2. Literature review

To begin with, I would like to highlight studies that investigate the problem of why viewers do not want to go to sports events and football games in particular. Point out studies that raised the question not about the factors that make people go to the stadium, but on the contrary, why people do not go to football games. These studies are most often carried out in countries where there is a problem with attendance, and specifically a review of articles about the absence of spectators at matches in Iran and Brazil. The main purpose of these studies is to determine what repels people from going to matches in a particular country, what factors have a strong influence on the choice of a fan, in favor of staying at home or choosing another way to spend free time, rather than go for large-scale football event.

In a study conducted in Brazil (Claudio M. Rocha & Fernando A. Fleury 2017), it was found that safety factors, fans of the opposing team, and high ticket prices were the main obstacles to going to football among Brazilian fans. Researchers hypothesized that the problem of safety in stadiums may be relevant only for fans in developing countries, since the problem of safety was not considered as a factor preventing the campaign of the fans to the stadium in studies in the US, Australia and Europe (Biscaia et al., 2012; Kim & Trail, 2010; ), however, fan clashes before matches and during the matches themselves are a frequent occurrence in any of these countries, so the hypothesis that safety is only important to fans from developing countries , not confirmed.

The behavior of the opposing team's fans is the second factor hindering the march to the match in Brazil. Also, the link between drinking alcohol and the bad behavior of the fans was not established, since the sale of alcohol on the stadiums territory in Brazil is prohibited, but even if it is assumed that the fan comes to the match already drunk, in any case, the link between alcohol intoxication and violence in the stands was not proven (Peitersen, 2009). The main concerns of the fans in relation to others are related to the so-called “ultras”. “Ultras” - this is the most active and loyal fans of the team, most often combined into various groups. And the presence of “ultras” may not like the fans who come to watch the game, not to sing chants and sing songs.

The third factor that can be considered a barrier to going to football is the price and pricing of tickets for matches of the Brazilian championship.

Also, many studies (Fallahi A, Asadi H, Khabiri M. 2013; O'Reilly N, Kaplan A, Nadeau J. 2011) have shown that many factors affect not visiting football. All factors can be divided into 5 groups: economic, social, personal, technical and organizational. It is these factors that most of all influence the absence of a large number of fans in the stands of sporting events and football matches in particular. Economic factors and the factor of the technical condition of the stadium are most affected by the fact that the audience does not want to go to the stadium. The high ticket price is the main economic barrier for fans not to go to the stadium. In Research (Fallahi, Asadi and Habiri 2009) argue that economic factors such as high ticket prices and the cost of the road to the stadium negatively affect the attendance of sports events. As for the technical factors, they include complete lack of sanitation and lack of cleanliness in the stadiums.

We now turn to studies that show what factors influence the fan's motivation to go to the stadium, why he is ready to give his money for a ticket.

Factors that can influence fan visits to football matches. These factors include the following values: economic, demographic, competition, stadium attractiveness, compatibility with the team, participation in a mass event. (Shank, 2001). The motivation of the fans can be divided into 8 groups: a sense of excitement, abstraction from the daily routine, entertainment, sports betting, aesthetics of the event, the need for socialization and the need for a family. (Wann, 1995).

Also a factor that greatly affects the motivation of the fan about attending a sporting event is the importance and status of the game. The importance of the game is the fan's perception of the game to which he came, examining all the facts, which include: the level of players, their skills, position in the standings while visiting a match or unusual events, such as a decisive match for a championship or a match, in which all the stars will play. Therefore, from this we can conclude that the more attractive the game is and the more intrigue it carries, the more people will come to it to enjoy the beautiful spectacle. (Shank, 2001).

There are many factors that affect different areas of life, but only 2 of them affect the attendance of sporting events - these are controlled and uncontrollable factors. Sports facilities can affect the price of tickets or the price of merchandise, the cost of food in the arena, or other near-sports commercial components, but they cannot control the average income of the population, so these factors are also fundamental when going to a sporting event among fans, although There are studies that have shown that the attendance of a sporting event does not depend on a raise, and people who are willing to pay their beloved money, just to get to an interesting event. (Baade & Tiechen, 1990).

Demographic factors such as gender, age, profession and nationality can also influence the attendance of sports events by fans. However, it is not an easy task to determine a typical portrait of a fan, but they are more likely to be a young man who has a higher education and has a good salary in relation to the rest of the country's population. (Shank, 2001)

It was also found that the atmosphere in the stadium and its infrastructure, has a great importance on the motivation of the fan, when going to a sporting event. The infrastructure includes such things as: the availability of the stadium and its location, the availability of parking, the interior of the arena, the quality of cleaning at the stadium and the generally pleasant atmosphere. All of these factors certainly affect the attendance. (Wakefield & Sloam 1995)

The next factor that also plays an important role in the motivation of the fans is how the fans perceive the competition that this competition can give to society. The researchers found that the more sporting an event is significant to fans, the greater the possibility that fans will attend the event. The values ??of sport for society include such criteria as: the possibility of unification, behavior in society, a pleasant pastime, the pursuit of the ideal (Zhang, Pease & Hui (1996).

Many studies are not based on a separate fan or group of fans, but on the organization of the event itself and its infrastructure. As a result, the following factors are listed in the list of defining fans: stadium conditions, weather conditions and match time, in the afternoon or evening, ticket prices, there is also a lack and shortage of tickets for a match, advertising campaigns of clubs or sports events. (Cunningham and Kwon, 2003) (Hill and Green, 2000) (DeSchriver and Jensen, 2002) (Fink, Trail and Anderson, 2002), Individual factors were also clearly important in deciding whether to participate in a sporting event. It was found that social identity greatly influences the decision of fans to go to the stadium (Cunningham and Kwon, 2003). Most often, fans never go to events alone, so the desire to spend time in the company of like-minded people and an attempt to abstract from external problems is a social motivating factor for fans (Wann, 1995). ) (Mullin, Hardy and Sutton, 2000).

Fan identification is a purely personal emotional attitude of a person to any sports team or organization. The researchers proposed a system for identifying fans, their relationships and experiences regarding the sports team. At the first level, there are fans with low identification - they are social fans. This level includes fans who are not interested in the history of the team, component of the match or the result of the game, they come to the stadium to be part of a big performance, they go to sports events to meet entertainment needs, nothing more. At the second level, there are fans who can be classified as medium-identifiable or focused fans. These are the fans who relate themselves to the team or some particular player, but not for too long a period of time, as soon as their favorite player leaves the club, or the team begins to show unsatisfactory results, they immediately stop worrying about this team. The third level - the fans who strongly identify with the team, this is the group of people who have a strong emotional connection with the club and the players. This category includes “ultras”, who usually follow football teams to all away matches and go to absolutely all the home games of their favorite team. (Sutton, McDonald, Milne & Cimperman, 1997).

People who like sports, who survive and love to support their team at the stadium, have their own factors that play a decisive role when going to the stadium. These factors can be divided into 4 components.

The first factor that influences the presence of fans in the stadium is the success of the team. This concept includes: skills, the prestige of the league, team achievements, the presence of reborn in the composition, as well as the star status of players.

The second factor is the success of the opposing team, its attractiveness to monitor the game. The quality of the game and the presence of superstars is what makes the opposing team more interesting, and is significant for the fans when going to the stadium. (Zhang et al., 1997).

The third factor is the economic component, which also affects attendance by fans of sports events. (Zhang, Pease, Hi & Michaud, 1995). Researchers have shown that revenues and advertising campaigns have a positive effect on the attendance of games, but on the other hand, variables such as ticket cost, alternative events and TV broadcasts may affect the attendance of sporting events, but for the worse (Baade & Tiehen, 1990).

And the last, fourth factor is the desires of the target audience, such as good weather, convenience when viewing events, high quality of the arena and the history of the team as a whole. For example, games that are held at the end of the week or at the end of the season, when the fate of medals is decided, attract more spectators than games that are played during the daytime. Smith, 1988.).

Basically, the organization of sports events is focused on certain individuals, while these events must be attributed to quality services, they are also closely related to belonging to a team and therefore satisfies social needs. One of the studies that illuminates a person's personality puts forward five factors explaining the spectator's desire to attend sporting events: beneficial effect, way out of stress, aggression, search for entertainment and new achievements (Sloan 1989)

The study, which was conducted (Wann et al. 2001), revealed eight strong variables affecting the motivation of fans when visiting the stadium, using the scale of motivations of sports fans (SFMS). (Wann et al. 2001) attributed the following criteria to the factors: the desire to have fun, get positive emotions, feel important in any group of people, increase self-esteem, aesthetics, spend time away from personal problems, be with your family at a big event and also economic criterion. It was also revealed that all people have completely different reasons for going to a sporting event, and also to love sports and being a fan of it is not the same thing as being a fan of a certain team. (Robinson and Trail 2005) On the other hand, it was revealed that in big sports, fans most of all love the passions, spending time with friends, the level of skill of the players and the drama that can occur in stadiums.( James and Ross 2004)

Football fans are a recognized social force, important from the point of view of what is considered to be quickly mobilized, active, and directed by a force using force. Authoritarian values make it a potential significant participant and source of violence.(Viktorov V.A.,Platonov S.I.. 1991)

In the fan culture of Russia there are a lot of borrowings from the English fan culture. Borrowing, if not direct copying. This is noticeable to the observer from the outside, this is confirmed by the fans themselves, it is fixed in the mass and fan culture: for example, the cult of the images of the English flag, certain British clothing brands, a certain behavior pattern - all these manifestations clearly do not have any cultural soil in the Russian stands. All this is obvious, but not surprising. England is considered the birthplace of football and a famous trend setter in this cultural stratum ( Zuev V.N. 2007).

It is also necessary to highlight the topic of gender differences, whether motivation can differ between women and men (Wann, Waddill, and Dunham, 2004). Traditionally, the audience of stadium visitors is white men from the working class. It was their behavior that was considered typical of fans. Such an image of the fan has developed historically, but has changed under the influence of time, or rather, the cultural context. The appearance of women in the stands is certainly connected with the emancipation and feminization of society. Many interlocutors stressed that there is no difference between how women are ill and how men are ill. This is a direct confirmation of the emancipatory theory of the birth of the phenomenon of female pain ( Dietz-Uhler B., Harrick E.A., End C.M., Jacquemotte L. 2000).

However, women have always visited football, even at the peak of the hooliganism era. It is believed that women and children contribute to reducing the degree of violence. For example, in England, in order to overcome hooliganism in the stands, clubs and associations raised the prices of entrance tickets (introduced property qualifications), removed standing places (took control of the number of spectators), concluded contracts with investors (changing the prestige status of visiting the stands), created zones for comfortable food and installed video surveillance systems (to make visiting the stands more secure). This contributed to the fact that women in the stands has become much more (Farrell A., Fink J.S., Fields S. 2011).

Traditionally it is believed that a woman is not a typical fan, that women are not as loyal as men, that they are still outside the conventional community of football fans, are a special type of fan. This is not accidental and can not fully be considered discrimination. Due to the fact that men traditionally dominate in the community of football fans, this community operates with male categories of “courage”, “strength”, “opposition” and so on. Women often face a dilemma: is it possible to be a woman and a football fan at the same time? Answering this question, girls should find their own balance between their gender identity and identification with football fans (Trail G.T., James J.D.2001 ).

In some sports, such as rugby, the overwhelming number of fans are men (Hill and Green, 2000). But the number of women in the stands of sports events is growing, and every year more and more women attend sports events, and in some cases more women than women in the stands. But do not put an equal sign between the reasons for attending sports events for men and women. Factors affecting the motivation for going to a sporting event are different for men and women (Dietz-Uhler et al., 2000). The game itself, records, sports media and team rating are factors that attract men. Women in most cases do not follow sports news and statistics, but in doing so, when choosing an event they go to, women pay attention to the entertainment component of the event and to the ticket price (Cunningham and Kwon, 2003). Also, very often, women choose to go to sports events related to women's sports as a support for women's rights.

3. Research statement

After analyzing the research that precedes this, it becomes obvious that there are not enough studies devoted to a particular team, as well as the absence of similar studies in Russia. In the course of this work, the factors that are decisive in deciding on the march to the football match of FC Zenit will be studied. This study is one of the first studies on Russian football and Zenit football club in particular. During the survey, survey tools will collect quantitative data that will help answer the main question of research.

In the analysis of research conducted on the topic of attendance of sports events and football matches in particular, the main factors that will be used in the survey of respondents were highlighted. These factors will be divided into 5 main categories: Social factors, Stadium facilities and location, Entertaining factors, Sport factors and Factor of tickets .

This study is a quantitative approach to testing the following hypotheses:

- H1. Socialization, a sense of mass, or just spending time with friends - is an integral part of any mass event. Going on football is no exception. Are social factors decisive when going to the stadium for fans or not? To answer this question will be hypothesized - “Social factors are the most influential ones for people, when they decided to come to the stadium”.

- H2. In order to get to the stadium, it is necessary to purchase a ticket. In this study, it will be evaluated how the affordability and easy of buying a ticket affects people's motivation when going to a football match. According to this question the following hypothesis is put forward - “Ticket factor is essential for fans, during decision making process of coming to the stadium”

- H3. Football matches are held in large stadiums, but their condition, appearance and location can sometimes repel fans from going to a football match, based on this judgment the following hypothesis will be put forward - “Stadium facilities and location are important factors for fans, when they come to the game “.

- H4. According to Zenit Football Club, recreational activities that take place before the match and during the break increase attendance of matches and are important factors when visiting Zenit football matches. Therefore, the following hypothesis will be put forward "The entertaining program, which is organized by the Zenit football club before the matches, has an impact on the attendance of home games and is important during decision making process of attending the stadium".

- H5. Due to the success of the team in the last decade and with the construction of a new modern stadium, there is an assumption that most people who come to the stadium are not really interested in football, the result is not important to them, they just want to visit the new stadium, take a photo and lay out her into a social network because it is “hype”. The following hypothesis will confirm or refute this assumption and will be formulated on the basis of the opposite and will sound as follows - “The majority people go to the stadium because of sports interest, the sports component for the fans is an important factor for them".

- H6. One of the goals of this study which affect men and women's motivation while attending to the stadium; which factors are crucial for men and which for women, or are the factors for women and men the same? Therefore, the following hypothesis will be put forward - “The factors that have an influence on attendance of football matches with the FC Zenit participation on new stadium are diverse for males and females” .

- H7. People grow up, their worldview, interests and priorities change. Does the age of the fan influence the factors that motivates fans to come to the stadium? “For different age groups, factors that affect on motivation for coming to football match of FC Zenit are different”

Below is a model of hypotheses (Figure 1) that will be confirmed or refuted during the course of the study.

Figure 1.

Model of hypotheses.

4. Methodology

This research work allows you to understand what factors affect visiting home matches of Zenit football club. The intelligence stage of the research, which consists in the first block of research work, makes it possible to determine the factors that have been identified and confirmed in previous studies. In the first block of research hypotheses are put forward, and a questionnaire is compiled, which takes into account the factors that were identified earlier. The second block is a survey of respondents. In the course of the third, final block of research, the stated hypotheses are investigated and analyzed. A description of the results obtained in the course of the survey, there are grounds for confirming or refuting the hypotheses put forward, recommendations are given for the application of the results obtained and further research on this topic. The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors that influence the decision of the fan about going to the home matches of the Zenit team. It will also be clarified whether the factors of attending a football match are different for men and women, and also the differences of key factors by age groups will be checked. The object of the study is the abnormally high attendance at home matches of the Zenit football team at Gazprom Arena compared to the average attendance of other teams. The subject of the study are the factors that influence the fan's decision to go on a home match Zenit.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks are required:

* Based on the analysis of the literature, identify the main factors influencing the decision of the fan during the march to the Zenit match

* Based on the identified factors, create a questionnaire that will include the identified factors found during the analysis of the research, as well as those that may be relevant in the study, based on the specifics of the organization of matches and other factors.

* Survey among respondents. The respondent can be any person, regardless of age, gender and marital status. A prerequisite for the passage of this survey will be a visit to the respondent for at least one home match of Zenit football club at the new stadium.

* After the survey, analyze the data and comment on the results of the study by means of descriptive statistics.

The hypothesis model of the research given in the previous paragraph of the work allows us to answer the main research question of the work: “Which factors make people go to the stadium”.

Based on explored researches, factors that may affect the motivation of a fan during a trip to the stadium were identified. Below is a table (Table 1) that lists the factors that have been selected. All factors will be used in the survey. Table1 consists of 3 columns - first one is a factor, which was selected, second column show description and explanation of factor, why this one was chosen , and in third column are sources, in which each factor was mentioned.

Table 1.

Factors affecting on attendance motivation

After determining the factors, a questionnaire is created, which includes all the factors listed. The questionnaire is the main survey tool and is a document containing a structurally organized set of questions, each of which is associated with the objectives of the study. This relationship is expressed in the need to obtain information reflecting the characteristics of the object being studied.

The target population for this study consisted of sport fans, which attended a live sporting event. The fans were conducted by online-survey . Volounter-sampling method was used in this research. A quantitative survey questionnaire was used and the scale measures the extent to which sport fans are motivated by the 27 motivational factors on a five-point Likert scale.

The size of the general population is 2354857 people, it is determined by the number of fans who attended Zenit's home games at the new stadium. Based on this - the sample is 384 people, with a general population of 2354857 people, with a confidence level of 95% and a confidence interval of + - 5%. That is, when conducting a study with such a sample of 384 people in 95 percent of cases, the responses received according to the laws of statistics will be within ± 5% of the original. The questionnaire has a certain structure, where the important elements are: the introductory part, the personal data of the respondent and the main part.

The introduction briefly explains the goals and objectives of the survey, its importance and prospects for using the results. Clarified the rules for filling out the questionnaire, it was also stated that the survey is anonymous.

Introduction text:

“Hello!

I am a 4th year student of the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg. In 2019, FC Zenit took 24th place in the world in attendance. I do research in order to understand what causes of high attendance of Zenit football club games at the new stadium. For this, I need to conduct a survey among those who at least once visited the game of Zenit at the new stadium “St. Petersburg”, find out what factors were decisive in the decision about going to the match.

Below are questions that need to be answered.

This survey is confidential, the results of the study will be presented in a summarized form, and will be used exclusively for research purposes as part of writing the Graduation Qualification Work.”

The part with personal data questions about gender and age is placed at the beginning of the questionnaire because it allows you to gradually increase the complexity of the questions.

The main part of the questionnaire consists of questions related to the goals and objectives of the study. The study has one question, it was sounded in the introduction of the survey. Next in the list are listed the factors that were selected as the objects under study. The respondent is asked to evaluate the influence of each factor on the decision to go to the home football match Zenit at the new stadium. To determine the effect, the Likert-scale is used, with values ??ranging from 1 to 5, where 1 does not affect, 5 strongly affect.

After the survey, it is necessary to analyze the data obtained. For data analysis, Excel and SPSS statistics will be used to determine the significance of factors.

With the help of Excel, the data will be processed and brought to the final form for import into SPSS

Based on Table 1, it get 27 factors that can affect the motivation of the fans. Then, form and correlate them into 5 groups. These factors will be divided into 5 main categories: Social factors, Stadium facilities and location, Entertaining factors, Sport factors and Factor of ticket prices. The ticket price and Easy ticket buying factors was placed in one category, since it cannot be correlated to any of the other groups, but based on other researches, it can be a serious factor, therefore excluding it from the study does not seem appropriate. Factors are categorized as follows: Social factors - tradition, to diversify leisure, spend time with friends, spend time with family, possibility to attend big-event, communication with link-minded people; Stadium facilities and location factors - weather, food, remoteness of public transport from stadium, safety on stadium, parking,; Sport factors - principal of rival, status of rival, status of the match, result of the game, superstar-player participant in game, watching for favorite player, game analysis, the importance of the game; Entertaining factors - interactive entertaining, FAN-PROMENAD, free gifts; Ticket factors - easy ticket buying; price of ticket.

In order to prove or disprove the hypotheses put forward, the following actions will be carried out. With the help of Excel and SPSS STASTICS programs, a descriptive analysis of data will be carried out, which will help confirm or refute the hypotheses put forward earlier.

To determine the significance of a particular factor, the method of comparison of average values ??will be used. That is, with the help of descriptive statistics, it will be clear what factors are decisive for fans. Assuming that the Likert scale with values ??from 1 to 5 was used to identify the factors, the average value, meaning the importance of the factor will be 3.5>. The general results of the survey will be studied in order to point out the most important factors and determine which factors do not matter to the audience when going to the stadium. Then the factors will be combined into 5 groups and analyzed for the hypotheses put forward. Each group will be analyzed in the first place for an assessment of importance. Then the responses of men and women will be analyzed, and at the final stage an analysis will be carried out by age.

5. Descriptive of results

The sample considered valid was composed by 471 respondents, of which 195 were women (41 percent) and 257 men (59 percent). The largest group in the age variable was between 18-25 years of age (n = 249), which consisted of 52.9 percent of the participants, while the second largest age group was those who older than 36 years of age (n = 93) at 19,7 percent . The two largest age groups accounted for 72.6 percent of the sample., most of the respondents consider themselves to be active fans (43,2 percent) 19,7 percent identify themselves like medium-active fans , but at the same time they do not attend matches very often (57.4 percent).

5.1 Results

Taking into account our above-stated aim, namely, to detect the underlying reasons that explain why spectators go to a football match, the sample's descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), displayed in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2, contribute to determining the principal trends.

The dispersion of the scores ranged between one (minimum value) and 5 (maximum value). The highest values found within the spectator sample (above 3,51) are, decreasingly: Atmosphere (4.27); Spending time with friends(3.9); Possibility to attend big-event (3.82); Sending time with family (3.71); Result of the match (3.60); Status of the match (3.59); Easy ticket buying (3.56); On the other hand, the lowest values (below 2,5) were found for the following motives: Interactive entertaining (2,43); Watching for favorite player (2,41); Parking (2,3); FAN-PROMENAD (1.77) and Free gifts (1,95)