Effects of large gatherings on the COVID-19 epidemic: Evidence from professional and college sports

Patrick R Carlin; Paul Minard; Daniel H Simon; Coady Wing

doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101033

Effects of large gatherings on the COVID-19 epidemic: Evidence from professional and college sports

Econ Hum Biol. 2021 Dec:43:101033. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101033. Epub 2021 Jul 1.

Authors

Patrick R Carlin¹, Paul Minard², Daniel H Simon¹, Coady Wing³

Affiliations

¹ O'Neill School, Indiana University, 1315 E 10th St, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
² Cégep Heritage College, Gatineau, QC, Canada.
³ O'Neill School, Indiana University, 1315 E 10th St, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. Electronic address: cwing@indiana.edu.

Abstract

We compare COVID-19 case loads and mortality across counties that hosted more versus fewer NHL hockey games, NBA basketball games, and NCAA basketball games during the early months of 2020, before any large outbreaks were identified. We find that hosting one additional NHL/NBA game in March 2020 leads to an additional 7520 cases and 658 deaths. Similarly, we find that hosting an additional NCAA Division 1 men's basketball game in March 2020 results in an additional 34 deaths. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the per-game fatality costs were 200-300 times greater than per-game spending.

Keywords: Health economics; Pandemics; Population health; Quasi-experiments.

MeSH terms

Basketball*
COVID-19*
Hockey*
Humans
Male
SARS-CoV-2