David George Surdam
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037139
- eISBN:
- 9780252094248
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037139.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter is a general overview of the economic aspects of professional team sports leagues as well as the American economy. The NBA's turbulent birth as the BAA demonstrated that professional ...
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This chapter is a general overview of the economic aspects of professional team sports leagues as well as the American economy. The NBA's turbulent birth as the BAA demonstrated that professional sports team owners' twin advantages of price-setting power over ticket prices and enhanced bargaining power over players were not sufficient conditions to ensure profitability. Price-setting power without sufficient demand could still lead to losses. The challenge was to increase demand, which would have led to higher ticket prices, more attendance, and greater revenues and profits. Greater profits would have enabled owners to pay higher salaries and to improve conditions, helping to erase any fly-by-night image. Thus the chapter looks at the issues surrounding profits, player salaries, technology, expansions, discrimination, and so on; as well as how the American economy performed during the years 1945–61 and how it affected attendance and demand for professional team sports leagues.Less
This chapter is a general overview of the economic aspects of professional team sports leagues as well as the American economy. The NBA's turbulent birth as the BAA demonstrated that professional sports team owners' twin advantages of price-setting power over ticket prices and enhanced bargaining power over players were not sufficient conditions to ensure profitability. Price-setting power without sufficient demand could still lead to losses. The challenge was to increase demand, which would have led to higher ticket prices, more attendance, and greater revenues and profits. Greater profits would have enabled owners to pay higher salaries and to improve conditions, helping to erase any fly-by-night image. Thus the chapter looks at the issues surrounding profits, player salaries, technology, expansions, discrimination, and so on; as well as how the American economy performed during the years 1945–61 and how it affected attendance and demand for professional team sports leagues.
Stephen F. Ross and Stefan Szymanski
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804756686
- eISBN:
- 9780804769778
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804756686.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This book is a clarion call to sports fans. It proposes a significant restructuring of sports leagues. The book sets out a rational program for a revolution that will serve the best interests of the ...
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This book is a clarion call to sports fans. It proposes a significant restructuring of sports leagues. The book sets out a rational program for a revolution that will serve the best interests of the fans and of the sport itself. But the book is not Marxist: it shows how a revolution in the organization of sports might even benefit the owners. By harnessing the power of markets, sports leagues can be made both more responsive to the needs of the fans, and more efficient. Many years were spent before this bok was written evaluating the ways in which leagues work across the globe. Drawing on an extensive study of leagues, the book boils down a plan to two major reforms. Borrowing from NASCAR, the book proposes that team owners should not own sports leagues as well. Rather, league ownership should be separate. The second proposal is drawn from soccer: introduce competition through a promotion and relegation system. In this type of system, the worst teams in the league are kicked out at the end of the season and replaced by the best-performing teams in the next division down. This gives poor performing teams incentive to step up their game, and allows fresh blood to enter the leagues if the poor performers fail to do so.Less
This book is a clarion call to sports fans. It proposes a significant restructuring of sports leagues. The book sets out a rational program for a revolution that will serve the best interests of the fans and of the sport itself. But the book is not Marxist: it shows how a revolution in the organization of sports might even benefit the owners. By harnessing the power of markets, sports leagues can be made both more responsive to the needs of the fans, and more efficient. Many years were spent before this bok was written evaluating the ways in which leagues work across the globe. Drawing on an extensive study of leagues, the book boils down a plan to two major reforms. Borrowing from NASCAR, the book proposes that team owners should not own sports leagues as well. Rather, league ownership should be separate. The second proposal is drawn from soccer: introduce competition through a promotion and relegation system. In this type of system, the worst teams in the league are kicked out at the end of the season and replaced by the best-performing teams in the next division down. This gives poor performing teams incentive to step up their game, and allows fresh blood to enter the leagues if the poor performers fail to do so.
