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Re: Rain Man Theater: How Significantly Does A New Stadium Impact Attendance?

vacation rentals — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:26:50 -0000

The bars represent the team’s attendance in a given year, and the red dot above them represents the stadium’s capacity. The green line divides the chart in two: the three years before the move to the new stadium, and the three years after.

Re: Rain Man Theater: How Significantly Does A New Stadium Impact Attendance?

Smystery — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:59:24 -0000

Good analysis

Re: Rain Man Theater: How Significantly Does A New Stadium Impact Attendance?

nolacuse — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:04:57 -0000

I think a better way to analyze this situation would be through attendance versus capacity. It is noted in the graphs, but not really commented on. The real question should be: Is the new stadium drawing a higher percentage of fans versus the seats that need filling? If the attendance is about the same, but capacity was reduced in the new ballpark, it was a likely a smart move in the long run. Whereas a bigger park with minimal attendance increase was probably a waste of time and money.

Re: Rain Man Theater: How Significantly Does A New Stadium Impact Attendance?

prince fielder — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:59:05 -0000

not that the brewers are relevant, but huge spikes in attendence in MKE... playoff run (aka CC sabathia) not possible without incremental ticket revenue.

Re: Rain Man Theater: How Significantly Does A New Stadium Impact Attendance?

Ryan C. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:46:34 -0000

This has been updated. Thanks, Samuel.

Re: Rain Man Theater: How Significantly Does A New Stadium Impact Attendance?

Samuel Sheetz — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:05:12 -0000

"After 1991, the Orioles moved from what was arguably baseball’s least exciting stadium (Municipal Stadium) to perhaps its most exciting (Camden Yards). An interesting trend: stadium capacity goes down, attendance goes up."

ummmm, the orioles played at Memorial Stadium.. Municipal Stadium was Cleveland..

Re: Rain Man Theater: How Significantly Does A New Stadium Impact Attendance?

glenn — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:27:21 -0000

I agree with you Dave. Furthermore, Comiskey and Camden were built in what is practically the "stone age" compared to newer parks like Great American and Busch, with Turner Field not far behind.. I would think that the comparisons aren't exactly ideal.

It might be more instructive to look at parks built after the turn of the century (GA, Busch, Citizens Bank Park, Natonals Park, etc.) to get a more up to date view.

Re: Rain Man Theater: How Significantly Does A New Stadium Impact Attendance?

DavidMunk — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:48:05 -0000

Without factoring in the records of the teams, these graphs aren't terribly conclusive. For instance - the '89 Sox were the second worst team in the AL, while the '90 Sox were the second best. Surely that huge improvement was a bigger component of the attendance increase than sentimentality for Old Comiskey.

Also, here's the abstract of a paper done on this topic by those pesky "actual economists" - http://jse.sagepub.com/cgi/...

"Using panel data of MLB team attendance from 1950 to 2002, we determined that the attendance "honeymoon" effect of a new stadium—after separating quality-of-play effects—increases attendance by 32% to 37% the opening year of a new stadium. Attendance remains above baseline levels for only two seasons for multipurpose stadiums built during 1960 to 1974 but for 6 to 10 seasons at newer ballparks."