An investigation of the relationship between television broadcasting and game attendance

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between whether a major conference NCAA Division I men's college basketball game was televised and game attendance during the 2003–2004 and 2004–2005 seasons. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine this relationship while controlling for 19 other potentially confounding variables. A significant regression model was created (F = 111.586, p < 0.001), explaining 77.6% of the variance in game attendance. The model estimated that men's basketball game attendance increased by 564 spectators when a game was broadcast on television, ceteris paribus, representing a 6.3% increase over the mean game attendance of 8892. These findings support practitioners broadcasting home men's basketball games on television, as television broadcasting was found to be significantly related to a substantial increase in game attendance in the population studied.