Abstract

Tournament design variables -such as the number of teams and matches - affect attendance. This paper provides evidence of how design variables have affected attendance in the Chilean football league. We estimate the annual demand for stadium tickets with tournament design variables among the regressors. The results suggest that moving towards the optimal tournament structure implies fewer teams and more matches. For example, a tournament with 14 teams and 3 rounds of matches (totaling 273 games) -as opposed to the current 16-team, 2-round league structure (240 games)- would increase attendance by 28%.