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The Relationship Between Outcome Uncertainties and Match Attendance: New Evidence in the National Basketball Association

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  • Wen-Jhan Jane

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of game-day attendance for the National Basketball Association for the 2009/2010–2011/2012 seasons. Six different measures of short-run league-level competitive balance and game uncertainty for two rivals are incorporated at the same time in a Tobit model. The results for the effect of league-level uncertainty support the hypotheses of outcome uncertainty, but the effect of game-level uncertainty does not. Closer wins by the competing teams within a league and a larger gap in terms of the point spread between two teams in the betting market lead to higher attendance. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Wen-Jhan Jane, 2014. "The Relationship Between Outcome Uncertainties and Match Attendance: New Evidence in the National Basketball Association," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 45(2), pages 177-200, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:45:y:2014:i:2:p:177-200
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-014-9436-x
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    Cited by:

    1. Stephan Lenor & Liam J. A. Lenten & Jordi McKenzie, 2016. "Rivalry Effects and Unbalanced Schedule Optimisation in the Australian Football League," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 49(1), pages 43-69, August.
    2. Guironnet, Jean-Pascal, 2023. "Competitive intensity and industry performance of professional sports," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    3. Wen‐Jhan Jane, 2022. "Choking or excelling under pressure: Evidence of the causal effect of audience size on performance," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(1), pages 329-357, January.
    4. Antonio Avila-Cano & Amparo Ruiz-Sepulveda & Francisco Triguero-Ruiz, 2021. "Identifying the Maximum Concentration of Results in Bilateral Sports Competitions," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-19, June.
    5. Dorian Owen & Caitlin Owen, 2017. "Simulation Evidence on Herfindahl-Hirschman Indices as Measures of Competitive Balance," Working Papers 1715, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2017.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Attendance in professional basketball; Competitive balance; Game uncertainty; Outcome uncertainty; Tobit model; L13; L83; D43;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection

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