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In 1964, Neale suggested, in addition to competitive balance, a league standing effect that was never tested per se with empirical data. A model that explains fan attendance in the French football Ligue 1 over 2008-2011 is presented. It takes on-board point difference with the closest competitor chasing a different sporting stake, and positive and negative changes regarding the different sporting stakes. Econometric testing exhibits a negative impact of point difference (i.e., a positive impact of the possibilities of changes), a positive impact of positive changes, and no significant impact of negative changes.
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Andreff et al. (2014) studied this question.
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