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Competitive Balance and Game Attendance in Major League Baseball
James W. Meehan, Jr.
Colby College
Randy A. Nelson
Colby College
Thomas V. Richardson
Colby College
This article tests for the effects of a change in competitive balance on attendance at Major League Baseball games using game-level attendance data for the 2000-2002 seasons. Employing the difference between the winning percentages of the home and visiting teams as a measure of competitive balance, the authors find (a) the effects of a change in competitive balance on attendance are not symmetric, (b) the effects of a change in competitive balance increase as a team falls further behind the divisional leader, and (c) the effects of a change in competitive balance decline throughout the season if the home team has a better record than the visiting team but increase if the home team has a worse record than the visiting team.
Key Words: competitive balance • attendance • Major League Baseball
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This version was published on December
1, 2007
Journal of Sports Economics, Vol. 8, No. 6,
563-580 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1527002506296545
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[Abstract]
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