Event Planning

Professional Baseball in Taiwan has been slowly developing over the last forty years, but the first indoor stadium was only completed in 2005. This means that game spectators (and all the other game participants) are generally at the mercy of Taiwan’s marine tropical climate – they suffer through hot, humid weather in the summer, cold temperatures in the winter, and those living in Taiwan’s north (which supports the bulk of Taiwan’s population) also need to deal with the yearly monsoonal rains that run from January through March, and then the plum rains again in May. With this in mind, it is of little surprise that focus group participants identified ‘holding games at appropriate times’

as being an expectation of some importance to them. While the definition of an ‘appropriate’ time is fairly subjective, the core meaning attached to the term in this instance is that the time at which the game is held should be chosen to ensure spectators watching the game are able to do so in relative comfort – for example, games should not be held at noon in the middle of summer. Spectators also indicated that games should be held at times and places that would avoid bad weather – summer games should be held in the evening, winter games might be held further south for the warmer and dryer weather.

A non-country specific expectation identified was ‘value-based ticket pricing’.

Participants in the focus group indicated that they would rather pay a higher price for a good game than a lower price for an uninteresting one, meaning that they want value for the money they spend. Spectators expect a ‘valuable’

entrance price, rather than a merely inexpensive price; a lower price on its own will not satisfy this expectation. Spectators want an enjoyable experience for the money that they pay.

Sloan (1989) stated that the themes of entertainment theories are the concepts of enjoyment, fun and pleasure. Our interviewees' responses indicated that their main preoccupations lie in the same concepts. The majority of spectators who spend money and time to attend a game are doing it to have a good time: for example, even though spectators realise that the

odds of a record being broken are very low, they attend for the joyful atmosphere found in the crowd. Attending the ballgame is not just about the players' performance and the teams, it is also a fun, relaxing time with a happy atmosphere where they can enjoy a pleasurable break from daily life. In the process of the focus group interviews, the researchers found that spectators expect the sounds at the ballpark to be a cacophony of clamouring voices, bustle and excitement: all of which contribute towards strengthening their indicated expectation of 'a joyful atmosphere'.

Certain participants interviewed for this research were selected as they had extensive experience of international ballgames – i.e. they had attended several ballgames overseas, in places such as Japan, Korea and the USA. Having these interviewees with international experience helped to further deepen discussions in the focus group sessions and introduced new concepts to other members of the group, such as 'educational value'. The internationally-experienced spectators provided a different model to that of TPB with which to compare service expectation, for example some mentioned that many professional baseball teams in Japan and the USA regularly conduct educational activities, such as making free guidebooks available to junior and female spectators or organising family ballgames where parents and children can play together on the field. Another example of educational value stemming from the ballgame is the popular USA tourist attraction 'The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum', which houses exhibits on legends of the sport and its records, playing an important educational role in the USA baseball industry. Practices such as these provide a mutually-beneficial platform for game providers to communicate with spectators. These kinds of educational opportunities helps game providers to market and increase interest in the sport, creating a friendlier character for the game and turning enjoyment of the sport on a professional level from a passive pursuit to an active pursuit in the minds of spectators. Spectators are given ways to easily fit in with the culture of the game and to better understand the game;

this helps them to appreciate the value of the game and have a generally more enjoyable time. While the notion of a baseball game possessing ‘educational value’ was initially introduced by the internationally-experienced spectators,

after discussion of the idea the other participants of our focus groups also identified 'educational value' as an expectation for both a game they were attending and the sport in general.

5.2.4 Venue

In the process of collecting data from interviewees, a number of unsatisfactory opinions were put forward regarding the topic of game venues, reflecting the poor level of investment in ball fields in TPB. One of the major differences between professional and amateur sport is financial revenue and relevant concerns, one of which is investment in appropriate facilities and equipment - which increase the attractiveness of the sport to spectators.

After analysing the data collected from group participants, the study identified four attributes deemed necessary for a good venue: ‘comfortable environs’,

‘attractive characteristics’, ‘convenient transportation’, and ‘good accessibility’

(‘transport’ refers to transport to and from the venue, ‘accessibility’ refers to transfer routes around the venue, disabled access etc.). The ultimate goal for the management team of professional sports is to attract as many spectators as possible to increase individual consumption and bring in further revenue – unlike amateur sports, as mentioned above – and these venue attributes mentioned by spectators are something that Taiwan’s professional baseball game providers need to pay attention to. There is no guarantee that every spectator who spends money on buying tickets will have a good time; however, tangible and user-friendly facilities are services that can be expected and should really be taken for granted by spectators; they also leave a positive impression on the consumer, increasing the likelihood of the spectator returning to the same venue to view other games.

Comfortable Environs: Relative comfort is expected by almost every spectator; it is difficult to enjoy your time at the ballgame if you're constantly distracted by physical discomfort. Spacious and comfortable seats, well-arranged seating with good views and wide, open aisles are all good examples

of ways to make the spectator's environment more comfortable. Spacious seating is especially important in Taiwan, where it can help disperse the sticky heat of a hot and humid climate. One interviewee also mentioned the happiness he witnessed his friends experience upon realising their seats were equipped with cup holders, saying that small touches such as these can have a large impact on the overall experience; another participant mentioned the lack of such facilities at another venue, saying that the lack of this convenience resulted in many empty cups littering the ground; another had the following opinion about Taiwan’s baseball stadiums: The chairs are too small and too hard, and they don’t have cupholders! (They have them overseas, on the armrests.) That way the cups wouldn’t spill so much; they also have people come every two or three innings to clean up. (interviewee No.10).

Accessibility: Due to the nature of the game, a baseball venue is usually rather large and it takes some time for spectators to move from one place to another; this amount of time increases exponentially with insufficient planning and designing of movement routes, particularly if this lack of thought in the design process leads a spectator to become lost (“The first time I went to see a game there I left partway through to go to the bathroom. On the way back I ended up getting completely lost and almost missed the whole innings!” - interviewee No.23). Inconvenience when moving around the venue or becoming lost can negatively impact on a spectator’s experience at the ball field and, in turn, their satisfaction levels. Inappropriate routes for moving around the venue also hinder staff movements, emergency evacuations and the delivery of urgent medical care, thus this topic needs to be taken under careful consideration by service providers.

Transportation: The second thing a spectator needs to consider in their trip to the ball field (after buying tickets) is getting to the venue itself.

Transportation to any place at any time of day always requires some degree of planning, but the large numbers of people converging simultaneously on the baseball field make transportation to the venue a very real and very large concern to spectators. While it is out of the operator’s control to ensure all potential spectators live within a reasonable distance to the venue, they can

make their best effort to ensure easy and convenient transportation.

Complaints raised by the participants of our focus groups included parking (either it was difficult to locate the on-site parking or the only parking available was far from the venue), traffic jams before and after the game and a lack of adequate public transportation (“We should have a shuttle bus between Tainan Station and the ballfield, I suppose teams just haven’t thought of this before” - interviewee No.24). Interviewees indicated that these things negatively affected their experience at the ball field, and the level of inconvenience involved in getting to and from a venue affects their decisions to attend a game. This means that transport infrastructure – public transport, shuttle buses, on-site parking – are all important when attracting spectators to attend games, and the provision of convenient transport options are an important spectator expectation that needs to be met.

Attractive Characteristics: There are plenty of examples of ball fields or sports stadiums which have become famous landmarks in their own right, attracting not only large numbers of spectators but also thousands of tourists, such as Tokyo CBD's Tokyo Dome - who's egg-like appearance has earned it the nickname 'Big Egg', or Boston Red Sox's Fenway Park – a rather large left-field wall, painted green (interviewee No.2, No.3, No.5, No.9, No.11). Even defects become distinguishing features of a venue and popular topics amongst spectators in their own right. A ball field should possess unique and characteristic building traits to help distinguish it from other venues and make an impression on the minds of spectators. Ball fields with distinguishing features often reach an elevated status within the sport, and can have played a certain role in the development of baseball history; these grounds are often treated as 'holy' places in baseball, and as such attract a large amount of interest from spectators. Another benefit of having a distinguishing characteristic at a venue is that it's an extra 'novelty' that increases a spectator enjoyment at a game. This led our interviewees to identify 'attractive venue characteristics' as an expectation.