Top Prospects and Minor League Baseball Attendance

Seth Gitter () and Thomas Rhoads

Journal of Sports Economics, 2011, vol. 12, issue 3, 341-351

Abstract: Minor League Baseball attracts over 40 million fans a year. One potentially important attendance draw is the ability for a fan to see a future major league baseball star. Each year Baseball America, a leading industry publication, ranks 100 top prospects that have yet to play substantially in the major leagues. Many of these top prospects continue to develop for a year or more in the minor leagues, which gives fans an opportunity to see potential future Major League Baseball (MLB) stars at their local minor league club. The authors use a data set encompassing all AA and AAA minor league baseball teams from 1992 to 2009 to estimate the impact of having a top 100 Baseball America prospect on a minor league team’s attendance. Their results suggest that only those prospects ranked in the top 5 and at the highest level (AAA) have an impact on their team’s attendance and their impact on attendance is small.

Keywords: minor league baseball; attendance; top prospects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jospec:v:12:y:2011:i:3:p:341-351

DOI: 10.1177/1527002511404780

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