{"title":"The Silence of the Fans: The Impact of Restricted Crowds on the Margin of Victory in the NBA","authors":"Henry Steinfeldt, Sören Dallmeyer, C. Breuer","doi":"10.32731/ijsf/173.082022.04","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the impact of restricted crowds caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the margin of victory of games in the NBA. Using 12,500 game-level observations from 11 NBA seasons from 2010/11 to 2020/21, the study first shows that during the COVID-19 season of 2020/21, games had a greater average margin of victory than any of the prior seasons. Regression results reveal that games played in front of restricted crowds were more likely to be won by a margin of 15, 20, or 25 points than games played in front of non-restricted crowds. The results indicate similar effects for games played in an empty arena or in front of a small crowd. Implications for the NBA and other major team sports leagues are discussed.","PeriodicalId":45894,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Sport Finance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Sport Finance","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.32731/ijsf/173.082022.04","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of restricted crowds caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the margin of victory of games in the NBA. Using 12,500 game-level observations from 11 NBA seasons from 2010/11 to 2020/21, the study first shows that during the COVID-19 season of 2020/21, games had a greater average margin of victory than any of the prior seasons. Regression results reveal that games played in front of restricted crowds were more likely to be won by a margin of 15, 20, or 25 points than games played in front of non-restricted crowds. The results indicate similar effects for games played in an empty arena or in front of a small crowd. Implications for the NBA and other major team sports leagues are discussed.