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Our Fans in the North: The Demand for British Rugby League

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Abstract

This paper reports the results of estimating a single equation model of an attendance function for British Rugby League over the seasons 1982/83 to 1990/91. The data are panel data covering virtually every team which played in the two division league over the nine year time period. Diagnostic tests indicate that the appropriate model is a semi-log random effects model, where the dependent variable is league attendance weighted by population. The major results are as follows: there are significant positive relationships between league attendance and various measure of team success (although the direction of causality is moot), team quality (as proxied by the two divisions) and the economic quality of team location (as proxied by the unemployment rate); but there is no discernible relationship between league attendance and either success in non-league trophy competitions or measures of exceptional player quality.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Colin H. Jones & John A. Schofield & David E.A. Giles, 1999. "Our Fans in the North: The Demand for British Rugby League," Econometrics Working Papers 9902, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    • Handle: RePEc:vic:vicewp:9902
    Note: ISSN 1485-6441
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    Cited by:

    1. Young Hoon Lee & Rodney Fort, 2012. "Competitive Balance: Time Series Lessons from the E nglish P remier L eague," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 59(3), pages 266-282, July.
    2. Don Webber & Andrew Mearman, 2009. "Student participation in sporting activities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(9), pages 1183-1190.
    3. Brian M. Mills & Rodney Fort, 2018. "Team-Level Time Series Analysis in MLB, the NBA, and the NHL," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(7), pages 911-933, October.
    4. Julian Blackham & Bruce Chapman, 2004. "The Value Of Don Bradman: Additional Revenue In Australian Ashes Tests," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 23(4), pages 369-385, December.
    5. 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.
    6. Saumik Paul & Ronita Mitra, 2008. "How predictable are the FIFA worldcup football outcomes? An empirical analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(15), pages 1171-1176.
    7. Liam J. A. Lenten, 2009. "Unobserved Components in Competitive Balance and Match Attendances in the Australian Football League, 1945–2005: Where is all the Action Happening?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 85(269), pages 181-196, June.
    8. Dirk Semmelroth & Bernd Frick & Robert Simmons & Hojun Sung, 2022. "Where to Go Next? Examining the Effect of Franchise Expansion and Location on Game-Level Attendance in Major League Soccer," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(5), pages 524-547, June.
    9. Regina Madalozzo & Rodrigo Berber Villar, 2009. "Brazilian Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(6), pages 639-650, December.
    10. Markus Breuer, 2009. "The demand for football tickets depending on the number of clubs in a city – Empirical evidence from Germany –," Working Papers 2009.5, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    11. Guillermo Villa & Isabel Molina & Roland Fried, 2011. "Modeling attendance at Spanish professional football league," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(6), pages 1189-1206, April.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Jaume García & Plácido Rodríguez, 2002. "The Determinants of Football Match Attendance Revisited," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(1), pages 18-38, February.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Paresh Kumar Narayan & Russell Smyth, 2004. "The Race that Stops a Nation: The Demand for the Melbourne Cup," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 80(249), pages 193-207, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sport; rugby league; panel data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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