Are you old school? A scale for measuring sports fans' old-school orientation

A primary goal of sports marketers is to engender fan identification with a team and/or its athletes. Previous research has shown that identification appears most likely when fans perceive a personal sense of similarity with a team or its athletes. The present study investigates a unique attitudinal dimension along which fans identify with teams and athletes-the old school-new school dimension. In this study, the authors delve into the meaning of the old school versus new school ideology, explore the various elemental components of the concept, and develop a valid and reliable scale to measure old-school orientation among today's sports fans. The Old School Scale developed in this study can be used to match celebrity athlete endorsers to target segments and, hence, create advertisements that are more effective.