Suspense and a sports league’s brand revitalisation: Initiatives of the PGA Tour

Abstract

Suspense when witnessing sports games is predicated and enhanced by outcome uncertainty, a rooting interest and awareness of the consequences that result from the competition. Having these suspense dimensions present produces an emotional experience that heightens audience interest and motivates the behaviour that leads to economic opportunities for a sports league. At times, brands need to reposition and revitalise themselves to construct new relevance that can affect consumers’ knowledge, interest and appreciation of the brand. This essay argues that a sports league’s brand revitalisation needs to be driven by creating the conditions for the audience to experience suspense. A sports league can create suspense through its competitive system, its brand availability and its approach to gambling. The actual initiatives of one sports league are examined to demonstrate how suspense is being created. The Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour is profiled because it introduced several initiatives to create the conditions for the audience to experience suspense.