Using Revealed and Stated Preference Data to Estimate the Demand and Consumption Benefits of Sporting Events: An Application to National Hockey League Game Trips

This paper examines the demand for hockey game trips among metropolitan and non-metropolitan residents of Alberta, Canada. Using data on both revealed and stated preference game trip behaviour from a telephone survey conducted throughout Alberta, we estimate the effect of ticket prices, team quality, arena amenities, and capacity on the latent demand for NHL hockey. We find that lower ticket prices, higher team quality and additional capacity encourage attendance. The base case consumer surplus per game is $50 for those who had attended hockey games and about 50% less for those who had not attended games. Exploiting the stated preference data, we develop a number of other consumer surplus estimates. We also include travel costs in the estimation of the demand function and estimate the full value of the game trip considering both ticket prices and travel costs. Sold out arenas in Calgary and Edmonton generate annual consumption benefits of $40 and $35 million. Considering the full price consumer surplus for the Calgary Flames of $103 per game trip, the annual consumption benefits may be as high as $82 million. Key Words: Hockey demand, revealed preference, stated preference, consumer surplus