Baseball Attendance and Economics 101

I read a report recently noting the fact that attendance at baseball games rose in 2007 and that the same trend is holding for this season. All of this, of course, is occurring in the midst of the inverse pushes of a declining economy and increasing ticket prices. Is it surprising to think that more people are heading to the ballpark despite the economic downturn?

Classic Economics 101 would not say despite—it would declare ‘because.’ An application of the theory of opportunity cost would yield the explanation that in “bad times,” when people are making less money, their time becomes cheaper. That is, you are more able to afford to spend three hours at the ballpark because three hours in the office is less valuable. Conversely, when things are “good” ones time becomes more valuable and therefore the cost of spending time at the park rises. Moreover, despite

I myself always take “theory” with a grain of salt. This is partly because theory is usually developed in a vacuum and also because baseball fans probably don’t work out theory in their heads to the degree that economists do. Still this is interesting. I think another reason attendance could rise in times of stress is that entertainment provides escapism. For instance, movie attendance skyrocketed during WWII. The same, perhaps, hold with sports. All of this goes to show why, no matter how much or how little money is in American pockets, people always turn out at the ballpark.