Sport tourism impacts host communities economically and socio-culturally.
The study investigates the relationship of Indianapolis residents’ awareness, perceived
benefits, and enjoyment of sport tourism, with sense of community and quality of life, via
a structural model approach. Convenience sampling was done when residents attended
downtown sport and cultural events in the Fall of 2011. The overall fit indices for the
hypothesized model suggest that the model fits the data well. Residents who felt greater
sense of community and reported higher satisfaction levels with their quality of life
regarded sport tourism as an integral part of the city’s economic development efforts.