A COMBINED MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS APPROACH FOR SPORTS SCHEDULING PROBLEMS

Yıl 2019, Cilt: 30 Sayı: 2, 111 - 122, 31.10.2019

Mujgan Sagir , Nor Hayati Abdul Hamıd Graham Kendall

Öz

Malaysian football is
witnessing a decrease in the number of supporters at their stadiums. Therefore,
scheduling games in timeslots that maximize attendance at the stadiums is
increasingly becoming a priority for the league administrators. We hypothesize
that spectators would prefer to watch matches at stadiums if they are more
important. That is, there is something to play for. Therefore, we propose to
define a level of importance for each fixture. The Analytic Hierarchy Process
(AHP), a theory of relative measurement with absolute scales, is utilised to
obtain these importance levels.

We also develop an integer programming model to assign
fixtures to the timeslots in a way to maximize the number of supporters
that attend matches. The outcome of the first process is used as input to this
optimization model. We apply the methodology to a real case data from the Super League Season in
Malaysia and we believed that we have produced a superior schedule which will
maximize gate receipts.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Sports scheduling, match importance, gate receipt, Analytic Hierarchy Process, mathematical modeling

A COMBINED MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS APPROACH FOR SPORTS SCHEDULING PROBLEMS

Öz

Malaysian football is witnessing a decrease in the number of supporters at their stadiums. Therefore, scheduling games in timeslots that maximize attendance at the stadiums is increasingly becoming a priority for the league administrators. We hypothesize that spectators would prefer to watch matches at stadiums if they are more important. That is, there is something to play for. Therefore, we propose to define a level of importance for each fixture. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a theory of relative measurement with absolute scales, is utilised to obtain these importance levels.

We also develop an integer programming model to assign fixtures to the timeslots in a way to maximize the number of supporters that attend matches. The outcome of the first process is used as input to this optimization model. We apply the methodology to a real case data from the Super League Season in Malaysia and we believed that we have produced a superior schedule which will maximize gate receipts.

Anahtar Kelimeler

sports scheduling, match importance, gate receipt, Analytic Hierarchy Process, mathematical modeling

Kaynakça

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