Baseball Strikes and the Demand for Attendance

Abstract

Determinants of attendance at major league baseball games has been a question of some interest as a result of the recent labor unrest in the sport. This article estimates the demand for attendance using a panel data set covering the years 1969 through 1996 and all the teams based in the United States. The analysis finds that even lockouts and strikes that do not result in lost games have significant effects on average attendance, unlike results in the literature. In addition, the results of the major strikes are found to be much smaller than some of those reported in the literature. Finally, using instrumental variables techniques to account for measurement error and endogeneity in the price variable, attendance demand was found to be price inelastic, regardless of how the basic ticket price variable was computed.