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The Effect Of Promotions On Attendance At Major League Baseball Games
Abstract
The determinants of attendance at professional sporting events come from a variety of team-specific, game-specific, and stadium-specific factors. Using data from the 2,431 major league baseball games played during the 2005 season, this study employs a multivariate regression model to determine the effect that the previously mentioned factors have on game attendance. The focus of the study is on the effect that promotions, such as product giveaways, have on attendance. The findings of this study indicate that having a promotion at a game increases attendance by about 1,532 fans. The findings also indicate that both the timing of a promotion and the type of promotion is important. Specifically, promotions held on weekends have a much smaller impact on attendance than promotions held during the week, with promotions held on Friday or Sunday having a particularly small effect. In terms of the type of promotion, this study finds that bobblehead giveaways have by far the largest impact on attendance and that several types of giveaways actually have no effect on attendance.
... Much time and effort are afforded by marketing practitioners deciding upon the particulars of a giveaway. Past studies have explored when teams should schedule promotional-giveaway games (e.g., Kappe et al, 2014), what should be given away (e.g., Barilla et al., 2008), and how many items should be made available (Cisyk & Courty, 2021). Results suggest that teams trying to maximise ticket purchases should offer bobblehead giveaways (Boyd & Krehbiel, 2006;Barilla et al., 2008;Paul et al., 2019); on weekdays (Barilla et al., 2008); during night-, not day-, games (Boyd & Krehbiel, 2006); and restrict the number of items distributed to approximately 40 percent of the stadium (Cisyk & Courty, 2021). ...
... Past studies have explored when teams should schedule promotional-giveaway games (e.g., Kappe et al, 2014), what should be given away (e.g., Barilla et al., 2008), and how many items should be made available (Cisyk & Courty, 2021). Results suggest that teams trying to maximise ticket purchases should offer bobblehead giveaways (Boyd & Krehbiel, 2006;Barilla et al., 2008;Paul et al., 2019); on weekdays (Barilla et al., 2008); during night-, not day-, games (Boyd & Krehbiel, 2006); and restrict the number of items distributed to approximately 40 percent of the stadium (Cisyk & Courty, 2021). Yet, if a bobblehead is scheduled as the promotional item, one key decision made by the team remains unexplored by prior research: who should the bobblehead resemble? ...
... Past studies have explored when teams should schedule promotional-giveaway games (e.g., Kappe et al, 2014), what should be given away (e.g., Barilla et al., 2008), and how many items should be made available (Cisyk & Courty, 2021). Results suggest that teams trying to maximise ticket purchases should offer bobblehead giveaways (Boyd & Krehbiel, 2006;Barilla et al., 2008;Paul et al., 2019); on weekdays (Barilla et al., 2008); during night-, not day-, games (Boyd & Krehbiel, 2006); and restrict the number of items distributed to approximately 40 percent of the stadium (Cisyk & Courty, 2021). Yet, if a bobblehead is scheduled as the promotional item, one key decision made by the team remains unexplored by prior research: who should the bobblehead resemble? ...
Giveaways such as jerseys, caps, or bobbleheads are part of a host of promotions used to entice fans to purchase tickets and attend live events, particularly in sports. Bobbleheads have often been viewed as the bellwether giveaway in demand-side analytical studies as they are common across sport, league, and team, and are viewed as highly prized collectable items. Empiricists typically code promotions as binary variables to measure the impact of these additional perks have on attendance, yet each bobblehead event features a distinct figurine distinguished by several previously unexplored dimensions. Due to the nature of bobbleheads typically resembling real-life individuals, consumer sentiment towards the bobblehead's namesake may drive or deter the demand for the giveaway. Using a novel dataset of descriptions of bobblehead giveaways, this study finds that demand for Major League Baseball games varies by a bobblehead's character type, where the impact on attendance is greatest for bobbleheads featuring players and sports-casters, lowest for managers, and middling for mascots and other types. Evidence suggests that bobbleheads depicted in costumes or as characters of licensed brands lead to greater attendance than brand-less bobbleheads, yet the gains observed from the average branded bobblehead game may not offset the additional costs associated with licensing agreements.
... Each dollar increase in the cost of the giveaway increased attendance by 2,688 fans. Barilla, Gruben, and Levernier (2008) attempted to first determine which factors affect attendance at MLB games and, second, to determine the strength of those effects. They collected data from each of the 2,431 regular-season games played during the 2005 MLB season. ...
... The model included four categories of independent variables: (a) variables describing characteristics of the home and visiting teams; (b) variables describing the characteristics of the game, including weather conditions, day of the week, and time of the game; (c) variables describing the ethnic background of the home team's announced starting pitcher; and (d) variables describing the type of promotion at the game. Barilla, Gruben, and Levernier (2008) first revealed that teams with higher opening day payrolls have higher attendance, attracting an extra 610 fans for every $10 million increase in a team's payroll. They also found that, contrary to Boyd and Krehbiel (2003), promotions at games against rivals did not affect attendance differently than promotions at games against non-rivals. ...
... In addition, interleague games attract up to 700 more fans than intraleague games. Third, the results of this study did not support the findings of Scully (1974) and Krautman (1999), who found that attendance is less likely to increase when the home team's starting pitcher is not White (Barilla, Gruben, & Levernier, 2008). Finally, the results, coinciding with those of Boyd and Krehbiel, showed that certain types of promotions generate larger increases in attendance than others. ...
In the late 1960s, liberal and radical students enrolled in the Wisconsin State University (WSU) System coalesced into organizations to challenge the policies of the System's administration. One of these liberal-left organizations was Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a national student organization known for confronting educational and political establishments. In order to prevent SDS from creating dissent on their campuses, WSU administrators established new policies that prevented SDS from being recognized and then used these policies to create guidelines that gave the administration greater control over student life in general. Small numbers of African American WSU students also rebelled between 1968 and 1970, causing a systemwide crisis. After racially based vandalism and violence occurred on several WSU campuses, the administration bypassed traditional disciplinary practices and redefined due process within the System. As a result, the administration expanded its disciplinary authority, and ethnic minorities were left with minimal access to due process. By the end of the 1960s, the administration's reactions to these events had facilitated significant growth of power for the System's administrators.
... The number of people consuming the event increases with the perceived value of the competition, which has a direct impact on the value of sponsorship rights and business-to-business products (Kunkel et al., 2017). However, for most teams, the largest source of revenue is derived from home game attendance, which includes the ticket price and extra expenditures, such as parking, food, and souvenirs (Barilla et al., 2008). Therefore, for the efficiency of sales and marketing management, sports promoters should estimate match consumption with reasonable precision in order to generate larger profits. ...
... When the objective is to predict attendance to matches, regression models are usually applied, most notably Tobit (e.g., Sacheti et al., 2016;Jane, 2014;Buraimo & Simmons, 2009), Probit (e.g. Lera-López & Rapún-Gárate, 2011) and OLS (Barilla et al., 2008;Madalozzo & Villar, 2009;Iho & Heikkila 2010;Valenti et al., 2020). Three studies (Strnad et al., 2017;King & Rice, 2018;Sahin & Erol, 2018) explore the use of machine learning methods to predict attendance at sports events, being directly related to our research. ...
Forecasting of attendance demand to sports events is a common topic of study in the sports economics literature, being traditionally addressed through the use of multivariate regression analysis or structural equation modeling. In recent years, a restricted number of authors have approached the problem using machine learning methods, with promising results. In this article, we investigate the use of analytical techniques from the machine learning toolbox, namely symbolic regression and genetic programming (SR/GP), to determine the best fitting prediction function that relates contextual and panel independent variables to soccer match attendance. For that purpose, we analyze 5 years of attendance to soccer matches played at a large stadium in Southern Brazil. Two datasets with game-level attendance to matches from two soccer championships are considered, covering the seasons from 2014 to 2019. We also propose the use of expert panels to collect information on relevant candidate independent variables and their interactions to be tested in the prediction models, expediting the feature selection step of the modeling process. From the academic perspective, our study is the first to propose the use of SR/GP to model soccer match attendance, contributing to the limited number of studies that use game-by-game attendance as the dependent variable and develop team-specific attendance models. From the managerial perspective, identifying factors responsible for systematic variations in match attendance levels enables better sport management and marketing plans.
... These studies include factors such as winning (team success) (Quirk & Fort, 1992;Spenner, Fenn, & Crooker, 2010;Coates & Humphreys, 2011;Ahn & Lee, 2014), game outcome uncertainty (Mills & Fort, 2014;Jane, 2016), team offensive performance (Domazlicky & Kerr, 1990;Coates & Humphreys, 2011;Lee 2018;Lewis & Yoon, 2018;Davis & Miller, 2019b),defensive performance measures (Nourayi, 2006;Coates & Humphreys, 2011;Ormiston, 2014;Davis & Miller, 2019a), star players (Berri, Schmidt, & Brooks, 2004;Morse, Shapiro, McEvoy, & Rascher, 2008;Lewis & Yoon, 2018), rivalry games (Paul, 2003;Tyler, Morehead, Cobbs, & DeSchriver, 2017;Cobbs, Sparks, & Tyler, 2017;Harvard & Reams, 2018), promotional events (e.g. giveaways, fireworks) (Howell, Klenosky, & McEvoy, 2015;Boyd & Krehbiel, 2006;Barilla, Gruben, & Levernier, 2008;Dick & Turner, 2007), and media advertisement (Dick & Turner, 2007;Trail, Kwon, & Anderson, 2009). Researchers also revealed that fans are watching games on television for some of the same reasons as fans attending games at the stadium. ...
... Additional studies into other sports leagues have revealed that promotional events (e.g., giveaways, fireworks) can have a positive impact attendance (Zhang, Pease, Hui, & Michaud, 1994;McDonald & Rascher, 2000;Howell et al., 2015;Boyd & Krehbiel, 2006;Barilla et al., 2008;Dick & Turner, 2007). Studies have revealed that media advertisement has some positive impacts on attendance (Dick & Turner, 2007;Trail et al., 2009). ...
Sport consumers have multiple options to choose from when participating in leisure activities. Several researchers have tried to conceptualize the consumer behavior process. However, these researchers did not take into consideration all aspects of the sport consumer’s decision-making process. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to establish a comprehensive model of sport consumer decision-making that incorporates motivation, team identification, and attraction factors as a foundation of fan behavior no matter the sport or level of competition. Through the use of this model, the researcher ascertained a more in-depth understanding of how sport consumers make decisions and what factors had the greatest influence on these decisions. The researcher surveyed five teams within the Southern League of Minor League Baseball. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results of the study signified that control oriented and autonomy-oriented motivation had a direct influence on a fan’s team identification. The identification level did indicate a strong relationship to a fan’s decision to attend a game and/or use sport media. However, the level of identification influenced the path of the decision process. Fans with no to low team identification utilized attractiveness factors as a mediating factor in their decision-making process.
... A number of studies have also addressed the positive relationship between in-game promotions and attendance (Baade & Tiehen, 1990;Barilla, Gruben, & Levernier, 2008;Boyd & Krehbiel, 2003;Hill et al., 1982;Lemke et al., 2010;Marcum & Greenstein, 1985;McDonald & Rascher, 2000). Several studies have uncovered average increases in attendance of up to 20 % at MLB games when a promotion is employed (Boyd & Krehbiel, 2003). ...
... As defined in the current study, venue includes game schedule characteristics such as game time, day of the week, month, year, and holidays. Past research has established a positive relationship between attendance and evening games, weekend games, games played in the summer or on national holidays, and games played in the latter part of the season for teams with a solid chance of playoff contention (Barilla et al., 2008;Boyd & Krehbiel, 2003;Hansen & Gauthier, 1989;Hill et al., 1982;Lemke et al., 2010;Marcum & Greenstein, 1985). ...
We devise a new statistical methodology called constrained stochastic extended redundancy analysis (CSERA) to examine the comparative impact of various conceptual factors, or drivers, as well as the specific predictor variables that contribute to each driver on designated dependent variable(s). The technical details of the proposed methodology, the maximum likelihood estimation algorithm, and model selection heuristics are discussed. A sports marketing consumer psychology application is provided in a Major League Baseball (MLB) context where the effects of six conceptual drivers of game attendance and their defining predictor variables are estimated. Results compare favorably to those obtained using traditional extended redundancy analysis (ERA).
... Interleague play has also been associated with increases in attendance (Beckman et al., 2012; Lemke et al., 2010). A number of studies have also addressed the positive relationship between in-game promotions and attendance (Baade & Tiehen, 1990; Barilla, Gruben, & Levernier, 2008; Boyd & Krehbiel, 2003; Hill et al., 1982; Lemke et al., 2010; Marcum & Greenstein, 1985; McDonald & Rascher, 2000). Several studies have uncovered average increases in attendance of up to 20 % at MLB games when a promotion is employed (Boyd & Krehbiel, 2003). ...
... As defined in the current study, venue includes game schedule characteristics such as game time, day of the week, month, year, and holidays. Past research has established a positive relationship between attendance and evening games, weekend games, games played in the summer or on national holidays, and games played in the latter part of the season for teams with a solid chance of playoff contention (Barilla et al., 2008; Boyd & Krehbiel, 2003; Hansen & Gauthier, 1989; Hill et al., 1982; Lemke et al., 2010; Marcum & Greenstein, 1985). Concerning weather, some prior work has recognized the negative impact of inclement weather on sports attendance, especially as it relates to women's attendance (Siegfried & Hinshaw, 1977; Trail, Robinson, & Kim, 2008). ...
We devise a new statistical methodology called constrained stochastic extended redundancy analysis (CSERA) to examine the comparative impact of various conceptual factors, or drivers, as well as the specific predictor variables that contribute to each driver on designated dependent variable(s). The technical details of the proposed methodology, the maximum likelihood estimation algorithm, and model selection heuristics are discussed. A sports marketing consumer psychology application is provided in a Major League Baseball (MLB) context where the effects of six conceptual drivers of game attendance and their defining predictor variables are estimated. Results compare favorably to those obtained using traditional extended redundancy analysis (ERA).
... Moreover, our unique data set, the likes of which has not yet been explored, covers all bobblehead giveaways for all MLB teams over eight continuous seasons making it, to the best of our knowledge, the largest panel used to estimate promotion responses. While previous research has focused on either a longitudinal approach (Kappe et al., 2014) or a cross-sectional approach (e.g., Barilla, Gruben, & Levernier, 2008;Boyd & Krehbiel, 2003Bruggink & Eaton, 1996;Hill et al., 1982;Marcum & Greenstein, 1985;McDonald & Rascher, 2000), we make use of the variation across both time and team. 4 Our panel data set makes use of time fixed effects to control for factors that impact all teams alike (e.g., year, month, day of week) and team fixed effects to control for factors that are relatively constant for a given team (e.g., socioeconomic status of the home city, local support of the team, etc.). ...
Although stadium giveaways are the most common type of promotion used in Major League Baseball to increase demand, most teams supply fewer giveaway items than there are tickets sold. This study argues that giveaway availability is a major component of teams' promotion strategies and has been largely overlooked in the literature. The authors document the choice of giveaway availability across all Major League Baseball teams over an 8-year period and demonstrate that attendance increases with giveaway availability up to the point where there are enough giveaway items to serve 40% of a stadium's capacity. Roughly two thirds of teams set giveaway availability in a fashion that is consistent with the standard price discrimination rationale for promotions found in the economic and marketing literatures. The remaining teams exhibit levels of high availability, indicating an additional investment into fan lifetime value, which is corroborated by these teams' unique fan relationships.
... In our context, a team's marketing performance can be assessed based on how controllable resources (i.e., marketing activity) are used to increase home game attendance by comparing it to the highest possible outcome. In this assessment, it is critical to control for factors such as market characteristics, venue, and on-field performance, which are not controllable by marketing (Reddy, Stam, & Agrell, 2015) but are determinants of attendance (e.g., Barilla, Gruben, & Levernier, 2008;Buraimo & Simmons, 2009;Watanabe, Yan, & Soebbing, 2015). We propose a stochastic frontier model as an approach for such assessment. ...
While assessment of team-level marketing performance for a professional sport franchise is important for both the team marketer and the researcher to develop a marketing strategy and understand marketing performance, no evidence using a full set of teams for a long period of time currently exists. We propose that marketing performance can be estimated with a stochastic frontier model. Using twenty seasons of Major League Baseball (MLB) attendance data, we estimate the frontier attendance (i.e., the maximal attendance a team can reach) after controlling for factors unrelated to marketing, and we argue that the efficiency (i.e., the difference between the frontier and the actual attendance) represents the team’s marketing performance. We also test whether our estimates capture marketing performance successfully by using the honeymoon and novelty effects, both of which are clearly shown in our estimates.
... Third, few studies distinguish between different types of promotions and their influence on attendance above and beyond uncontrollable external drivers. Some previous work has examined differences between various promotions, but it is often unclear which promotions are included in such studies, and in some cases, a number of promotions are purposefully excluded from analysis (see Barilla et al. 2008, Boyd and Krehbiel 2003, Gifis and Sommers 2006, Lemke et al. 2010, Marcum and Greenstein 1985, McDonald and Rascher 2000, Siegfried and Eisenberg 1980. Therefore, every promotion employed by the Pirates from 2010 to 2012 was included in the data set and classified into one of the following four promotional categories (to be described in more detail later): entertainment, giveaway, kids, and price promotions. ...
Game attendance resulting from ticket sales is the single largest revenue stream for Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. We propose a general multiple distributed lag framework following the Koyck family of models for estimating MLB attendance drivers and focus specifically on the differential direct and carryover effects of in-game promotions. By setting various model constraints, the proposed framework incorporates different forms of serial correlation and promotion-specific dynamic effects. Using information model-selection heuristics, we select an optimal model of attendance drivers for the Pittsburgh Pirates' 2010–2012 MLB seasons. We demonstrate that our newly proposed model with an unrestricted serial correlation structure performs best. We find that although kids promotions have the highest direct effect on attendance, giveaway and entertainment promotions have substantial carryover effects and the largest total effects. We use our results to optimize the Pirates' promotional schedule and find that a reallocation of resources across promotional categories can increase profits between 39% and 88%.
Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1856 .
This paper was accepted by Eric Bradlow, special issue on business analytics.
Purpose
The main purpose of this research was to determine what types of promotions increase Minor League Baseball attendance across all of the official leagues. The secondary purpose was to ascertain the role of other control variables such as win percentage, weather, days of the week, start time and city demographics. The research also includes a grouping of cities through k-means clustering to better understand what types of promotions work in what cities.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered on all the Minor League Baseball teams and their respective cities. Regression models were run to test for the role of individual promotions (structured as dummy variables) and other controls. One model specification used city demographic variables, one used city fixed effects rather than city demographics and the final specification used k-means clustering to separate cities into distinct groups.
Findings
Promotions generally were found to increase attendance, although there were differences across levels of play. K-means clustering helped with the grouping of cities to ascertain which types of promotions were beneficial when comparing large metropolitan areas to high-income cities.
Research limitations/implications
Promotions were grouped into common categories, although some were difficult to classify (or were infrequent), so a miscellaneous promotions category was included to capture these promotions in Minor League Baseball.
Practical implications
The findings of this research are beneficial to those designing promotional schedules for individual teams. It also is beneficial to the leagues as the findings have implications as it relates to what fans desire to see when attending minor league games.
Originality/value
The originality in this work is the collection of all Minor League Baseball attendance, city information and promotional information across the different levels of play (AAA, AA, High-A and A). Using different model specifications and groupings, including k-means clustering to match similar cities, successful promotions were identified.
Dynamic pricing refers to a pricing strategy that flexibly changes the price of the same product or service according to market conditions as it becomes possible to reproduce the price control function through an invisible hand of AI and big data. Using real-time and interactive technology, it is possible to meet the changing price needs of consumers and satisfy the complex needs as well. In this study, based on the IS Success Model presented by Delone and Mclean’ study and the expectation confirmation model by Bhattacherjee’ study, NC Dinos’ AI and big data applied dynamic pricing were used to set the viewing factors for professional baseball. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting the continuous intention to use. While previous studies mainly focused on identifying the factors that reflected the value of professional baseball, this study is meaningful in that it empirically analyzed the quality of the system in relation to dynamic pricing.
This study analyses the state of competitive balance over the history of boxing in the Commonwealth Games (CWG). Comparisons are drawn with Olympic Boxing (AOB), popular American team sports and English Premier League Football. The statistical themes emerging from the study are as follows: (1) A general trend of greater competitive balance from the 1930s through 1970s, an abnormal reduction in competitive balance in the 1980s (due in large part to widespread boycotts of the 1986 Games in Edinburgh) and a steady deterioration of competitive balance since the 1990s; (2) greater competitive balance in CWG Boxing vis-à-vis English Premier League Football and the National Basketball Association; and (3) No statistically significant difference in competitive balance over the history of AOB (1904–2012) when compared with CWG Boxing (1930–2014).
A primary objective of sport marketers in the professional sport setting is to develop strategies to increase game attendance. Historically, one of the strategies to accomplish this goal has been the utilization of special promotions. This paper studied the impact of promotions on attendance at professional sport games. Specifically, this research examines (1) the overall effect of promotions on attendance, and (2) the marginal impact on attendance of additional promotional days. Using a data set containing 1500 observations, we find that a promotion increases single game attendance by about 14%. Additionally, increasing the number of promotions has a negative effect on the marginal impact of each promotion. The loss from this watering down effect, however, is outweighed by the gain from having an extra promotion day.
Because consumer discrimination can reduce productivity, it is often impossible to tell whether differential productivity
is the effect of discrimination or of differential ability. Detailed data for the sports labor market make it possible to
separate consumer discrimination from ability. We use a unique approach to determine whether the entertainment value of baseball
players is related to their race: we examine whether race directly affects the value of a player in the market for baseball
cards. In contrast to studies that use salaries, there is no room for owner or coworker discrimination. Our evidence supports
the hypothesis of consumer discrimination.
This study uses a travel-cost model to analyse the attendance impacts on Major League Baseball (MLB) of the closest substitute MLB team. It is found that the closer two teams are, the lower attendance is at each team relative to two teams that are farther apart. In addition, when a new team moves into the area of an existing team, there is an additional initial reduction in attendance for the incumbent team. This has implications for actions aimed at changing the number of teams in MLB either by contraction or by possible antitrust approaches that would increase the number of teams, especially in megalopolis markets. Further, and consistent with past demand studies, pricing is in the inelastic portion of gate demand and fan loyalty is a significant contributor to the estimation of gate attendance.
We investigate the salary returns to the ability to play football with both feet. The majority of footballers are predominantly right footed. Using two data sets, a cross-section of footballers in the five main European leagues and a panel of players in the German Bundesliga, we find robust evidence of a substantial salary premium for two-footed ability, even after controlling for available player performance measures. We assess how this premium varies across the salary distribution and by player position.
This paper examines the importance of customer-based discrimiantion in professional basketball over the 1980–81 to 1985–86 seasons. Empirical rsesults offer strong support of the hypothesis that, if fans prefer to see players of their own race, teams will be influenced in their selection of players by the racial composition of their market area. By the same token, attendance is found to be positively related to the extent to which the racial composition of the team matches that of the corresponding market area.
Professional baseball has experienced numerous work-stoppages over the last 30 years, including three which resulted in the cancellation of games. Existing estimates of the demand for attendance at Major League Baseball games has found that only those events which caused the loss of games influenced attendance. This paper revisits the issue of whether strikes affect attendance and finds that even those lockouts and strikes that do not cause games to be canceled are associated with significantly lower attendance. Moreover, despite dramatic differences in the severity of the three strikes that canceled games, one cannot reject the hypothesis that the effects are the same. Finally, the evidence here suggests that attendance is adversely affected by events leading up to negotiation of a new Basic Agreement between the players and the owners. 2 Professional baseball narrowly averted a work stoppage during the 2002 season. That a strike was avoided is surprising if one realizes that since the players organized for the purposes of collective bargaining in the mid-1960's, every time an agreement between the players and owners expired some sort of work stoppage followed. The 1994-95 workstoppage
This chapter applies economic theory to the analysis of the business operations of a professional sports league. Special emphasis is given to the implications of the player reservation system-the rules structure for the distribution of playing strengths among the teams in a league-since partisans of professional sports claim that this system is essential to the goal of "equalizing competitive playing strengths" among teams.
This study tests for the presence of a honeymoon effect in Major League Baseball by using a set of panel data for the period 1970 to 2000. It expands on the existing attendance demand literature by incorporating a theoretical model of attendance and price, imposing a more flexible form for the honeymoon effect, and distinguishing multipurpose stadiums from vintage and current baseball-only parks. The honeymoon effect for attendance and ticket price is substantial, and it continues with only a modest decline over the first eight to ten years. We conclude that a new baseball-only park that replaces an older multipurpose stadium will generate an additional $228 million in ticket revenue over 15 years. Although this is less than the cost of constructing a new facility, additional revenue sources might be sufficient to eliminate the need for public subsidies.
This article uses a Tobit analysis to test for the presence of a honeymoon effect for National Basketball Association (NBA) arenas using a pooled cross-section time series sample from 1971 to 2000. No previous NBA attendance-demand or attendance-related study tested for such an effect. The honeymoon effect increases attendance demand 15% to 20% in the first 4 years of the operation of a new arena, an increase that is similar in magnitude to recently constructed Major League Baseball stadiums. The effect is nonlinear and diminishes relatively quickly with the steady state established after Year 10. Because many NBA arenas are subsidized, the effect has public policy implications if revenue projections for a new arena ignore or overestimate the effect.
In recent years the National Hockey League (NHL) has put policies in place to boost attendance. Specifically, these changes have been to curb violence, increase scoring, and move to an unbalanced schedule featuring more games against regional rivals. This research looks at variations in game-to-game attendance in the NHL, focusing on these policy changes. It is found that violence, specifically fighting, tends to attract fans in large numbers across the United States and Canada. Surprisingly, increases in scoring, ceteris paribus, tend to depress attendance. The change in scheduling by the NHL, however, has been a success, with divisional rivals increasing attendance in U.S. cities and additional contests against other Canadian teams increasing attendance in Canada.
The effects of interleague play on baseball attendance are estimated via a model of daily attendance from the 1999 season. The results suggest that interleague play results in about a 7% increase in attendance over a comparable intraleague game, yielding an increase in revenue from ticket sales of about one half of 1%. These results are heavily dominated by a relatively small number of attractive visiting teams and, more particularly, by a small number of attractive interleague matchups. Although fans respond positively to some interleague matchups, many others attract no more and sometimes even fewer fans than traditional intraleague games.
Incluye bibliografía e índice
Protracted labour disputes in professional team sports have become increasingly common in the past 30 years. Although each of the four major professional team sports in the USA have experienced episodes of labour strife, Major League Baseball has the longest and most frequent experience with labour-management conflict. Fans and the media claim with each incident permanent harm is done to baseball's standing as the national pastime. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether such claims can be supported by the empirical evidence. Utilizing time-series analysis, aggregate attendance at professional baseball games is examined. The evidence presented suggests that although the most protracted periods of labour discord had short-term impacts on attendance, there is no empirical evidence that these exogenous shocks had any long-term effects. Copyright 2002 by Taylor and Francis Group
This paper develops a predictive model which includes game, team and university specific factors that are likely to influence game day demand for Division 1-A college football. Attendance during the 1997 regular season is used as the dependent variable. Tobit estimates of two separate equations reveal that the quality of both teams, traditional rivalry and membership of specific conferences have a significant influence on demand. In addition, colleges with lower enrollments and a higher percentage of off-campus students attract smaller crowds. The presence of a nearby professional football team also detracts from a college team's drawing power. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Estimates of baseball players' marginal revenue product, derived from the methodology introduced by Gerald Scully over twenty years ago in the American Economic Review, suggest that even the highest-paid players are grossly underpaid. But, given the fiercely competitive bidding process for free agents, it is hard to believe that owners can maintain salaries significantly below marginal revenue product. In this paper, an alternative approach for estimating a player's economic value is proposed. It uses market information gleaned from free agent contract negotiations. When applied to the less-mobile segment of the player market, this method yields much more reasonable estimates of players' marginal revenue products. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.
Most studies of racial discrimination concentrate on identifying the existence rather than the source of discrimination. In contrast, this paper tests directly for racial discrimination by major league baseball customers by examining the market for baseball cards. In Tobit regressions, the market prices of cards consistently reflect player performance records and other demand variables. When interactive race-productivity variables are included in the models, a significant and complex pattern of fan discrimination against black pitchers and black hitters is found. Discrimination against Latin players is not found. Copyright 1991 by Oxford University Press.
Championship prospects, as distinct from game-winning prospects, may contribute to a fan's interest in a particular sports team. If so, then both season length and the structure of championship playoffs help determine the equilibrium allocation of playing skills across the teams of a league. Evidence from a regression analysis of team attendance in baseball indicates that ticket demand depends, in part, on perceived flag-winning prospects. Several patterns in the winning percentages of league leaders in the major U.S. team sports are consistent with the perspective that championship considerations influence the allocation of playing skills. Copyright 1988 by Oxford University Press.
We investigate the effect of new facilities on attendance in professional baseball, basketball, and football from 1969 to 2001. We find a strong, persistent effect in baseball and basketball, and little effect in football. Size and duration estimates imply that baseball teams sell 2,500,794 additional tickets over the first eight seasons, basketball teams 293,878 over the first nine seasons, and football teams 137,792 over the first five seasons, implying an increase in revenues that could defray public subsidies that state and local governments provide for new sports construction projects. Rough calculations suggest that stadium subsidies are an inefficient method of subsidizing professional sports franchises. (JEL R39, D12, L83) Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.
Promotion Timing in Major League Baseball and the Stacking Effects of Factors That Increase Game Attractiveness
- Thomas C Boyd
- Timothy C Krehbiel
Boyd, Thomas C., and Timothy C. Krehbiel, Promotion Timing in Major League Baseball and the Stacking
Effects of Factors That Increase Game Attractiveness, Sport Marketing Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 173-183, 2003.
A Baseball Mastermind at http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf20041027_3631_db078.htm?chan=search
- Brewster
- Mike
- Veeck
Brewster, Mike, Bill Veeck: A Baseball Mastermind, Business Week Online, October 27, 2004, accessed on November 17, 2006 at http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf20041027_3631_db078.htm?chan=search.
Team Performance, Market Characteristics, and Attendance of Major League Baseball: A Panel Data Analysis, The Mid
- Pan
- W David
- Zhu
- E Trent
- Jeffery Gabert
- Brown
Pan, David W., Zhen Zhu, Trent E. Gabert, Jeffery Brown, Team Performance, Market Characteristics, and Attendance of Major League Baseball: A Panel Data Analysis, The Mid-Atlantic Journal of Business, Vol. 35, No. 2/3, pp. 77-91, 1999.
A Baseball Mastermind
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