IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/10303.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Game Information, Local Heroes, And Their Effect On Attendance: The Case Of The Japanese Baseball League

Author

Listed:
  • yamamura, eiji

Abstract

Can professional sports teams develop their fan base and increase attendance by using players from their same hometown? In the Japanese Professional Baseball League, the starting pitcher is announced prior to the game in the Pacific League but not in the Central League. Considering characteristics of starting pitchers such as their hometown and salary, and comparing the Pacific and the Central League, I attempt to investigate how and to what extent the release of information concerning a starting pitcher prior to the game affects attendance. My major findings are as follows: (1) In the Pacific League, the salary of the home team’s starting pitcher is positively related to attendance, while that of the visiting team is not. (2) In the Central League, neither the salary of the home team’s starting pitcher nor that of the visiting team’s affect attendance. (3) In the case of the Pacific League, the positive effect of salary on attendance increases when the home team’s starting pitcher is from the same hometown.

Suggested Citation

  • yamamura, eiji, 2008. "Game Information, Local Heroes, And Their Effect On Attendance: The Case Of The Japanese Baseball League," MPRA Paper 10303, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:10303
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10303/1/MPRA_paper_10303.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Andersen, Torben & La Croix, Sumner J, 1991. "Customer Racial Discrimination in Major League Baseball," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(4), pages 665-677, October.
    3. Becker, Gary S., 1971. "The Economics of Discrimination," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226041162.
    4. Martin B. Schmidt & David J. Berri, 2001. "Competitive Balance and Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(2), pages 145-167, May.
    5. La Croix, Sumner J & Kawaura, Akihiko, 1999. "Rule Changes and Competitive Balance in Japanese Professional Baseball," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(2), pages 353-368, April.
    6. Hoang, Ha & Rascher, Dan, 1999. "The NBA, Exit Discrimination, and Career Earnings," MPRA Paper 3542, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Yamamura, Eiji & Shin, Inyong, 2008. "The influence of a leader and social interaction on attendance: The case of the Japanese professional baseball league, 1952-2003," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1412-1426, August.
    8. Martin B. Schmidt & David J. Berri, 2004. "The Impact of Labor Strikes on Consumer Demand: An Application to Professional Sports," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 344-357, March.
    9. 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.
    10. Eckard, E Woodrow, 2001. "Free Agency, Competitive Balance, and Diminishing Returns to Pennant Contention," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(3), pages 430-443, July.
    11. 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.
    12. Clark Nardinelli & Curtis Simon, 1990. "Customer Racial Discrimination in the Market for Memorabilia: The Case of Baseball," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(3), pages 575-595.
    13. Gwartney, James & Haworth, Charles, 1974. "Employer Costs and Discrimination: The Case of Baseball," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(4), pages 873-881, July/Aug..
    14. 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.
    15. Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "The Economics of Superstars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 845-858, December.
    16. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
    17. Martin Schmidt & David Berri, 2002. "The impact of the 1981 and 1994-1995 strikes on Major League Baseball attendance: a time-series analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 471-478.
    18. Eiji Yamamura & Inyong Shin, 2009. "Convergence, clustering and their effects on attendance in the Japan Professional Baseball League," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(25), pages 3257-3265.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Lewis & Yeujun Yoon, 2018. "An Empirical Examination of the Development and Impact of Star Power in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(2), pages 155-187, February.
    2. Gregory A. Falls & Paul A. Natke, 2014. "College football attendance: a panel study of the Football Bowl Subdivision," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(10), pages 1093-1107, April.
    3. Hayley Jang & Young Hoon Lee, 2016. "A Business Analysis of Asian Baseball Leagues," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 11(1), pages 95-112, January.
    4. Yamamura, Eiji, 2012. "Effect of the Fukushima accident on saving electricity: The case of the Japanese Professional Baseball League," MPRA Paper 42674, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Eiji Yamamura, 2017. "Identity, nostalgia and happiness among migrants: The case of the KÅ shien High School Baseball Tournament in Japan," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 792-813, December.
    6. Ira Horowitz & Jim Lackritz, 2012. "Jolting Joe and Charlie Hustle: The Immediate Economic Impact of an Extended Hitting Streak," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 57(1), pages 42-49, May.
    7. George Wills & Francesco Addesa & Richard Tacon, 2023. "Stadium attendance demand in the men’s UEFA Champions League: Do fans value sporting contest or match quality?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(2), pages 1-22, February.

    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. 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.
    2. Young Lee & Rodney Fort, 2008. "Attendance and the Uncertainty-of-Outcome Hypothesis in Baseball," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 33(4), pages 281-295, December.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Young Hoon Lee, 2009. "The Impact of Postseason Restructuring on the Competitive Balance and Fan Demand in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(3), pages 219-235, June.
    6. R. Alan Bowman & James Lambrinos & Thomas Ashman, 2013. "Competitive Balance in the Eyes of the Sports Fan," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(5), pages 498-520, October.
    7. Roberto Pedace, 2008. "Earnings, Performance, and Nationality Discrimination in a Highly Competitive Labor Market as An Analysis of the English Professional Soccer League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(2), pages 115-140, April.
    8. Rosen, Sherwin & Sanderson, Allen, 2001. "Labour Markets in Professional Sports," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(469), pages 47-68, February.
    9. Allen R. Sanderson & John J. Siegfried, 2003. "Thinking about Competitive Balance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(4), pages 255-279, November.
    10. Thomas H. Bruggink, 1993. "National Pastime to Dismal Science: Using Baseball to Illustrate Economic Principles," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 19(3), pages 275-294, Summer.
    11. Tony Caporale & Trevor Collier, 2015. "Are We Getting Better or Are They Getting Worse? Draft Position, Strength of Schedule, and Competitive Balance in the National Football League," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 291-300, September.
    12. Dennis Coates & Thane Harrison, 2005. "Baseball Strikes and the Demand for Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 6(3), pages 282-302, August.
    13. Andrew Larsen & Aju J. Fenn & Erin Leanne Spenner, 2006. "The Impact of Free Agency and the Salary Cap on Competitive Balance in the National Football League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(4), pages 374-390, November.
    14. Klaassen, F.J.G.M. & Magnus, J.R., 2006. "Are Economic Agents Successful Optimizers? An Analysis Through Strategy in Tennis," Other publications TiSEM 73e12d86-8fe4-4a87-9181-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Young Hoon Lee & Yongdai Kim & Sara Kim, 2018. "Unbiased Estimation of Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues with Unbalanced Schedules," Working Papers 1801, Nam Duck-Woo Economic Research Institute, Sogang University (Former Research Institute for Market Economy).
    16. Majid Ahmadi & Gwen-Jiro Clochard & Jeff Lachman & John List, 2025. "Toward an Understanding of Discrimination When Multiple Channels Exist," Framed Field Experiments 00802, The Field Experiments Website.
    17. Cornaglia, Francesca & Feldman, Naomi E., 2011. "Productivity, Wages, and Marriage: The Case of Major League Baseball," IZA Discussion Papers 5695, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. James W. Meehan Jr. & Randy A. Nelson & Thomas V. Richardson, 2007. "Competitive Balance and Game Attendance in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 8(6), pages 563-580, December.
    19. David J. Berri & Martin B. Schmidt, 2006. "On the Road With the National Basketball Association's Superstar Externality," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(4), pages 347-358, November.
    20. Jeffrey Cisyk & Pascal Courty, 2017. "Do Fans Care About Compliance to Doping Regulations in Sports? The Impact of PED Suspension in Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(4), pages 323-350, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    GAME INFORMATION; SOCIAL NETWORK; BASEBALL;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:10303. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.