Master’s degree thesis IDR950 Sport Management The effect of Saturday matches on stadium attendance in Norwegian Eliteserien Stepan Ermakov Number of pages including this page: 41 Molde, 09.06.2020 Mandatory statement Each student is responsible for complying with rules and regulations that relate to examinations and to academic work in general. The purpose of the mandatory statement is to make students aware of their responsibility and the consequences of cheating. Failure to complete the statement does not excuse students from their responsibility. Please complete the mandatory statement by placing a mark in each box for statements 1-6 below. 1. I/we hereby declare that my/our paper/assignment is my/our own work, and that I/we have not used other sources or received other help than mentioned in the paper/assignment. 2. I/we hereby declare that this paper Mark each 1. Has not been used in any other exam at another box: department/university/university college 1. 2. 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Has the research project been considered by REK? yes no - If yes: Reference number: Publication agreement ECTS credits: 30 Supervisor: Prof. Alexander Krumer Agreement on electronic publication of master thesis Author(s) have copyright to the thesis, including the exclusive right to publish the document (The Copyright Act §2). All theses fulfilling the requirements will be registered and published in Brage HiM, with the approval of the author(s). Theses with a confidentiality agreement will not be published. I/we hereby give Molde University College the right to, free of charge, make the thesis available for electronic publication: yes no Is there an agreement of confidentiality? yes no (A supplementary confidentiality agreement must be filled in) - If yes: Can the thesis be online published when the period of confidentiality is expired? yes no Date: Acknowledgement I would like to thank HiMolde university for accepting me for the program and being a great support during these amazing two years. I am forever grateful to Professor Alexander Krumer who has given me the opportunity to work on the subject I am truly excited about, helped me craft the idea of my thesis, given me a tremendous amount of valuable feedback and been my mentor every step of the way. Special thank you to my wife Oksana Nastasiy who has always been my second pair of eyes in all my endeavors. Finally, I'd like to thank my family for being my eternal support. Abstract Research question. The paper studies the effect of matches scheduled on Saturdays on stadium attendance in the Norwegian Eliteserien division. Research method. We estimate how scheduling the match on Saturday influences the stadium attendance using data on every match in the seasons from 2009 to 2019 of the Norwegian Eliteserien. We estimate various specifications using the OLS method with robust residuals. Results and findings. There is a significant positive effect of Saturday matches on stadium attendance of Eliteserien teams. Implications. The results of this study suggest that it is possible to achieve financial improvements if more football matches were scheduled on Saturday. 6 Table of contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 List of Tables .................................................................................................................................................. 8 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 2. Description of the Norwegian football ...................................................................................... 11 Norwegian football market ..................................................................................................................... 11 Description of Eliteserien ........................................................................................................................ 14 Eliteserien schedule ................................................................................................................................ 15 Chapter 3. Data ........................................................................................................................................... 18 Theoretical framework ............................................................................................................................ 18 Eliteserien average attendance ............................................................................................................... 20 Eliteserien attendance ............................................................................................................................ 22 Descriptive analysis ................................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 4. Estimation strategy .................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 5. Estimation results ...................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 36 References ................................................................................................................................................... 38 Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 41 7 List of Tables Table 1. Classification of football markets ................................................................................................. 13 Table 2. Eliteserien tournament structure ................................................................................................. 15 Table 3. The distribution of matches by days of the week, number of matches ....................................... 17 Table 4. The distribution of matches by kick-off time, number of matches .............................................. 18 Table 5. Average attendance in Eliteserien and Allsvenskan ..................................................................... 19 Table 6. Average attendance per club in Eliteserien .................................................................................. 23 Table 7. Eliteserien club’s average seasonal attendance ........................................................................... 25 Table 8. Eliteserien club’s average seasonal share of capacity .................................................................. 26 Table 9. Descriptive statistics ...................................................................................................................... 28 Table 10. The distribution of May 16 matches by teams ........................................................................... 30 Table 11. OLS estimation results ................................................................................................................. 34 List of Figures Figure 1a. Frequency of Sunday and Saturday matches from total matches in Eliteserien ....................................... 16 Figure 1b. Frequency of Sunday matches with KOT 18:00 or later from total Sunday matches in Eliteserien ........... 16 Figure 2. Frequency of Sunday and Saturday matches from total matches in summer in Eliteserien ....................... 16 Figure 3a. Frequency of Sunday matches with KOT 18:00 or later from total Sunday matches, by week number in