Date of Award

8-2024

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Science in Information Systems and Technology

Department

Information and Decision Sciences

First Reader/Committee Chair

Dr. Conrad Shayo

Abstract

When COVID-19 struck, the world was in disarray for any sporting event. The Culminating Experience Project investigated the impact of COVID-19 on the National Football League (NFL). The research questions were: Q1: How were the NFL stadium attendances impacted before the COVID-19 closures (2016 – 2019)? Q2: How were the NFL stadium attendances impacted due to closures during the COVID-19 stadium closures (2019 – 2021)? Q3: How were the NFL stadiums impacted post-COVID-19 (2021 – 2023)? The data collected covers all 32 NFL teams from 2019 to 2023, including attendance rates on and off the field influencing factors.

The findings are Q1. Every team in this study experienced decreased stadium attendance in the 2019–2021 seasons and fan attendance rates. Q2: In calculating these factors that influenced the NFL teams' fan attendance for the years 2019 - 2021 during COVID-19, I revealed that 21.44% of the variations in stadium attendance were explained by factors such as the variations in stadium attendance were explained by factors such as stadium capacity, PCT (winning percentage), total average, home total, away total, away average, and home average were the main variables influencing attendance. The dependent variable is fan attendance compared to the COVID-19 period. Q3: The results from the first model, which uses data from 2005 to 2022, demonstrate changes in the factors that affect fan attendance compared to the COVID-19 period. The stats will show that for the years (2021 to 2023), fan attendance increased right after COVID-19.

In conclusion, during COVID-19, there were restrictions like social distancing in places that caused everyone to abide by the state laws that were in place. These laws took place during COVID-19 (2019 – 2020), significantly decreasing all sporting events regarding fan attendance. Based on the stats of the number of attendees, there were no signs of a drop in fan attendance before COVID-19. Changes show that the decrease only occurred during COVID-19.

Areas for further study include (a) the Overall national and state economic impact of COVID-19 from revenue from the sports economy in the USA and globally and (b) the impact of the pandemic on other sporting events.

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