Modelling the European Football Demand for the 2014/2015 Season

Year 2018, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 39 - 52, 31.05.2018

Mustafa Selçuk Özaydın

Abstract

dentifying the influential factors on the demand for spectating sports has been a
major area of interest for numerous scholars in recent years. The rapid growth of the sports
industry in last decades has converted the clubs to firms, players to inputs and fans to
customers; hence as in any sector in the absence of customers there is no point of operating
the firms. Millions of people are watching the major European league games live, every week
from China to Brazil. In Europe, English Premier League and German Bundesliga are the
most successful in terms of attracting the crowds to the stands, whereas France and Italian
leagues are failing to do so. This paper tries to identify the influential factors on the demand
for football in the top five major European leagues- English, German, Spanish, French and
Italian- utilizing the tools of econometrics. Once influential factors are identified they can be
used to increase the attendance levels which would enable the sustainability of the football
industry in Europe and that is the main motivation behind this paper. The industry will stand
if and only if fans keep on paying to watch and support their teams. This study reveals that,
listed in the order of descending importance, the ticket prices as ratio of average annual
personal income, ratio of licensed football players in a country to its population, the level of
competition in the league, the number of points gathered by home team, being promoted to
the top division and the number of televised games every week are influential factors on the
demand for football. 

Keywords

Football Attendance, Demand for Football, La Liga, Premier League, Bundesliga 1, Serie A, Ligue 1

Modelling the European Football Demand for the 2014/2015 Season

Abstract

Identifying the influential factors on the demand for spectating sports has been a
major area of interest for numerous scholars in recent years. The rapid growth of the sports
industry in last decades has converted the clubs to firms, players to inputs and fans to
customers; hence as in any sector in the absence of customers there is no point of operating
the firms. Millions of people are watching the major European league games live, every week
from China to Brazil. In Europe, English Premier League and German Bundesliga are the
most successful in terms of attracting the crowds to the stands, whereas France and Italian
leagues are failing to do so. This paper tries to identify the influential factors on the demand
for football in the top five major European leagues- English, German, Spanish, French and
Italian- utilizing the tools of econometrics. Once influential factors are identified they can be
used to increase the attendance levels which would enable the sustainability of the football
industry in Europe and that is the main motivation behind this paper. The industry will stand
if and only if fans keep on paying to watch and support their teams. This study reveals that,
listed in the order of descending importance, the ticket prices as ratio of average annual
personal income, ratio of licensed football players in a country to its population, the level of
competition in the league, the number of points gathered by home team, being promoted to
the top division and the number of televised games every week are influential factors on the
demand for football. 

Keywords

Demand for Football, Football Attendance, La Liga, Premier League, Ligue 1, Serie A, Bundesliga 1

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