Why are Americans Addicted to Baseball? An Empirical Analysis of Fandom in Korea and the U.S.

Theories of rational addiction posit that certain habit -forming goods "characterized by an increasing marginal utility of consumption "generate predictable dynamic patterns of consumer behavior. It has been suggested that attendance at sporting events represents an example of such a good, as evidenced by the pricing strategies of commercial sports interests. In this essay, we provide new evidence in support of rational addiction for the case of Major League Baseball, but fail to find such support in data from the Korean Professional Baseball League. We then review the scientific literature on sports fans from the perspective of human behavioral ecology and propose a theory of endogenous habit formation among sports fans that could explain our findings.Attendance Demand, Habit Formation, Baseball Addiction, Fan Psychology, Testosterone

A Test of the Optimal Positive Production Network Externality in Major League Baseball

Unlike most businesses, firms in a sports league need viable competitors. While a certain amount of domination is optimal, from an individual owners perspective, too much will result in league dissolution, and thus a lower utility for every owner. Hence, there is a limited positive production network externality. This paper examines the optimal level of the externality in professional baseball using data from each game of the 1996 MLB season. Both absolute and relative quality are important determinants of the demand for sports contests. In fact, fans prefer a game in which two high quality teams are competing, but the home team has approximately twice as good of a chance as the visiting team of winning.uncertainty of outcome; censored regression; cluster correlation; demand; baseball; network externality

Culture and other market demand variables: An exploration with professional baseball in the USA and Taiwan

Even though the consumer of spectator sports in the United States has many choices, professional baseball is still one of the most popular sports. In Taiwan, however, the spectator has little choice - baseball is the is the only professinal team sport.Unfortunately, there is very little research involving culture, other market demands, and baseball in America, and no research in Taiwan. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine culture and other market demands in relation to factors that influence spectator attendance at professional baseball games in the Taiwan Major League (TML) and in minor league baseball (MiLB) in the United States. The findings revealed that fans in MiLB and TML have some different attendance factors. Especially, they have the most differences in the following factors: offense of home team, offense on visiting team, defense of visiting team, official fan club member, special promotions, and going with family

Using Match Attractiveness Measures to Evaluate the Structure of the Currie Cup

Recent remarks in the media suggest that the Currie Cup competition, the premier rugby union competition in South Africa, is in need of a revamp. This is not a new inclination; the structure of the Currie Cup has had numerous alterations over the preceding two decades. But why has the Currie Cup suddenly lost its glamour? Existing measures of competitive balance used in the economics of sports literature are found to be unsatisfactory for rugby union competitions. Using a new measure of match attractiveness, this paper shows that the existing Currie Cup performs poorly compared to the top rugby union competitions across the world. 21 years of Currie Cup rugby are assessed to determine which structure yields the most attractive rugby. It is found that it is not the number of matches or the format of the competition that determines the “attractiveness”, but rather how many teams participate. A structure where only the five Super 14 franchises compete yields the most attractive outcomes. Yet, even a competition of “five plus one” will be relatively more attractive than most current rugby union competitions, while also contributing to broadening participation and representation in South African rugby. A format is proposed where the five Super 14 franchises and one team open to promotion/relegation compete. The existing Vodacom Cup excluding the five Super 14-unions can be used as qualification tournament for the sixth team. Promotion for the sixth team should be determined on the highest league log points at the end of the tournament (Vodacom Cup) and not in a play-off match.Economics of sport leagues, Competitive balance, Match attractiveness, Rugby union, Currie Cup

Dodgers and Giants move to the West : causes and effects : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

The history of baseball in the United States during the twentieth century in many ways mirrors the history of our nation in general. When the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants left New York for California in 1957, it had very interesting repercussions for New York. The vacancy left by these two storied baseball franchises only spurred on the reason why they left. Urban decay and an exodus of middle class baseball fans from the city, along with the increasing popularity of television, were the underlying causes of the Giants' and Dodgers' departure. In the end, especially in the case of Brooklyn, which was very attached to its team, these processes of urban decay and exodus were only sped up when professional baseball was no longer a uniting force in a very diverse area. New York's urban demographic could no longer support three baseball teams, and California was an excellent option for the Dodger and Giant owners. It offered large cities that were hungry for major league baseball, so hungry that they would meet the requirements that Giants' and Dodgers' owners Horace Stoneham and Walter O'Malley had asked for in New York. These included condemnation of land for new stadium sites and some city government subsidization for the Giants in actually building the stadium. Overall, this research shows the very real impact that sports has on its city and the impact a city has on its sports.Honors CollegeThesis (B.?.