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Fan loyalty and underperforming teams: The case of Atlas F.C

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 This is the accepted version of the article which has now been published in Soccer & Society.
The published article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2021.1919877

Fan Loyalty and Underperforming Teams: The Case of Atlas F.C.

Josefina C. Santanaa and Edwin Tocorab*

a
Escuela de Comunicación, Universidad Panamericana, Zapopan, Mexico; bEscuela de Ciencias Económicas y
Empresariales, Universidad Panamericana, Zapopan, Mexico

*mtocora@up.edu.mx Alvaro del Portillo 49, Ciudad Granja, Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, 45010 +5233 1368 2200

Sports fandom is frequently dependent on the success of the team and the overall quality of
the fan experience. This study sought to understand loyalty towards Atlas Football Club, a
chronically underperforming team in Mexican soccer, whose only championship title was
obtained in 1951. In spite of this, Atlas inspires tremendous fidelity in its fans, occupying
fifth place in number of average spectators per local match in Mexico. With many teams
complaining of declining attendance, it is important to find out why Atlas fans continue to
fill their stadium.

Data from 488 survey respondents were analysed using exploratory factor analysis to find
the underlying structure of the variables, and parallel analysis and confirmatory factor
analysis determined that five factors are at play. The most important of these were pride in
the club’s tradition and history, and a sense of community with other fans.

Keywords: factor analysis; fan satisfaction; fan loyalty; team identification; team loyalty

Introduction

Sports fandom -the degree to which one identifies with a sports team- is a complex phenomenon

situated within the broader constructs of group identification and social identity. Social identity

refers to a person’s self-image based on membership in different groups. These groups may be

family, city or country, religion, school, or even a favourite sports team. Social identity can be

perceived as positive or negative -one can belong to the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ groups, and it is
flexible1. That is, a person will struggle to reach and maintain positive social identity, and will

seek to leave an unsatisfactory group and join a more positive one.

Thus, it is not surprising that successful team performance is a major factor in the

development of a fanship. It is the most important contributor to fan satisfaction and continued

match attendance.2 Successful teams –measured in terms of winning percentage- are perceived at

the ‘right’ group; associating with them contributes to increased self-esteem. In Mexico, the most

popular sport is football, and the two most popular teams -America, based in Mexico City, and

Chivas, based in Guadalajara- have won the most championships -13 and 12, respectively. These

two teams also have the largest fan bases, with supporters all over the country.

Another team, also based in the city of Guadalajara, is at the opposite side of the

spectrum. In its over 100-year history, Atlas Football Club (F.C.) has obtained only one

championship title; that was in 1951. On three occasions, the team has been relegated to the

second division, and, as of this writing, they are once again flirting with relegation. In the past

three seasons they have finished in the bottom third of the league standings.

In spite of these facts, Atlas has a very loyal fan base. Attendance at the stadium is

consistently high, and fans are among the most active on online forums. Sarstedt, et al. break

down fan satisfaction into seven discrete categories. These are

● Team characteristics, including number of star players, team history, and win-loss record

● Competitor characteristics or quality of the opponent

● Sportscape characteristics; that is, the quality of the venue and facilities

● Stadium security

● Peripheral services, including food and beverages

● Fan-based activities, such as social events for families or for season-ticket holders
● Club characteristics, including reputation, traditions, and regional bonds.

Of these seven categories, only the last would seem to describe Club Atlas

Team loyalty is an important concept in sports marketing as it feeds purchases and

repurchases of season tickets and branded merchandise, leading to increased revenue for teams.

Most studies mention the importance of successful team performance and a comfortable

sportscape in the development of fan identification with a team, yet Atlas has neither of these.

Thus, the objectives of this study were to explore the underlying factors that explain

persistent loyalty in Atlas fans; and to understand Atlas fans’ continued attendance at matches.

The study sought to answer the research questions: What factors lead to loyalty in Atlas fans?

Why do Atlas fans continue to go to the stadium, in spite of negative team results? It looked at

these aspects from the perspective of consumer experience measurement and fan perception of

quality.3

As many teams in different sports are complaining about decreasing spectator attendance,

understanding how Atlas has built and maintained its fan base may help sports teams around the

world attract new fans or maintain the allegiance of the fans they already have.

Atlas, F.C.

Atlas fans are collectively known as La Fiel -the faithful- because match after match, and

season after season, they continue to fill their stadium. Atlas placed fifth on the list of fan

attendance during the past ten years, with 5,497,019 fans, and an average of 25,844 spectators

per match4. A national poll carried out in 2018 placed Atlas in sixth place in popularity

countrywide with 4.8% of respondents identifying as fans.5 In contrast, cross-city rival Chivas

was in first place, with 21.7% of respondents stating they were fans. In fourth place was Mexico
City team Cruz Azul (8.8%); yet attendance to their local matches was below that of Atlas, with

a match average of 20,074 fans attending in the past ten years.6

Atlas is not the only underperforming team with loyal fans; baseball’s Chicago Cubs

come to mind. Some of the smaller Premier League or La Liga teams also have very devoted

followers, even though their teams rarely compete for a championship title. Much of this fanship

is comprised of pride in the local team. What is remarkable about Atlas, however, is that they

share their home base with an equally traditional, but much more successful team; the city is

almost equally divided between fans of either team. Atlético de Madrid and Independiente de

Medellín, in Colombia, also share a city with a more popular team, but both Atlético and

Independiente have been successful in their own right. Club Deportivo Español in Barcelona has

few followers, compared to its better-known city rival.

Atlas fans fill their stadium, spend significant amounts of money on team merchandise,

are active in online forums, and travel to neighbouring cities to support their team. These

activities are characteristic of highly identified fans, but this level of loyalty is normally

associated with successful team performance. Perhaps only fans of the New York Mets could

understand. Brand says about the Mets fan:

We do not desert the crumbling stadium and all the silly things in it just as we do not

desert the disappointing team. We could not imagine our lives without it...Being a Mets

fan is fun, even though it is often ridiculous and humiliating and it doesn’t make sense.7

These same words could very well describe the Atlas fan.

Team loyalty is ‘a highly developed attitude that is persistent, resistant to change, creates

biases in cognitive processing, and guides behavior’8 and may explain why the Atlas fan starts

each season believing that this will be ‘the one’ - the season that finally changes history. The
team motto is ‘If I explained it to you, you wouldn’t understand it’, implying that devotion to

Atlas defies logic.

Atlas is one of Mexico’s oldest teams, celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2016. Most of

the team’s fans are based in Guadalajara, but two factors brought the club to national -and even

international- attention in recent years. The first of these was a string of highly successful

seasons from 1998 to 2001, under the helm of Coach Ricardo Antonio Lavolpe. In June 1999,

Atlas lost in the final match to Toluca. They lost in penalty shootouts, but a very young (average

age 21 years old) and dynamic team garnered a lot of attention and made them popular favourites

that year. The following season, they finished first place in the standings, but were ousted in the

first round of playoffs.

Secondly, that young and valiant team included among its players a talented 20-year old

named Rafa Márquez. He is the best known of small cadre of Atlas players who later became

keystones of the national team, including Andrés Guardado, Oswaldo Sánchez, Jared Borgetti

and Pável Pardo. Because of them, Atlas became known around the country as a producer of

gifted players. The exposure the team received during the Lavolpe years, and the popularity of

players such as Márquez and Guardado, helped Atlas build a fan base outside of Guadalajara, as

well.

Atlas has been less successful lately. The team has undergone two changes in ownership,

since the Lavolpe days. The new owners promised a championship within two years, but this has

not materialized. Yet, the fans remain loyal. For example, the team had traditionally played its

local games on Saturdays at 8.45 pm. For the purposes of television scheduling, this was changed

first to Saturdays at 7pm, then Fridays at 9 pm. Additionally, the games began to be televised
locally. It was feared that these changes would affect stadium attendance, but this has not been

the case; attendance has remained stable throughout the past ten seasons.

Estadio Jalisco, where Atlas plays, was inaugurated in 1960 and can hold over 55

thousand spectators. It is the third largest stadium in Mexico (after Estadio Azteca and Estadio

Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City) and the second oldest (after Estadio Nemesio Díaz in

Toluca). It hosted two World Cups -in 1970 and 1986- and the Confederations Cup in 1999.

Atlas and Universidad de Guadalajara –currently in the second division- continue to play there,

but Club Chivas moved in 2010 to a newer and more modern stadium.

Though it has undergone some renovation to seating and sound systems, Estadio Jalisco

is out of date. Parking is minimal, and concession stands consist of vendors who move among

the crowds selling snacks and beverages. Yet this old and somewhat shabby stadium feels like

home to many fans.

Conceptual framework

Sports fandom may be based on the influence of family, peers, or community, or of geography,

as in the case of rooting for the home team.9 Loyalty to a certain style of play or a particular

player may also play a role in developing fans. Hirt and Clarkson distinguish between casual,

fair weather and diehard fans; what differentiates fans in the degree of emotional involvement

they have with the team.10

Funk and James state that team loyalty develops over time and through four stages:

awareness, attraction, attachment and allegiance.11 Awareness usually begins at a young age, and

family members, especially fathers, are very often involved in this stage. Attraction develops

when one selects a favourite team and spends time watching games, reading or talking about

them. Attachment is a deeper, intrinsic process which includes psychological factors, such as
pride in the community, and star quality and success of the team. The final stage, allegiance, is

attitudinal and resistant to change. At this point, team performance makes little difference in the

fans’ attitudes and behaviours.12 It is important to note that Funk and James do not equate match

attendance to team loyalty. That is, loyal fans support their teams, even if they do not normally

attend matches.

There are a number of motives for attending sporting events. These include

entertainment, disposition, stimulation, escape, self-esteem, companionship, and group affiliation

and they are linked to underlying core needs: validation, pleasure, and arousal.13 These will be

explained in the following sections.

Entertainment

The most important reason that fans cite for attending a football match is the expectation

that they will be entertained.14 Yoshida and James have studied sporting events in terms of

customer satisfaction which they define as ‘... a customer’s pleasurable, fulfilment response to

the entertainment of sport competition and/or ancillary services provided during a game’. 15

Customer satisfaction in sporting events consists of satisfaction with the event itself - the quality

of the match, the players, the number of exciting plays, and with the ancillary services: facilities,

stadium employees, etc.16. In their study, Yoshida and James found that game satisfaction or

enjoyment was the more important of the two elements in determining customer satisfaction and

in increasing the probability of repeated attendance.

Disposition

Though fan loyalty tends to remain stable throughout life, the disposition to attend a

game does not17. Sung and Mills mention two factors that will make fans more likely to attend a

match18. The first is overall quality (expecting a good game) and the second is the uncertainty of
the outcome. That is, fans are less likely to attend a match if the results are expected, for

example, when one team is much stronger than the other is. Hirt and Clarkson mention also that

facing a hated rival will also increase enjoyment, especially when one’s team wins.

Stimulation and Escape

Some people select sports as entertainment because they need stimulation in their lives.

Sports offer ‘the opportunity to create and experience stress is socially acceptable ways’.19 Sport

also serves as a way to escape from everyday life and its pressures.20

Self-esteem

It is not unusual for highly successful teams to have large numbers of fans. The term Basking in

Reflected Glory (BIRGing) refers to the tendency to want to associate oneself and identify with

the success of others.21 Fanship is one form of BIRGing, and identifying with a winning team

helps bolster one’s self-esteem. When one’s team loses, the tendency is to disassociate oneself

from that failure to protect the self-image, for example, by not wearing the team jersey. This is

known as Cutting off Reflected Failure (CORFing).22

Though one could argue that Atlas fans seek to associate with the team’s traditions and

successful youth academy, BIRGing cannot really describe the motivations of the typical fan.

Other sports teams -notably the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs- also have diehard fans,

even though both teams went decades without a championship. Basking in Reflected Failure

(BIRFing) would seem to better fit in these cases. For Campbell, Aiken and Kent, who coined

the term, this behaviour is not illogical. The authors state that ‘Fans may turn to BIRFing as a

means of dealing with the cognitive incongruities that develop between being a fan and seeing

one's team lose’.23 They justify their continued loyalty and support their self-esteem by ‘reveling

in the loyalty, camaraderie, rebelliousness, and other alternative reasons for fanship’,24 in spite of
repeated failures, rather than on the success of the team. Jensen, et al. studied Chicago Cubs fans

ten years before their successful 2016 season and then again afterwards, to see if fans’

relationship to the team had changed25. They found no significant difference, concluding that

BIRFing is related to team loyalty, rather than to performance.

Companionship

Sharing allegiance to a team creates a bond between people, whether family, friends, or

strangers. It is not unusual to see families together at a stadium in Mexico. More than 60% of our

respondents on this study mention their allegiance to Atlas was inspired by a family member.

Friendships may also spring up among people who only see each other every two weeks, during

the local matches. Hirt and Clarkson point out that ‘Regardless of where the bonds of fanship fit

socially, it seems clear that sports fans derive a profound sense of camaraderie and

companionship from sharing their fanship with others in a manner that is somewhat unique in

contemporary society’.26

Group affiliation

We connect with others when we have something in common, including allegiance to a certain

team. This connection is crucial for both physical and psychological health. Fanship gives us an

automatic access to an established community of like-minded fans.

Some studies have looked at fan attendance in terms of brand community research. They

posit that stadium attendance is a result of fan relationships and interactions with other fans,

rather than of loyalty to a particular team27. Fans who regularly attend local matches form

attachments with other fans, and may form a community. Yoshida and James, and Yoshida,

Heere and Gordon, studying fan attendance at professional sports in Japan, found this to be true.
Katz and Heere, however, found that, though fan relationships were important, team loyalty was

a greater predictor of attendance to college sports events in the United States.

Fan passion is another construct which deserves attention, especially as it may explain

loyalty to underperforming teams.28 Passion is different from other psychological constructs such

as self-esteem in that it leads the individual to carry out an action. Thus, passion for a team may

be a predictor of attendance at sporting events. To qualify as a passion, Wakefield mentions that

the activity must occupy the heart, mind, body and soul of the fan. That is, he or she must invest

emotions, thoughts, time and energy to a team, and believe that one’s life would be incomplete

without that activity.

Team identification is the degree to which a fan feels connection with a team.29 It differs

from passion in that it is a psychological and emotional connection to a team but it does not

involve the whole person. Lock and Heere explain that team identification forms part of an

individual’s self-concept.30 Lock, et al. note that team identification seems to increase or

decrease over the course of time, for example, during the season, depending on team results31.

This may be true for a casual fan, however, Yoshida, Heere and Gordon clarify that ‘when an

individual’s attitude toward a sport team becomes favorable and stable regardless of the valence

of the team’s performance, he or she tends to have a higher level of identification with the

team’.32 Wann and James agree, but would argue that it is the high level of identification that

leads to this stable attitude. This is true with Atlas; the long-time fan becomes inured to Atlas’s

inconsistent performances. As the fans themselves say, ‘I’m an Atlas fan, even if they win’.

Studies into fan perception of quality analyse, not only team performance, but peripheral

services, as well. Rosa Díaz, Castellanos Verdugo and Palacios Florencio33, for example, carried

out a study of the quality of services surrounding football matches in Seville, Spain. They looked
at fan expectations and perceptions related to the stadium experience, including parking, sound

quality, and seating comfort, as well as factors related to the team itself. Their study identified

ten factors or dimensions of quality. The first of these was related to the stadium, its cleanliness,

ease of access and comfort. The second factor was related to the team: satisfaction with the

players, their efforts, and their results. The third factor had to do with internal factors: personal

loyalty to the team, for instance. Less important were accessibility, satisfaction with team

management, with the audio-visual equipment, with the medical team, and security. The least

important factor was related to the team’s winning or losing the match.

Studies into the importance of the sportscape34 have found that highly identified fans tend

not to be concerned about the quality of the venue. They develop place attachment, which is a

special psychological connection to a place, e.g., a sports venue.35 Thus, Atlas fans continue to

fill their outdated and somewhat shabby stadium to watch a team that tends to place in the

bottom half of the league standings. This study sought to understand why this is. The following

section describes the methodology used.

Methods and materials

Instrument

A questionnaire was developed based on previous studies of consumer experience measurement

by Yoshida and James, and of fan perception of quality by Rosa Díaz, Castellanos Verdugo and

Palacios Florencio. Three persons were given the questionnaire to analyse based on their own

experience as loyal Atlas fans who attend all or most of the local matches throughout the season.

At the same time, the three are active and well known on social media, and have a large number

of followers among other Atlas fans. These three influencers were asked to comment on the
questionnaire. Based on their suggestions, some questions related to self-esteem were eliminated

and others related to team satisfaction were added. Questions related to some stadium services,

such as parking, were also eliminated.

The questionnaire was delivered in the form of an online survey on Google Forms to the

three influencers, who posted the link on their social media, and asked their followers to answer

it. The survey remained open for two weeks in August 2019. This was early in the football

season. It is important to remark that, when the survey opened, the team had lost the previous

two matches. This may have had an impact on the responses.

To validate the scale, the instrument was verified to confirm it presented the necessary

reliability to provide useful information. The analysis was performed using Cronbach's alpha

coefficient (Table 1).

[Table 1. Value of Cronbach’s alpha]

The alpha of .85 shows that instrument has a strong internal consistency, and is thus

reliable.

Results

Descriptive statistics

There were 531 responses in total, of which 11 were discarded because the respondents stated

they were not Atlas fans. Tables 2 and 3 describe the remaining 520 respondents by sex and by

age.

[Table 2. Respondents by sex]

[Table 3. Respondents by age]

 Over 63% of the respondents became fans due to the influence of a family member; in

44.6% of the cases, it was the father. Slightly over 25% stated that no one had influenced their

decision. 76% of the respondents have been Atlas fans for over ten years and only 4.3% have

been fans for fewer than two years. 34.8% of the respondents said they attend every local match

per season and 27.1% said they attend several matches each season. 6.2% of the respondents

stated they never go to the stadium; several mentioned this is because they live outside of the city

or the country. The survey was designed to close if the respondent answered ‘never’ to this

question, so the following questions and the factorial analysis consider 488 respondents. The

sample size is large enough to produce reliable estimates of the correlations between the

variables.36

The majority of the respondents -76.4% - mentioned they did not have a season pass for

the games. This is surprising, as we had hypothesized that fans were more likely to attend a

match if they had already invested in a season ticket. 70.3% of the respondents stated they wore

their Atlas jersey in the days following a match, even if the team had lost.

The remaining 16 questions were rated on a five-point Likert scale. These were analysed

using factorial analysis with the Psych package on R37.

Table 4 shows the questions, their mean scores and standard deviations.

[Table 4. Questions, mean scores, and standard deviations]

The mostly highly scored items, with an average score over 4, were X3,X5,X8, X9, X10,

X11,X12,X15, and X16. The lowest scored items were X13 and X14, both under 2.5. This would
indicate that fans are not satisfied with the current team or how they are playing. Variance across

age groups or between sexes is not statistically significant.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

Exploratory Factor Analysis is used to define the underlying structure in a data matrix and

identify the substitute variables of a larger series of variables, for use in subsequent multivariate

analysis.38 According to Matsunaga, EFA is appropriate when there is little knowledge of the

underlying structure of the variables and how they are interrelated. The relevance of performing

an EFA is evident when observing the values of Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity, with a value of

.000, and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index (KMO) over .80, as shown in Table 5.

[Table 5. KMO and Bartlett’s test]

The number of factors for the factor analysis can be evaluated through various different

methods. However, parallel analysis is the most accurate.39

We used the fa.parallel function of the Psych package in R to run parallel analysis. Here

we specify the data frame and the method of the factor (Minimum residuals and Maximum

likelihood, in our case). The parallel analysis suggests that the number of factors is five, as shown

in Figure 1.

[Insert Figure 1 here]

The blue line shows values of the actual data and the two red lines (placed one on top of

the other) show simulated and sampled data. Here we observe the large drop in the real data and

detect the point where it levels off to the right. We also locate the inflection point -the point where
the gap between simulated data and actual data tends to be minimal. Looking at this diagram and

parallel analysis, we see that five factors is a good option.

Adequacy of the factor analysis model

The mean square of the residuals (RMSR) is 0.02. This is acceptable since this value should be

close to 0. Next, we check the RMSEA index (approximate mean square error). Its value, 0.048

shows a good fit of the model, since it is below 0.05.40 Finally, the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI:

Tucker Lewis Index of factoring reliability) is 0.949, an acceptable value considering it is above

0.9.

After establishing the adequacy of the factors, it is time we named them. This is the

theoretical side of the analysis where we form the factors depending on the variable loads. These

factors are shown in Table 6.

[Table 6. Factors and the items they include]

The methods used were Principal Axes (PA), Maximum likelihood (ML) and Minimum

residuals (MinRes), and Unweighted Least Squares (ULS).

Confirmatory factor analysis

For confirmatory factor analysis oblique rotation (rotate = ‘oblimin’) was used rather than

orthogonal rotation since we believe that there is a correlation between the factors41.

In Figure 2, the squares represent the observed variables, and the ovals represent the

unobserved factors. The straight arrows are the loads, that is, the correlation between the factor

and the observed variables.

[Insert Figure 2 here]

 Each factor is worth keeping because if the sum of the squared loads is greater than 1, it

makes sense within the study. In our example, all are greater than 1 (They are 2.13, 1.81, 1.56,

1.24 and 1.40, respectively).

The proportion of the variance for each factor is ULS3 = 13% of the total variance, ULS5

= 11%, ULS1 = 10%, ULS2 = 8%, ULS4 = 9%. In total, they account for 51% of the total variance.

Additionally, among the factors there is a correlation between ULS5 and ULS3 (correlation

0.5), ULS5 and ULS1 (correlation 0.4), ULS5 and ULS4 (correlation 0.4) and ULS3 and ULS1

(correlation 0.4) showing that the factors are interdependent; that is, continued attendance at the

stadium is due to a mix of all the factors.

Discussion

Club characteristics is the factor with the greatest influence on Atlas fans. It is this factor that

leads to strong team identification. As Wann and James point out, team identification is ‘a life-

long affair’ that is independent of results.42 Fans are proud to be associated to a club with a long

tradition and history. They bask in the reflected glory of the players developed by the club’s

youth academies. Fans proudly wear their jerseys after a defeat; instead of seeking to cut off the

reflected failure, they seem to bask in it. Rather than basing their allegiance on team

performance, Atlas fans ‘revel’ in being special and in belonging to a community of like-minded

persons, as found by Campbell, Aiken and Kent43. They value the ‘emotional significance’ of

their membership in the community of fans.44

The second most influential factor is stimulation and escape. For the fan, attending an

Atlas match is fun, and it provides a break from routine. It makes the fan happy and gives him or
her something to talk about the rest of the week. Attending a match provides stimulation and

offers an escape from everyday life.45

The next factor in terms of influence is companionship and group affiliation. The fan

goes to the stadium because it satisfies his or her social needs, and it helps him/her make friends.

This concurs with the findings of Yoshida, Heere and Gordon46 regarding the importance of

relationships and interactions with other fans in the context of a match.

The fourth factor is the sportscape, related to the venue itself and its peripheral services.

The sportscape is important to fan satisfaction and the overall experience of attending a match47

yet, Atlas fans seem to be satisfied in this regard, as is evident in the mean scores of questions

X15 and X16. This is in spite of the venue’s shortcomings; that is to say, the fans are likely

aware that the stadium is shabby, but this factor does not stop them from attending the matches..

They seem to have formed a place attachment to the stadium, which Wann and James mention as

a characteristic of fans with strong team identification.

These findings are also in line with de Carvalho, Boen and Scheerder’s study, which

found that the sportscape is less important to highly identified fans.48 However, it must be noted

that these same authors found that older fans are more constrained by a poor venue; they are

especially concerned with issues of safety. Thus, it remains important to renovate and keep the

stadium in satisfactory conditions.

The last factor is team characteristics; that is, the current players and the level of play.

The team is not doing well and the fans are not satisfied, as the mean scores of questions X13

and X14. Though successful team performance is what usually leads to fan satisfaction and fan

loyalty49, the hope of seeing their team win is not what takes the Atlas fan to the stadium. This
fact would seem to indicate that the fans have formed a strong allegiance to their club, as found

by Funk and James, and Wann and James.

It is important to highlight that no single factor is significantly more important than any

other is. The factor with the highest load accounts for 13% of the variance, and the factor with

the lowest accounts for 8%. Additionally, they are all correlated. Thus, to answer our research

questions, Atlas fans are usually influenced to become fans by family members. They base their

loyalty mostly on the history and tradition of the club and on its successful youth academies.

They faithfully attend local matches because it offers a respite from everyday life and because

their stadium offers them a safe space where they enjoy the interaction with a community of like-

minded fans. They are highly identified with the team to the extent that wins and losses have

little impact on attendance. They have formed a strong attachment to their stadium. Other

factors, such as stimulation and entertainment, may very well apply to other activities. Fans of

other teams may find companionship and group affiliation in their own fan groups, but what

likely makes Atlas fans stand out is their degree of team identification.

Conclusions and directions for future research

This study sought to understand fan loyalty regarding an underperforming team, in this case,

Atlas F.C., based in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The factors that most influence allegiance in Atlas fans are, firstly, those related to the

club itself. Its traditions, its history, and its players inspire fans and help justify their loyalty.

These first two of these elements would be hard to replicate for newer teams. However, it is

important for team managers and owners to consider investing in their youth academies. Finding
and developing talented young players is key to creating identification between team and fans, in

the case of Atlas, F.C.

The second factor that contributes to continuing attendance is the whole social experience

of attending the match. Fans go to meet up with other fans, to spend time with their friends and

family, to sing and cheer. If the team happens to win, so much the better. Authorities would do

well to ensure that the stadium remains a safe and family-friendly space. Atlas fandom is mostly

family inspired. Management should take advantage of the passion passed on from fathers to

sons and daughters, perhaps by organizing family events, or offering special prices for children.

The importance of the stadium itself cannot be stressed enough. The trend in Mexico is to

demolish or otherwise abandon older stadiums and build new, technologically advanced venues.

For a diehard fan, the stadium is a second home. As other teams have experienced, moving to a

new stadium does not guarantee that the fans will follow.

The instrument created for this study was useful for explaining fan loyalty among Atlas

fans, who have very special characteristics. However, it is necessary to test the instrument with

fans of other teams, underperforming or not. Additionally, the Mexican football fan may have

characteristics not shared by those of other regions. Thus, studies across different regions would

also be enriching.

Declaration of interests

One of the authors is a life-long Atlas fan. Other than this, they have no affiliations with or

involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest in the subject matter or

materials discussed in this manuscript.

Disclaimer
An early, research-in-progress version of this paper was submitted to and accepted for the

Broadcasting Education Association’s annual convention in 2020.50

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1
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2
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3
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31
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41
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42
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43
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 44
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45
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46
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47
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48
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