D4. Contest Quality The actual sporting event is the core service in event sport tourism while the three dimensions described earlier may be considered the facilitating services. Contest quality comprises both the processes of the contest and the products (or outcomes) of the contest. Contest quality in the model is comprised of two subdimensions: process quality, and product quality.
D4.1. Process Quality. Process quality refers to the way the contest is organized, monitored, and controlled. More specifically, it would refer to the start of the contest at the appointed time, the quality of officiating, the quality of public announcements, the display of correct scores, the replay of plays, crowd behavior and control, and such other factors associated with the conduct of the competition. In their study of a United States Tennis Association match, Bernthal and Sawyer (2004) referred to quality of officiating, court condition, ease of spectating, and others as “play factors.”
D4.2. Product Quality. The product quality refers to the quality of the contest itself. A spectator (i.e., the sport tourist in our context) may perceive quality of the contest on the basis of the final score (i.e., win or loss) or on the basis of the performance of the favorite team, the opponent or both (Matsuoka, Chelladurai, & Harada, 2003). While fans generally would like to see their favorite team outper- form the opponents, they are also to a large extent fans of the sport. Hence, they are likely to evaluate the event from the perspective of the performance of either or both of the teams. That is, even though the favorite team might lose, the spectator is likely to be satisfied because the favorite team played to its full potential. By the same token, the spectators may also be enthralled by the outstanding performance of the opponents. It then follows that the spectator may be highly satisfied if both opponents performed at their respective best and provided high quality entertainment characterized by demonstrating excellent athletic ability, suspense, and drama. In regards to the contest we propose the following:
Proposition 4: The visitors’ perceptions of the process for organizing the contest and the sporting product directly contribute to the perceptions of sport tourism quality.