An Empirical Examination of the Development and Impact of Star Power in Major League Baseball

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lewis ◽  
Yeujun Yoon

We examine the processes by which star power (SP) develops and the impact of SP on both consumer demand and team performance using data from Major League Baseball. First, we examine the dynamics of stardom using data based on player salaries, performance, and award recognition. We find that SP explains additional variance in salaries beyond performance measures. Also, we examine the impact of SP on consumer demand and team success. We find that a team’s stock of SP positively influences consumer demand, even after controlling for various factors ranging from team success to ticket prices.

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-63
Author(s):  
Rodney Paul ◽  
Andrew Weinbach

The use of prediction markets is extended to explain differences in preferences of fans that purchase different price levels of tickets under dynamic pricing for Major League Baseball.  Using data from eleven teams, this research investigates similarities and differences in variables that affect ticket prices for the highest-priced and lowest-priced tickets.  Key contrasts between the groups are found to stem from distinct preferences for uncertainty of outcome, measured by betting market odds, and team quality.  It is also shown that differences between the groups are attributable to sensitivity to factors such as key opponents, weekend games, opening day, and temperature.


ILR Review ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence M. Kahn

This paper uses 1969–87 major league baseball data to investigate the impact of managerial quality on team winning and individual player performance. Managerial quality and player performance are measured as predicted pay based on salary regressions; these market-based measures permit conclusions about costs and benefits of managerial quality. There are two major findings. First, when player inputs are controlled for, higher-quality managers lead to higher winning percentages. Second, players tend to play better, relative to their prior performance levels, the higher the manager's quality. These findings suggest that, as emphasized by the human resource management literature, the quality of management makes an important difference in the performance of organizations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Courty ◽  
Luke Davey

Toward the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s, Major League Baseball teams moved away from fixed ticket prices, to first setting prices according to expected game demand, and subsequently to dynamically changing prices in response to demand. Teams have also collaborated with secondary ticket marketplaces to sponsor resale. By exploiting a team panel covering seasons 1999-2017, we use fixed effect models to estimate the impact of these pricing innovations on team revenue and team value. Variable pricing increases revenue and team value by 4.2% and 9.5%, respectively. The introduction of dynamic pricing and sponsored secondary markets has no statistically significant effect on revenue or team value.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Lee D. Koch ◽  
Anna K. Panorska

Abstract Major League Baseball is played from the beginning of April through the end of October each year, encompassing three of the four meteorological seasons: spring, summer, and fall. The 30 teams play in cities across the United States and Canada in many types of weather. This work studies the impact of temperature on a Major League Baseball game by examining the association between temperature and several Major League Baseball game statistics, including runs scored, batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, home runs, walks, strikeouts, hit-batsmen, stolen bases, and errors. Data from 22 215 games, spanning the 2000–11 regular seasons, were studied. Temperature was categorized as “cold,” “average,” and “warm.” Analyses were performed on the following populations: all Major League Baseball games, games played in the National League, games played in the American League, and games played in 23 different stadiums that are currently being used by Major League Baseball teams. Home and away teams' performances were analyzed separately for each population of games. The results of this study show that runs scored, batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, and home runs significantly increase while walks significantly decrease in warm weather compared to cold weather.


2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony G. Barilla ◽  
Kathleen Gruben ◽  
William Levernier

The determinants of attendance at professional sporting events come from a variety of team- specific, game-specific, and stadium-specific factors. Using data from the 2,431 major league baseball games played during the 2005 season, this study employs a multivariate regression model to determine the effect that the previously mentioned factors have on game attendance. The focus of the study is on the effect that promotions, such as product giveaways, have on attendance. The findings of this study indicate that having a promotion at a game increases attendance by about 1,532 fans. The findings also indicate that both the timing of a promotion and the type of promotion is important. Specifically, promotions held on weekends have a much smaller impact on attendance than promotions held during the week, with promotions held on Friday or Sunday having a particularly small effect. In terms of the type of promotion, this study finds that bobblehead giveaways have by far the largest impact on attendance and that several types of giveaways actually have no effect on attendance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 1066-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney Fort ◽  
Young Hoon Lee ◽  
Taeyeon Oh

The vast majority of the empirical investigation of player marginal revenue product (MRP) and monopsony exploitation rates (MER) implicitly assumed that MRP is constant across the revenue distribution of teams. The few works that do attempt to capture the impact of revenue variation across teams do so via independent variable specification. We bring quantile estimation to bear that allows MRP to vary across the entire revenue distribution in Major League Baseball. Completely in keeping with economic common sense, MRP increases as total revenue rises (to higher and higher quantiles). As with past findings, there is interesting MER dispersion over the length of player tenure in the league and between star and mediocre players. Heretofore unexplored, we also find interesting dispersion in MRP and MER between larger revenue and smaller revenue markets. Our results suggest that independent variable specifications overstate MRP and MER for smaller revenue teams and understate the same for larger revenue team.


2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark McDonald ◽  
Daniel Rascher

A primary objective of sport marketers in the professional sport setting is to develop strategies to increase game attendance. Historically, one of the strategies to accomplish this goal has been the utilization of special promotions. This paper studied the impact of promotions on attendance at professional sport games. Specifically, this research examines (a) the overall effect of promotions on attendance, and (b) the marginal impact on attendance of additional promotional days. Using a data set containing 1,500 observations, we find that a promotion increases single game attendance by about 14%. Additionally, increasing the number of promotions has a negative effect on the marginal impact of each promotion. The loss from this watering down effect, however, is outweighed by the gain from having an extra promotion day.


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