Prior research has suggested that secular competition (e.g., holidays, vacations, travel, ending blue laws, etc.) on Sundays can reduce religious service attendance. The implication is that secular competition is a substitute for religion, not a complement. However, to date, no research has looked specifically at the effect of National Football League home games on Sunday religious service attendance. In this paper, we use attendance data from a United Methodist Church located less than five miles from a National Football League stadium in the Southeastern US from 2010 to 2017 to evaluate whether Sunday home games affect religious service attendance. Adjusting for seasonal variations in attendance, we find that early home football games significantly reduce service attendance. While just a single case study, these findings support the idea that secular events and activities are a substitute for religious attendance and not a complement.

中文翻译：

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周日足球还是教堂？替代品和互补品的案例研究

先前的研究表明，星期日的世俗竞争（例如，假期、假期、旅行、结束蓝色法律等）会减少宗教服务的出席率。这意味着世俗竞争是宗教的替代品，而不是补充。然而，迄今为止，还没有研究专门研究美国国家橄榄球联盟主场比赛对周日宗教服务出勤率的影响。在本文中，我们使用距离美国东南部国家橄榄球联盟体育场不到 5 英里的联合卫理公会教堂 2010 年至 2017 年的出勤数据来评估周日主场比赛是否影响宗教服务出勤率。调整上座率的季节性变化，我们发现早期的主场足球比赛显着降低了上座率。虽然只是一个案例研究，