Hospitality
Tours
Comparison
Preference
Busy life
Barriers
Future intentions
Barriers
76
Ritual
Motivation
13 I don’t know, I can’t remember now. The thing is that I have visited so
many games, that some games are hard to remember for me. It is of
course easy to say for me that the best game I have seen is from Swansea
City. But the most beautiful stadium I have ever seen or been in is the
new Emirates Stadium of Arsenal, because that is for me just absolute
stunning. The Fetchfield stadium, which is Swansea‘s old stadium, is also
one of the best stadiums I have ever been in. Funny thing was always
when I went to the toilet there I always had to be careful that make sure
nothing felt from the ceiling or walls onto me. But in the end I like almost
all old stadiums, but I say the Swansea stadium is the best stadium in the
world.
Reputation
Heritage
Nostalgia
Proudness
14 In my early ages there was of course no internet, so I bought every single
Thursday the Shoot, which is like the 442 magazine nowadays. In the
Shoot I could always find the match schedules for the following weeks
and this way I could always choose which games were possibilities and
the distance to certain games. In most cases I went for a week then and
bought myself a ‘go as you please’ card in London, which was fantastic
cause then I was able to use all the trains. Now this isn’t possible
anymore, because now you have different companies who run the trains,
but in my time there was only one company. I could go to any destination
in the UK if I wanted and was always rushing to be in time for the next
match. But I did everything with the Shoot; it was for me my biggest help
as groundhopper.
Nostalgia
Characterizations
Methods
Preferences
Transport
Changing factors
Stress
15 In the London area it was always by underground, never by bus or car,
because the underground was the easiest transportation. I knew the
underground completely out of my head and knew at which stops the
different stadiums were. And for the rest of the UK I always used the
train. Nowadays that won’t be possible anymore, because it has become
too bloody expensive. They are probably the best trains in the world, but
unbelievable expensive.
Flexibility
Standardization
Transport
Changing factors
Money
16 It can be an expensive hobby, but all hobbies can be expensive. It
depends on what you want to do. Some people now call themselves
groundhoppers, while they are actually not. If you go to London to see
one game and say I have seen a new game, you are not a groundhopper,
you just a football fan. If you want to be a groundhopper, and I can say I
Money
Preferences
Disclaim
77
have been a groundhopper, because I did 3 to 4 games in a bloody
weekend. And yes then it is an expensive hobby, because in that time I
was in school, had a part-time job at the fish shop and that was the
money I made. I had to pay everything with that salary, so I had to be a
clever boy.
Criteria
Reputation
Limitations
Organizing
17 The thing is when you are a groundhopper, you normally go for a few
days or a weekend and tourists often go longer and sleep in hotels and go
to restaurants and drink in cafes. For me this wasn’t the case when I did
groundhopping. I slept on the bloody floor; I stole most drinks in pubs
and supermarkets and that is how I was able to do groundhopping. But
for the tourism market in present days the groundhopping is brilliant. I
recently spoke with the guys from Continentals, which by the way is a The
Hague based group and therefore I am in close connection with them, but
the groundhoppers from the Continentals these days are really
groundhoppers and want to see as many games. But they do tell me they
stay in hotels, eat in restaurants and drink in pubs, which is of course
beneficial for the tourism market of that destination. But nowadays
before a game I also drink a couple of pints with my mates first, but I am
not really a groundhopper anymore. But I told my son a few months ago,
that when I am done with Swansea City which can be quite fast now as
international companies show interest, then we will visit the grounds in
England I haven’t been able to visit yet
But in the end everything I said is my own opinion of how I see
groundhoppers of course. Other people most likely have another opinion
about how they see groundhoppers. But I have been a groundhopper and
I always had one target in my mind; I have to do the 96 English clubs as
soon as possible. And I always saw the game and never ever left in the
half time of the match
Characterizations
Nostalgia
Personal identity
Doing what you
want/not caring
Tourism
Congeners
Changing factors
Acting as tourists
Comfort
Habit
Future intentions
Personal opinion
Acceptance
78
Aim
Criteria
18 It is a little bit different. What I do, I am of course director of the football
club Swansea City, and I can do what I want in Holland. I have made
Swansea a popular football club in the UK and in Holland. At the moment
Swansea is playing in the Premier League and because of that more
people get to know what Swansea is. But already long before, people in
The Hague knew what Swansea is, because the two clubs from both cities
had a friendly bond with each other. Nowadays a lot of people from all
cities in the Netherlands ask me questions about the club. So I tell them
they are able, for a low budget, to join me for a game in Swansea. I help
them with sorting the ticket out for the match, I help them with hotels
and I give them a free stadium tour on the Friday night. So every Friday
people gather in the pub of the stadium, I pick them up and give them a
free stadium tour where I show them the dressing rooms, the bar, the
boardroom, the hospitality rooms and so on. The difference with other
clubs is that I do it for free, while other clubs ask money between 15-25
pounds per person.
And I have between the 100 – 150 people per home game that are
interested in the stadium tour and that are only Dutch people that were
interested in joining me for a Swansea game. But lately also more
Swansea supporters themselves become interested, as they heard a lot of
Dutch people have seen the inside of the stadium, and then as a real
Swansea fan they cannot stay behind. Next week, for example, I have 60
people coming over from Newport, which is an hour away from Swansea
and they asked me if I was able to provide them with a stadium tour. Two
weeks ago we had 160 people from Heerenveen, which was unbelievable.
3 coaches full of business people from Heerenveen outside the stadium
on a Sunday morning, just amazing!
Leadership
Freedom
Awareness
Friendship
Tours
Flexibility
Willingness to help
others
Personal identity
Pleasure in the job
Acceptance
Money
Popularity
Growth
Passion
Enjoyment
19 Well not everything, they do have to pay their own flights, but that is all. I
tell them exactly what flight they have to take. So I say you have to take
the 6162 on the Friday morning 8.30 flight and the 6167 from Bristol back
to Amsterdam on Sunday. If you take that one we will all stay in the same
hotel, I make sure there is a coach waiting outside the airport and I bring
Knowledge
Willingness to help
others
79
you straight to Swansea and back to the airport. And I do this all
individually. I went myself to the Dragon hotel and the Morgans hotel and
I made a good deal for my Dutch friends and I told them there are so
many Dutch people coming here, so offer me a good price and I make
sure your hotel will be full. I did the same with a 5 star restaurants, which
is unbelievable, and I made sure my Dutch friends have a three meal
course there for only twenty pounds.
Money
Self-dependence
Negotiation
Disbelief
20 To me groundhopping was something I really wanted, since the moment I
saw my first English game, which was Chelsea – Man United in 1978 with
my father. The same day we also went to Fulham – Swansea, which was
my first game seeing Swansea. And from that day I realized this is
something that I really want and the 96 English clubs became my biggest
target. It was a strong passion, I wanted to speak with English people and
I wanted to visit games and see as many stadiums as I could.
Passion
Nostalgia
Personal identity
Aim
Challenges
Aiming for the max
Sociable
80
Appendix 4: Themes and sub-themes
Passion
Important aspect in life
Fandom
Burning flame inside the person
Loyalty
Support
Controlling the burning flame
Make the hobby your job
Addiction
Single affection
Love for the game
Stay up-to-date
Intrapersonal
characteristics
Enjoyment
Escape daily life
New experiences
Atmosphere
Interests
Preferences
Cheering
Singing
Freedom
Excitement
Pleasure towards the hobby
Become part of the experience
Motivational factors
81
Satisfaction
characterizations
Enjoyment
Celebrities
Future intentions
Pleasure towards the hobby
Explorer
Once in a lifetime
Dreams
Expansion of the hobby
Diversity
Discover new elements
Searching for variety
Searching for new adventures
Beliefs
Perseverance
Control freak
Feeling lonely
Opportunist
Being crazy
Combative
Physically broken
Individualist
Feelings
82
Stress
Exhaustion
Courage
Thick skinned
Hard boiled
Insensitive
Stubborn
Habits
Leadership
Neutral perception
Proudness
Do what you want
Dependency
Open-minded
Single-minded
Rituals
Disappointment
Emotions
Personal identity
Aim/Goal
Derby’s
Rivalry
Extreme cases
Dedication
Thrill seeker
Repeating
The search for the
83
Fanatics
Ultimate experience
Taking opportunities
Activeness
Quality
Matches with meaning
Tension
Aiming for max
ultimate
groundhopping
experience
Congeners
Affinity
Competition
Bragging
Sociable
Meeting new people
Companions
Online world
Sharing experiences
Willingness to help others
Hospitality
Bonding
Friendship
Appreciation
Persuasion
Methods
Community
Coherence
Sociability,
belongingness and
attachment
84
Group pressure
Appreciation
Favours
Drinking with mates
Influenceable
Adaption
Recognition
Interaction with others
Acceptance
Money
Time
Transport
Efficiency
Flexibility
Comfort
Easiness
Planning
Organizing
Priorities
Safety
Convenience
Duration
Distance
Availability
Constrainable
aspects
Travel
Tourism
Sightseeing
Fun activities
85
Act as tourists
Accommodation
Culture
Differentiation
Visiting attractions
Attractiveness towards places
Weekend trip
Uniqueness
Discover new things
Souvenirs
Relaxation
Secondary activities
Growing up
First experience
Tours
Early ages
History
Role Model
Heritage
Memories
Nostalgia
Influential factors
86
Appendix 5: Ethics checklist
87
88
89
90
Appendix 6: Consent form
CONSENT FORM
(Ref. no. TCK 4581541)
Study title: An exploratory study of football tourists; the case of
groundhoppers.
Name of Researcher: Timothy Kanters
Please sign next to each box to indicate that you have read and understood the
statement
1. I confirm that I have read and
understand the information sheet for
the above study
2. I understand that my participation is
voluntary and that I am free to
withdraw at any time without my
legal rights being affected
3. I agree to take part in the above
study
4. I agree to my voice being digitally
recorded and understand this sound
file will be deleted after transcription
Data Protection Act 1998
I understand that data collected about me during my participation in this study will be stored on
computer, and that any files containing information about me will be made anonymous.
I agree to the Bournemouth University recording and processing this information about me. I
understand that this information will be used only for the purpose of this study and my consent is
conditional upon the University complying with its duties and obligations under the Data Protection
Act 1998.
91
Name of Participant
Date
Signature
Researcher
Date
Signature
92
Sport tourism
Football tourism
Heritage tourism
Football fandom
Ground-
hoppers
Appendix 7: Structure of the literature review