FiT Publishing

This study investigates the relationship between consumer discrimination, racial matching strategies, and employer discrimination in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1985 to 2016. Specifically, we assess the extent to which both fan attendance and team performance respond to changes in teams’ and their local market areas’ racial compositions. To this end, we use game-level data (N = 69,239) that we aggregate to the team-season level (N = 866). Using facial recognition software and pictures on more than 7,000 players, each player is assigned to one of three race groups: White, Black, and...Read more

Research presented here aims to contribute to the literature on demand for individual sports and its implications for industry structure. It is argued that “provincial” preferences, that is, a dominant interest in national identification or local stars, might account for the persistence of fragmented governance of boxing. The analyses of a unique dataset on professional free-to-air boxing telecasts in Germany defy the idea that preferences for national idols and local stars are dominant motives for German sports audiences. Local stardom certainly plays an important role, but a strong...Read more