Impacts of the Great Recession on sport: evidence from English Football League attendance demand

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates the impact of the 2007–9 Great Recession on attendance demand in the English Football League. We identify causal effects of variations in local unemployment rates on club matchday attendances using a difference-in-difference methodology applied to specific treatment and control group clubs categorized according to severity of local unemployment increase during the recession period. We find that treatment clubs in Tiers 3 and 4 suffered an attendance reduction of 10.5% purely through rising unemployment in local Travel to Work Areas containing clubs’ stadia after controlling for a large set of confounding influences. Smaller but still significant effects are found in alternative specifications, including the incorporation of Tier 2 clubs into the analysis.