ECONOMIC EVIDENCE, COMPLEX LITIGATION, AND TIER ONE SOCCER ACROSS BORDERS.

Because of corruption during the bid to host the 2022 World Cup, FIFA awarded the rights to the Qatar Football Association over the U.S. Soccer Federation. Economics studies Of European soccer show that, when a nation hosts a soccer mega-event, its Tier One professional soccer league has a signijicant boost in attendance in the years before and after that event. In prior articles, these authors applied those studies to argue that Major League Soccer could win and enforce a sizeable money judgment against the mastermind Of the corrupt 2022 bidding for lost profits and diminution in value related to the loss of a "World Cup bump" in attendance. Because of questions about the admissibility of econometric testimony that applies models of European soccer attendance to predict how American.fans would respond to a soccer mega-event, the authors gathered data about MLS and French Ligue 1 attendance in the years before and after the Copa America Centenario and European Championship, which in 2016 were hosted by the U.S. and France, respectively. Controlling for other factors that affect attendance, a statistical analysis reveals that the European Championship had a significant impact on Ligue 1 attendance both before and after the event while the Copa America had only a slight impact on MLS attendance before the event and none after. These results call into question the viability of an MLS lawsuit for money damages related to the 2022 World Cup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]