ABSTRACT
It is always interesting to reflect back on work that one has done in the past. This chapter is based on some of my earlier work (Mason, 1999), where I presented an integrated framework that pulled together various concepts and assumptions appearing in different bodies of literature. I would like to make clear that marketing was/is not my background or academic area of focus, although the paper appeared in a special issue on sports marketing. In the call for papers I saw an opportunity to draw upon the literature I was familiar with and make some general statements about the sports product, which I had hoped would be useful for those in the marketing field. In many respects, the paper represents an amalgam of assembled ideas, and I have been surprised and flattered by the number of scholars who have cited it in their work.
