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The Determinants of Attendance at Neutral Site College Football Games
Author(s) -
Mirabile McDonald P.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
managerial and decision economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.288
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-1468
pISSN - 0143-6570
DOI - 10.1002/mde.2670
Subject(s) - attendance , tobit model , college football , division (mathematics) , football , affect (linguistics) , computer science , advertising , psychology , econometrics , economics , business , political science , mathematics , communication , law , economic growth , arithmetic
This paper develops a predictive model of attendance at neutral site Division 1‐A college football games. From 2004–2012 seasons, 427 games were identified and split into training and holdout data sets. A Tobit model is developed using matchup‐specific, game‐specific, location‐specific, and university‐specific determinants. Results are generally consistent with the existing literature on attendance modeling, showing that these prior home team‐specific models are adaptable to neutral site locations. Results are useful as they reveal how the selection of game location and matchup of opponents – decisions made by athletic directors or bowl officials – ultimately affect game‐day attendance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.