Sporting events concentrate people in facilities on game day. No evidence currently exists linking sporting events to traffic conditions. We analyze urban mobility data from 25 metropolitan areas with Major League Baseball (MLB) teams over the period 1990-2014. MLB-related travel accounts for at most 0.5 percent of annual metropolitan area vehicle-miles traveled (VMT). Instrumental variable regression results indicate MLB attendance causes an increase of about 5 million VMT, about 28,000 additional annual hours of traffic delay, and over $7 million annually in social costs from CO2 emissions in host cities. MLB games generate congestion externalities. K E Y W O R D SMajor League Baseball, traffic congestion, transportation, vehiclemiles traveled INTRODUCTIONThe presence of a professional sports team in a city can have a substantial impact on local economic activity. Previous research focuses primarily on assessing the tangible or intangible benefits of professional sports teams in the local economy; relatively little focuses on the direct and indirect costs generated by professional sports teams, facilities, and the games played in these facilities. Direct costs include facility construction and operation costs, costs of paying players, managers, officials, and facility employees, and costs associated with public safety at games. Indirect costs come from traffic, crowds, trash and pollution, noise, crime, and other negative aspects of the staging of games. Because of the large public subsidies provided for the construction and operation of professional sports facilities, research on indirect costs associated with professional sports is important. A thorough understanding of both benefits and costs of professional sports teams provides context for understanding the public subsidies provided to professional sports teams.We empirically analyze the relationship between attendance at Major League Baseball (MLB) games and traffic in U.S. metropolitan areas, an indirect direct cost associated with the presence of an MLB team. MLB represents an ideal setting for assessing the relationship between sporting events and vehicle traffic. MLB teams typically play 81 home games per season distributed across all days of the week. Weekday MLB games occur primarily at night, with typical start times of 6 pm to 8 pm. This timing means that some fans attending games will be driving to the game during the evening rush hour. In addition, many MLB stadiums are located in the city center. The impact of baseball games on 869 J Regional Sci. 2018;58:869-886.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jors traffic is likely larger than the impact of professional football, basketball, or ice hockey because of the long baseball season and relatively large crowds at these games.We analyze traffic data compiled by the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute that are constructed as part of the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard (UMS). The UMS provides annual estimates of traffic and congestion for many U.S. metropolitan areas. These estimates of vehicle mi...

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We empirically explore the relationship between the National Football League (NFL) and crime using daily panel data from Detroit. We exploit the natural experiment of the Detroit Lions movement from Pontiac MI to downtown Detroit in 2002 to examine the impact of NFL games on crime in a jurisdiction. Pontiac is used as a treatment city and other suburban cities are used as a comparison group. Employing a triple difference-in-difference approach, we find little to no change in crime on a home game day in Pontiac compared to other suburban cities. There is no difference in crime between the football season and off-season, among the groups, after the Lions moved. While not conclusive, our results are suggestive that professional football does not create additional crime except for larceny.

Sporting events concentrate people at specific locations on game day. No empirical evidence currently exists linking sporting events to local traffic conditions. We analyze urban mobility data from 25 US metropolitan areas with MLB teams over the period 1990 to 2014 to assess the relationship between local traffic and Major League Baseball (MLB) games. Instrumental variable regression results indicate MLB attendance causes increases in local vehicle-miles traveled. At the sample average attendance of 2.8 million, average daily vehicle-miles traveled increases by about 6.9% in cities with MLB teams. Traffic congestion increases by 2%, suggesting that MLB games generate congestion externalities.

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