Sports Economics

A presentation on the 2012 peer-reviewed article by lecturer Liam Lenten, which appeared recently in the journal Applied Economics Letters, entitled: “The Underdog Should Always Fire the First Salvo against Brazil”, which tests the old myth in football that it is unwise for an opposition team to score early in any game against the almighty Brazilians.

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

A guest lecture by John Didulica, currently the Football Operations Manager of Australian domestic league team Melbourne Heart, a former professional footballer, and a lawyer by academic training. He was also at one time the CEO of the player’s union for footballers in Australia, the AFPA. His talk is titled as: "The Business of Football and Footballers: From Maximum Wage to Petrodollars".

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture encompasses two related topics “Public Finance of Sports” and “Subsidies and Economic Impact Analysis”. Both parts of this lecture look at the role of government in the sports industry, and whether or not it should use public taxpayers’ funds to bid to bring the event to town, bring the team to town, or build the new stadium. Where they decide in favour of doing so (even when it would run at a substantial financial loss), we also explain the reasons behind such a decision. We use the FIFA World Cup and IOC Summer Olympic Games as case studies, and investigate both the pros and cons of public expenditure in sport. Numerous concepts from standard microeconomics are also invoked here, such as monopoly power, winner’s curse, direct and indirect costs and benefits, and multipliers.

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture encompasses two related topics “Public Finance of Sports” and “Subsidies and Economic Impact Analysis”. Both parts of this lecture look at the role of government in the sports industry, and whether or not it should use public taxpayers’ funds to bid to bring the event to town, bring the team to town, or build the new stadium. Where they decide in favour of doing so (even when it would run at a substantial financial loss), we also explain the reasons behind such a decision. We use the FIFA World Cup and IOC Summer Olympic Games as case studies, and investigate both the pros and cons of public expenditure in sport. Numerous concepts from standard microeconomics are also invoked here, such as monopoly power, winner’s curse, direct and indirect costs and benefits, and multipliers.

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

In this, the final part of three on 'Professional Team Sports Leagues in Australia', we take the modelling from earlier and use it to draw conclusions about what we would expect to find about competitive balance in the AFL over the history of the competition when we look at the figures. We also compare competitive balance in the AFL to the Major Leagues (MLB, NFL and NBA) on one hand, and other pro-sports leagues in Australia (NRL and NBL) on the other hand. The results are mixed - some of these comparisons tell us exactly what we would expect to see, while a few others tell us something contrary to expectations. Some additional figures on the general economic health of the AFL are also discussed.

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

In this, the final part of three on 'Professional Team Sports Leagues in Australia', we take the modelling from earlier and use it to draw conclusions about what we would expect to find about competitive balance in the AFL over the history of the competition when we look at the figures. We also compare competitive balance in the AFL to the Major Leagues (MLB, NFL and NBA) on one hand, and other pro-sports leagues in Australia (NRL and NBL) on the other hand. The results are mixed - some of these comparisons tell us exactly what we would expect to see, while a few others tell us something contrary to expectations. Some additional figures on the general economic health of the AFL are also discussed.

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture, the second of three on 'Professional Team Sports Leagues in Australia', follows on from the previous one insofar that the 'unrestricted' model under the assumption of win-max (AFL) [and compared to profit-max (Major Leagues)], is now 'restricted' with common past and present policies used to ensure competitive balance. These policies include, draft/zoning/reserve clause; salary cap (and minimum salary); gate-revenue sharing; and league-revenue sharing. As we see, the conclusions on the effectiveness (or otherwise) of these policies varies greatly depending on the scenario involved.

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture, the second of three on 'Professional Team Sports Leagues in Australia', follows on from the previous one insofar that the 'unrestricted' model under the assumption of win-max (AFL) [and compared to profit-max (Major Leagues)], is now 'restricted' with common past and present policies used to ensure competitive balance. These policies include, draft/zoning/reserve clause; salary cap (and minimum salary); gate-revenue sharing; and league-revenue sharing. As we see, the conclusions on the effectiveness (or otherwise) of these policies varies greatly depending on the scenario involved.

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Do you question why professional athletes are paid so much money? This lecture delves into labour markets of the professional sports industry, starting with a coverage of both demand and supply in the basic setting, and then considering how the status quo differs in situations that represent common market restrictions in sports, such as 'monopsony power' of firms (teams) leading onto common competitive balance policies, like salary caps and the draft. We also consider some nuances of certain individualistic sports, such as tennis and golf, in which 'rank-order' tournaments are common, and in which 'superstar' effects can arise.

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Do you question why professional athletes are paid so much money? This lecture delves into labour markets of the professional sports industry, starting with a coverage of both demand and supply in the basic setting, and then considering how the status quo differs in situations that represent common market restrictions in sports, such as 'monopsony power' of firms (teams) leading onto common competitive balance policies, like salary caps and the draft. We also consider some nuances of certain individualistic sports, such as tennis and golf, in which 'rank-order' tournaments are common, and in which 'superstar' effects can arise.

Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.