Should football fans pay for security? Effects of a security fee

Sander CJ; Thiem S

Abstract

There is a lively debate on whether football fans should pay a security fee to finance police activities. This paper investigates the price effect on the demand for tickets in a dynamic setting, by considering two subgroups of spectators, namely fans and hooligans. We analyze a situation in which the demand from each subgroup causes a negative social externality for members of the other group but a positive one for members of the same group. We show that charging a security fee may start a dynamic process, leading to fewer fans and more hooligans attending matches and thus, counterintuitively to even more violence. Therefore, the present study provides an argument to refrain from charging a security fee. As an alternative economic solution, we discuss the strategy of outpricing hooligans.