The impact of winter Olympic games participation on NHL attendance

Rodrigo Schneider, Peter Allmen () and Garrett Munck ()
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Peter Allmen: Skidmore College
Garrett Munck: Skidmore College

Economics of Governance, 2022, vol. 23, issue 3, No 4, 253-270

Abstract: Abstract The Winter Olympics occur once every four years during the first few weeks of February, which is in the middle of the National Hockey League (NHL) regular season. Prior to 1998, the International Olympic Committee prohibited participation by professional athletes. Beginning in that year, the governing body changed the policy to explicitly permit professionals to participate. For the next 20 years, the NHL allowed players to represent their country by participating, in part based on the hope that it would increase demand for the sport. In 2017, the league reversed this decision citing fatigue and significant disruption to the regular season. Previous policy analysis has focused on post-Olympics team performance effects of player participation. To our knowledge, no previous studies have considered the effects on demand for NHL games. Controlling for a variety of other possible factors, we study the effects of the Olympics on game-level attendance. We find that having players on the team roster who participated in the Games does increase attendance in the short run. Thus, it is possible that the original policy shift by the IOC was correct as the benefits to Olympic participation may outweigh the costs.

Keywords: NHL; Olympics; Attendance; Demand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s10101-022-00264-3

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