Impacts of the Great Recession on sport: evidence from English Football League attendance demand

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of the 2007–9 Great Recession on attendance demand in the English Football League. We identify causal effects of variations in local unemployment rates on club matchday attendances using a difference-in-difference methodology applied to specific treatment and control group clubs categorized according to severity of local unemployment increase during the recession period. We find that treatment clubs in Tiers 3 and 4 suffered an attendance reduction of 10.5% purely through rising unemployment in local Travel to Work Areas containing clubs’ stadia after controlling for a large set of confounding influences. Smaller but still significant effects are found in alternative specifications, including the incorporation of Tier 2 clubs into the analysis.

Where to Go Next? Examining the Effect of Franchise Expansion and Location on Game-Level Attendance in Major League Soccer

“…One explanation for this results might be that expansion teams are often perceived by fans as weaker than incumbent teams and, therefore, have a lower drawing power as do, for example, some promoted teams in the German Bundesliga or the English Premier League. Also, as expected and in line with studies of European soccer leagues (Buraimo et al, 2009; Buraimo et al, 2021), longer distance between MLS stadiums is associated with a decrease in MLS game attendance, with a quadratic form in which the turning point is at 1,919 miles. The coefficient on Derby is positive, as predicted, but only significant at 10 percent.…”

“…Another important control variable is the impact of the fans' attendance in the previous season as a possible indicator of fan habit or persistence, used in several soccer attendance papers (Buraimo et al, 2021). A small (large) audience in the last season is associated with a small (large) audience in the current season 3 .…”

How sensitive are sports fans to unemployment?

“…Analysing data from the early 1960s to the late 2010s, he finds evidence of a strong negative relationship between attendance and unemployment. Buraimo, Simmons, and Migali (2021) consider lower league English football in and around the Financial Crisis and Great Recession, finding that attendances in these leagues went down substantially.…”

How Sensitive are Sports Fans to Unemployment?

“…Analyzing data from the early 1960s to the late 2010s, he finds evidence of a strong negative relationship between attendance and unemployment. Buraimo et al (2021) consider lower league English football in and around the Financial Crisis and Great Recession, finding that attendances in these leagues went down substantially.…”