The Curious Case of the Missing Social Agent in Sports Economics

In this chapter I explore an extensive survey of published literature on the economics of sports attendance demand. I break this down into publication before and after the establishment of dedicated sports economics journals. My focus is the concept of an economic agent and I make the case that this has, for various reasons, been adopted and adapted from the discipline at large. I argue that this has definite limits since sports attendance is a quintessentially social activity and this sits awkwardly with this concept of an agent. This leads to the conclusion that there is a debate to be had which has not yet been had.