Sports attendance: A survey of the Literature 1973-2007

Introduction – 1. Theoretical aspects – 2. Demand definition, data andempirical model – 3. Determinants of attendance (I): Economical aspects – 4.Determinants of attendance (II): Expected quality – 5. Determinants of attendance(III): Uncertainty of outcome – 6. Determinants of attendance (IV): Opportunity cost and other factors – Conclusions – Abstract In this paper, we show a review of the empirical analysis literature about the factors that explain attendance to the stadiums on different sports, mainly in the case of professional sports. Apart from the traditional economic determinants of demand (attendance), the sports events in which the performers have more quality and in those which exists uncertainty of outcome of the match or the championship, have a larger number of spectators. On the other hand, these are not the only factors that explain attendance. Variables that capture the opportunity cost of going to the stadium and other determinants, like unobservable factors associated to the contender teams, also have relevance at the time of analyzing this side of the demand related to professional teams of sports events