Sports Management Commons^™

Major League Baseball: What Really Puts Fans In The Stands?, Ladd Kochman

Ladd Kochman

Attendance at Major League Baseball games has long been thought to be a function of the uncertainty of a game's outcome. Optimal uncertainty and, in turn, maximal attendance are said to occur when there is a 60% chance that the home team will win. This study reexamined the data used by past researchers and found that the betting odds associated with a 60% probability of winning (7-8) are more consistent with outcome certainty than with the accepted conclusion of outcome uncertainty. One explanation for the counterintuitive finding may be that it simply costs too much to attend a MLB game …