This study set out to empirically investigate the participation motivation of users of public sports facilities as part of leisure activities on their leisure satisfaction, customer loyalty, and community attachment as people increased their interest in leisure sports and their desire for diverse improvements for quality of life. For that purpose, the study conducted a survey on 720 users of public sports facilities in D and U Metropolitan City. Collected data were put analyzed with such statistical analysis programs as SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 18.0. The inventories were put to validity, reliability, frequency analysis, t-test, and correlation analysis. In addition, multiple regression analysis and structural equation model analysis were carried out to examine causal relations among the variables.
First, as for differences in the variables according to the demographic characteristics, there were significant differences in participation motivation, leisure satisfaction, customer loyalty, and community attachment, which was in line with the results of previous studies. The differences must be attributed to differences in the gender, age, and educational backgrounds of users according to areas and places.
Second, as for the overall causal relations among the variables of the structural equation model, participation motivation had positive(+) effects on leisure satisfaction. That is, the more they were motivated to participate in facilities, the greater their satisfaction became with leisure sports. The hypothesis that participation motivation will have positive effects on leisure satisfaction was thus adopted.
Third, there was no significant impact in the overall causal relations among the variables of the structural equation model. The hypothesis that participation motivation will have positive(+) effects on customer loyalty was thus dismissed.
Fourth, there was negative(-) significant influence on the overall causal relations of community attachment among the variables of the structural equation model. That is, the higher their participation motivation was, the lower their community attachment became. The hypothesis that participation motivation will have positive effects on community attachment was thus dismissed.
Fifth, there was positive(+) significant influence on the causal relations between leisure satisfaction and customer loyalty according to the analysis results of the structural equation model. That is, users tend to have higher customer loyalty for the facilities when their leisure satisfaction is high. The hypothesis that leisure satisfaction will have positive effects on customer loyalty was thus adopted.
Sixth, there was positive(+) significant influence on the causal relations between leisure satisfaction and community attachment according to the analysis results of the structural equation model. That is, the users tend to have high community attachment when their leisure satisfaction is high. The hypothesis that leisure satisfaction will have positive effects on community attachment was thus adopted.
In short, the high participation motivation of users of public sports facilities led to high satisfaction with leisure sports. High leisure satisfaction then resulted in high customer loyalty and community attachment. There was no significant connection between participation motivation and customer loyalty and negative(-) connection between participation motivation and community attachment. The customer loyalty and community attachment of users of public sports facilities can be enhanced by searching for ways to increase their participation motivation and increasing their leisure satisfaction through participation in leisure sports. It is also required to explore activation plans to promote better quality of life through higher leisure quality and community attachment.