Seppo Suominen Essays on cultural economics
Download 2.66 Mb.
|
3.2LiteratureThe literature explaining attendance in sport events, especially in the USA, is wide starting with Demmert (1973) and Noll (1974). Conventional economic theory assumes that demand base measured as the incomes of the relevant market population and market size (population) should have an impact on attendance. Teams from bigger cities should have bigger attendance if the venue capacity allows it. Many teams are local monopolies with almost zero marginal costs of attendance. Hence maximizing profits equals maximizing revenues, and the outcome should be to set ticket prices high enough to ensure unitary price elasticity. However, sport events are usually priced in the inelastic range (Krautmann & Berri 2007). Coates and Harrison (2005) studied baseball (MLB) attendance with a panel data throughout the years 1969 – 1996. The team’s home town population as well as winning percentage is a positively significant variable to explain attendance, while the ticket price is negatively associated. Different, alternative ticket prices, like “gate” measured as the ratio of total box-office income to total attendance or “seat” measured as weighted average of different category seat prices have been used. Regardless of which price measure is used, attendance is price inelastic. Incomes in home town do not seem to be statistically significant. Also Coates and Humphreys (2007) have similar results. Elsewhere Depken (2000) shows that attendance at MLB baseball is positively significant with the incomes of the home town and team’s payroll. Kahane and Shmanske (1997) report similar results and show also that changes in teams’ structure (scorecard) has a negative effect on attendance. Relatively big scorecard changes between seasons diminish attendance. The distance between home town and visitor’s town has a significant negative effect on attendance in MLB baseball (Knowles, Sherony and Haupert 1992). The further away a visitor comes, the fewer spectators the game attracts. During weekends there are more spectators than during weekdays. With MLB baseball McDonald and Rascher (2000) show that sales promotion has a positive but diminishing effect on attendance. Sales promotion results in larger attendance, but excessive promotion are probably too expensive in terms of profitability. The competitive balance of the league is important for attendance (Schmidt and Berri 2001). If some teams “always” win and some “always” lose the games, spectators’ motivation to attend falls. Occasionally there have been strikes or lock-outs in baseball, which has not had any significant and long-term effect on attendance (Schmidt and Berri 2002). During the season 1994 – 1995 even a six-month strike did not have any long-term effects on attendance. Fans returned after the pause. This result is valid in baseball but also in football (NFL) and ice hockey (NHL) as shown by Schmidt and Berri (2004). Attendance is rather price inelastic in other sports – not just baseball, like football (NFL, Depken 2001), basketball (NBA, Coates and Humphreys 2007), Australian rules football (Borland and Lye 1992), and English rugby football (Carmichael, Millington and Simmons 1999), Spanish football (Garcia and Rodriguez 2002). Teams seem to lower ticket prices to the inelastic range of demand to increase non-ticket revenues, like intermediate time refreshment sales or broadcasting revenues (Fort 2004 or Krautmann & Berri 2007). On the other hand there is some evidence of both price elastic and price inelastic demand in British football (Simmons 1996). Simmons argues that there is a remarkable difference between season ticket holders and occasional spectators that buy the ticket at the gate. Season ticket holders have lower price sensitivity than occasional spectators. Negative income elasticity or positive effect of unemployment rate on attendance has been found in several studies: Baimbridge, Cameron and Dawson (1996) with British football; Borland and Lye (1992) with Australian football; Falter and Perignon (2000) with football in France but also a positive coefficient with home town incomes in some sports, like basketball in the USA (NBA, Coates and Humpreys 2007) or baseball in the USA (MLB, Depken 2000 or Coates and Harrison 2005) or football in the USA (NFL, Depken 2001). Some games are played outdoors and some indoors and therefore temperature or weather conditions might have different effects on attendance. Especially weather conditions have been shown to have an effect on sports attendance outdoors. Baimbridge, Cameron and Dawson (1995) and Jones, Schofield and Giles (2000) have shown that high temperature and rainless conditions have a positive effect on rugby football attendance in the UK. Spanish football attracts a larger audience when the weather is favorable (Garcia and Rodriguez 2002) which is valid with Australian football (Borland and Lye 1992) or Finnish football (Iho and Heikkilä 2008). During spring the attendance is larger in football in France (Falter and Perignon 2000). When it is raining or snowing the attendance is lower in college football (National College Athletic Association, NCAA, DeSchriver and Jensen 2002). To the contrary Carmichael, Millington and Simmons (1999) show that low temperature is associated with higher attendance in rugby football. Elsewhere Baimbridge, Cameron and Dawson (1996) find no statistical association between weather conditions and British football. Wilson and Sim (1995) show that at the beginning of the season the attendance is higher than later in football in Malaysia. Winning probability or team’s success has a positive impact on attendance (Boyd and Boyd 1998, Burdekin and Idson 1991, Coates and Harrison 2005, Coates and Humphreys 2007, Depken 2000, Depken 2001, Kahane and Shmanske 1997, McDonald and Rascher 2000, Simmons 1996) but also the inverse relationship has been found (Baimbridge, Cameron and Dawson 1995). In most cases there are more males than females in the audience. The focus on the literature survey above is also more masculine than feminine. Most surveys carried out reveal that one of the most important reasons to attend a live game rather than watching through some media like television or radio is to be involved in the success, the play-off games and winning the championship. The ticket price is not so relevant (Hansen and Gauhier 1989). Most of the games are played during weekends or evenings and therefore entertainment is a very important motive to attend, especially for men since true fans are male (Hall and O´Mahony 2006). For women the motive to attend is to share time with friends and family (Fink, Trail and Anderson 2002 or Dietz-Uhler, Harrick, End and Jacquemotte 2000). Parking space, the quality of seats and transportation possibilities in general to the stadium are more important for female than for male. Appealing side services, like the quality of parking space, the cleanliness of the stadium, adequate entrance hall space and eating possibilities during intermediate times seem to increase attendance (Wakefield and Sloan 1995). Due to masculine majotory in the spectator group the venue characteristics are not used as explanatory variables. Men seem to fan only one team, their favorite, to which they are rather loyal. Peer group acceptance is important and men seem to have an emotional attitude towards the team (Bauer, Sauer and Exler 2005). Supporters use fan shirts and scarves. Admiration is associated with strong and enjoyable feelings (Heinonen 2005). Unreasonableness and superfluity are essential. The brand equity of a team has a significant positive impact on attendance in German football (Bauer, Sauer and Schmitt 2004). Mustonen, Arms and Russell (1996) show that the possibilities to see proficient ice hockey and support the team are among the most important reasons to attend, while getting together and especially game violence are far less important motives in Finland. The two latter are more important in Canada. Download 2.66 Mb. Share with your friends:
|