Do Fans Care About Compliance to Doping Regulations in Sports? The Impact of PED Suspension in Baseball. (May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cisyk, Jeffrey; Courty, Pascal
• Is Part Of: Journal of sports economics. Volume 18:Number 4(2017:Aug.)
• Page Start: 323
• Page End: 350
• Publication Date: 2017-05
• Subjects: performance-enhancing drug -- doping -- baseball -- major baseball league -- attendance; Sports -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Sports administration -- Periodicals; 338.47796
• DOI: 10.1177/1527002515587441
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1527-0025

Abstract

There is little evidence in support of the main economic rationale for regulating athletic doping that doping reduces fan interest. The introduction of random testing for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) by Major League Baseball (MLB) offers unique data to investigate the issue. The announcement of a PED violation (a) initially reduces home-game attendance by 8%, (b) has no impact on home-game attendance after 15 days, and (c) has a small negative impact on the game attendance for other MLB teams. This is the first systematic evidence that doping decreases consumer demand for sporting events.