Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
The Effects of Promotions on Attendance at Major League Baseball Games .
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Schoenrock, Amanda |
| Copyright Year | 2010 |
| Abstract | What are the effects of promotions on attendance at Major League Baseball games? To examine this question, I collected data from each of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 81 home games during the 2008 regular season. Several independent variables relating to the type of promotion, as well as variables relating to the day of the game, winning percentage of both the home and visiting teams, and whether or not the game was a marquee game, were analyzed. Promotions were grouped into four different categories: bobblehead promotions, giveaway promotions, coupon promotions, and event promotions. Results show that promotions have a positive effect on attendance, with bobblehead promotions being the most effective form of promotion, followed by giveaways, events, and coupons. Introduction What are the effects of promotions on attendance at Major League Baseball (MLB) games? While the main objective of MLB teams is to win games and, ultimately, the World Series, teams also seek to earn profits. One way teams do this is through ticket sales, and promotions increase attendance. However, promotions are both complex and important to sports marketing executives. A number of factors, both on the field and off, affect an individual’s decision whether or not to attend a MLB game. MLB teams have more home games (81) than the National Basketball Association (41) and the National Football League (8) combined. Consequently, fans are less likely to consider each game critical to attend. Because ticket sales are the main source of revenue for many teams, understanding which factors are most attractive to fans is crucial to a team’s survival. Given the current economic situation, finding ways to sell tickets is even more important. Attendance across all 30 MLB teams is down about 4.4% through May 12, 2009, compared to the same time in 2008, and nine of those teams have seen an even more significant decline in attendance (Singer, 2009). Page 29 Oshkosh Scholar To determine the effects of promotions on attendance, I collected data from each of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 81 home games during the 2008 regular season. I analyzed several independent variables that measured the effects of the day of the game, winning percentage of both the home and visiting teams, and whether or not the game was a marquee game. I grouped promotions into four different categories of dummy variables: bobblehead promotions, giveaway promotions, coupon promotions, and event promotions. Results show that promotions have a positive effect on attendance. However, the type of promotion is significant: Different types of promotions have different effects on attendance. Bobblehead promotions are the most effective form of promotion, followed by giveaways, events, and coupons. In its July 13, 2009, issue, ESPN ranked the Brewers fourth for the highest-rated promotional giveaways among all 122 teams from the four major U.S. sports. The Brewers earned their ranking due to their frequent use of bobblehead promotions (Keating, 2009). Literature Review One of the most important variables that can be controlled by marketers is the promotion variable. Bobblehead, baseball card, and poster giveaways are common. However, some marketers have designed newer, more unique promotion ideas, including Calculator Day at Yankee Stadium, Joe Mauer Fishing Lure Day at the Metrodome, and Sleepover at Chase Field Night (Gallo, 2008). Several studies have been conducted to discover what factors bring fans to the ballpark. Boyd and Krehbiel (2003) conducted a study of three different types of promotions and their effect on attendance. The dependent variable in their study was attendance. The study’s independent variables included three types of promotions: price discounts, giveaways, and special features. Other independent variables included temperature, winning percentage of both the home and visiting teams, time of game, day of game, and whether or not the opponent was a rival. Boyd and Krehbiel collected data from home games for six MLB teams during the 1999 season. In addition, Boyd and Krehbiel (2003) found that promotions had a positive effect on attendance for each of the six teams studied. The average increase in attendance ranged from 1,963 for one team to 13,151 for another team. Two of the study’s three promotion variables, giveaways and special features, proved to be statistically significant. Boyd and Krehbiel found evidence of diminishing returns when two or more factors that increase game attractiveness occur in a single game. While promotions at games against a rival showed no increase in attendance, promotions at weekend games showed a positive increase in attendance but were not significant for all teams. Boyd and Krehbiel concluded that a weekend game versus a rival is already an attractive game, and, therefore, promotions will not significantly increase attendance for such games. McDonald and Rascher (2000) examined the effect of promotions on attendance as well as the marginal impact (the change in attendance resulting from the addition of a promotion) on attendance of additional promotions. They collected data from 19 MLB teams during each of the teams’ home games during the 1996 season. However, the source of the data was unclear. The dependent variable in this study was attendance. The independent variables included 28 time-varying variables, such as the teams’ winning percentage and the time of the game, and 12 time-constant variables, Page 30 Oshkosh Scholar such as the cost of promotional items and stadium seating capacity. McDonald and Rascher found that promotions increase attendance by an average of 14%. They reported a positive correlation between the number of promotion days and the total seasonal impact from promotions. They also reported a negative correlation between marginal impact and the number of promotions. Thus, McDonald and Rascher concluded that while having more promotions may be less effective, it may still be more profitable. They also concluded that the quality of promotion has an effect on attendance. Each dollar increase in the cost of the giveaway increased attendance by 2,688 fans. Barilla, Gruben, and Levernier (2008) attempted to first determine which factors affect attendance at MLB games and, second, to determine the strength of those effects. They collected data from each of the 2,431 regular-season games played during the 2005 MLB season. The study’s dependent variable was attendance. The model included four categories of independent variables: (a) variables describing characteristics of the home and visiting teams; (b) variables describing the characteristics of the game, including weather conditions, day of the week, and time of the game; (c) variables describing the ethnic background of the home team’s announced starting pitcher; and (d) variables describing the type of promotion at the game. Barilla, Gruben, and Levernier (2008) first revealed that teams with higher opening day payrolls have higher attendance, attracting an extra 610 fans for every $10 million increase in a team’s payroll. They also found that, contrary to Boyd and Krehbiel (2003), promotions at games against rivals did not affect attendance differently than promotions at games against non-rivals. Second, they found that promotional timing is crucial. The results showed that weekday promotions generate much larger increases in attendance than weekend promotions. In addition, interleague games attract up to 700 more fans than intraleague games. Third, the results of this study did not support the findings of Scully (1974) and Krautman (1999), who found that attendance is less likely to increase when the home team’s starting pitcher is not White (Barilla, Gruben, & Levernier, 2008). Finally, the results, coinciding with those of Boyd and Krehbiel, showed that certain types of promotions generate larger increases in attendance than others. Barilla, Gruben, and Levernier found that games in which a bobblehead was given away attracted 5,222 more fans than games that did not have a promotion, followed by 2,600 additional fans for textile product giveaways and 2,470 additional fans for memorabilia giveaways. The hypothesis that certain types of promotions are more effective than others was supported by all three studies. Barilla, Gruben, and Levernier (2008) used 10 promotion variables, some of which were significant and some of which were not. Boyd and Krehbiel (2003) used three broad promotion variables. Marketers today are creative in their promotions, and it is likely that promotions could be grouped using more than just three categories. Ultimately, marketing managers need to understand which promotions have the largest impact on attendance and when those promotions will be most effective. I developed a model to determine the effects of promotions on attendance at Milwaukee Brewers games during the 2008 season. Page 31 Oshkosh Scholar Discussion The dependent variable in the model was attend. The independent variables in the model were hmwinpct, opwinpct, wkegame, mqegame, bobpromo, givpromo, coupromo, and evtpromo. While I expected all of the independent variables to have a positive effect on attendance, some of them proved to be insignificant when tested with the other independent variables. The attend variable indicated the number of fans who attended a Brewers game on a particular day. The seating capacity at Milwaukee’s Miller Park is 41,900 (“Facts, Figures,” 2009). The Brewers attracted more than 41,900 fans 32 times during the 2008 season because of standing-room-only admission. The hmwinpct variable measured the effect of the Brewers’ winning percentage on attendance. This variable was expected to have a positive effect on attendance because better teams tend to draw larger crowds. The opwinpct variable measured the effect of the visiting team’s winning percentage on attendance. This variable was expected to have a positive effect on attendance because fans are likely to a |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/46315/Schoenrock_The%20Effects%20of%20Promotions%20on%20Attendance%20at%20Major%20League%20Baseball%20Games.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
