Introduction

The arena of sport provides opportunities for fans and participants to engage in a variety of ritualistic behavior and traditions. Ritualistic behaviors have been shown to create group cohesion and a sense of belonging that people yearn for in group settings (Marshall, 2002; McDonald & Karg, 2014; Rook, 1985). Some sporting rituals are very elaborate events such as the Texas A&M "yell practice," which occurs at midnight on Friday before a Saturday home game, and brings thousands of fans together because of the association they have with the team (Texas A&M University--Yell Practice, n.d.). Specifically, an estimated 50,000 fans came together for the first Texas A&M "yell practice" of the 2015 season in the renovated Kyle Field (Peshek, 2015). Whereas other sport fan rituals are much more simple, yet can still have a great deal of meaning, one example being the Boston Red Sox playing "Sweet Caroline" in the middle of the 8th inning at each home game since 2002, or the Wisconsin Badger playing "Jump Around" before the beginning of the 4th quarter at each home game since 1998 (Browne, 2013; Kohlbeck, 2015). Sport fan rituals can materialize in various ways and differ in level of intensity, but the fact that these ritualistic behaviors can have such an impact on a fan base warrants the investigation of fan motivations to attend and participate in a sport ritual.

The past research on ritualistic behavior in sports is sparse, at least when investigating the motivations behind ritualistic behaviors of the sport consumers. Most relevant to this study, Drenten, Peters, Leigh, and Hollenbeck (2009) and James, Breezeel, and Ross (2001) examined the motivations behind tailgating in sport. The studies on tailgating found numerous motivations that impacted why people began and continued to tailgate, but the use of quantitative methods limited these studies as they could not examine the how or why behind the motivations. McDonald and Karg (2014) examined a new soccer team that played in an Australia and New Zealand league to examine what type of rituals formed, how they formed, and what impact they had on spectators at the games. The research on ritualistic behavior in sport could greatly be enhanced with studies examining specific sport fan rituals.

The University of Kansas (KU) has a tradition officially called KU basketball camping, by the athletic department and leadership team, where hundreds of students "camp out" at Allen Fieldhouse prior to each home game. This phenomenon is similar to "A&M's yell practice" in the way that it brings many fans of a college team together. An in-depth examination of this ritualistic context is important because there is an overall lack of research on ritualistic behavior and the past literature on tailgating has utilized quantitative methodology and cannot effectively examine the how/why behind their questions (Drenten et al., 2009; James et al., 2001). It is valuable to examine the motivation behind ritualistic behavior in sport because they may lead to increased game attendance, an overall improvement in satisfaction of attendees, and increased merchandise purchasing (McDonald & Karg, 2014). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to garner an in-depth understanding of the most prevalent motivations for students to participate in KU basketball camping.

Context

KU basketball camping is a unique process and is fostered by the historic success of the KU basketball program. The history of the KU basketball program begins with their first basketball coach being the creator of basketball Dr. James Naismith (Rains, 2009). The second ever coach at KU was Dr. Phog Allen who is considered the "father of basketball coaching" (Kerfkoff, 1996). The basketball team has had incredible success on the court, especially since 1982. In that 33-year span from 1982 to 2015, the team has also only missed one NCAA tournament, and has finished a season ranked in the AP top five 12 times (Sports Reference--Kansas Jayhawks, n.d.). Also, this reign has been led by three highly regarded head coaches in Larry Brown, Roy Williams, and Bill Self, all three of these most recent head coaches at KU never had a losing record (Sports Reference--Kansas Jayhawks, n.d.). Considering the history behind the beginning of the program and the great success the team has experienced, it is understandable for KU to have a system like this in place.

Students have been camping outside of Allen Fieldhouse before games dating back to the 1970's and at the time earned the best seats in the student section on a first come first serve basis (Camping 101, n.d.). During the mid-1980's, a student-led process began so that students did not need to camp out for entire days to get the best seats (Skillet, 2015). Currently, camping is conducted inside Allen Fieldhouse and after each home game, there is a lottery the following morning (6:00 a.m. on weekdays, 8:00 a.m. on weekends) (Camping 101, n.d.). During every lottery morning, each group draws one number for every five people they have in attendance (up to six), and the lowest number they draw is the one they use, the lower the number the closer they are to the front of the line on game day (Camping 101, n.d.). Once groups have drawn spots, they are responsible to have a representative from their group in their location every weekday from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. on weekends, unless the leadership team, or a unanimous vote by campers, suspends camping. Roll can be called by any camper, and if a camping group is not represented at that time they are moved to the back of the list (Camping 101, n.d.). Based on who has been crossed off the list and added to the bottom, the camping groups line up and enter the game two hours before tip-off. The students who camp are the first few hundred fans allowed into Allen Fieldhouse for each game (Camping 101, n.d.). Based upon the context and purpose of this study, the overarching research question used as the framework for this project was: what are the motives for students to participate in KU basketball camping?

Literature Review

This section will examine the relevant literature that helped frame this study and the purpose of this study. It will focus on ritualistic behavior motivation and ritualistic behavior motivation in sport, as well as how these concepts relate to the context of KU basketball camping.

Ritualistic Behavior Motivation

Rook (1985) defined ritual as a "type of expressive, symbolic activity constructed of multiple behaviors that occur in fixed, episodic sequence, and that tend to be repeated over time. Ritual behavior is dramatically scripted and acted out and is performed with formality, seriousness, and inner intensity" (p. 252). This definition affirms that KU basketball camping is a ritual as it is acted out under strict rules after every game, has gone on for many years, and is overseen by a "leadership team." (Official Rules, n.d.). The motivations behind engaging in ritualistic behavior have been tested in multiple settings outside of sport with one being consumption of food/drink and perception of these items when a ritual is conducted around them (Kapitany & Nielsen, 2015; Vohs et al., 2016). It was found that a ritual being enacted made the perception of the food/drink more favorable than when the ritual was not in place. Another way rituals have been examined is their usage in holidays and it appears that rituals are a vital aspect behind the continuation of holiday celebrations and the overall enjoyment of them. (Etzioni & Bloom, 2004; Wallendorf & Arnould, 1991). Watson-Jones and Legare (2016) investigated group rituals in the social living context and found that rituals serve four purposes in social group living: "(a) provide reliable markers of group membership, (b) demonstrate commitment to the group, (c) facilitate cooperation with social coalitions, and (d) increase social group cohesion" (p. 45). In these examples, rituals appear to make the final product more enjoyable and can lead to a strong group connectedness or cohesion.

Another way rituals are often examined is through how individuals in religious circles act. A prominent motivation to participate in religious activities has focused on the idea of increased social interaction and acceptance (Cohen, Hall, Koenig, & Meador, 2005; Levy & Razin, 2012). Cohen et al. (2005) discussed the extrinsic motivations related to participating in religious traditions and credited much of it to participating because they have been taught to, or because they believe it is what they are supposed to do to "fit in." The concept of participating in a ritual because it's what one thinks they are supposed to do, or taught to do is very applicable to ritualistic behavior around sporting events as many rituals have become a rite of passage in and of them self to attending the sporting event itself.

Neale (2010) considered entertainment products and how rituals may impact consumer loyalty. The concept divided rituals into two types, social and personal, and Neale constructed a ritual-loyalty model and hypothesized participating in rituals would have a positive impact on both attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty. The idea that ritualistic behavior from entertainment consumers (including sport consumers) can impact loyalty is important in regards to this study. If participating in a ritual can create more loyal fans, than it is important for sport practitioners to know what motivations fans to partake in these rituals.

Sport Fan Ritualistic Behavior Motivation

Before examining sport fan rituals one must understand how ritualistic behavior works in general. Moutinho, Dionisio, and Leal (2007) describe ritualistic behaviors by consumers with the concept of "consumer tribes" which they consider to be non-religious cults by their rituals beliefs and symbolism usage. These scholars continue to state the sport can embody much of the same characteristics of a cult, and this is primarily due to the fact that individual's join cults and become sport fans because of their need to "feel at ease by being among like-minded other" (p. 669). Pimentel and Reynolds (2004) examined fans of college football teams to garner an understanding of consumer devotion and created a model that included rituals as a proactive sustaining behavior stemming from affective commitment and leading to devotion. In their study, commitment was necessary to participate in rituals, but the rituals were seen as a way to sustain and enhance their commitment and loyalty. The scholars also said brands should look to football teams as one of their main examples to learn about consumer motivation (Pimentel & Reynolds, 2004). Regardless of the context, ritualistic behavior has been found to be important to brand commitment and loyalty.

When it comes to the motivations behind participating in sport fan rituals there has been minimal research. McDonald and Karg (2014) examined fans of new teams in a soccer league that played in Australia and New Zealand; they investigated how rituals formed and what benefits were received from those who participated in rituals. They found rituals were formed quickly and completely by the fans, with no prompting from the team. Specifically, the fans listed over 20 rituals that were participated in due to the team or even the game itself (McDonald & Karg, 2014). The findings by McDonald and Karg (2014) were similar to research on ritualistic behavior but also expanded on this in the sports context stating, "sport fans undertake ritual behaviors to improve social bonds, enhance pleasure, and as an attempt to standardize the quality of their experience, given inherently unpredictable outcomes (i.e. game results)" (p. 304). Overall, McDonald and Karg (2014) discovered that fan-created rituals enhanced the atmosphere of the game for participants and non-participants alike, and because of this acted as a motivation to attend the games.

The primary ancillary sporting event that utilizes ritualistic behavior that has received some academic attention, albeit minimal, has been tailgating. James et al. (2001) conducted interviews and surveys with fans participating in tailgating and part of their purpose was to examine why fans began tailgating as well as why these fans continued to tailgate. Friends, family, part of the game, and fun were all found to be significant reasons for fans to start tailgating (James et al., 2001). As for continuing to tailgate, the biggest factor was social interaction, where 39% of respondents claimed this was their reason to continue. Drinking (19%) and food (17%) were the second and third most popular reasons to continue tailgating (James et al., 2001). Additionally, the authors found that all of the tailgating groups they interviewed believed they would continue to tailgate regardless of the performance of the team (James et al., 2001). The fact that individuals may participate in an ancillary ritual, despite the team's performance is an incredibly interesting concept that sport marketers should be aware of and attempt to take advantage of.

Drenten et al. (2009) expanded on the motivations of football tailgating and discovered that tailgating goes beyond the game, and had multiple motivations behind participation. According to the authors, "commitment to the ritual of tailgating is driven by motives that consist of yin-yang type contradictions which tailgaters negotiate and attempt to balance over time" (p. 95). The authors proposed that tailgating is not driven by single motives, but instead "by the process of negotiating the related contradictions (e.g., camaraderie and competition) that embody particular basic motives (e.g., social interaction)" (p. 95). The specific motivations discovered in this study included: involvement (preparation and participation), social interaction (camaraderie and competition), inter-temporal sentiment (retrospection and prospection), and identity (collectivism and individualism) (Drenten et al., 2009). The tailgating literature by Drenten et al. (2009) and James et al. (2001), along with the sport fan ritualistic behavior study by McDonald and Karg (2014) is most comparable the current examination, and because of this have been examined and considered very closely.

The authors outlined the most relevant literature for this study above, and utilized the literature to frame the study at hand. The focus of the research relied on literature involving ritualistic behavior motivation and sport fan ritualistic behavior motivation. After reviewing the content of KU basketball camping and the literature above, the authors were able to create a clear goal of this study. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to discover the most prevalent motivations of individuals to participate in KU basketball camping and why these specific students continue to camp.

Method

Participants

All research subjects were University of Kansas students who were participating in camping at the time that they were asked to be interviewed. Author One approached campers who appeared to not be busy and asked if they would be willing to participate, 30 students agreed to participate and approximately 10 declined to participate for various reasons. For the purpose of this qualitative study, Author One interviewed 30 students from different camping groups. The sampling method for these interviews was purposive sampling, which Maxwell (2013) describes as "selecting those times, settings, and individuals that can provide you with the information that you need to answer you research questions" (p. 97). The participants in this study ranged from ages 18-28, ranging from undergraduate freshman to second year graduate students (see Table 1 for participants backgrounds). The interview protocol asked each participant if they would classify themselves as a "die-hard" fan, and based upon the responses 24 of the 30 subjects self-identified as a die-hard fan of KU basketball. The interviews were conducted with 16 male and 14 female student campers, who had been camping anywhere between 1 and 6 years.

Procedures

The authors utilized semi-structured interviews (see appendix 1 for interview protocol), which is constructed using a few predetermined questions and many possible prompts to help guide the interview (Petty, Thompson, & Stew, 2012). Additional questions and follow up questions were in place to try to develop an understanding of what motivated the campers specifically to camp, and how that differed from their motivations to attend games.

Author One conducted the interviews on four separate dates; these dates were intentionally selected as they were each within a few days of different games. Conducting interviews on different days, before multiple games assisted the authors in creating more variability in the sample, which was important as the goal of this study was to discover overarching motivations for camping participants. The interviews were audio recorded using a recording device and then transferred to Author One's computer. The interviews were conducted in the media room which was next to the hallway of Allen Fieldhouse where the students camped.

Analysis

A third party who was contracted by the authors transcribed all of the audio recordings of the interviews verbatim. After evaluating the transcription for accuracy, the authors used open coding to uncover for trends in the interviews. For this study, the authors used theory-driven and data-driven coding, whereas the authors coded the transcriptions only considering the raw data the first time, and the second time, coded the data with the past literature and theories in mind (DeCuir-Gunby, Marshall, & McCulloch, 2011). Specifically, the authors utilized descriptive coding, which is effective when trying to find common trends among research because it takes interview questions or field notes and allows the researcher to give it a label of a single word or short phrase (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2014).

To provide evidence of reliability and validity, the authors used five verification strategies from Morse, Barrett, Mayan, Olson, and Spiers (2002) which includes, (1) methodological coherence, (2) appropriate sample population, (3) collecting and analyzing concurrently, (4) thinking theoretically, and (5) theory development.

Results

From the analysis of the transcriptions, the authors discovered the most prominent themes and they are displayed in this section. The results of the authors' open coding primarily fell into three main motivation categories: the game itself, team identity, and upholding tradition. Below, the authors categorized each overarching motivation to detail how the motivation emerged from the data, providing context for the finding as well as illustrating it with direct quotes.

The Game Itself

The game itself refers to the students being motivated to camp because they wanted to attend the game. This most prevalent theme of the game itself emerged because students considered camping primarily a means to an end, where camping was simply a process they participated in to guarantee a good seat in the student section. While the "game itself' was an obvious overall motivation, it broke down to three sub-categories including getting "better seats," wanting to be a part of the atmosphere in the student section, and how camping had become an essential part of attending the game. These three sub-categories are examined below.

Better seats. The first and most prevalent motivation involving the game itself, was the motivation to obtain "better seats." The notion that the students were camping to get the best seats was very consistent throughout, as students answered what their primary motivation to camp was or what the main benefit of camping was with comments like "Ah, just, going to the games made me want to camp, so I could get good seats for the game" and "I love KU basketball, so at all times I want the best seats I can possibly have." The statement below by Camper 22 described how participating in camping allows students to get better seats, and how he would be less motivated to attend the game without camping:

   I think it would be a harder sell for me to show up to the game if
   I didn't have a good seat because the campers get the better seats.
   If you're in the long line, the longer student admission line
   you're gonna be, you know, have a worse seat, I think that would be
   a harder sell for me to get to the game.

The comment above gave more substance to the question of why they continue to camp. On the surface, it appeared the primary motivation to camp was to get "better seats" but when examined at length, other aspects of the game itself emerged as motivations, including the atmosphere of the student section.

Student section atmosphere. Within the notion of the game itself, the game atmosphere was an aspect that appeared to be a strong overall motivator for camping. The atmosphere appeared to be the factor of attending the game that motivated the students to obtain these "better seats," and Camper 12 demonstrated this when explaining why he continues to camp:

   I continue to camp because I love KU, I love going to KU basketball
   games, I love the atmosphere, I love being a part of the student
   section and kind of being that sixth man that everybody talks about
   when they come to Allen Fieldhouse. I really enjoy feeling a part
   of, you know, feeling a part of the team, the atmosphere and
   everything that makes Allen Fieldhouse great. And it's, for those
   of us who, you know, aren't a five star McDonald's Ail-American,
   it's our way of being able to be a part of Kansas basketball.

This student described how important the game atmosphere is for students who partake in KU basketball camping. Experiencing the atmosphere of the student section was another prominent motivation involving attending the game, and the camper's overall desire to sit in the student section is likely what led to KU basketball camping becoming the ritual that it is today, and in this led to another theme involving the game, as camping had become a part of attending a KU basketball game.

A part of the process. The third sub-section involving the motivation of the game itself was how camping had become a part of attending a KU basketball game. It was an apparent motivation as campers would attend a game if they did not camp for it, but it would not feel the same. When asked if camping was a part of the game, students insisted it was, and it was a part of the game beyond just getting better seats or sitting in the student section. Camper 2 discussed how camping had become a part of attending basketball games and how it made her focus on the game all week and even got her hyped for the game:

   Yeah, definitely. I never went to basketball stuff in high school,
   I didn't care for basketball at all in high school. I like KU
   basketball, but it definitely makes me feel more like a part of the
   school and like. It's very easy to sit in your dorm room and not go
   anywhere and, I mean, I would have days where there's a football
   game and I would wake up at noon and be like, oh there was a game
   today, wasn't there, but it didn't really make a difference in
   whether or not like my happiness, like whether or not I went, but
   like with camping, it kind of gets you hyped up for the game, it
   gets you excited for the game and you want to go.

Camper 2 described how camping essentially made her more excited for the game all week, and throughout the interviews it was apparent that camping kept the upcoming game at the forefront of the campers minds. Throughout the data collection, camping as a part of the KU basketball experience emerged as an relevant subsection of the motivation the author's coined the game itself.

When questioned about the main reason or motivation to camp, the theme that emerged the most was the game itself. The game itself seemed to be the strongest motivation throughout the KU basketball community, and fell into the three sub-categories of better seats, the student section atmosphere, and that camping had become a part of the process behind attending a game. Beyond the game itself, students also displayed that they were motived by their team identity.

Team Identity

Overall, students in this study described themselves as die-hard KU basketball fans, and were highly identified and this proved to be an important motivation factor for why students began and continued to camp. Camper 12 explained what he believed made them a die-hard KU basketball fan:

   Since, I hate to say this, but since I've come to KU I've probably
   missed more classes than I have KU basketball games. Whether or not
   that was my choice or not, it's honest, I've probably missed more
   classes than I have KU basketball games so I consider that to be
   one of the die-hard factors and I think I kind of also associate
   emotionally with KU basketball and how they do. I remember watching
   the game, both the games in Ames this season, and again more in
   town this season then we lost both, I just remember yelling at the
   TV, turned off the game with a minute left because I couldn't bear
   to watch another court get stormed when we lost. Just things like
   that.

This student described how strongly they identified with the team, and this strong identity and connection to the team was an overarching motivation to participate in camping. Camper 5 described the dedication students who camped showed and how these students feel connected to the team and athletics:

   Yeah, I would say. I think that most of the students here who are
   camping are usually pretty dedicated to the team, and I think it's
   really awesome that athletics even pitches in to provide, like food
   sometimes, or different things that they do. I think that really
   makes all the students, including myself, feel really connected to
   athletics and the team and whatnot.

Overall, based on the interviews conducted it appeared KU basketball campers were highly identified to the basketball team and this influenced their motivation to begin and continue camping.

Beyond just being identified KU basketball fans, a theme that emerged was that these campers were possibly more committed KU basketball fans, and Camper 7 described how he felt campers were die-hard and deserved the best seats:

   Well, yeah, everyone's done it as far as I know, so I'm not going
   to be the one, like I don't want it switched, if you are a die-hard
   fan, you should get good, better seats than someone who's just a
   bandwagon fan or just wants to see one game.

This student specifically considered campers the die-hard fans, and treated camping as the means for those die-hard fans to get the best seats. The idea that campers who commit this extra time, such as getting up for lottery at 6:00 a.m. and spending hours days before a game holding a groups spot in a hallway, are more committed or highly identified is not surprising.

An even more apparent theme was the distinction campers felt between the KU fan base and other university's fan bases. It was obvious that campers felt the dedication they showed by camping was important as throughout the interviews determination and tradition were the words that emerged as the best descriptors of camping. One student answered if camping made KU basketball distinct from other schools saying: "I do. Ah, I mean, there are other places that camp, but no place camps as often or as long as we do and I think that makes it pretty special." Camper 21 mentioned how she knew someone who worked for another school who was curious about the system KU used:

   I know other schools do basketball camping because like a friend of
   mine, his mom works at Iowa State athletics, and she was asking
   actually asking him how they did camping here, like so they could
   model it off of that. So I think it does make us stand out a little
   bit because we seem to have it pretty well figured out here.

The uniqueness and detailed process behind camping was very well understood by the campers and was the main reason they thought KU basketball camping was distinct from other schools. KU basketball campers felt camping showed their student sections dedication and set them apart from other schools student section. They appreciated identifying with such a strong and dedicated student section, and camping was a way to show how great their fan base was. The most novel motivation to participate in camping was embedded in a feeling of upholding tradition.

Upholding Tradition

Besides attending the game and team identification, one of the most salient motivations to camp was the feeling of upholding a tradition. The motivation to uphold tradition involved not only KU basketball tradition, but also being a student at KU as well. The motivation of upholding tradition was depicted well by Camper 4 who believed camping added a great deal to the KU basketball tradition:

   I do, obviously the tradition's so rich, that's kind of the cool
   thing that's drawn me in. And I get the chills every game, like no
   matter what, I've seen a million times, you know, I've been through
   the whole thing a millions times, I always get the chills every
   game, and I'm always like ... I think that camping, although it
   kind of sucks because it is a long process and very detailed, it's
   very you know, for everyone, it's just kind of hard, especially,
   with college kids, we have busy schedules. But, I think it is very
   important for the tradition.

In this example, the student even admitted that KU basketball camping was not a process that he enjoyed greatly, but understood how important it was to uphold this as part of KU basketball tradition. Another way students believed they were upholding tradition was by connecting camping to being a part of the student experience at KU. Camper 10, who was in the foreign exchange program and was spending only one year at KU, explained that she felt she had to camp to get the "proper KU student experience." This student learned about camping in the orientation program, and she stated how the group of exchange students would find out from friends which games they "had" to camp for to get the best seats. Camper 2 who was born and raised a KU basketball fan, made a statement similar to the one above:

   I want the full experience of being a KU student and so camping is
   part of that, like camping is kind of a universal KU student
   experience, I feel like. And in my opinion, if you're a KU student
   and you don't camp, you're missing out on part of that experience.
   Like, my roommate doesn't even have basketball tickets. And I can't
   imagine going to KU and not getting basketball tickets.

KU basketball camping appeared to be an important aspect of being a student at the university based on the responses of the students in this study. The importance of upholding or adding to the tradition of KU basketball was a prevalent theme.

Camper 11 discussed how the tradition of KU basketball camping enhances the tradition of KU basketball and allows students to feel more connected to the team as well:

   I would say it is to a degree, it's one of the things that helps
   contributes to making KU basketball special. It's part of the
   tradition. It's not the entire tradition, but whereas the team has,
   this is where basketball started, and Naismith coached here, and
   all that other sort of stuff, this is how camping starts. This is
   the tradition that students, regardless of whether or not they're
   here for four years or if they're one of the players out on the
   court it's their way of getting involved, their way of
   participating.

This student believed camping added to the tradition of KU basketball, and allowed students to participate in the game in a way larger than that of a typical spectator. KU basketball camping appeared to be a way that students could feel connected to the team itself. As campers appeared to believe that being committed was a part of camping, there was also a common theme that campers were strongly identified with the KU basketball team, and team identification also proved to be one of the primary motivations for students who participate in KU basketball camping.

Throughout the interviews, the game itself, team identity, and upholding tradition were the reoccurring motivations that emerged that influenced individuals to participate in KU basketball camping and therefore can be classified as themes for this study. The results from this study allowed the authors to analyze the overall purpose of this study and examine the motivations of students who participated in KU basketball camping.

Discussion

This study's purpose was to discover the motivations of students who participate in KU basketball camping. In the following section, the authors have examined how the major themes of why these students participated in KU basketball camping aligned with the past relevant literature, as well as detailed the practical implications for this research, the limitations of this study, and future considerations.

The most prevalent motivation for camping that emerged from this study was the game itself, which meant students camped because they wanted to attend the game, whereas camping was viewed as a means to an end. This finding was most comparable to the motive in the tailgating literature called the "game" (James et al., 2001). Another motivation study on tailgating by Drenten et al. (2009) had a participant state that "it's part of the game. In fact, it is sometimes more fun than the game" (p. 101). The "game itself' motivation also relates closely to the notion of event attractiveness, a market demand variable that has been found to influence attendance in the context of high school basketball (Cianfrone, Zhang, Pitts, & Byon, 2015). Event attractiveness was considered the "core product" of the game by the authors, and included aspects such as player's skills, team's style, and team records (Cianfrone et al., 2015). The literature on sport consumer behavior, as well as tailgating, has found aspects of the game itself to be strong motivating agents. Therefore, it is not surprising that the game itself was the most prevalent motivation theme in this study. As the results indicated, being motivated by the game categorized into three different areas including wanting better seats, aspiring to experience the student section atmosphere, and camping being a part of the process of attending a KU basketball game.

When it came to why students participated in camping, the simple answer was to obtain the best seats in the student section, which was an idea that was specific to this context, as past literature on ritualistic behavior in sport, most specifically tailgating had nothing to do with getting "better seats." As the motivation of the game itself was examined more closely, it was observed that "better seats," was truly the students desire to be able to participate in the atmosphere that was the front of the student section.

Overall, students felt Allen Fieldhouse was a special arena to watch a game in and that their experience was enhanced if they were in the student section. The entertainment aspect of attending the game relied most heavily on the excitement of the student section and students were greatly motivated to attend games with the purpose of experiencing Allen Field-house's student section. While specific game elements were not examined in the tailgating literature, it was noted that tailgating had become a part of the game for those who participated (James et al., 2001; Drenten et al., 2009).

The third aspect of this motivation theme involved camping becoming part of attending a KU basketball game. As James et al. (2001) and Drenten et al. (2009) had findings that included tailgating becoming an important aspect of attending a game, it was no surprise that this study found KU basketball campers to be motivated to camp because they simply viewed it as a part of attending a game. Becoming a part of the game was not as important to the students as was being a part of the student section atmosphere, but was the motivation involving the game that was most related to the phenomenon of KU basketball camping.

Team identification as a motivating factor to attend KU basketball camping was prevalent and not surprising, and it was apparent that these fans were motivated by their high team identification. This finding was viewed through a different lens than McDonald and Karg (2014), who found team identification to be an outcome for fans who participated in ritualistic behavior. Drenten et al. (2009) utilized identity as one of their four main motivations to tailgate, and separated identity into collectivism and individualism, the first considering the tailgating community and the latter involved considering their self or group to be superior or more die-hard fans. The authors were able to conclude that campers believed the activity of camping made the KU student basketball fans special or at least unique from other universities in that they believed it showed the extra commitment or determination their student section had. By identifying with the team, campers may be fulfilling a sense of their social identity and it has been found that team identification is a very common way for individuals to achieve a type of group membership and increase their sense of belonging (Jacobson, 2003). Many scholars have found that team identification has positively influenced individual's social well-being in diverse settings, including local fandom (Wann & Weaver, 2009), college basketball and baseball fans (Branscombe & Wann, 1991), and non-marquee college teams (Wann, Keenan, & Page, 2009). Also, students who camped felt that because they committed more time to the team by camping, they were more committed fans and considered campers to be "die-hard" fans. The way campers felt a distinction between KU student fans and other university student fans, as well as KU campers and other KU student fans aligned with the tailgating literature and showed how team identity was a motivating factor for participants of KU basketball camping (Drenten et al., 2009). The distinction campers feel from other school's fans and other KU basketball fan's aligns well with the team identification literature that says fans create in-groups and out-groups and feel favorably towards the in-group, and speak more highly of members of the created in-group (Lock, Taylor, Funk, & Darcy, 2011).

In this study, identity was treated as a motivation rather than an outcome, and this aligns well with the finding that investing more time and money into a team can be a strong indicator of highly identified fans (Wann & Banscombe, 1993). Specifically, scholars have found that more highly identified fans put forth more effort towards their teams involving college basketball fans (Wann & Branscombe, 1993), fans tailgating for football (Drenten et al., 2009), Australian soccer team fans (Lock et al., 2012), and Major League Baseball fans (James, Kolbe, & Trail, 2002). These campers are motivated to participate by their strong bond and identification with the team.

Another very strong theme that developed from the interviews was how campers were motivated by their feelings of "upholding tradition." The traditions that motivated students to camp involved the KU basketball team, as well as being a KU student. It appeared that students were motivated to participate in KU basketball camping because it was a tradition of KU basketball, which aligned well with tailgaters who were motivated to participate because they felt tailgating was a tradition they wanted to continue (Drenten et al., 2009). The most unique finding in comparison to the past related literature on sport fan rituals was how KU basketball camping was considered a tradition affiliated with being a student at the university.

The upholding tradition motive aligned well with Drenten et al.'s (2009) findings about tailgaters who felt tailgating was "a family tradition" and explained that longing for the past and feelings of tradition were aspects of one of their overarching motivations. Research examining rituals of holidays found that these rituals were imperative to the success and pleasure surrounding the holidays, and that in fact, holidays may not hold the same allure without these ritualistic behaviors (Etzioni & Bloom, 2004; Wallendorf & Arnould, 1991). More specifically in the sport context, McDonald and Karg (2014) found that fans felt the experience of attending the game was enhanced by the ritualistic behaviors they participated in, before, during, and after the game. As past research has found that upholding the tradition of the ritualistic behaviors can be a motivating factor to attend events, it was not surprising to see that upholding tradition was an important motivating factor of participating in KU basketball camping.

The unexpected finding involving upholding tradition was how students viewed KU basketball camping as a tradition involving KU students overall. One student went as far to considering camping a part of being "a proper KU student." The basketball program and their historic success has a strong influence on the campus overall, but the fact that students considered camping, a ritualistic event around the game itself, an integral part of being a student was interesting. This finding is very specific to the context, as campers can identify as a student as well as a KU basketball fan, and it appears that camping has become the norm for these students who camp. In a similar context, Lu, Lin, and Cheng (2011) found that subjective norms, which refers to the perceived social pressures that may alter behavior, positively impacted sport fan's intention to attend a game. In the context of KU basketball camping, it is likely the feeling that students must camp to obtain the best seats which has made camping a norm. As well as being a norm, it seems camping upholds tradition beyond basketball and the most comparable example is from Drenten et al. (2009) where one tailgater treated camping like a family tradition, so it may be that some tailgating groups feel they are upholding a tradition to something beyond the team as the KU basketball campers appeared to. This finding could also be evaluated through the lens of past research on holidays and ritualistic behavior, as scholars found that changing rituals around holidays could harm the enjoyment and commitment to the holiday itself (Etzioni & Bloom, 2004; Wallendorf & Arnould, 1991).

Upholding tradition was a strong overarching motivation for KU basketball campers; this finding related to upholding a tradition involving KU basketball as well as being a KU student in general. This finding was very unique to the context of KU basketball camping, as it was able to add to the tradition of the basketball team while standing as its own tradition. Also, the fact that students viewed it as an aspect of the student experience was a novel finding that deserves more investigation in similar college sport ancillary events. This finding made it apparent that the role of "upholding tradition" motivated students to participate in KU basketball camping.

Possibly the most surprising aspect of this study was the lack of social interaction as a motive. This was surprising because much of the past literature has found social interaction to be an important aspect of participating in ritualistic behaviors involving sport (Drenten et al., 2009; James et al., 2001; McDonald & Karg, 2014; Pimentel & Reynolds, 2004). The context of KU basketball camping is likely what caused this, as groups are only required to have one member present at a time and nearly all groups take advantage of this rule. As camping groups do not have more than one member camp at a time, and a vast majority of campers are doing individual type tasks, (including sleeping, watching movies, or doing homework) the setting does not create an atmosphere for social interaction.

The results of this study led the authors to find the game itself, team identity, and upholding tradition as the main motivations to participate in KU basketball camping. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the motivations of KU basketball campers, and this study found a few strong overarching motivations which were discussed above. Below, the authors have considered this study's practical implications, limitations, and considerations for future research.

Practical Implications

This study has useful practical considerations primarily in the marketing realm. From a marketing standpoint, it is important to consider what motivates fans to participate in ritualistic behaviors like KU basketball camping because it may enhance the overall attendance of a game which can lead to increased attendance and merchandise expenditures (McDonald & Karg, 2014). Additionally, past research has found a positive relationship between participating in rituals and fan emotions such as identification (McDonald & Karg, 2014). Also, if the findings from this study are consistent in other sport contexts than these planned out rituals allow the fan who participate to feel more strongly identified and give them a feeling of distinction from other fans (of their team and other teams) and past literature has thought that highly identified fans put forth more effort towards their team (Branscombe & Wann, 1991; Wann et al., 2009; Wann & Weaver, 2009).

As this study found campers to be motivated by the game experience, upholding tradition, and team identification, it may be in the best interest of a university with a strong student fan base, or any sport team that could do so, to implement a structure like KU basketball camping, this may allow highly identified fans to create a strong distinction from other fans and other school fan bases as it is possible that participating can deepen their identification and improve their attendance.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

As this study was conducted qualitatively, there is not a focus on the breadth of data, but rather on the depth of data from each subject and gathering data from more participants could have been beneficial. Another limitation of this study was that it was only conducted over one season; ideally this study could be conducted longitudinally and track the motivations of campers over the years and see if as they got older and continued to camp their motivations changed. Also, the games that campers were interviewed for were all late season conference games and as a result it would have benefited the research to gather data before games of multiple levels of popularity. Although there were some limitations with this study, there is still a great deal of future research that can be conducted from this study.

This study continued the line of research on ancillary sporting events conducted on tailgating by Drenten et al. (2009) and James et al. (2001) and should be used in future research regarding similar activities. From a marketing aspect, it is important for those in the field of sport to have an idea of what motivates their fans to attend these events, as this study and the past tailgating literature has done. Further, scholars should consider what benefits participants receive from these events. If marketers can discover what motivates their fans to attend these events and then discover what benefits they receive, the marketers can tailor these ancillary events to increase the benefits for the participants.

As upholding tradition was the most novel finding from this study, it deserves the most future consideration. Upholding tradition may be important because it could improve the attendance of the actual game, this idea was not examined in-depth, but would align with past sport ritualistic behavior research. The research by McDonald and Karg (2014) found that ritualistic behavior may improve attendance at a game for all fans, even those who do not participate in the rituals. Specifically, future research should be conducted on sport rituals to see if "upholding tradition" is a common motivation theme, and if it appears to be so, examine more specifically what influences this motivation. Research on other similar events could strengthen the findings from this study or make new motivation discoveries, therefore adding to the literature.

Additionally, the impact that a ritual like KU basketball camping has on the participants should be examined. Specifically, future research could involve a longitudinal study that measured individuals' team identification, general fandom, specific sport fandom, and commitment to the team or university before and after they participated in the ritual. In a longitudinal study with students at Division III universities, it was found that the athletics department could act as the "front porch" for the university and aided in the students' attachment to the university (Katz, Dixon, Heere, & Bass, 2017). Another study which examined Korean men's professional basketball discovered that performance-related elements increased the fans team identification (Lee & Kang, 2015). If Division III athletics can improve students' attachment to the university and performance-related elements can increase fans team identification, participating in a long-standing tradition around a highly successful collegiate team may prove to influence fans and students tremendously.

A common and useful endeavor in marketing is to conduct consumer profiling. In the context of this study, it would be very useful to ascertain a profile of those who participate in camping. To this end, researchers could include personality variables such as team identification, fan dysfunction, familial connections to KU, years as a fan, and other pertinent variables to better understand who participates in these rituals. It would be interesting to evaluate fans who participate in rituals through the lens of a conceptual classification of sport fans (Hunt, Bristol, Bashaw, 1999) or through the Psychological Continuum Model (Funk & James, 2001). Utilizing either fan classification framework could help identify what type of fans participate in ritualistic behaviors around sporting events. This research could aid in distinguishing fans who participate in these rituals with the more casual sport fan consumers.

Finally, future research should examine the socialization process behind engaging in such rituals. To this end, determining those socializing agents responsible for introducing this ritual to participants will provide a more holistic picture of how fans get to the point where they invest countless hours engaging in a ritual like KU basketball camping. Similarly, it would be important to ascertain the outcomes of this socialization and involvement in this sport ritual as well. An individual's father and hometown have been found to be the most prevalent factors in one's fandom (James & Kolbe, 2000) and it is possible that children as young as five years old may be able to commit to a sport team (James, 2001). Scholars have examined how individuals are socialized into sport fandom, but it will be interesting to investigate how fans who participate in rituals around sporting events are socialized into doing so. Understanding how one comes to participate in a ritual around a team could be important for sport practitioners, especially if these participants do appear to experience increased team identification, loyalty, or similar outcomes. As research on the ritualistic behavior of ancillary sporting events is in its infancy, there is a great deal of research avenues that could be capitalized on.

Zach Scola, Brian S. Gordon and Jordan R. Bass

University of Kansas

Address Correspondence to: Zach Scola, Health, Sport and Exercise Science--Sport Management, University of Kansas, 146C Robinson Center, 1301 Sunnyside Ave., Lawrence, KS 66045scola.zach@ku.edu

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Appendix

Semi-structured interview protocol

1. What year in school are you?

2. What is your age? (Note gender)

3. Where are you from originally?

a. Were you a KU basketball fan before you were a student?

i. Is your family KU basketball fans?

ii. Would you consider yourself a die-hard fan of KU basketball?

1. If so why?

4. How important is it to YOU that KU wins? And, why?

5. How strongly do YOU see YOURSELF as a fan of KU basketball?

6. What venues do you use to follow KU basketball and how often do you follow?

7. How many games have you camped for this season?

a. Which games and why?

i. Does KUs success impact if you camp?

ii. Does the opponent impact if you camp?

8. What/who made you aware of KU basketball camping?

a. What did you think of the concept before you participated?

9. Who camps with you? Why do you choose to camp with these people?

a. If your group stopped camping would you find/form another group?

i. Why/why not?

10. Is there any competition or interaction with your group and others?

11. Describe your group's process behind camping. How does your group prepare, organize, and communicate?

12. Who/what influenced you to start camping?

13. What do you like most about camping?

14. Does engaging in camping make you feel more connected to athletics? University?

a. Does it make this fan base distinct from other schools?

b. Are campers distinct from other KU student fans?

15. Is camping a part of attending KU basketball game?

a. Would you attend a game you didn't camp for?

16. Does camping make KU basketball special?

a. If not, what makes KU basketball special to you?

b. Do you camp to uphold a legacy or tradition (if not already mentioned)?

17. Would you camp out to get tickets for any other sport? Why or why not?

18. Does the setting of Allen Fieldhouse make camping special?

a. How so?

19. Does camping give you a feeling of exclusivity?