Competitive Intensity, Fans' Expectations, and Match-Day Tickets Sold in the Italian Football Serie A, 2012-2015. (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bond, Alexander John; Addesa, Francesco
• Is Part Of: Journal of sports economics. Volume 21:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 20
• Page End: 43
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: competitive balance -- competitive intensity -- league-standing effect -- demand -- Serie A; Sports -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Sports administration -- Periodicals; 338.47796
• DOI: 10.1177/1527002519864617
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1527-0025

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of the competitive intensity (CI) on the stadium attendance for Italian soccer in three Serie A seasons (2012-13 to 2014-15). The central element of novelty concerning the existing literature is that fans expectations are also included among the explanatory variables of the Tobit model. Our results show that CI has a significant impact on match-day attendance in relation to all the sporting prizes but Europa League qualification. Moreover, we find evidence supporting the existence of reference-dependent preferences, where the attendance increases when the home team rank is higher than the preseason expectations.