After International Tournaments: Spectator Attendance at Domestic Professional Baseball Games in Taiwan

Abstract

Most people believe a good performance by a national team in an international sports tournament can enhance the domestic interest in that sport. By examining the case of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan, this paper investigates the follow-up influence of international tournaments on attendance at domestic games. It has been found that people react differently to tournaments held in and out of Taiwan and to mega and non-mega events. If the national team participates in a mega international tournament abroad, attendance at the CPBL games for the following season increases by 770 people or 24.3% per game. However, for non-mega international tournaments, the attendance effects differ based on how well the national team performs. If the national team cannot beat at least 78% of the teams in a non-mega tournament abroad or half of the teams in a tournament held in Taiwan, the average attendance may fall.

国际比赛后:台湾国内职业棒球赛之观众人数

大多数人认为国家队在国际体育赛事中的出色表现可以增强国内对这项运动的兴趣。本文以台灣的中華職棒大聯盟(CPBL)在为例, 探讨国际赛事对觀眾參與國內賽事的后续影响。人们对台湾内外举办的國際比賽以及大型和非大型赛事的反应不同。如果国家队参加海外的大型国际赛事, 下个赛季CPBL比赛的觀眾入場人數将增加770人, 即每场比赛增加24.3%。然而, 对于非大型国际比賽, 觀眾入場人數的不同取决于国家队的表现。如果国家队在非大型海外的比賽中不能击败至少78%的球队, 或者在台湾舉辦的比賽中不能击败一半的球队, 平均入場人數可能会下降。

Keywords:

• International tournaments
• attendance analysis
• CPBL
• OLS regression
• national identity

关键词:

• 国际比赛
• 觀眾入場分析
• CPBL
• OLS回归
• 国家认同

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ted Chang

Ted Chang (Ph.D., National Taiwan University, Taiwan) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica. Dr. Chang’s research interest includes economics of sports, applied economics, labor economics, and big data analytics.