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Abstract
Television coverage's impact on college football attendance is a topic of debate. Between 2005 and 2019, annual growth in athletic department revenues for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools from media rights, postseason football, and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) conference distributions far exceeded revenue growth in ticket sales revenue. This study re-evaluates the substitution or complementarity of television coverage and stadium attendance in college football with updated data while controlling for selection bias through endogenous treatment regression. Although initial results reveal a positive correlation between television coverage and attendance, national coverage and attendance appear to be substitutes after controlling for selection bias. That said, from an attendance maximizing perspective, national coverage is preferable to lower-tiered coverage if a game is to be televised.
Keywords: endogenous treatment regression, stadium attendance demand, television coverage, college football
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32731/IJSF/184.112023.01
Introduction
Attendance demand has been extensively studied, yet the role television coverage plays in shaping stadium attendance demand is still up for debate. Data from the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database shows that between 2005 and 2019, ticket sales made up approximately 20% of total revenues for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; the top level of college football, consisting of 130 schools) college athletic departments, the majority of which come from football. However, despite total athletic revenues growing at a 4.4% annual rate over that time period, ticket sales revenue only grew by an average of 1.7% annually, less than the annual United States inflation rate over the same period (approximately two percent). Meanwhile, revenues from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and conference distributions, media rights, and postseason football grew nearly eight percent annually and made up nearly 24% of total revenues. While total revenues are unequivocally benefitted by the growth in television, our focus is on whether growth in broadcasting has come at the expense of live spectator interest.
In the rich empirical literature, there exist several arguments as to whether televised broadcasts function as substitutes for or complements to demand for the stadium product (see discussions in Baimbridge et al., 1996; Falls & Natke, 2017; Kaempfer & Pacey, 1986). Immense growth in television revenues has been accompanied by innovations and improvements in broadcast quality as well as increased viewing options with new premium networks and streaming...