Old School Values in a New School Consumption Environment: A Study of the Arena Football League

Abstract

Recently, many modern athletes, both amateur and professional, have been described as “old school” by the popular press. Sukhdial, Aiken, and Kahle (2002) first investigated the concept in the domain of sports marketing and developed the Old School Scale to separate fans according to their Old School – New School orientations. Oldschoolness, in the context of sport, can be defined as a set of closely held beliefs revolving around three primary value statements, namely that: 1) Old School (OS) athletes/fans rightly place more emphasis on playing for love of the game rather than for material gains; 2) OS athletes/fans give priority to the process surrounding how a sport is played rather than the product of winning; and, 3) OS athletes/fans are steadfastly concerned with social responsibilities including an athlete’s obligations as a role model. Contrary to the OS, there appears to be evidence of a new school (NS) in American sports. Herein, fans and athletes alike put winning ahead of everything else. For NS fans it is seen as acceptable to bend or even occasionally break the rules if it advances your cause. Of course, the NS stands in opposition to the OS in terms of values. We contend that the relatively new and unique sportscape of arena football provides a fascinating avenue to further understand the OS vs. NS mentality of fans, especially because the environment maintains an apparent contradiction. That is, while the game, the venue, and the surroundings appear to be more NS, the players, owners, corporate officers, and likely (to some degree) the fans seem to embrace the OS.