Professional sporting events and traffic: Evidence from U.S. cities

Sporting events concentrate people in facilities on game day. No evidence currently exists linking sporting events to traffic conditions. We analyze urban mobility data from 25 metropolitan areas with Major League Baseball (MLB) teams over the period 1990–2014. MLB‐related travel accounts for at most 0.5 percent of annual metropolitan area vehicle‐miles traveled (VMT). Instrumental variable regression results indicate MLB attendance causes an increase of about 5 million VMT, about 28,000 additional annual hours of traffic delay, and over $7 million annually in social costs from CO2 emissions in host cities. MLB games generate congestion externalities.