IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tow/wpaper/2010-06.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Stadium Construction and Minor League Baseball Attendance

Author

Listed:
  • Seth R. Gitter

    (Department of Economics, Towson University)

  • Thomas Rhoads

    (Department of Economics, Towson University)

Abstract

The established literature shows that new stadium construction for major league baseball (MLB) teams can increase attendance, but there are limited studies at the minor league level. We use a data set encompassing all A, AA, and AAA minor league baseball teams from 1992 to 2006 to estimate the impact of stadium construction on minor league attendance. This data set includes almost 200 teams, over half of which constructed a new stadium during the 15-year observation period. Over a ten year period our results show that new stadiums increase attendance by 1.2 million fans at the AAA level, 0.4 million at the AA and high A level, and 0.2 million at short season low A. Additionally, we find evidence that minor and major league baseball are potentially substitutes as increased ticket prices for the nearest MLB team lead to higher minor league attendance. However, a new stadium for local MLB teams does not seem to negatively impact minor league attendance.

Suggested Citation

  • Seth R. Gitter & Thomas Rhoads, 2010. "Stadium Construction and Minor League Baseball Attendance," Working Papers 2010-06, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:tow:wpaper:2010-06
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://webapps.towson.edu/cbe/economics/workingpapers/2010-06.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2010
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 2005. "Novelty Effects Of New Facilities On Attendance At Professional Sporting Events," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(3), pages 436-455, July.
    2. Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 2008. "Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Subsidies for Sports Franchises, Stadiums, and Mega-Events?," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 5(3), pages 294-315, September.
    3. AC. Krautmann & E. Gustafson & L. Hadley, 2000. "Who pays for minor league training costs?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(1), pages 37-47, January.
    4. Peter A. Groothuis & Bruce K. Johnson & John C. Whitehead, 2004. "Public Funding of Professional Sports Stadiums: Public Choice or Civic Pride?," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 30(4), pages 515-526, Fall.
    5. John J. Siegfried & Andrew Zimbalist, 2000. "The Economics of Sports Facilities and Their Communities," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 95-114, Summer.
    6. Lorna Gifis & Paul Sommers, 2006. "Promotions and Attendance in Minor League Baseball," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 34(4), pages 513-514, December.
    7. Michael Davis, 2007. "Income and the Locations of AAA Minor League Baseball Teams," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 35(3), pages 371-372, September.
    8. Christopher M. Clapp & Jahn K. Hakes, 2005. "How Long a Honeymoon? The Effect of New Stadiums on Attendance in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 6(3), pages 237-263, August.
    9. Bruce K. Johnson & Peter A. Groothuis & John C. Whitehead, 2001. "The Value of Public Goods Generated by a Major League Sports Team," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(1), pages 6-21, February.
    10. BK. Johnson & JC. Whitehead, 2000. "Value of public goods from sports stadiums: the CVM approach," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(1), pages 48-58, January.
    11. Seth R. Gitter & Thomas A. Rhoads, 2010. "Determinants of Minor League Baseball Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(6), pages 614-628, December.
    12. Nola Agha, 2013. "The Economic Impact of Stadiums and Teams," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(3), pages 227-252, June.
    13. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The Honey Moon is Over in Lancaster
      by Seth Gitter in the blog of diminishing returns on 2010-06-24 19:04:00
    2. Why Sports and Sports Economics Matter
      by Seth Gitter in The Blog of Diminishing Returns on 2012-06-20 00:08:00
    3. Hagerstown Stadium Construction
      by Seth Gitter in The Blog of Diminishing Returns on 2012-08-07 18:38:00
    4. How Academic Publishing is like a Football Drive
      by Seth Gitter in The Blog of Diminishing Returns on 2012-09-12 18:40:00

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Stefan Szymanski, 2023. "Anticipating the honeymoon: Event study estimation of new stadium effects in Major League Baseball using the imputation method," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 1077-1102, October.
    2. Agha, Nola & Rascher, Daniel, 2013. "When can economic impact be positive? Nine conditions that explain why smaller sports can have bigger impacts," MPRA Paper 48016, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. 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.
    4. Brian P Soebbing & Daniel S Mason & Brad R Humphreys, 2016. "Novelty effects and sports facilities in smaller cities: Evidence from Canadian hockey arenas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(8), pages 1674-1690, June.
    5. Budzinski, Oliver & Feddersen, Arne, 2015. "Grundlagen der Sportnachfrage: Theorie und Empirie der Einflussfaktoren auf die Zuschauernachfrage," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 94, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    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.

    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. Brian P Soebbing & Daniel S Mason & Brad R Humphreys, 2016. "Novelty effects and sports facilities in smaller cities: Evidence from Canadian hockey arenas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(8), pages 1674-1690, June.
    2. Peter A. Groothuis & Kurt W. Rotthoff, 2016. "The Economic Impact and Civic Pride Effects of Sports Teams and Mega-Events: Do The Public and the Professionals Agree?," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 21-32, February.
    3. 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.
    4. Krystian Zawadzki, 2015. "Estimation Of The Willingness-To-Pay For Preserving The Football Arena In Gdansk," "e-Finanse", University of Information Technology and Management, Institute of Financial Research and Analysis, vol. 11(1), pages 44-55, August.
    5. 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.
    6. Robert W. Baumann & Victor A. Matheson & Chihiro Muroi, 2009. "Bowling in Hawaii," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(1), pages 107-123, February.
    7. Christina Fischer & Rüdiger Hamm, 2019. "Football clubs and regional image [Fußballvereine und regionales Image]," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 39(1), pages 1-23, February.
    8. Agha, Nola & Rascher, Daniel, 2013. "When can economic impact be positive? Nine conditions that explain why smaller sports can have bigger impacts," MPRA Paper 48016, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Tyler Anthony & Tim Kahn & Briana Madison & Rodney Paul & Andrew Weinbach, 2014. "Similarities in fan preferences for minor-league baseball across the American Southeast," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 38(1), pages 150-163, January.
    10. Kim, Woosoon & Walker, Matthew, 2012. "Measuring the social impacts associated with Super Bowl XLIII: Preliminary development of a psychic income scale," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 91-108.
    11. Robert W. Wassmer & Ryan S. Ong & Geoffrey Propheter, 2016. "Suggestions for the Needed Standardization of Determining the Local Economic Impact of Professional Sports," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 30(3), pages 252-266, August.
    12. Bruce K. Johnson & John C. Whitehead & Daniel S. Mason & Gordon J. Walker, 2012. "Willingness to Pay for Downtown Public Goods Generated by Large, Sports-Anchored Development Projects: The CVM Approach," Working Papers 12-01, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    13. 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.
    14. Bruce K. Johnson & Michael J. Mondello & John C. Whitehead, 2006. "Contingent Valuation of Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(3), pages 267-288, August.
    15. David E. Kalist & Daniel Y. Lee, 2016. "The National Football League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(8), pages 863-882, December.
    16. Roberto Gásquez & Vicente Royuela, 2014. "Is Football an Indicator of Development at the International Level?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 827-848, July.
    17. Bruce K. Johnson & Michael J. Mondello & John C. Whitehead, 2005. "What is the Value of Public Goods Generated by a National Football League Team: A CVM Approach," Working Papers 05-10, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    18. Stefan Szymanski, 2023. "Anticipating the honeymoon: Event study estimation of new stadium effects in Major League Baseball using the imputation method," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 1077-1102, October.
    19. Robert Baumann & Victor Matheson & Chihiro Muroi, 2008. "Bowling in Hawaii: Examining the Effectiveness of Sports-Based Tourism Strategies," Working Papers 0808, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    20. Daniel Weimar & Markus Schauberger, 2018. "The impact of sporting success on student enrollment," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(6), pages 731-764, August.

    More about this item

    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:tow:wpaper:2010-06. 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: Juergen Jung (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/detowus.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.