The Price of Stardom: Investigating the Link Between Star Power and Pro Sports Ticket Costs (2023)
Undergraduates: Cole Morse, Liliana Ferreira, Madeline Peronto, John Renegar
Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Jensen
Department: Exercise and Sport Science
The purpose of this research project was to investigate the link between having a star player on a professional sports team and its impact on ticket pricing. It was implemented with an aim of analyzing whether team performance (such as winning percentage and championships) or having a star player was a bigger driver for ticket costs. Data collection took place across all four major professional sports leagues (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB). Data analysis was conducted utilizing a hierarchical regression model through IBM SPSS. The average ticket price for a team was used as the dependent variable. In addition to other predictors, the star power variable was operationalized to account for the top five players in each professional league based on average salary data. Based on this criteria, a team with a star would receive a 1, and a team without would have a 0. Running the model displayed a final output suggesting star power was non-significant. All predictors involved had unstandardized coefficients in the expected direction but the average attendance at home games for a respective team was the only statistically significant predictor in the model when controlling for all other variables involved. The findings from this project suggest that having a star does influence ticket prices, but it may not be as significant as previously thought. Higher attendance numbers contributed significantly to the average ticket price, suggesting a larger emphasis could be placed on filling stadiums and arenas.
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