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Testing the effect of kick-off time in the UEFA Europa League

ABSTRACT Research Question: The paper analyzes whether different kick-off times have an effect on attendance and performance of teams in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League. Research Methods: I use data on all of the games from the group stage of the UEFA Europa League between the 2009/10 and 2015/16 seasons that took place in time zones CET and CET + 1. I estimate the average treatment effect of the kick-off time by using the distance-weighted radius matching approach with bias adjustment. Results and Findings: There is less attendance as a share of the capacity of the stadiums in games that kick off at 21:05 CET compared to games that start at 19:00 CET. In addition, in games that begin later (21:05) a team with a lower UEFA ranking has a significantly lower home advantage compared to games that begin earlier (19:00). Implications: The results of this study suggest that a lower ranked team that competes three times at home at 21:05 CET loses on average about 270,000 Euros from lower revenue from tickets and UEFA prizes. Additionally, a lower number of points reduces the chances of qualifying for the next round of competition, which is a much larger loss of at least 800,000 Euros, not counting all other revenue from tickets and advertising in more advanced stages of competition. Hence, it seems to be an important organizational task to adjust kick-off times in a way that eliminates any advantage driven by the schedule.