IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jospec/v26y2025i5p624-643.html

Battle of the Sexes Over Fans—Is Men’s Soccer a Substitute for Women’s Soccer?

Author

Listed:
  • Galila Nasser
  • Christian Deutscher

Abstract

Attendance in women’s soccer is on the rise in Europe, making it the most-watched women’s team sport. Without massive financial backing from TV contracts, economic success heavily depends on ticket revenue. As women’s matches are typically played on weekends, clubs face competition from men’s soccer over fans’ interest and potentially stadium attendance. Covering data from ten seasons in Germany’s Women’s Federal League (Frauen-Bundesliga), this article empirically tests if overlaps with men’s soccer games have any adverse demand on women’s soccer games.

Suggested Citation

  • Galila Nasser & Christian Deutscher, 2025. "Battle of the Sexes Over Fans—Is Men’s Soccer a Substitute for Women’s Soccer?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 26(5), pages 624-643, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:26:y:2025:i:5:p:624-643
    DOI: 10.1177/15270025251328279
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15270025251328279
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/15270025251328279?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maurizio Valenti & Nicolas Scelles & Stephen Morrow, 2020. "The determinants of stadium attendance in elite women’s football: Evidence from the UEFA Women's Champions League," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 509-520, July.
    2. 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.
    3. Rodney J. Paul, 2003. "Variations in NHL Attendance: The Impact of Violence, Scoring, and Regional Rivalries," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 345-364, April.
    4. Valenti, Maurizio & Scelles, Nicolas & Morrow, Stephen, 2020. "The determinants of stadium attendance in elite women’s football: Evidence from the UEFA Women's Champions League," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 509-520.
    5. Kevin Mongeon & Jason Winfree, 2013. "The Effects of Cross-Ownership and League Policies Across Sports Leagues Within a City," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 43(3), pages 145-162, November.
    6. Whitney K. Newey & Kenneth D. West, 1994. "Automatic Lag Selection in Covariance Matrix Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(4), pages 631-653.
    7. Tim Wallrafen & Tim Pawlowski & Christian Deutscher, 2019. "Substitution in Sports: The Case of Lower Division Football Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(3), pages 319-343, April.
    8. Adler, Moshe, 1985. "Stardom and Talent," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 208-212, March.
    9. Simon Rottenberg, 1956. "The Baseball Players' Labor Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(3), pages 242-242.
    10. Daniel, Rascher & Matt, Brown & Mark, Nagel & Chad, McEvoy, 2009. "Where did National Hockey League Fans go During the 2004-2005 Lockout?: An Analysis of Economic Competition Between Leagues," MPRA Paper 25804, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Chang Wang & Dries Goossens & Martina Vandebroek, 2018. "The Impact of the Soccer Schedule on TV Viewership and Stadium Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(1), pages 82-112, January.
    12. Seth R. Gitter & Thomas A. Rhoads, 2010. "Determinants of Minor League Baseball Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(6), pages 614-628, December.
    13. Dominik Schreyer & Payam Ansari, 2022. "Stadium Attendance Demand Research: A Scoping Review," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(6), pages 749-788, August.
    14. Daniel Hoechle, 2007. "Robust standard errors for panel regressions with cross-sectional dependence," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 7(3), pages 281-312, September.
    15. Burton, Laura J., 2015. "Underrepresentation of women in sport leadership: A review of research," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 155-165.
    16. David Forrest & Rob Simmons & Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "Broadcasting, Attendance and the Inefficiency of Cartels," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 5, pages 112-135, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Jason Winfree & Jill McCluskey & Ron Mittelhammer & Rodney Fort, 2004. "Location and attendance in major league baseball," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(19), pages 2117-2124.
    18. David Forrest & Rob Simmons, 2006. "New Issues in Attendance Demand," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(3), pages 247-266, August.
    19. Georgios Nalbantis & Tim Pawlowski & Dennis Coates, 2017. "The Fans’ Perception of Competitive Balance and Its Impact on Willingness-to-Pay for a Single Game," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(5), pages 479-505, June.
    20. Allie D. LeFeuvre & E. Frank Stephenson & Sara M. Walcott, 2013. "Football Frenzy," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(4), pages 440-448, August.
    21. Carlos Gomez-Gonzalez & Helmut Dietl & David Berri & Cornel Nesseler, 2024. "Gender information and perceived quality: An experiment with professional soccer performance," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 45-66, January.
    22. MacDonald, Glenn M, 1988. "The Economics of Rising Stars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 155-166, March.
    23. Jason Winfree, 2009. "Owners incentives during the 2004-05 National Hockey League lockout," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(25), pages 3275-3285.
    24. Laura J. Burton, 2015. "Underrepresentation of women in sport leadership: A review of research," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 155-165, April.
    25. Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "The Economics of Superstars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 845-858, December.
    26. Eva Marikova Leeds & Michael A. Leeds (ed.), 2013. "Handbook on the Economics of Women in Sports," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14272.
    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. Tim Wallrafen & Tim Pawlowski & Christian Deutscher, 2019. "Substitution in Sports: The Case of Lower Division Football Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(3), pages 319-343, April.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Dominik Schreyer & Payam Ansari, 2022. "Stadium Attendance Demand Research: A Scoping Review," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(6), pages 749-788, August.
    5. Brian Mills & Rodney Fort, 2014. "League-Level Attendance And Outcome Uncertainty In U.S. Pro Sports Leagues," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 205-218, January.
    6. Chmait, Nader & Robertson, Sam & Westerbeek, Hans & Eime, Rochelle & Sellitto, Carmine & Reid, Machar, 2020. "Tennis superstars: The relationship between star status and demand for tickets," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 330-347.
    7. Laura Beaudin, 2024. "Cross-Quality Impacts of NCAA Division I Baseball and Softball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(8), pages 932-964, December.
    8. Morten Kringstad & Tor-Eirik Olsen & Tor Georg Jakobsen & Rasmus K. Storm & Nikolaj Schelde, 2021. "Match Experience at the Danish Women’s Soccer National A-Team Matches: An Explorative Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Leif Brandes & Egon Franck & Stephan Nuesch, 2006. "Local Heroes and Superstars - An Empirical Analysis of Star Attraction in German Soccer," Working Papers 0007, University of Zurich, Center for Research in Sports Administration (CRSA), revised 2007.
    10. Scott M. Kaplan, 2022. "Putting a price on popularity: Evidence from superstars in the National Basketball Association," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1357-1381, July.
    11. 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.
    12. Leif Brandes & Egon Franck & Stephan Nüesch, 2008. "Local Heroes and Superstars," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(3), pages 266-286, June.
    13. Hojun Sung & Brian M. Mills, 2018. "Estimation of game-level attendance in major league soccer: Outcome uncertainty and absolute quality considerations," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5), pages 519-532, December.
    14. Jeremy K. Nguyen & Adam Karg & Abbas Valadkhani & Heath McDonald, 2022. "Predicting individual event attendance with machine learning: a ‘step-forward’ approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(27), pages 3138-3153, June.
    15. Brian M. Mills & Jason A. Winfree & Mark S. Rosentraub & Ekaterina Sorokina, 2015. "Fan substitution between North American professional sports leagues," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(7), pages 563-566, May.
    16. Wen-Jhan Jane, 2016. "The Effect of Star Quality on Attendance Demand," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(4), pages 396-417, May.
    17. Mongeon, Kevin & Winfree, Jason, 2012. "Cross-ownership, league policies and player investment across sports leagues," MPRA Paper 39218, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Stefan Szymanski, 2021. "On the Incidence of an Ad Valorem Tax: The Adoption of VAT in the UK and Cost Pass Through by English Football Clubs," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 37-61, February.
    19. E. Frank Stephenson, 2024. "International Competitions, Star Players, and NWSL Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(2), pages 186-199, February.
    20. Raul Caruso & Francesco Addesa & Marco Di Domizio, 2019. "The Determinants of the TV Demand for Soccer: Empirical Evidence on Italian Serie A for the Period 2008-2015," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(1), pages 25-49, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Z22 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - Labor Issues

    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:sae:jospec:v:26:y:2025:i:5:p:624-643. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.