Assignment #3: My Research Paper

My research paper is about the effect of a professional sports franchise's performance on consumer spending. I hope to find out if their is any correlation between the team's record and consumer spending. I want to see if when a team is making a deep playoff run people are spending more money or if they are spending the same amount just in different places. Finding the data has already been a challenge, there are so many factors besides whether or not the home team has a winning record, it may be hard to make any correlation. Also sometimes a teams performance may not have any effect whatsoever. Teams like the Green Bay Packers or the Dallas Cowboys could go 0-16 and they would still sell out every game. This topic has interested me because you can easily tell the difference in attendance at the game and sports bars when teams do well. I have always wondered, are people spending more or are they giving up a night at the movies or something else of equal value for this. I should probably look at attendance figures for the season I am looking at for the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Patriots, as well as see if there is anyway to check the value of tickets that exchanged hands in the secondary market (Ebay, stubhub, craigslist etc.).