Since the dawn of civilization, people have enjoyed viewing sports. From the time that there was glad-iatorial combat in Rome and frenetic ball games in the land of the Aztecs, there have been avid sport spectators (for an excellent review of the history of sport spectators, see Guttman, 1986). A sport spectator is defined herein as someone who regularly watches, listens to, or reads about sporting events. Spectators can be further subdivided into two classifications: direct sport consumers and indirect sport consumers (Wann, 1997). Direct sport consumers are individuals who are actually in attendance at the sporting event. Indirect sport consumers are individuals who view the event on television, listen to it on the radio, or read about it in the newspaper or on the Internet. This entry focuses primarily on the reasons why indirect sport consumership is so ubiquitous and discusses the effects...