The Calciopoli episode affecting Italian football in the 2005–6 season serves as an opportunity for an empirical investigation into consumer (fan) behavior, following league-imposed punishments on clubs whose officials were found guilty of corrupt practices.
Using a difference-in-differences estimation method, we find that home attendances for convicted teams fell by around 16%, relative to those clubs not subject to punishment.We show further that the fall in attendances resulted in non-trivial gate revenue reductions.
Our results suggest that a sizeable number of fans of the punished clubs were subsequently deterred from supporting their teams inside the stadium.