Not All Rivals Are Equal: Clarifying the Three Core Properties of Sport Rivalry

What is it about?

This research addressed the lack of consensus and inconsistency in specifying the rivalry construct in sport research. Through surveys of thousands of fans across college football, the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL), three core properties of rivalry were empirically confirmed: 1. Nonexclusivity: Fans consistently perceive multiple rivals to their favorite team. 2. Continuous in Scale: The intensity of rivalrous feelings varies significantly among the multiple rivals, contradicting the common binary representation in past demand models. 3. Bidirectional (Asymmetrical): Opposing fans rarely share equivalent perceptions of the rivalry's intensity, even in mutually acknowledged rivalries. To accurately capture these properties, the study proposed and applied a parsimonious 100-point rivalry allocation measure. Acceptance of these properties provides empirically based guidelines, helping scholars better understand the phenomenon and improving accuracy in rivalry specification across future studies.

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Photo by Eric Dahm on Unsplash

Photo by Eric Dahm on Unsplash