Competitive Balance and Game Attendance in Major League Baseball

Abstract

This article tests for the effects of a change in competitive balance on attendance at Major League Baseball games using game-level attendance data for the 2000-2002 seasons. Employing the difference between the winning percentages of the home and visiting teams as a measure of competitive balance, the authors find (a) the effects of a change in competitive balance on attendance are not symmetric, (b) the effects of a change in competitive balance increase as a team falls further behind the divisional leader, and (c) the effects of a change in competitive balance decline throughout the season if the home team has a better record than the visiting team but increase if the home team has a worse record than the visiting team.

Factors Affecting Attendance of Major League Baseball: Revisited

“…A dummy variable (NIGHT) for whether the game is a night game is included to see if there is any difference between night and day games (Davis 2009). The separate dummy variable for each day, SUNDAY through FRIDAY is also included to control the day-of-the-week effect on the attendance (Meehan et al 2007). We exclude SATURDAY to avoid the possible linear combinations among the variables.…”

“…The studies by Knowles et al (1992) and Rascher (1999), find a positive correlation between competitive balance and game attendance. Meehan et al (2007) found that fans do respond to changes in competitive balance: a change in competitive balance was found to have a positive effect on attendance if the home team had a better win percentage than the visiting team, and an insignificant effect if the visiting team had a winning percentage than the home team. Results found by Lemke et al (2009) did not support the outcome hypothesis.…”

“…Independent variables used to control for temporal differences (day game/night game, weekday game/weekend game), weather conditions, and demographic characteristics, have been included in various examinations of the demand for sporting events. (see Noll 1974;Hill et al 1982;Depken 2000;Siegfried and Zimbalist 2000;Schmidt and Berri 2001;Winfree et al 2004;Meehan et al 2007;Lemke et al 2009;Davis 2009 to name a few).…”

“…Meehan et al (2007) use dummy variables to account for playoff appearance, World Series appearance, and winning the World Series in the past year by either team; all of these variables try to capture the expected quality of a game.…”

Historical and contemporary trends in competitive balance in the Commonwealth Games. [Las tendencias históricas y contemporáneas en el equilibrio competitivo en los Juegos de la Commonwealth].

“…Indeed, some studies supporting the conventional uncertainty of outcome hypothesis have shown that competitive balance in sport is correlated with attendance demand (e.g. Meehan, Nelson and Richardson, 2007;Rascher and Solmes, 2007). If this is correct, then any decline in competition may result in reduced income from gate receipts.…”