Network Effects in Sporting Events Attendance
The Cornell Men’s soccer team was undefeated and ranked 16th in the nation heading into its alumni weekend match against Yale. After winning two games over fall break, attendance at home games for the team has continued to rise, with the attendance for the game against Penn drawing 700 fans. Now the team is promoting their game against Yale by trying to break the attendance record at Berman Field where they play. The soccer team’s continued success on the field will definitely help them as they try to attract more fans to the game, but they could have an unlooked for ally as networks effects could entice more people to attend.
As the Men’s soccer team tries to draw fans to break the attendance record, they could be helped by the direct benefit effect of fan attendance. A fan’s attendance to a soccer game could be viewed as a positive externality, as their attendance to the game not only provides some benefit to themselves, it also can provide a benefit to the other fans attending the game. As more fans attend a game, it can create an exciting atmosphere as all of the fans cheer on their team together. This atmosphere, and the benefit which fans enjoy because of it, can be increased as more fans choose to attend the game. The continued success of the soccer team, and their unbeaten season could also move the equilibrium position for the number of fans that attend games. Since the price of attending games, both the actual cost and the implied opportunity costs of attendance, remain the same the soccer team’s winning streak could increase fan’s benefit to help push fan attendance past the tipping point and to a much higher equilibrium position. With an increased benefit from attendance, more fans would come to the game, once again increasing the benefit of attendance by their own attendance. This creates a snowball effect where as more fans attend the game becomes more valuable to attend and therefore more people want to come. I believe that this direct benefit effect exists not only for the Cornell Men’s Soccer team, but for many other sporting events.
Note: After this article was written, the Men’s Soccer team successfully beat Yale 3-0, and set an attendance record with 1,121 fans in attendance.
Article: http://cornellsun.com/section/sports/content/2012/10/12/m-soccer-cornell-hosts-yale-hopes-break-berman-record