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Like their larger counterparts, smaller cities use public funds to build facilities to host local sports franchises. One argument for doing so is the new economic activity and attendance new facilities generate. However, academic research examining both major league stadium/arenas and minor league baseball stadiums finds a novelty effect – a brief period of higher attendance – exists but not a long-term sustainable increase for new facilities. This paper extends the research on small cities and novelty effects of sports facilities by integrating and exploring how city size and proximity influences the novelty effect of new hockey arenas in smaller communities. Results show a novelty effect for new facilities built to host Canadian Hockey League franchises for the first five years. In small cities, the novelty effect occurs only in years three through five after opening.

PurposeScholars note there are limited studies analyzing ticket price determinants. Using the common seat approach, the authors sought to advance this line of research by analyzing determinants of National Basketball Association (NBA) ticket prices in the secondary ticket market. The authors’ research seeks to ask two questions. The first is how ticket prices in the secondary market are associated with common determinants of consumer demand. The second question is what impact the COVID-19 pandemic has on ticket prices in the secondary market.Design/methodology/approachTicket prices of NBA regular season games in the 2021–2022 season were collected a week before the game day from Ticketmaster.com. A regression model was estimated with a group of independent variables: income, population, consumer preference, quality of viewing, quality of contest and pandemic (the number of COVID-19 cases).FindingsResults indicate income, population, consumer preferences (e.g. team quality and star players) and quality of viewing (e.g. arena age and weekend) impact prices. Further, the number of COVID-19 cases did reduce the ticket price.Originality/valueThe present study illuminates the theoretical significance of analyzing ticket prices as a proxy of demand in professional sport, while providing practical implications regarding the potential opportunity to increase revenue.

In the present paper, we empirically analyze a dataset from national soccer teams between 2004 and 2019 to investigate the impact of team members’ cultural diversity on final team outcomes. Further, we examine the role of shared team tenure as a proxy of tacit knowledge and within team communications in relation to the cultural diversity–team performance relationship. After addressing a potential endogeneity issue, results from multiple instrumental variable estimation methods implied a higher level of cultural diversity enhanced on-field performance. Meanwhile, increased level of shared team tenure further strengthened the effect associated with cultural diversity on team performance.

PurposeAlthough leadership succession is a popular area of study across different professional sports leagues, existing research has largely ignored South America despite Brazilian football seeming to surpass the limits of coaching turnovers in comparison to any other league worldwide.Design/methodology/approachThis study examines the causes and consequences of 594 head coach turnovers in the Brasileirão from 2003 to 2018. A comprehensive longitudinal dataset was compiled (n = 13,012) and a series of regression analysis evaluated the determinants of coaching replacements as well as their effect on team performance.FindingsStatistical results revealed that coaching survival is significantly determined by a negative spell of three to four games, parallel competitions and performance expectations with three games in advance. Regarding performance outcomes, it takes seven games for a slight sign of improvement to be identified after a coach turnover, but no clear positive effects are recognized as an aftermath, supporting the ritual scapegoating theory.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that decision makers should consider the importance of a rational evaluation and the crucial component of time instead of judging coaches based on subjectivity and immediate results. Meanwhile, coaches should avoid voluntary turnovers, exercising priorities ahead of continental cups and sequences with few points accumulated.Originality/valueThis investigation discloses a valuable reference for coaches, sport managers and academic scholars interested in Brazilian football, as it extends knowledge development and theoretical understanding for a region that still lacks scientific evidence to back up its practical assumptions in sports.

PurposeUtilizing the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), the purpose is to analyze whether the stock prices of the corporation that owns sport teams fluctuate based on team performance in the Chinese Super League (CSL).Design/methodology/approachSeveral CSL teams are publicly owned corporations. As such, the authors look to see if on-field performance impacts the stock price of the firms. Using the news model from previous research, seemingly unrelated regressions are estimated on CSL games from 2014 through 2017.FindingsThe results from the main models indicate some evidence of a statistical relationship between on-field team performance and stock price. Furthermore, the findings for individual teams across markets did not hold consistent across different markets. More specifically, the authors found some instances where successful on-field performance led to a decline in stock prices.Originality/valueThe present study further contributes to the growing literature related to on-field performance and stock prices. Unlike previous research, the use of the CSL as the empirical setting provides the opportunity to use multiple stock markets which provides an opportunity to further examine this relationship. Finally, the study contributes broadly to the literature on professional sports ownership structures around the world.

Several articles have looked at factors that affect the adjustments of point spreads, based on hot hands or streaks, for smaller durations of time. This study examines these effects for 34 regular seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Estimating a Seemingly Unrelated Regression model using all 34 seasons, all streaks significantly impacted point spreads and difference in actual points. When estimating each season individually, differences emerged particularly examining winning and losing streaks of six games or more. The results indicate both the presence of momentum effects and the gambler's fallacy.

Competitive balance research partitions into two areas: analyzing sports policy and its effect on competitive balance and the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. This paper examines the latter section. No formal analysis of the relationship between competitive balance and regular season average attendance in Major League Baseball (MLB) using the actual to idealized standard deviation ratio exits. This paper examines the effect that competitive balance has on MLB attendance between the seasons 1920 and 2006. Additionally, this paper incorporates a games-behind variable to examine if fans are sensitive to team performance. The empirical model in this paper is a fixed-effects OLS model that corrects for heteroscedasticity. The results show a significant inverse relationship between the ratio, games behind, and regular season average attendance. This confirms the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis and shows that fans are sensitive to both league and team performance.

The purpose of the present research is to explore the role sanctions play in external job promotions of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I-FBS head college football coaches. Specifically, we examined head football coach movement from the 1973-1974 season through the 2012-2013 season, which produced 3,913 coach-season observations. Within college athletics, sanctions come from the actions that are recognized and penalized by the NCAA. Overall, we found 144 incident files related to sanctions. Estimating a logistic regression model, we found sanctions do not impact the likelihood of external job promotion. However, other factors such as on-field performance, university characteristics, and the availability of other coaching positions do influence external job promotion of current head coaches.

This study analyzes how the sports betting market responds to changes of head coaches in Brazilian football using data from 11 seasons (2010-2020), including 4,180 official league games and 379 within-season coaching replacements. We examine the return on investment (ROI) for bets to win and bets to lose for three betting strategies: when head coaches joined their teams (1) after a dismissal, (2) following a resignation, and (3) when transition coaches worked between effective replacements. The regression results show significant positive effects on ROI for bets to win for games 5, 7, and 8 following a dismissal, as well as for games 4-6 following a resignation. Betting on games 3 and 5 (after a dismissal) and games 2 and 4 (after a resignation) has a significant negative effect on ROI for bets to lose. Collectively, the findings indicate some inefficiencies of the betting market that could be exploited by bettors.

Many sports leagues use unbalanced schedules where teams do not play each opponent an equal number of times each season. In many leagues, teams that do not make the playoffs have the opportunity to improve by drafting highly skilled amateur players in the next entry draft, but the opportunity to pick first in the draft provides teams with an incentive to intentionally lose games. This has been a concern in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where the draft format has been altered three times since the 1980s. This research examines the strategic behavior of eliminated teams against conference and nonconference opponents under four NBA amateur draft formats. The results show that different draft formats present different incentives for eliminated teams to lose in conference games. Leagues need to recognize the unintended consequences of changes in league draft policies. Mitigating these consequences is difficult, but important in order to attain the goal of joint profit maximization.