Conference realignment in the FBS and game day attendance: another look

Sixteen Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams that changed conferences during 2004-2010 were used to estimate Tobit regression models via panel methods to examine if realignment affects home-game attendance. A conference change decreases attendance when an instrumented real ticket price is included in the pooled sample. When price is removed from the equation the conference change coefficient is insignificant. The model then is estimated for each post-change year. All coefficients for the conference change variable are insignificant. Second-mover advantages appear to be absent from this group of second-wave conference changers. Also absent is any evidence of a “honeymoon” effect.