How winning increases attendance

Source:http://sportsmockery.com

The economic principle I’m exploring is people generally respond to incentives in predictable ways.

 My research question to help me study the economic principle is, does the winning of an MLB team increase the amount of people who attend games?

 The article published in S.A.B.R titled “What Do Your Fans Want? Attendance Correlations with Performance, Ticket Prices, and Payroll Factors” demonstrates this economic principle because it shows how their is a correlation with teams winning and how that affects attendance.

 First, everyone loves a winning team. It is a basic principle that when the product is better, which is the MLB teams winning, more people are willing to buy (In this case tickets). Their are many examples of this constantly happening, but the team that represents this statement the most is the Cleveland Indians. According to the Society For American Baseball Research it states, “from 1973 to 2002, the Cleveland Indians had the most positive correlation between home fan attendance and winning percentage”. This means that when the Cleveland Indians were winning more games, more people on average showed up to the stadium. This is also present in other teams such as the Cincinnati Reds and St.Louis Cardinals. Winning gets fans excited to see the product on the field and when the product turns from bad to good people take notice.

 Second, teams that make the postseason regularly sell more tickets. On the MLB attendance scale, it shows the total and average attendance of every team from 2001-2018. Teams that regularly make the postseason such as the New York Yankees, St.Louis Cardinals and LA Dodgers are regularly featured at the top of the list. Winning will incentivize people to go to games and looking at the most consistent winning teams shows that. Their are some outliers such as the LA Angels and Chicago Cubs, who see constant high attendance despite having constant loosing seasons. The outliers are rare and the reason they are different is due to other factors such as good marketing and appeal.

 Third, to my surprise their are teams that show a negative or no correlation with winning and attendance. The Tampa Bay Rays have long been a basement dweller in attendance and it shows. Every year Tampa is nearly at the bottom of total and average attendance despite if they have been good or not. According the S.A.B.R, “from 2008 to 12 the Tampa Bay Rays have averaged 91.6 wins per season, made the playoffs three times, yet averaged nearly 9,500 fewer fans per home game than the major league average”. Tampa Bay is the only major outlier in this category. The reason their is no correlation with winning and a increase of attendance in Tampa Bay is due to many factors. Ever since the city moved to Tampa Bay they have been mediocre in attendance. The team doesn’t seem to resonate with its fan base and the city of Tampa. A failure in marketing could also be to blame, if you don’t market well to your audience no one is going to want to show up to games.