The Value of Sporting Success to Germans: Comparing the 2012 UEFA Championships with the 2012 Olympics

Abstract

We examine the value of sporting success to the German population at two major sport events in 2012, the European Championships in football and the London Olympic Games. Using the contingent valuation method (CVM), this study is the first to compare the value of sporting success between two events. The results show a higher average willingness-to-pay (WTP) for winning the European title in football (€47.31) than for Germany being ranked first in the Olympic medal table (€37.06). Aggregated WTP amounts to €3.3 billion (football) respectively €2.6 billion (Olympics). We can also determine significant drivers of WTP for sporting success.

The Willigness to Pay for a German Win of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil

“…Thus, participants who felt that it was important for themselves that Germany performed well were willing to pay €47.18 (€16.88, €8.77) more for Germany becoming World Champion (reaching the final, reaching the semi-finals). This positive effect is supported by previous studies (Wicker, Prinz and von Hanau 2012;Wicker et al 2015). Regarding the expectation about the performance of the German national football team at the 2014 World Cup, the results of the Tobit model show an increase of the WTP.…”

“…Women were willing to pay €559 million for winning the title, men even €1.137 billion and thus the sum was €1.696 billion. A comparison with Wicker et al (2015) shows that the WTP for each round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup were lower than for the 2012 European Championship (the WTP for winning the UEFA European Championship was €2.847 billion).…”

“…The bias is induced by a potential overestimation of the respondents' WTP because of the hypothetical nature of the CVM scenario (Wicker et al 2015). Thus, the WTP of the respondents could be higher in the generated hypothetical scenario than their actual WTP because of hypothetical payments for the non-market good.…”

“…In this study we examine the value of sporting success to the German population at a major sport event in 2014, the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. (Wicker, Hallmann et al 2012) vs. a few months (Wicker et al 2015) before the Olympics. Rohkohl and Flatau (2014) found a similar value as Wicker, Hallmann et al (2012) by asking German respondents about their WTP for medal success at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio several years in advance.…”

“…Generally, the individual's WTP should increase with the individual's subjective utility derived from national sporting success. In this context, the subjective utility and thus the WTP may differ among consumers depending on the individual importance of the sporting success (Wicker et al 2015). Therefore, individuals with higher interest in sports and in a better tournament performance are willing to pay more because it is more important for their personal comfort.…”