Spectator experience management at FIA World Rally Championship events.

In light of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) call for research into what is needed to make world motorsport championships grow towards 2025, this paper responds by offering a framework for improving spectator experiences at the service parks of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) events based on five design principles of ‘the experience economy’: 1) theme the experience, 2) harmonise impressions with positive cues, 3) eliminate negative cues, 4) mix in memorabilia and 5) engage the senses. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork on seven WRC events in the period 2009-15, the result is a comprehensive set of findings that, while tailored to meet the WRC’s challenges, also includes theoretical and methodological insights relevant to other sporting bodies on how to manage spectator experiences to competitive advantage