NBA sweet spots: Distance‐based impacts on establishment‐level sales

Abstract

This paper examines distance‐based effects of the introduction of a National Basketball Association (NBA) team on establishment‐level sales. Using a unique micro dataset with precise geographic location information and industry detail, we apply spatio‐temporal estimation strategies following Harger et al. and Ahlfeldt and Kavetsos. We build on the literature by focusing on sales activity, a broad measure of economic activity, for industries related to the NBA‐product. Our application considers the relocation of the NBA’s Seattle franchise (Supersonics) to Oklahoma City (Thunder). The results reveal spatially differentiated impacts that would be obscured using data aggregated over space or industry. Specifically, food establishments exhibit increased sales and entertainment establishments exhibit decreased sales relative to establishments in the outer most ring of the study area.

Sports facilities and the local property tax base in recovery

“…Early research focused on income and wages aggregated at metro and county levels (Coates & Humphreys, 1999, 2003, 2011; Jasina & Rotthoff, 2008; Propheter, 2012), with most studies signaling negligible impacts, a result subsequently corroborated by Agha and Rascher (2021) using a larger panel of sports cities. More recent empirical research uses microdata to study business outcomes such as formation, survival, sales, and employment (Harger, Humphreys, & Ross, 2016; Stitzel & Rogers, 2019; Propheter, 2019b; Propheter, 2020a). These studies also generally indicate relatively small to null impacts on industries; though, some industries are more affected than others since the introduction of sports facilities changes the local market for goods and services (Humphreys & Zhou, 2015).…”

Does Proximity to a New Sports Facility Affect Existing Businesses’ Survival Time?

“…The economic development impact of sports facilities has been a popular line of research over the last three decades. Among the economic development outcomes, scholars have investigated are local income (Coates & Humphreys, 1999; Propheter, 2012; Santo, 2005), business formation (Harger et al, 2016), sales (Stitzel & Rogers, 2019), employment (Hudson, 1999; Jasina & Rotthoff, 2008; Propheter, 2019b), wages (Coates & Humphreys, 2003, 2011; Jasina & Rotthoff, 2008), and property values, both residential (Ahlfeldt & Kavetsos, 2014; Ahlfeldt & Maennig, 2010; Feng & Humphreys, 2012, 2018; Tu, 2005) and commercial (Propheter, 2019a). The results from these studies generally find that sports have no effect on local area income, jobs, business formation, or sales; they have positive and potentially offsetting effects on wages in industries associated with sporting events; and they positively impact property prices, a near consensus finding across property types.…”

“…9 A BOT application must also be submitted for each establishment. These features set BOT data apart from other establishment data sources such as Dun and Bradstreet (DB), the derivative panel National Employment Time Series (NETS), and the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which are often used in sports economics research (Harger et al, 2016; Propheter, 2019b; Stitzel & Rogers, 2019). Evidence indicates that DB and NETS data poorly reflect establishment counts for small businesses due to reported data being imputations, and further that the imprecision worsens in more recent years (Barnatchez et al, 2017).…”

Measurement and analysis of neighborhood congestion: Evidence from sidewalk pedestrian traffic and walking speeds

“… 21 21 For example, similar methods could examine the effects of sporting events on pedestrian traffic at different distances from the venue. In a related analysis, Stitzel and Rogers (2019) looked at the effects of the Oklahoma Thunder NBA franchise on establishment‐level sales at different distances from the team's arena. …”