IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/oxford/v19y2003i4p478-502.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Demand for Sport

Author

Abstract

This article reviews international literature on the demand for professional sport. The first part presents a conceptual framework for understanding the sources and determinants of the demand for professional sporting contests. The second part reviews empirical evidence on key determinants of attendance at sporting events, and on other sources of demand, such as broadcasting, sponsorship, and merchandising. The review concludes that there is still much to be learned about demand for professional sport, and that there are no simple lessons to be drawn from existing literature. But important messages do emerge from studies of demand for attendance with regard to effects of uncertainty of outcome, quality of contest, and quality of viewing. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:19:y:2003:i:4:p:478-502
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fiona Carmichael & Janet Millington & Roberts Simmons, 1999. "Elasticity of demand for Rugby League attendance and the impact of BskyB," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(12), pages 797-800.
    2. S. M. Dobson & J. A. Goddard, 1996. "The Demand for Football in the Regions of England and Wales," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 443-453.
    3. Hunt, Joseph W, Jr & Lewis, Kenneth A, 1976. "Dominance, Recontracting, and the Reserve Clause: Major League Baseball," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 936-943, December.
    4. 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.
    5. Michael R. Butler, 2002. "Interleague Play and Baseball Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(4), pages 320-334, November.
    6. Andrew S. Zimbalist, 2002. "Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 111-121, May.
    7. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "Income Inequality, Competitive Balance and the Attractiveness of Team Sports: Some Evidence and a Natural Experiment from English Soccer," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 9, pages 182-201, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. Martin B. Schmidt & David J. Berri, 2001. "Competitive Balance and Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(2), pages 145-167, May.
    9. Stefan Szymanski & Ron Smith, 2010. "The English Football Industry: Profit, Performance and Industrial Structure," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 1, pages 1-26, Palgrave Macmillan.
    10. Andrew Welki & Thomas Zlatoper, 1999. "U.S. professional football game-day attendance," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 27(3), pages 285-298, September.
    11. Simon Rottenberg, 2000. "Resource Allocation and Income Distribution in Professional Team Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 1(1), pages 11-20, February.
    12. Craig A. Depken II, 2001. "Fan Loyalty in Professional Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(3), pages 275-284, August.
    13. Kahn, Lawrence M & Sherer, Peter D, 1988. "Racial Differences in Professional Basketball Players' Compensation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(1), pages 40-61, January.
    14. Angelo Cocco & J. C. H. Jones, 1997. "On going south: the economics of survival and relocation of small market NHL franchises in Canada," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(11), pages 1537-1552.
    15. Daniel, Rascher, 1999. "A Test of the Optimal Positive Production Network Externality in Major League Baseball," MPRA Paper 25832, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. McDonald, Mark & Rascher, Daniel, 2000. "Does Bat Day Make Cents? The Effect of Promotions on the Demand for Major League Baseball," MPRA Paper 25739, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. 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.
    18. Funk, Daniel C. & James, Jeff, 2001. "The Psychological Continuum Model: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding an Individual's Psychological Connection to Sport," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 119-150, November.
    19. 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.
    20. Jean-Marc Falter & Christophe Perignon, 2000. "Demand for football and intramatch winning probability: an essay on the glorious uncertainty of sports," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(13), pages 1757-1765.
    21. Jaume García & Plácido Rodríguez, 2002. "The Determinants of Football Match Attendance Revisited," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(1), pages 18-38, February.
    22. 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.
    23. Jeff Borland, 1987. "The Demand for Australian Rules Football," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 63(3), pages 220-230, September.
    24. David Peel & Dennis Thomas, 1996. "Attendance demand: an investigation of repeat fixtures," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(6), pages 391-394.
    25. 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.
    26. Craig A. Depken II, 2000. "Fan Loyalty and Stadium Funding in Professional Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 1(2), pages 124-138, May.
    27. R. A. Hart & J. Hutton & T. Sharot, 1975. "A Statistical Analysis of Association Football Attendances," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 24(1), pages 17-27, March.
    28. Van Leeuwen, Linda & Quick, Shayne & Daniel, Kerry, 2002. "The Sport Spectator Satisfaction Model: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding the Satisfaction of Spectators," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 99-128, November.
    29. Daniel C. Funk & Jeff James, 2001. "The Psychological Continuum Model: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding an Individual's Psychological Connection to Sport," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 119-150, July.
    30. Mark Baimbridge, 1997. "Match attendance at Euro 96: was the crowd waving or drowning?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(9), pages 555-558.
    31. David Peel & Dennis Thomas, 1997. "Handicaps, outcome uncertainty and attendance demand," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(9), pages 567-570.
    32. 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.
    33. Mark Baimbridge & Samuel Cameron & Peter Dawson, 1995. "Satellite broadcasting and match attendance: the case of rugby league," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(10), pages 343-346.
    34. J. Cairns & N. Jennett & P.J. Sloane, 1986. "The Economics of Professional Team Sports: A Survey of Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(1), pages 3-80, January.
    35. Leo Kahane & Stephen Shmanske, 1997. "Team roster turnover and attendance in major league baseball," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 425-431.
    36. Peel, David A & Thomas, Dennis A, 1988. "Outcome Uncertainty and the Demand for Football: An Analysis of Match Attendances in the English Football League," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 35(3), pages 242-249, August.
    37. Peel, David A & Thomas, Dennis A, 1992. "The Demand for Football: Some Evidence on Outcome Uncertainty," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 323-331.
    38. Linda Van Leeuwen & Shayne Quick & Kerry Daniel, 2002. "The Sport Spectator Satisfaction Model: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding the Satisfaction of Spectators," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 99-128, July.
    39. repec:bla:scotjp:v:49:y:2002:i:3:p:336-55 is not listed on IDEAS
    40. Donald I. Price & Kabir C. Sen, 2003. "The demand for game day attendance in college football: an analysis of the 1997 Division 1-A season," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(1), pages 35-46.
    41. Jones, J C H & Ferguson, D G, 1988. "Location and Survival in the National Hockey League," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 443-457, June.
    42. J. C. H. Jones & J. A. Schofield & D. E. A. Giles, 2000. "Our fans in the north: the demand for British Rugby League," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(14), pages 1877-1887.
    43. Peter Fuller & Mark Stewart, 1996. "Attendance Patterns At Victorian And South Australian Football Games," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 15(1), pages 83-93, March.
    44. Lawrence M. Kahn, 2000. "The Sports Business as a Labor Market Laboratory," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 75-94, Summer.
    45. Eleanor Brown & Richard Spiro & Diane Keenan, 1991. "Wage and Nonwage Discrimination in Professional Basketball: Do Fans Affect It?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 333-345, July.
    46. Brad R. Humphreys, 2002. "Alternative Measures of Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 133-148, May.
    47. Rodney Fort & Joel Maxcy, 2003. "“Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues: An Introductionâ€," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(2), pages 154-160, May.
    48. Hausman, Jerry A & Leonard, Gregory K, 1997. "Superstars in the National Basketball Association: Economic Value and Policy," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(4), pages 586-624, October.
    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. 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.
    2. Alexander John Bond & Francesco Addesa, 2020. "Competitive Intensity, Fans’ Expectations, and Match-Day Tickets Sold in the Italian Football Serie A, 2012-2015," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(1), pages 20-43, January.
    3. 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.
    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. Ferda HALICIOGLU, 2005. "Forecasting the Professional Team Sporting Events: Evidence from Euro 2000 and 2004 Football Tournaments," Industrial Organization 0508001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Robert J. Lemke & Matthew Leonard & Kelebogile Tlhokwane, 2010. "Estimating Attendance at Major League Baseball Games for the 2007 Season," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(3), pages 316-348, June.
    7. Bruce Morley & Dennis Thomas, 2007. "Attendance demand and core support: evidence from limited-overs cricket," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(16), pages 2085-2097.
    8. Tim Pawlowski, 2013. "Testing the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis in European Professional Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(4), pages 341-367, August.
    9. 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.
    10. Scott Tainsky & Chad D. McEvoy, 2012. "Television Broadcast Demand in Markets Without Local Teams," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(3), pages 250-265, June.
    11. 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.
    12. Besters, Lucas, 2018. "Economics of professional football," Other publications TiSEM d9e6b9b7-a17b-4665-9cca-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. Pelnar, Gregory, 2007. "Antitrust Analysis of Sports Leagues," MPRA Paper 5382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Dominik Schreyer & Benno Torgler, 2018. "On the Role of Race Outcome Uncertainty in the TV Demand for Formula 1 Grands Prix," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(2), pages 211-229, February.
    19. David Forrest & Robert Simmons & Babatunde Buraimo, 2005. "Outcome Uncertainty And The Couch Potato Audience," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 52(4), pages 641-661, September.
    20. P. Dorian Owen & Clayton R. Weatherston, 2004. "Uncertainty of Outcome and Super 12 Rugby Union Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 5(4), pages 347-370, November.

    More about this item

    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:oup:oxford:v:19:y:2003:i:4:p:478-502. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/oxrep .

    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.