Attendance at College Football

Earlier this year I had some research published on the demand for college football, where the paper looked at college football as a two part tariff (price) where someone who wanted to go to a college football game needs to pay a membership fee (athletic club) and then pay to buy the ticket for a seat.  I found that not including the membership fee in the analysis results in consumers looking like they are price inelastic and if you do include the membership fee then college football fans are price elastic.

Recently Rob Baumann and myself were interviewed as to why attendance is dropping for college football (in FBS).  Here is a link to that report:  At the end of the audio report it mentions that more college football stadiums are offering alcohol for legally aged general admission spectators.  My current research says that selling alcohol at FBS stadiums does NOT significantly affect attendance.

NCAA FBS Freedom of Information (Public or Open) Records Requests

For those of you who are interested in making Freedom of Information (Public or Open) Records Requests, here is a list of Football Bowl Subdivision universities (by state) and a internet link as to how to proceed to make the request.  I am sure over time some of these links will change, so if you find a broken link, just let me know.

Alabama (state law only applicable to Alabama "citizens")
Auburn University
University of Alabama
University of Alabama-Birmingham
University of South Alabama
Troy University

Arkansas (state law only applicable to Arkansas "citizens")
Arkansas State University
University of Arkansas

Arizona
Arizona State University
University of Arizona

California
California State University - Fresno State
San Diego State University
San Jose State University
Stanford University - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
University of California - Berkeley
University of California - Los Angeles
University of Southern California - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)

Colorado
Air Force Academy - CURRENTLY NOT SUBJECT TO PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS
Colorado State University
University of Colorado

Connecticut
University of Connecticut

Florida
Florida Atlantic University
Florida International University
Florida State University
University of Central Florida
University of Florida
University of South Florida
University of Miami - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)

Georgia
Georgia Tech University
Georgia State University
Georgia Southern University
University of Georgia

Hawai'i
University of Hawai'i at Manoa

Iowa
Iowa State University
University of Iowa

Idaho
Boise State University
University of Idaho

Illinois
Northern Illinois University
Northwestern University - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Indiana
Ball State University
Indiana University
Purdue University
University of Notre Dame - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)

Kansas
Kansas State University
University of Kansas

Kentucky
University of Kentucky
Western Kentucky University
University of Louisville

Louisiana
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana State University
Louisiana (Lafayette)
Louisiana-Monroe

Massachusetts
Boston College - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
University of Massachusetts

Maryland
Naval Academy  - CURRENTLY NOT SUBJECT TO PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS
University of Maryland

Michigan
Central Michigan University
Eastern Michigan University
Michigan State University
University of Michigan
Western Michigan University

Minnesota
University of Minnesota

Missouri
University of Missouri-Columbus

Mississippi
Mississippi State University
Southern Mississippi University
University of Mississippi

North Carolina
Appalachian State University
North Carolina State University
University of North Carolina-Charlotte
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Nebraska
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

New Jersey
Rutgers University

New Mexico
New Mexico State University
University of New Mexico

Nevada
University of Nevada-Reno
University of Nevada-Las Vegas

New York
Army West Point - CURRENTLY NOT SUBJECT TO PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS
Syracuse University - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
University of Buffalo

Ohio
Bowling Green State University
Kent State University
Ohio State University
Ohio University
University of Akron
University of Cincinnati
University of Toledo

Oklahoma
Oklahoma State University
University of Oklahoma
University of Tulsa - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)

Oregon
Oregon State University
University of Oregon

Pennsylvania (state law makes public universities exempt from public record requests)
Pennsylvania State University
Temple University
University of Pittsburgh

South Carolina (state law only applicable to South Carolina "citizens")
Clemson University
Coastal Carolina University
University of South Carolina

Tennessee (state law only applicable to Tennessee "citizens")
Middle Tennessee State University
University of Memphis
University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Texas
Baylor University - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
Rice University - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
Southern Methodist University - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
Texas A&M
Texas Christian University - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
Texas State University
Texas Tech University
University of Texas-Austin
University of Texas-El Paso
University of Texas-San Antonio 
University of Houston
University of North Texas

Utah
Brigham Young University - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
University of Utah
Utah State University

Virginia (state law only applicable to Virginia "citizens")
Liberty University - PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (not subject to public records requests)
Virginia Tech University
University of Virginia

Washington
University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Washington State University

West Virginia
Marshall University
West Virginia University

Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin - Madison

Wyoming
University of Wyoming

Which FBS teams have Stadium Wide Alcohol Availabilty?

Recently, the WSJ had an article regarding the sale of alcohol and its impact on college football attendance.  The conclusion was that alcohol sales should help college football attendance.  I am skeptical.  First of all, the number of FBS schools that now allow general admission alcohol sales to legally aged spectators has been increasing over the last few years (from 25 in 2012 to 70 (currently) in 2019), while at the same time average attendance has been falling over the same time period.  Second, unpublished research of mine suggests that general admission alcohol sales at FBS stadiums has no statistically significant effect on college football attendance, which is the same conclusion found by Chastian, Gohmann & Stephenson in the Journal of Sports Economics for three "Group of Five" conferences during the 2005 to 2012 seasons.

Below is a list of FBS teams that allow general admission alcohol sales, the year in which general admission alcohol sales began and a link on each team's name for the source that I used to determine if alcohol sales are allowed and the year in which it began.  My links are not 100% complete, as I cant find the original article stating that UNLV allowed alcohol sales in 1971; but I feel that the list is accurate.  Of course, more FBS teams may allow (or revoke) alcohol sales to general admission spectators in the future.  I plan to update this blog as new information becomes available.  If you find any errors, please look over the link first, and then let me know about the error.

FBS School and Year Began/Re-newed

Air Force 2017

Akron 2012

Arizona 2018

Arizona State 2018

Arkansas 2019

Boston College 2018

Bowling Green 2008

California 2019

Charlotte 2019

Cincinnati 2007 (at least since 2007)

Colorado 2018

Colorado State 1976

Connecticut 2009 (maybe earlier than this)

East Carolina 2019

Florida Atlantic 2014

Fresno State 2017 [allowed before 2006; not allowed from 2006 - 2016]

Georgia State 2013

Hawai'i 2004 (at least since 2004)

Houston 1998

Illinois 2019

Indiana 2019

Kent State 2009

Louisiana-LaFayette (Louisiana) 2009

Louisiana-Monroe 2013

Louisiana State University (LSU) 2019

Louisville 1998

Marshall 2017

Maryland 2015

Massachusetts 2012 (at least since 2012)

Memphis 2009

Miami (FL)  (at least since 2004)

Miami (OH) 2016

Minnesota 2012 [(at least) 2000 - 2008 allowed; 2009 - 2011 not allowed]

Missouri 2019

Nevada 1992

New Mexico 2016

New Mexico State 2015

North Carolina 2019

North Carolina State 2019

North Texas 2014

Northern Illinois 2015

Ohio 2017

Ohio State 2016

Oklahoma 2019

Oklahoma State 2018

Oregon 2018

Oregon State 2018

Pittsburgh 2016

Purdue 2017

Rice 2015

Rutgers 2019

San Diego State at least since 2004

San Jose State 2017  [2004-2012 allowed; 2013-2016 not allowed]

Southern Methodist (SMU) 2014

South Alabama 2012 [will continue for its on campus stadium in 2020]

South Florida 2018

Syracuse 1980

Temple 2004 (at least since 2004)

Tennessee 2019

Texas 2015

Texas A&M 2019

Texas State 2016

Texas Tech 2019

Toledo 2013

Troy 2014

Tulane 2014

Tulsa 2016

UAB 2018

UNLV 1971

UTEP 2012

UTSA 2009

Vanderbilt 2019

Wake Forest 2016

Western Kentucky 2012

West Virginia 2011

Wyoming 2017

Does the English Premier League have a Competitive Balance Problem?

Recently, the Wall Street Journal addressed concerns about the competitiveness of the English Premier League (paywall).  So let's take a look at the numbers.  First, I calculated the Noll-Scully measure of competitive balance for the last decade in the English Premier League.

Since the English Premier League has "draws" or ties, the Noll-Scully competitive balance measure must be calculated with the trinomial distribution, which as Richardson shows in his Eastern Economic Journal article, the idealized standard deviation is [(1-p)4n]^(1/2); where n is the number of games played and p is the probability of balanced teams tying.  The number of games played is simple, its 38.  The calculation of p is not as simple.  Here, I have to make a determination.  What I did was to look at the last (approximately) 20% of the season, and calculate the number of games teams that finished 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th in the EPL final table, in which those teams tied.  Then I took the average of those four teams to calculate p.

Using data from [https://datahub.io/sports-data/english-premier-league#resource-season-1819], the Noll-Scully Competitve Balance measure reveals the following:

As you can see, the English Premier League has been becoming less competitive since the 2015/16 season.  Yet, is it a problem?  That is much harder to definitively answer.  Overall, it seems to me that an economic problem exists if the league becoming less competitive results in a significant decrease in attendance, revenues and viewership.  That doesn't seem to be the case, so even with the EPL recently becoming less competitive, it is not a problem.

For those interested in the actual numbers, see below.

Season	Noll-Scully
2009/10	3.104
2010/11	2.469
2011/12	3.178
2012/13	3.141
2013/14	3.808
2014/15	3.066
2015/16	2.826
2016/17	3.507
2017/18	3.584
2018/19	4.086