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Competition format, championship uncertainty and stadium attendance in European football - a small league perspective

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  • Tim Pawlowski
  • Georgios Nalbantis

Abstract

To increase the number of regular season games, small football leagues are often organized as quadruple round robin tournaments with teams playing each other four times. Theoretically , however, the more games played, the less uncertain is the championship race, reducing fan interest in the league. This article uses data from Austria and Switzerland to study the relationship between competition format, championship uncertainty and attendance demand empirically . Results suggest that a team still in contention to win the championship positively affects attendance, while it is not the specificity of the competition format that per se contributes to less championship uncertainty.

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  • Tim Pawlowski & Georgios Nalbantis, 2015. "Competition format, championship uncertainty and stadium attendance in European football - a small league perspective," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(38), pages 4128-4139, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:47:y:2015:i:38:p:4128-4139
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1023949
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    Cited by:

    1. Dominik Schreyer, 2019. "Football spectator no-show behaviour in the German Bundesliga," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(45), pages 4882-4901, September.
    2. Selçuk Özaydın, 2018. "Modelling the European Football Demand for the 2014/2015 Season," Yildiz Social Science Review, Yildiz Technical University, vol. 4(1), pages 39-52.
    3. Farai Jena & Barry Reilly, 2022. "Are spectator preferences weaker for cup compared to league competitions? Evidence from Irish soccer," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(9), pages 835-841, May.
    4. Scelles, Nicolas (Сели, Николя) & Duran, Christophe (Дюра, Кристоф) & Bonnal, Liliane (Бонналь, Лилиан) & Goyeau, Daniel (Гойюс, Даниэль) & Andreff, Wladimir (Андрефф, Владимир), 2016. "Do all sporting prizes have a significant positive impact on attendance in a European national football league? Competitive intensity in the French Ligue 1 [Действительно Ли Все Спортивные Призы Ок," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 3, pages 82-107, June.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Dominik Schreyer & Sascha L. Schmidt & Benno Torgler, 2019. "Football Spectator No-Show Behavior," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(4), pages 580-602, May.
    9. Jan C. van Ours & Martin van Tuijl, 2024. "Incentives matter sometimes: On the differences between league and Cup football matches," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 24-044/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    10. Di Mattia, Alessandro & Krumer, Alex, 2023. "Fewer teams, more games, larger attendance? Evidence from the structural change in basketball's EuroLeague," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(1), pages 359-370.
    11. Thadeu Gasparetto & Angel Barajas, 2020. "Management in a complex scenario: World Cup, alternative stadiums and demand for tickets," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(6), pages 1071-1083, September.
    12. 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.
    13. Petr A. Parshakov & Kseniya O. Baydina, 2017. "Brands or Uncertainty? An Empirical Test of the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis in Russian Football," HSE Working papers WP BRP 163/EC/2017, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    14. Balogh, Renátó & Bácsné Bába, Éva, 2023. "Miért üresek a labdarúgó-stadionok lelátói? A sportfogyasztástól való tartózkodási skála adaptációja [Why are football stadiums empty? Adaptation of the Constraints on Sport Consumption Scale]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(6), pages 690-708.
    15. John Considine & Liam Gallagher, 2018. "Competitive balance in a quasi-double knockout tournament," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(18), pages 2048-2055, April.
    16. Christian Gjersing Nielsen & Rasmus K. Storm & Tor Georg Jakobsen, 2019. "The impact of English Premier League broadcasts on Danish spectator demand: a small league perspective," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 89(6), pages 633-653, August.
    17. Thadeu Gasparetto & Dmitry Mishchenko & Egor Zaitsev, 2023. "Factors influencing competitive balance across European football top tier leagues," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 2068-2078, June.
    18. J. James Reade & Dominik Schreyer & Carl Singleton, 2021. "Stadium attendance demand during the COVID-19 crisis: early empirical evidence from Belarus," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(18), pages 1542-1547, October.
    19. Dominik Schreyer & Benno Torgler, 2021. "Football spectator no-show behavior in Switzerland: Empirical evidence from season ticket holder behavior," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-06, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    20. BALOGH Renátó & BÁCSNÉ BÁBA Éva, 2020. "Analysis Of Consumer Market In Central European Football," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 325-335, July.

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