Tim Pawlowski

Promoting Sport for All to Age-specific Target Groups: the Impact of Sport Infrastructure

Abstract Abstract Sport management should contribute to making sport accessible for people of all ages. Therefore, sport management research must analyse the impact of different managerial opportunities. A special focus lies on the effects of infrastructural conditions. In this paper, the impact of sport infrastructure on sport participation has been analysed using data from a population survey in the city of Stuttgart, which are related to infrastructural data. The results show that the availability of sport infrastructure, regardless of individual socio-economic conditions, influences patterns of sport activity significantly. However, the influence of certain types of sport infrastructure varies between age groups. For example, the availability of swimming pools is important during childhood and adolescence, whereas the availability of fitness centres, gymnasia and sports fields is of greater importance in young adulthood. These findings have significance for the ways in which sport managers can influence patterns of lifelong sports activity.

Top Clubs’ Performance and the Competitive Situation in European Domestic Football Competitions:

The increase in payouts to European football clubs appearing in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League (CL) in 1999-2000 had a lasting impact on the performance of top clubs in domestic football leagues. This policy change is treated as a natural experiment to compare the level of competitive balance in five top European leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France) before and after the turn of the millennium. Based on several competitive balance measures, this article reveals a significant decrease in competitive balance after the modification of the CL payout system.

Stadium attendance in German professional football – the (un)importance of uncertainty of outcome reconsidered

Although deeply ingrained in the economics of professional team sports literature, previous research could not confirm the importance of outcome uncertainty in European professional football. Moreover, a negative effect was detected and explained rather controversially: It is argued that the majority of spectators prefer to see the home team play either a much inferior team or a rather successful team. With data of n = 306 matches in the German Bundesliga, a generalized Tobit estimator with individual cut-off points and error terms clustered by home teams is employed to follow up with the discussion on the (un)importance of outcome uncertainty. The results highlight a significant positive effect on attendance when either the home and/or the away team still has a theoretical chance to win the championship while the suggested importance of teams still having the possibility to qualify for the UEFA Champions League is not supported (medium-term uncertainty). Furthermore, in line with previous research we could detect a negative effect of short-term uncertainty. However, while there is no evidence that spectators prefer the home team to play an inferior team, the results suggest that it is rather a strong brand of the away team that rises attendance figures in the German Bundesliga.

Subjective well-being in European countries— on the age-specific impact of physical activity

As an attempt to measure the ‘experienced’ utility of individuals in economics, the investigation of individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB) was pioneered by Van Praag and Frijters (1999) and Kahneman et al. (1999). Since then, a number of studies has analysed the factors associated with SWB and policy makers are now recognising the importance of SWB as a policy target, with the implication being that one could target its factors associated with increase in the overall SWB in countries. However, despite its significance to economies, and increasing policy relevance, investigations on the impact of sport and physical activity on SWB are relatively rare [e.g. Rasciute and Downward in Kyklos 63(2):256–270, 2010]. More specifically, despite sports participation and engagement in physical activity having a strong age-specific profile (Breuer et al. in Eur Rev Aging Phys Act 7:61–70, 2010; Hinrichs et al. in Eur J Sport Soc 6(1):49–57, 2010; Mechling and Netz in European Rev Aging Physical Activity 6(2):89–97, 2009), there is no study that investigates whether the magnitude of this impact is age-specific. Consequently, this paper seeks to make a unique contribution to the existing literature by exploring the age-specific effects of physical activity on SWB for a broad cross-section of 19 European countries. Overall, the results suggest that engagement in physical activity generally contributes to the SWB of individuals on a European level but that significant age-specific differences exist.

Testing the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis in European Professional Football: A Stated Preference Approach

Previous research based on revealed preferences cannot assess whether (increasingly imbalanced) football competitions might be at risk of moving into territory where consumer demand will fall off as suggested by the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. Therefore, this article provides a subsequent examination of the relationship between perceived balance (in a number of dimensions) and intention to consume based on a stated preference approach in Germany. The estimated demand functions reveal that around 70% of fans care about competitive balance in the German Bundesliga but the league is not close to any tipping point at present.

Travel time spending behaviour in recreational sports: an econometric approach with management implications.

Abstract The analysis of the economic determinants of participation in sports is considered to be a promising research topic in general. Although time is a constitutive part of sports consumption, there has been only limited empirical analysis of the determinants of time investments in recreational sports. This article focuses on revealing the determinants of sports consumers’ travel time spending behaviour in recreational sports. The study is based on survey data from two studies, one in Stuttgart and the second in Cologne. By applying a Heckit model, several socio-demographic (e.g., gender, age) and involvement (e.g., frequency a sport is practised) variables influencing the sports consumers’ travel time investments are detected. Practical implications with regard to sports facility management/planning (e.g., sports facility allocation as well as closure, relocation and renovation of existing sports facilities) are discussed.

Expenditure Elasticities of the Demand for Leisure Services

Although some research has already focused on the analysis of expenditure elasticities of leisure demand, some shortcomings with regard to the content and the underlying theoretical model as well as the applied methods exist. This article aims at avoiding these problems to provide consistent derivatives of leisure service expenditure elasticities. Therefore, a regular demand system is derived from microeconomic duality theory. To implement leisure specific demand factors (i.e. demand- and supply-based sports and recreational opportunities as well as sports and recreational preferences) while still being consistent with neoclassical demand theory, the basic model is extended by applying the demographic translation framework. Data of the continuous household budget survey (n = 7724) from Germany is used for the estimation of the derived demand system. It is shown how sensitive the results are depending on the applied (censored) regression model: 16 out of 18 analysed services are indicated as luxury goods based on the findings of the Tobit model type I but as necessities based on the findings of the Tobit model type II. Possible implications are presented and discussed.

The (monetary) value of competitive balance for sport consumers: A stated preferences approach to European professional football

Ever since the pioneering work of Rottenberg (1956) and Neale (1964), the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis (UOH) has played a major role in the economic analysis of professional sport leagues. However, decades of empirical research have not been successful in establishing clear evidence for the importance of competitive balance (CB) for attendance or TV viewers in European professional football. In order to find possible reasons for the gap between the UOH and (the lack of) its empirical validation, our paper adopts a stated preference approach focused on the fans’ perception of CB and its relevance in three European professional football leagues. The results indicate that a tipping point/threshold value of CB exists and that crossing this threshold can lead to massive demand reactions. However, since the threshold has not been reached in the leagues included in the sample, the paper provides a possible explanation for the above mentioned gap.

The Fans’ Perception of Competitive Balance and Its Impact on Willingness-to-Pay for a Single Game

The economics literature related to the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis reopens the discussion of whether the fans’ perceptions of competitive balance (CB) are in line with Rottenberg’s and Neale’s theory. This article contributes to the literature by analyzing the effect of fans’ perceptions of suspensefulness on their willingness-to-pay for a single-game ticket and evaluating monetarily the (un)importance of CB. Results suggest that fans’ notions of competitiveness influence their spending behavior, rising as perceived balance rises, at least up to high levels of competitiveness.

Assessing parental impact on the sports participation of children: a socio-economic analysis of the UK.

Abstract This study examines the effects of parental attitudes on childrens physical activity. A measure of parental attitude (their sport participation when being young) that is independent of the childs behaviour is needed. Using data from the sixth wave of the Taking Part Survey (n =14,002 adults and n =1116 children), a matching estimator analysis is conducted. The results reveal that there are substantial intergenerational transfers of behaviours, in particular for male adults and male children. Furthermore, while an effect is observed for female adults and male children, female childrens sport participation is only marginally influenced by female adults physical activity when growing up. The results imply that promoting sport to the younger generation seems to be a fruitful strategy in creating a sporting habit and promoting sport participation when being older. However, there are challenges to be overcome in promoting female participation.