Seminar: Sports economics

Stadium attendance demand research is firmly anchored in the literature on the economics of sports. In fact, as Fort (2005) observes, exploring the many potential determinants of spectator demand is as old as the field itself, since Rottenberg (1956), in his pioneering article on the baseball players’ labor market, was first to offer a detailed demand specification, already including factors as manifold as the ticket price, potential substitutes, and, perhaps most controversially, competitive balance and the resulting match outcome uncertainty. However, Melzer and Stäglin (1965), analyzing the potential correlation between the home and the away team’s league position and German Bundesliga stadium attendance demand in its inaugural season 1963-64, and later Demmert (1973) and Noll (1974), were the first to make a significant empirical contribution to the then-emerging research stream.

During this seminar, you will gain an initial understanding of the characteristics, nature, and volume of the previous empirical research on stadium attendance demand research, as well as of both enduring and emerging research themes within the literature. In particular, we will explore the increasingly important phenomenon of spectator no-show behavior in professional football together.

• Students will gain a first understanding of key issues in the economics of professional team sports