Abstract

Abstract
Objective: Purpose of the present study was to analyze and evaluate the online ticket sale barriers by using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in Iran’s premier football league.
Methodology: This study was a descriptive-survey one. The research instrument was a researcher-developed questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by academic experts in the field of sports and Information Technology. The reliability as well as the inconsistency rate was evaluated and confirmed as 0.008. The statistical population of this study consisted of all experts in sports management, marketing management, information technology, football federation officials. Based on the judgment of non-probability sampling methods (expert opinion) 113 of them were selected as the statistical sample. In this study, at first, barriers for using technology to sell online tickets for league matches were identified and classified into four: financial, organizational, technical and behavioral barriers, and then the questionnaire was completed by respondents. For data analysis, Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Expert Choice11 software were used.
Results: The results indicated that the main barriers for online ticket sales of premier football league matches were respectively, the technical (0.299), financial (0.260), organizational (0.221), and behavioral (0.220) barriers.
Conclusion: Understanding of these barriers can help us have a better use of online ticket sale potential in premier football league matches.
Keywords: Online ticket sale, Premier football league, Implementation barriers, Analytic hierarchy process.