ABSTRACT
To be sure, when the legislative body of a country which considers association football (soccer) a sacrosanct part of its culture even entertains the notion of laws designed to regulate pricing of this entertainment, that country demonstrates just how important economic access to attendance has become. This chapter aims to illuminate that issue with experimental research designed to examine the ticket price increase privilege afforded to teams that win, lose, and rebuild. It essentially addresses three topics: reputational threat to sports organizations posed by price increases, sports organizational image repair, and intent to purchase sporting event tickets. The chapter discusses that the results have important implications both for the effectiveness of the defeasibility strategy and the ticket price increase scenario. It provides some additional evidence that pointing to circumstances beyond organizational control (defeasibility) may not necessarily help improve reputation or retain sales levels.
