The Impact of Community Sports Clubs on Place Attachment: From the Perspective of Club Commitment and Social Capital

Abstract

There are rising expectations for community sporting clubs to serve a function that goes beyond simply playing a role as a place of activity, to contribute to revitalization of the local community. The purpose of this study is to reveal what kind of impact the commitment shown by sports club members towards their club has on place attachment. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relationship between the direct impacts that commitment to a community sports club has on place attachment and social capital as one beneˆt of joining a club, and the relationship between social capital and place attachment using a sample of members from two diŠerent community sports clubs. Results showed that while there was no signiˆcant correlation between commitment to a sports club and direct impact on place attachment, there was a sig-niˆcant correlation between commitment to a sports club and social capital and between social capital and place attachment. These results demonstrate that community sport club management that serves to enhance social capital is eŠective in enhancing emotional attachment to the local community and that a comprehensive community sports club that enables interaction between a diverse range of people is also beneˆcial in promoting place attachment.