Consumer Research and Sport Marketing: Starting the Conversation between Two Different Academic Discourses

Sport marketing, sociology, and consumer research are academic fields of thought that have not yet begun to utilize each other's theory, methods, and substantive insights. Yet the disciplines have much in common. The fields recognize and study sport subcultures, draw upon similar literature in sociology and anthropology, and share similar qualitative methodology. This paper focuses upon the socialization debate within sport sociology and demonstrates how some theory and substantive insights from consumer research yield theoretical insights, and useful, creative perspectives and prescriptions for those practitioners who work in the field of sport or marketing or event organization.