Were Major League Baseball Doubleheaders a Mistake?

Stephen Layson () and M. Taylor Rhodes ()
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Stephen Layson: University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics
M. Taylor Rhodes: University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics

No 11-5, Working Papers from University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper uses daily Major League Baseball (MLB) data from 1938 to 2009 as well annual MLB data from 1920 to 2009 to estimate the effects of doubleheaders on attendance. The annual data over various sub-samples from 1920-2009 indicate that the number of doubleheaders have either a negative or an insignificant effect on annual attendance. The daily data from 1938-2009 show that doubleheaders have a very positive effect on attendance on the day of the doubleheaders but that this is substantially offset by reduced attendance at single games 3 days surrounding doubleheaders. This leads us to question the widespread use of doubleheaders.

Keywords: sports; attendance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 L83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo
Date: 2011-02-04
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:uncgec:2011_005

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