Fan Loyalty and Price Elasticity in Sport: Insights from Major League Baseball’s Post-Pandemic Recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted traditional patterns of sport consumption, raising questions about whether fans would return to stadiums and how sensitive they would be to ticket prices in the recovery period. This study reconceptualizes ticket price elasticity as a market-based indicator of fan loyalty and applies it to Major League Baseball (MLB) during 2021–2023. Using team–season attendance data from Baseball-Reference, primary-market ticket prices from the Team Marketing Report Fan Cost Index, and secondary-market prices from TicketIQ, we estimate log–log fixed-effects panel models to separate causal price responses from popularity-driven correlations. The results show a strongly negative elasticity of attendance with respect to primary-market prices (β ≈ −7.93, p < 0.001), indicating that higher ticket prices substantially reduce attendance, while secondary-market prices are positively associated with attendance, reflecting demand shocks rather than causal effects. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that brand strength, team performance, and game salience significantly moderate elasticity, supporting the interpretation of inelastic demand as revealed loyalty. These findings highlight the potential of elasticity as a Fan Loyalty Index, providing a replicable framework for measuring consumer resilience. The study offers practical insights for pricing strategy, fan segmentation, and engagement, while emphasizing the broader social role of sport in restoring community identity during post-pandemic recovery.