Business Commons^™

Professional Sporting Events Increase Seasonal Influenza Mortality In Us Cities, Alexander Cardazzi, Brad Humphreys, Jane E. Ruseski, Brian P. Soebbing, Nicholas Watanabe

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down sporting events worldwide. Local policy makers and league officials face important decisions about restarting play, especially in professional leagues that draw large numbers of spectators to games. We analyze the impact of professional sporting events on local seasonal influenza mortality to develop evidence that will help inform sports league reopening policy decisions. Results from a difference-in-differences model applied to data from a sample of US cities that gained new professional sports teams over the period 1962-2016 show that the presence of games in these cities increased local influenza mortality by between 4% and 24%, depending …

Adding Insult To Rivalry: Exploring The Discord Communicated Between Rivals, Jennifer L. Harker, Jonathan A. Jensen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to extend current knowledge regarding rivalry communication among sport consumers to better understand how rivals behave with one another when they communicate.

Design/methodology/approach – This national survey of US sport consumers used a novel approach to explore whether and with whom rivals discuss National Football League (NFL) game outcomes. The survey captured both uniplex and multiplex data by asking respondents to name rival discussants with whom they had recently interacted, and the fan behaviors they exchanged with those named rival discussants.

Findings – Through use of this novel data collection approach, new …

The Shifting Scheme Of Athletic Fundraising: Investigating Private Giving Under The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act, Kirsten Nicole Brown

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

With a consistent decline in state funding to public higher education, institutions have become more reliant on private funding to institutional support. The shift in government policy through the introduction of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) (2017) created financial uncertainty within athletic departments and university foundations. The TCJA eliminated the 80 percent tax deduction on season ticket donations and increased the standard deduction. With these policy changes, athletic development officers speculated a decline in donations in 2018 and beyond. Using quantitative methodology and a longitudinal approach, this study examined athletic donations from January 1, 2013 to July 31, …