The Price of Stardom: Investing 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 & 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 the 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 were collected across all four major professional sports leagues (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB) and analyzed using a hierarchical regression model. The average ticket price for each team was used as the dependent variable. Results suggest star power was non-significant, however, the effect was seen to contribute an increase of roughly $7 to the average ticket price. 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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