Misure Antiviolenza e Presenze allo Stadio: Una Indagine Empirica sulla Serie A

This paper aims at investigating the impact on Italian Serie A attendance of the urgent antiviolence measures adopted by the Italian government in 2007 (decree n.8 of 8th February 2007, successively converted by law 4th April 2007). These urgent measures were forced by the public opinion after the death of the agent Filippo Raciti (2nd February 2007) during clashes before the Sicilian derby between Catania and Palermo. The purpose was to force back the overexcited committed fans and attract the uncommitted part previously deterred by soccer violence. Using data on match attendance during the championships 2008/09 and 2009/10, when the fidelity fan card was introduced and admittance restrictions adopted, the paper tests if the expected substitution effect between committed and uncommitted fans was effective. Results show that the different measures adopted by Comitato per la Sicurezza delle Manifestazioni Sportive (CASMS) and by the Osservatorio Nazionale delle Manifestazioni Sportive (ONMS) reduced the stadium attendance from a minimum of 1.600 to a maximum of 1.900 tickets sold. From this perspective the fidelity fan card can not be considered a successful measure (it has not been able to invert the negative trend of stadium attendance in Serie A of the last three decades. [...]