This paper presents estimation results on the size and loyalty of sport teams’ supporter groups in professional German football. Based on a novel two-stage estimation procedure, we find clear evidence for heterogeneity across teams. In a first stage, a random utility model for a representative...

We examine the role of attendance in home-field advantage for Major League Baseball, using a dataset of all MLB games played from 1996 to 2005. Using two-stage least squares, we find that attendance has a significant effect on the home-field advantage. Our results indicate that a one standard...

Beginning with the seminal work in the field now known as sports economics (Rottenberg, 1956), concern over competitive balance has been a recurring theme. While the vast majority of the focus has been on popular professional team sports, a few studies have analyzed competitive balance in the...

There are noticeable conceptual differences between competing concepts for organizing the highest level of European Football. One major conceptual controversy is concerned with the question whether fans have a stronger preference for (more) games between the top teams over a broad participation...

This study explores the potential to use FIFA and men's World Cup football to advance LGBT rights. Transnational sporting organizations such as the IOC and FIFA operate largely behind closed doors. In secret agreements, the organizations leverage world audience to bend national governments to...

This paper investigates the impact of professional sporting events on the daily revenue of a particular restaurant in Charlotte, NC. The daily data allow us to test for the impact of professional basketball and professional football games on daily revenues. For this particular firm, professional...

The major sporting success of one's countrymen and women is often supposed to promote the growth of general participation in that sport. This study is the first to analyze the impact of sports heroes on the membership figures of the corresponding sports association by means of an econometric...

Using data from the 2007, 2008, and 2009 NASCAR seasons, this paper shows that the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis pertains to both race attendance and television audience, with the former only responding to race-level uncertainty and the latter responding to both race-level and season-level...

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down sporting events worldwide. Local policy makers and league officials face important decisions about restarting play, especially in professional leagues that draw large numbers of spectators to games. We analyze the impact of professional sporting events on local...

We investigate the role of fatigue in soccer (football). Although this issue is important for the "productivity" of players and the optimal organization of national and international championships, empirical evidence is lacking. We use data on all the matches played by national teams in all the...