IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jospec/v27y2026i6p655-681.html

Paying to Play: How Seasonal Fees Affect Disc Golf Course Choice

Author

Listed:
  • Kenneth A. Liao
  • Jimena González-Ramírez
  • Kevin Meyer
  • Victoria Adams

Abstract

This paper measures how a seasonal vehicle entry fee affects disc golf course choice in Westchester County, New York. We use ten years of user-level data from the UDisc app, covering 30,531 visits by 758 players from 2015 to 2024, in a setting with two nearby and broadly comparable courses. One course is located within a state park that charges a predictable $10 per-vehicle fee on a seasonal calendar, while the other course is free year-round. We estimate a within-user probit model of course choice, controlling for weather differences and a linear time index, with fixed effects for user, day of week, holiday, and year. When the fee is in effect, the probability of choosing the fee course falls by about 1.5 percentage points, a result that is robust to logit and linear probability models.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenneth A. Liao & Jimena González-Ramírez & Kevin Meyer & Victoria Adams, 2026. "Paying to Play: How Seasonal Fees Affect Disc Golf Course Choice," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 27(6), pages 655-681, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:27:y:2026:i:6:p:655-681
    DOI: 10.1177/15270025261450148
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15270025261450148
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/15270025261450148?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. Tobias Schwoerer & Natalie G Dawson, 2022. "Small sight—Big might: Economic impact of bird tourism shows opportunities for rural communities and biodiversity conservation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(7), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Yongjie Ji & David A. Keiser & Catherine L. Kling & Daniel J. Phaneuf, 2022. "Revenue and Distributional Consequences of Alternative Outdoor Recreation Pricing Mechanisms: Evidence from a Micropanel Data Set," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 98(3), pages 478-494.
    3. Trudy Ann Cameron & Sonja H. Kolstoe, 2022. "Using Auxiliary Population Samples for Sample-Selection Correction in Models Based on Crowd-Sourced Volunteered Geographic Information," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 98(1), pages 1-21.
    4. Qi Ge & Brad R. Humphreys & Kun Zhou, 2020. "Are Fair Weather Fans Affected by Weather? Rainfall, Habit Formation, and Live Game Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(3), pages 304-322, April.
    5. Kolstoe, Sonja & Cameron, Trudy Ann, 2017. "The Non-market Value of Birding Sites and the Marginal Value of Additional Species: Biodiversity in a Random Utility Model of Site Choice by eBird Members," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 1-12.
    6. 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.
    7. Tharaka A. Jayalath & Patrick Lloyd-Smith & Marcus Becker, 2023. "Biodiversity Benefits of Birdwatching Using Citizen Science Data and Individualized Recreational Demand Models," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(1), pages 83-107, October.
    8. Seth R. Gitter & Thomas A. Rhoads, 2010. "Determinants of Minor League Baseball Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(6), pages 614-628, December.
    9. Dominik Schreyer & Payam Ansari, 2022. "Stadium Attendance Demand Research: A Scoping Review," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(6), pages 749-788, August.
    10. Peter O. Steiner, 1957. "Peak Loads and Efficient Pricing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 71(4), pages 585-610.
    11. Brown, Laura E. & Basak-Smith, Molly & Bradley, Kimberly & Stearns, Stacey F. & Morzillo, Anita T. & Park, Sohyun, 2021. "Exploring the Implications of Increased Rural Trail Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health, Planning, Equity and Inclusivity," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 36(3), August.
    12. repec:osf:socarx:4wm97_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Wood, Spencer A & Winder, Samantha & Lia, Emilia & White, Eric & Crowley, Christian & Milnor, Adam, 2020. "Next-generation Visitation Models using Social Media to Estimate Recreation on Public Lands," SocArXiv 4wm97, Center for Open Science.
    14. Elise M. Beckman & Wenqiang Cai & Rebecca M. Esrock & Robert J. Lemke, 2012. "Explaining Game-to-Game Ticket Sales for Major League Baseball Games Over Time," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(5), pages 536-553, October.
    15. Samson Mukanjari & Edwin Muchapondwa & Eyoual Demeke, 2021. "Recreation demand and pricing policy for international tourists in developing countries: evidence from South Africa," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 243-260, July.
    16. Andreas Skriver Hansen & Thomas Beery & Peter Fredman & Daniel Wolf-Watz, 2023. "Outdoor recreation in Sweden during and after the COVID-19 pandemic – management and policy implications," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 66(7), pages 1472-1493, June.
    17. Michael A. Crew & Paul R. Kleindorfer, 1976. "Peak Load Pricing with a Diverse Technology," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(1), pages 207-231, Spring.
    18. Dionysis Latinopoulos, 2014. "The impact of economic recession on outdoor recreation demand: an application of the travel cost method in Greece," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(2), pages 254-272, February.
    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. Haldrup, Niels & Nielsen, Morten Orregaard, 2006. "A regime switching long memory model for electricity prices," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 135(1-2), pages 349-376.
    2. Dominik Schreyer & Payam Ansari, 2022. "Stadium Attendance Demand Research: A Scoping Review," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(6), pages 749-788, August.
    3. Mier, Mathias, 2021. "Efficient pricing of electricity revisited," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    4. repec:aen:journl:ej37-3-simshauser is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Wayne DeSarbo & Heungsun Hwang & Ashley Stadler Blank & Eelco Kappe, 2015. "Constrained Stochastic Extended Redundancy Analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 80(2), pages 516-534, June.
    6. Simshauser, Paul, 2018. "Price discrimination and the modes of failure in deregulated retail electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 54-70.
    7. Skulstad, Andreas & Sandorf, Erlend Dancke & Venter, Zander & Dugstad, Anders, 2025. "The value of cabin-based outdoor recreation: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    8. Gellman, Jacob & Walls, Margaret & Wibbenmeyer, Matthew, 2025. "Welfare losses from wildfire smoke: Evidence from daily outdoor recreation data," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    9. Klaus Eisenack & Mathias Mier, 2019. "Peak-load pricing with different types of dispatchability," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 105-124, December.
    10. 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.
    11. Correia-da-Silva, João & Soares, Isabel & Fernández, Raquel, 2020. "Impact of dynamic pricing on investment in renewables," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    12. Simshauser, Paul, 2022. "Rooftop solar PV and the peak load problem in the NEM's Queensland region," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    13. Mark W. Gellerson & Shawna P. Grosskopf, 1980. "Public Utility Pricing, Investment, and Reliability under Uncertainty: A Review," Public Finance Review, , vol. 8(4), pages 477-492, October.
    14. Haldrup Niels & Nielsen Morten Ø., 2006. "Directional Congestion and Regime Switching in a Long Memory Model for Electricity Prices," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(3), pages 1-24, September.
    15. Qenani-Petrela, Eivis & Wandschneider, Philip R. & Mittelhammer, Ronald C. & McCluskey, Jill J., 2002. "Investing In Farm Worker Housing: A Multi-Season Peak-Load Analysis Of Washington State Data," 2002 Annual Meeting, July 28-31, 2002, Long Beach, California 36553, Western Agricultural Economics Association.
    16. Alayo, Hans & García, Raúl, 2015. "A static deterministic linear peak-load pricing model for the electricity industry: Application to the Peruvian case," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 202-206.
    17. Tchai Tavor & Limor Dina Gonen & Uriel Spiegel, 2019. "Optimal Pricing and Capacity Under Well-Defined and Well-Known Deterministic Demand Fluctuations," Review of European Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, December.
    18. 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.
    19. Gregor Zöttl, 2010. "A Framework of Peak Load Pricing with Strategic Firms," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(6), pages 1637-1649, December.
    20. Simshauser, Paul, 2016. "Distribution network prices and solar PV: Resolving rate instability and wealth transfers through demand tariffs," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 108-122.
    21. Brian M. Mills & Rodney Fort, 2023. "Performance Quality Preference Heterogeneity in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 24(3), pages 352-373, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Z20 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - General
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

    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:27:y:2026:i:6:p:655-681. 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.