IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apeclt/v22y2015i7p563-566.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fan substitution between North American professional sports leagues

Author

Listed:
  • Brian M. Mills
  • Jason A. Winfree
  • Mark S. Rosentraub
  • Ekaterina Sorokina

Abstract

We use Canada-to-US border crossing data to estimate market penetration and fan substitution across sports leagues. We find that passenger car crossings into the US increase by more than 2000 when the National Football League's Buffalo Bills are playing a home game just across the border. This accounts for as much as 5% to 8% of Bills home attendance. Additionally, we find evidence of price competition, but not quality competition, between the Bills and Toronto-based teams in the three other major North American pro sports leagues. Given the exclusive market rights and antitrust privilege extended to professional sport in North America, these findings have important implications with respect to competition policies as they apply to major sports leagues.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:22:y:2015:i:7:p:563-566
    DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2014.957437
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13504851.2014.957437
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13504851.2014.957437?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Rodney Fort, 2004. "Inelastic sports pricing," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 87-94.
    3. Terry Robinson, 2012. "Dyed in the wool? An empirical note on fan loyalty," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(8), pages 979-985, March.
    4. 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.
    5. Kevin E. Henrickson, 2012. "Spatial Competition And Strategic Firm Relocation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(2), pages 364-379, April.
    6. Seth R. Gitter & Thomas A. Rhoads, 2010. "Determinants of Minor League Baseball Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(6), pages 614-628, December.
    7. Brian M. Mills & Mark S. Rosentraub, 2014. "The National Hockey League and Cross-Border Fandom," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 15(5), pages 497-518, October.
    8. 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.
    9. Jason Winfree, 2009. "Owners incentives during the 2004-05 National Hockey League lockout," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(25), pages 3275-3285.
    10. Jason A. Winfree & Rodney Fort, 2008. "Fan Substitution and the 2004-05 NHL Lockout," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(4), pages 425-434, August.
    11. Anthony C. Krautmann & David J. Berri, 2007. "Can We Find It at the Concessions? Understanding Price Elasticity in Professional Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 8(2), pages 183-191, May.
    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. Oliver Budzinski, 2011. "The Institutional Framework for Doing Sports Business: Principles of EU Competition Policy in Sports Markets," Working Papers 108/11, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Sociology, Environmental and Business Economics.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Brian M. Mills & Michael Mondello & Scott Tainsky, 2016. "Competition in shared markets and Major League Baseball broadcast viewership," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(32), pages 3020-3032, July.
    6. Lahvicka, Jiri, 2010. "Attendance of ice hockey matches in the Czech Extraliga," MPRA Paper 27653, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Brian M. Mills & Michael Mondello & Scott Tainsky, 2016. "Competition in shared markets and Major League Baseball broadcast viewership," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(32), pages 3020-3032, July.
    4. 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.
    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. 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.
    7. Mark Foley & Fred Smith, 2013. "The Rise (and Fall) of the Arena Football League," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 41(4), pages 439-450, December.
    8. Brian M. Mills & Mark S. Rosentraub, 2014. "The National Hockey League and Cross-Border Fandom," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 15(5), pages 497-518, October.
    9. Mongeon, Kevin & Winfree, Jason, 2012. "Cross-ownership, league policies and player investment across sports leagues," MPRA Paper 39218, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Kevin Mongeon & Jason Winfree, 2012. "Comparison of television and gate demand in the National Basketball Association," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 72-79, January.
    11. Trenton Smith & Young H. Lee, 2006. "Why are Americans Addicted to Baseball? An Empirical Analysis of Fandom in Korea and the U.S," Working Papers 2006-05, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University.
    12. Roger G. Noll, 2013. "Endogeneity in attendance demand models," Chapters, in: Plácido Rodríguez & Stefan Késenne & Jaume García (ed.), The Econometrics of Sport, chapter 7, pages 117-134, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Young Hoon Lee, 2013. "Estimation of temporal variations in fan loyalty: application of multi-factor models," Chapters, in: Plácido Rodríguez & Stefan Késenne & Jaume García (ed.), The Econometrics of Sport, chapter 8, pages 135-153, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Xin Meng & Zilin Tang & Leonard F. S. Wang, 2023. "Sport tickets pricing strategy with home team's crowd effect," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 839-847, March.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Nola Agha & Thomas Rhoads, 2016. "The League Standing Effect: The Case of a Split Season in Minor League Baseball," Working Papers 2016-13, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2016.
    19. Andersen, Per & Nielsen, Martin, 2013. "Inelastic sports pricing and risk," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 262-264.
    20. Mark A. Diehl & Joel G. Maxcy & Joris Drayer, 2015. "Price Elasticity of Demand in the Secondary Market," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(6), pages 557-575, August.

    More about this item

    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:taf:apeclt:v:22:y:2015:i:7:p:563-566. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEL20 .

    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.