Abstract
The conscious management of the brand associations perceived related to the league brands that are followed by sports spectators which are considered as sports consumers, provides significant contributions to the brand equity of leagues, especially brand loyalty. Until now, there has been no study on the brand associations of sports leagues in Turkey. So, the aim of this study is to examine the sports league brand associations and testing whether the levels of evaluation of league brand associations differ according to soccer and basketball viewers. A total of 360 league viewers, 176 football league viewers and 184 basketball league viewers, participated in the study voluntarily. To measure the sports league brand associations, the brand associations dimensions adapted from the literature are used. According to the results of one sample t-test, the escape, logo, stadium atmosphere, nostalgia, rivalry, tradition, product delivery, competitive balance, socialisation, star player, game representation, special team interest and education are found to be important associations for sports league viewers. According to the results of independent samples t-test, the evaluation levels of football league viewers for the associations of competitive balance, game representation, special team interest, rivalry, tradition, league identification, star player are found to be higher than the evaluation levels of basketball league viewers. However, the evaluation level of football league viewers for league management association is found to be lower than the evaluation level of basketball league viewers.