Does competitive balance explain stadium attendance? Evidence from Finnish men’s football

Figures & data

Figure 1. Average attendance of the championship series (mestaruussarja 1948–1989) and Veikkausliiga (1990–2022), time period of 1948–2022.

Source: The Football Association of Finland statistics.

Table 1. Veikkausliiga teams in the 2023 season (summer season from April to October), ordered by the number of seasons played in the top tier league.

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity	# of seasons
HJK	Helsinki	Bolt Arena	10,770	83
KuPS	Kuopio	Savon Sanomat Areena	5,000	65
FC Haka	Valkeakoski	Tehtaankenttä	3,516	64
VPS	Vaasa	Elisa Stadion	6,009	57
FC Lahti	Lahti	Lahti	4,000	49
Ilves	Tampere	Tampere Stadion	16,800	40
FC Inter	Turku	Veritas Stadion	9,372	25
IFK Mariehamn	Mariehamn	Wiklöf Holding Arena	1,650	17
FC Honka	Espoo	TapiolanUrheilupuisto	4,100	13
SJK	Seinäjoki	OmaSP Stadion	6,000	11
KTP	Kotka	Arto Tolsa Arena	4,780	9
AC Oulu	Oulu	Raatti Stadium	4,392	3

Note: Number of seasons includes seasons played in Veikkausliiga (1990–present) and preceding Mestaruussarja (1948–1989) and seasons of predecessor teams after season 2022. In the case of mergers, the seasons of the predecessor with the most seasons are counted.

Figure 2. Personal investment theory and its relationship to other attendance theories.

Table 2. Explanatory variables for mean attendance of Veikkausliiga football matches. Time series of veikkausliiga 1947–2022. Variables in differences (variables tested for no unit roots).

	Dependent variable: Attendance
	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
UOH	−0.232***	−0.225***	−0.236***	−0.215***	−0.224***
	−0.074	−0.073	−0.071	−0.075	−0.074
# of goals	−0.115	−0.11		−0.123	0.259*
	−0.22	−0.217		−0.227	−0.146
# of teams	−0.680**	−0.726**	−0.800***		−0.567*
	−0.32	−0.309	−0.297		−0.289
# of games	0.552**	0.561**	0.488***	0.35
	−0.268	−0.265	−0.17	−0.258
Alcohol consumption	−0.161
	−0.298
Population	7.596	5.311
	−6.93	−5.937
Income	0.013**	0.011*	0.011*	0.012**	0.011*
	−0.006	−0.006	−0.006	−0.006	−0.006
Unemployment	0.003
	−0.006
Constant	−0.081	−0.051	−0.024	−0.025	−0.022
	−0.067	−0.037	−0.023	−0.024	−0.024
Observations	72	72	72	72	72
R^2	0.265	0.254	0.242	0.164	0.187
Adjusted R^2	0.171	0.185	0.197	0.114	0.139
Residual Std. Error	0.152	0.151	0.15	0.157	0.155
	(df = 63)	(df = 65)	(df = 67)	(df = 67)	(df = 67)
F Statistic	2.836***	3.694***	5.351***	3.275**	3.861***
	(8;63)	(6; 65)	(4; 67)	(4; 67)	(4; 67)

Note: All variables tested for unit-root properties. Variables in difference of logs-format.Autocorrelation, het.sked. and stationarity tests are robust.Unit roots tested by using traditional Dickey-Fuller procedure⁶⁰ and with a modified D-F test.⁶¹