Competitive Balance and Match Attendance in European Rugby Union Leagues

Patrick Massey (), Shane Massey and Vincent Hogan ()

No 201226, Working Papers from School of Economics, University College Dublin

Abstract: The paper analyses the impact of the relatively belated move to professionalism in Rugby Union. We use data on match attendance for 3,667 fixtures in European club Rugby over 15 seasons to estimate the effect of competitive balance on attendance. We find that (short- and medium-term) competitive balance has a large and statistically significant effect. However, this effect is smaller in magnitude than the effect brought about by the other aspects of the fixture with the strength of the home team being the single most important influence on attendances.

Keywords: Professional team sports; Competitive balance; League structures; Revenue sharing; Salary caps; Consumer demand; Rugby Union football--Economic aspects; Professionalism in sports--Economic aspects; Rugby Union football matches--Statistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo
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http://hdl.handle.net/10197/3885 First version, 2012 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Competitive Balance and Match Attendance in European Rugby Union Leagues (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201226

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