Football attendance over the centuries

J Reade

Chapter 3 in A Modern Guide to Sports Economics, 2021, pp 21-43 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The demand for any good is of central importance, and the demand for professional sport is no different. What is unique when it comes to professional football is the length of time over which the numbers of people expressing a willingness to pay exist. For the English Football League - the oldest professional football league in the world, and operating in England and Wales - attendance data has been recorded since the league began in 1888. Since then 135 different clubs have participated in the league, providing a vast amount of data over three centuries. Data on match outcomes back to 1888 also exists, allowing analysis of determinants of attendance over a very long period of time. In this chapter, we analyse attendance at English Football League matches over three centuries, employing panel time series methods in order to determine the extent to which patterns of attendance have changed over the years, and have varied from club to club. Of particular interest is what we might attempt to identify as habit persistence. Have football fans become more or less persistent in their attendance patterns over the years? Do fans differ between clubs, and across regions? These kinds of questions regarding the persistence of football spectator behaviour are naturally important for the financial viability of football.

Keywords: Economics and Finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Working Paper: Football Attendance Over the Centuries (2020)
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