Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T01:03:26.187Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Benefits to their communities from small town professional football clubs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

David Forrest*
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool Management School

Abstract

Many small town professional clubs operate on the border of viability and threats to their survival are often real. But their activities may generate benefits that they are unable to capture in ticket sales; for example they provide a focus of interest even for some residents who do not attend the stadium. The paper presents results from applying contingent valuation methodology in two towns with clubs in the bottom-tier of English professional football. Collective willingness-to-pay for the survival of the clubs through taxation proved to be significant relative to the revenues the clubs were able to generate through ticket sales. There appears therefore to be a case for local governments to consider intervention in some circumstances where a club's survival is in question.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, D.L.Kern, W.Neill, J. (2000), ‘Valuing the consumption benefits from professional sports franchises’, Journal of Urban Economics, 48, pp. 321–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, G.Mourato, S.Szymanski, S.Ozdemiroglu, E. (2008), ‘Are we willing to pay enough to ‘back the bid’? Valuing the intangible impacts of London's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games’, Urban Studies, 45, pp. 419–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baade, R.A. (2006), ‘A primer on the economic impact of mega-sports events and investments in sports infrastructure’, in Rodríguez, P., Késenne, S. and García, J., (eds), Sports Economics After Fifty Years: Essays in Honour of Simon Rottenberg, pp. 5168, Oviedo, Ediciones de la Universidad de Oviedo.Google Scholar
Buraimo, B.Forrest, D.Simmons, R. (2007), ‘Freedom of entry, market size and competitive outcome: evidence from English League soccer’, Southern Economic Journal, 73, pp. 204–13.Google Scholar
Castellanos, P.García, J.Sánchez, J.M. (2011), ‘The willingness to pay to keep a football club in a city: how important are the methodological issues?’, Journal of Sports Economics, 12. pp. 464–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciriacy-Wantrup, S.V. (1947), ‘Capital returns from soil conservation practices’, Journal of Farm Economics, 29, pp. 1181–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delaney, L.O'Toole, F. (2004), ‘Irish public service broadcasting: a contingent valuation analysis’, Economic and Social Review, 35, pp. 321–50.Google Scholar
Deloitte (2010), Annual Review of Football Finance, 19th Edition, Manchester, Deloitte.Google Scholar
Dillman, D.A. (2007), Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, 2nd edition, Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley.Google Scholar
Fenn, A.J.Crooker, J.R. (2009), ‘Estimating local welfare generated by a professional sports team: an application to the Minnesota Vikings under threat of relocation’, Southern Economic Journal, 76, pp. 198223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forrest, D.Simmons, R.Feehan, P. (2002), ‘A spatial cross-sectional analysis of the elasticity of demand for soccer’, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 49, pp. 336–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakes, J.Turner, C.S.Hutmaker, K. (2011), ‘I don't care if I never get back? Time, travel costs, and the estimation of baseball season-ticket demand’, International Journal of Sport Finance, 6, pp. 119–37.Google Scholar
Johnson, B.K.Groothuis, P.A.Whitehead, J.C. (2001), ‘Value of public goods generated by a major league sports team: the CVM approach’, Journal of Sports Economics, 2, pp. 621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, B.K.Mondello, M.J.Whitehead, J.C. (2007), ‘The value of public goods generated by a National Football League team’, Journal of Sport Management, 21, pp. 123–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, B.K.Whitehead, J.C. (2012), ‘Contingent valuation of sports’, in Shmanske, S. and Kahane, L.H. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Sports Economics, vol. 2, pp. 335–49, Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lindhjem, H.Navrud, S. (2009), ‘Asking for household or individual willingness to pay for environmental goods? Implications for aggregate welfare measures’, Environmental and Resource Economics, 43, pp. 1129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loomis, J. (2011), ‘What's to know about hypothetical bias in stated preference valuation studies?’, Journal of Economic Surveys, 25, pp. 363–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyerhoff, J.Liebe, L. (2006), ‘Protest beliefs in contingent valuation: explaining their motivation’, Ecological Economics, 57, pp. 583–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, J.J.Allen, P.G.Stevens, T.H.Weatherhead, D. (2005), ‘A meta-analysis of hypothetical bias in stated preference valuation’, Environmental and Resource Economics, 30, pp. 313–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noll, R.G. and Zimbalist, A. (eds) (1997), Sports, Jobs and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums, Washington DC, Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Noonan, D.S. (2003), ‘Contingent valuation and cultural resources: a meta-analytical review of the literature’, Journal of Cultural Economics, 27, pp. 159–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preuss, H.Werkman, K. (2011), ‘Erlebniswert Olympischer Winterspiele in München 2018’, Sport und Gesselschaft, 8, pp. 97123.Google Scholar
Strand, J. (2007), ‘Public good valuation and intra-family allocation’, Environmental and Resource Economics, 38, pp. 527–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szymanski, S. (2014), ‘Insolvency in English football’, in Goddard, J. and Sloane, P. (eds), Handbook on the Economics of Professional Football, pp. 100–16, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Tabner, B. (1992), Through the Turnstiles, Harefield, Middlesex, Yore Publications.Google Scholar
Walker, M.Mondello, M.J. (2007), ‘Moving beyond economic impact: a closer look at the contingent valuation method’, International Journal of Sport Finance, 2, pp. 149–60.Google Scholar
Walton, H.Longo, L.Dawson, P. (2008), ‘A contingent valuation of the 2012 London Olympic Games’, Journal of Sports Economics, 9, pp. 304–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicker, P.Hallmann, K.Breur, C.Feiler, S. (2012a), ‘The value of Olympic success and the intangible effects of sports events – a contingent valuation approach in Germany’, European Sport Management Quarterly, 12, pp. 337–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicker, P.Prinz, J.von Hanau, T. (2012b), ‘Estimating the value of national sporting success’, Sport Management Review, 15, pp. 200–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar