A Critical Realist-Behavioural Economics Hybrid Theory of Sports Attendance Demand: The View from the Other Side of the Dividing Line in Economics

This chapter begins from the question, ‘if we don’t start from the standard economic agent, what does a theory of and research strategy for sports attendance demand look like?’ In order to develop an answer to this question over a series of sections, I first ‘go back to basics’ on the understanding that there is a divide in economics and much of sports attendance demand research is on one side of that divide. In a series of sections, I develop a set of concepts drawing on critical realism, in order to eventually place attendance demand within an open systems non-atomistic agent-structure framework. I then turn to behavioural economics and make the case that Daniel Kahneman’s work can be resituated within this approach. Finally, I discuss a research strategy consistent with the framework developed.