New Economics Papers
on Sports and Economics
Issue of 2010–05–08
two papers chosen by
Humberto Barreto, DePauw University


  1. Economics of the Super Bowl By Victor Matheson
  2. The Group Size and Loyalty of Football Fans: A Two-Stage Estimation Procedure to Compare Customer Potential Across Teams By Leif Brandes; Egon Franck; Philipp Theiler

  1. By: Victor Matheson
    Abstract: The Super Bowl is America’s premier sporting event. This paper details basic economic facts about the game as examines the controversy surrounding the purported economic impact of the game on host communities. While the league and sports boosters claim that the game brings up to a $500 million economic impact to host cities, a review of the literature suggests that the true economic impact is a fraction of this amount.
    Keywords: sports, stadiums, Super Bowl, impact analysis, football
    JEL: L83
    Date: 2009–12
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hcx:wpaper:0914
  2. By: Leif Brandes (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich); Egon Franck (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich); Philipp Theiler (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich)
    Abstract: This paper presents estimation results on the size and loyalty of sports teams’ supporter groups in professional German football. Based on a novel two-stage estimation procedure, we find clear evidence for heterogeneity across teams. In a first stage, a random utility model for consumers is modelled and fitted to more than 1,700 matches over the seasons 1996-2001. In a second-step, attendance probabilities are predicted for the seasons 2002-2003 to estimate group sizes. A team’s group size is positively correlated with its merchandising revenues (? =0.55, p<0.02), memberships, and fan clubs. Noteworthily, no similar correlations can be found for a team’s hometown population, which has been the standard measure for market size in applied work so far.
    Keywords: Group size, Random utility model, Soccer, Ticket demand
    JEL: D12 C25 L83
    Date: 2010
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:wpaper:0126

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