IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tow/wpaper/2016-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The League Standing Effect: The Case of a Split Season in Minor League Baseball

Author

Listed:
  • Nola Agha

    (Department of Sports Mangement, University of San Francisco)

  • Thomas Rhoads

    (Department of Economics, Towson University)

Abstract

Split season league design resets standings at the midpoint of the season thus allowing for two periods in which a team can potentially achieve success in a single season. This context allows us to test both the reputation of the first half winner and the league standing effect on demand. Examination of game-level data from the 2010 Southern League reveals fans are unaffected by measures of both team quality and league standing. On the other hand, the first half winners achieved attendance nearly 30% higher in the second half of the season suggesting that at this level of competition winning doesn't matter but winners do.

Suggested Citation

  • Nola Agha & Thomas Rhoads, 2016. "The League Standing Effect: The Case of a Split Season in Minor League Baseball," Working Papers 2016-13, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:tow:wpaper:2016-13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://webapps.towson.edu/cbe/economics/workingpapers/2016-13.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2016
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walter C. Neale, 1964. "The Peculiar Economics of Professional Sports," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 78(1), pages 1-14.
    2. Thomas A. Rhoads, 2015. "Proximity and Minor League Baseball," Sports Economics, Management, and Policy, in: The Call Up to the Majors, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 1-13, Springer.
    3. Scott Tainsky & Jason Winfree, 2010. "Short-Run Demand and Uncertainty of Outcome in Major League Baseball," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 37(3), pages 197-214, November.
    4. Thomas A. Rhoads, 2015. "The Call Up to the Majors," Sports Economics, Management and Policy, Springer, edition 127, number 978-1-4614-8924-5, September.
    5. Simon Rottenberg, 1956. "The Baseball Players' Labor Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64, pages 242-242.
    6. Richard Cebula & Michael Toma & Jay Carmichael, 2009. "Attendance and promotions in minor league baseball: the Carolina League," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(25), pages 3209-3214.
    7. Jennett, Nicholas I, 1984. "Attendances, Uncertainty of Outcome and Policy in Scottish League Football," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 31(2), pages 176-198, June.
    8. Seth R. Gitter & Thomas A. Rhoads, 2014. "Stadium Construction And Minor League Baseball Attendance," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(1), pages 144-154, January.
    9. Whitney, James D, 1988. "Winning Games versus Winning Championships: The Economics of Fan Interest and Team Performance," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(4), pages 703-724, October.
    10. Seth R. Gitter & Thomas A. Rhoads, 2011. "Top Prospects and Minor League Baseball Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 12(3), pages 341-351, June.
    11. Glenn Knowles & Keith Sherony & Mike Haupert, 1992. "The Demand for Major League Baseball: A Test of the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 36(2), pages 72-80, October.
    12. Jeff Borland, 1987. "The Demand for Australian Rules Football," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 63(3), pages 220-230, September.
    13. Seth R. Gitter & Thomas A. Rhoads, 2010. "Determinants of Minor League Baseball Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(6), pages 614-628, December.
    14. Nola Agha & Joe Cobbs, 2017. "Is the Grass Greener? Switching Costs and Geographic Proximity in the High Status Affiliations of Professional Baseball," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 95-108, March.
    15. Baimbridge, Mark & Cameron, Samuel & Dawson, Peter, 1996. "Satellite Television and the Demand for Football: A Whole New Ball Game?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 43(3), pages 317-333, August.
    16. Nola Agha, 2013. "The Economic Impact of Stadiums and Teams," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(3), pages 227-252, June.
    17. Tyler Anthony & Tim Kahn & Briana Madison & Rodney Paul & Andrew Weinbach, 2014. "Similarities in fan preferences for minor-league baseball across the American Southeast," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 38(1), pages 150-163, January.
    18. Lorna Gifis & Paul Sommers, 2006. "Promotions and Attendance in Minor League Baseball," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 34(4), pages 513-514, December.
    19. Brad R. Humphreys & Li Zhou, 2015. "The Louis–Schmelling Paradox and the League Standing Effect Reconsidered," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(8), pages 835-852, December.
    20. Georg Stadtmann & Dirk Czarnitzki, 2002. "Uncertainty of outcome versus reputation: Empirical evidence for the First German Football Division," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 101-112.
    21. Jason A. Winfree & Rodney Fort, 2008. "Fan Substitution and the 2004-05 NHL Lockout," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(4), pages 425-434, August.
    22. Borland, Jeff, 1987. "The Demand for Australian Rules Football," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 63(182), pages 220-230, September.
    23. Lei Xinrong & Humphreys Brad R., 2013. "Game importance as a dimension of uncertainty of outcome," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 25-36, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys & Li Zhou, 2014. "Reference-Dependent Preferences, Loss Aversion, And Live Game Attendance," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(3), pages 959-973, July.
    2. Coates, Dennis & Humphreys, Brad & Zhou, Li, 2012. "Outcome Uncertainty, Reference-Dependent Preferences and Live Game Attendance," Working Papers 2012-7, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    3. Scott Tainsky & Jie Xu & Brian Mills & Steven Salaga, 2016. "How Success and Uncertainty Compel Interest in Related Goods: Playoff Probability and Out-of-Market Television Viewership in the National Football League," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 48(1), pages 29-43, February.
    4. Nicholas King & P. Dorian Owen & Rick Audas, 2012. "Playoff Uncertainty, Match Uncertainty and Attendance at Australian National Rugby League Matches," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(281), pages 262-277, June.
    5. Budzinski, Oliver & Feddersen, Arne, 2015. "Grundlagen der Sportnachfrage: Theorie und Empirie der Einflussfaktoren auf die Zuschauernachfrage," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 94, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    6. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "The Economic Design of Sporting Contests," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Comparative Economics of Sport, chapter 1, pages 1-78, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Scott Tainsky & Jie Xu & Brian M. Mills & Steven Salaga, 2016. "How Success and Uncertainty Compel Interest in Related Goods: Playoff Probability and Out-of-Market Television Viewership in the National Football League," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 48(1), pages 29-43, February.
    8. Besters, Lucas, 2018. "Economics of professional football," Other publications TiSEM d9e6b9b7-a17b-4665-9cca-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio & J. James Reade, 2022. "Does certainty on the winner diminish the interest in sport competitions? The case of formula one," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 1059-1079, August.
    10. Schreyer, Dominik & Schmidt, Sascha L. & Torgler, Benno, 2016. "Against all odds? Exploring the role of game outcome uncertainty in season ticket holders’ stadium attendance demand," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 192-217.
    11. Scelles, Nicolas (Сели, Николя) & Duran, Christophe (Дюра, Кристоф) & Bonnal, Liliane (Бонналь, Лилиан) & Goyeau, Daniel (Гойюс, Даниэль) & Andreff, Wladimir (Андрефф, Владимир), 2016. "Do all sporting prizes have a significant positive impact on attendance in a European national football league? Competitive intensity in the French Ligue 1 [Действительно Ли Все Спортивные Призы Ок," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 3, pages 82-107, June.
    12. Jeffery Borland, 2003. "Demand for Sport," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 19(4), pages 478-502, Winter.
    13. Tim Wallrafen & Georgios Nalbantis & Tim Pawlowski, 2022. "Competition and Fan Substitution Between Professional Sports Leagues," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 61(1), pages 21-43, August.
    14. Adam Cox, 2018. "Spectator Demand, Uncertainty of Results, and Public Interest," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(1), pages 3-30, January.
    15. Wladimir Andreff & Nicolas Scelles, 2015. "Walter C. Neale 50 Years After," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(8), pages 819-834, December.
    16. Marco Di Domizio & Raul Caruso, 2015. "Hooliganism and Demand for Football in Italy: Attendance and Counterviolence Policy Evaluation," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 16(2), pages 123-137, May.
    17. Trung Minh Dang & Ross Booth & Robert Brooks & Adi Schnytzer, 2015. "Do TV Viewers Value Uncertainty of Outcome? Evidence from the Australian Football League," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 91(295), pages 523-535, December.
    18. Wladimir Andreff, 2009. "Équilibre compétitif et contrainte budgétaire dans une ligue de sport professionnel," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 60(3), pages 591-633.
    19. Brown, Katie M. & Salaga, Steven, 2018. "NCAA football television viewership: Product quality and consumer preference relative to market expectations," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 377-390.
    20. Kevin Alavy & Alison Gaskell & Stephanie Leach & Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "On the Edge of Your Seat: Demand for Football on Television and the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis," International Journal of Sport Finance, Fitness Information Technology, vol. 5(2), pages 75-95, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Demand; minor league baseball; league standing effect; split season.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tow:wpaper:2016-13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Juergen Jung (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/detowus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.