This book is unique in offering the first truly rigorous application of economic principles to the subject of professional team sports.

This revised and updated edition of The Economic Theory of Professional Team Sports elaborates on the themes of the successful first edition of this book.

This book takes an in-depth look at the economics and finance of professional team sports, with a strong focus on applied analysis and performance measurement, to enable students, researchers, and practitioners to develop their professional knowledge of contemporary sport business. It examines the key themes that define professional team sports today, including the unique features of the team sport market place, the operation of leagues, competitive balance, salary caps, draft systems, income from broadcasting rights, the role of agents, and governance and financial regulation. It analyses the functional aspects of sport finance including where the money flows in and out, how to measure performance holistically, and how to interpret the financial performance of professional sport teams. It also covers emerging and disruptive forces that may shape the market in the future. It includes real- world cases and data in every chapter, including sports from football to Formula 1 and the NFL to the NBA, covering both established and emerging markets around the world. No other book offers such an up-to-date and practical guide to the most important sector of international sport business. This book is essential reading for courses in sport finance and economics, sport business, sport media and marketing, international business, or the economics of service and entertainment industries, and invaluable reading for any sport business professional looking to improve their professional skills. Daniel Plumley is Principal Lecturer in Sport Finance in the Department of Finance, Accounting and Business Systems in the Sheffield Business School at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. His research interests include performance measurement in professional team sports, the economics and finance of professional team sports, and competitive balance in professional team sports. Rob Wilson is Head of Department in Sheffield Business School’s Department of Finance, Accounting and Business Systems, and member of the Social and Economic Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University, UK specialising in the finance and economics of the sport business industry.

Exploring why professional team sport clubs are almost always able to survive despite financial mismanagement, inflated player salaries and persistent deficits, this book provides new evidence on how to explain this phenomenon. It looks at the context in which many clubs operate – the soft budget constraint – and how the clubs in this respect resemble state-owned enterprises in socialist countries or big banks in financial crises.

The Economics of Sport and Recreation provides a much needed and up-to-date analysis of sport's contribution to the global economy. This new edition covers all aspects of the economics of sport and recreation but gives prominence to the staggering rise of the commercial sector over the last decade. Special attention is paid to the economics of the sports goods industry, the economics of sports sponsorship, the economics of major sports events, the economics of professional team sports, and the economic relationship between sport and broadcasting. In the first edition of this book published in 1985, the emphasis was on the government and voluntary sectors as the lead sectors in the sports market. As we enter the next millennium, it is the commercial sector that is the lead sector in the sports market and this is reflected in the content and structure of the new book. Aimed specifically at students engaged in the study of sport and its interaction with the economy, this book will be an invaluable resource.

In this comprehensive Handbook, John Goddard and Peter Sloane present a collection of analytical contributions by internationally regarded scholars in the field, which extensively examine the many economic challenges facing the world's most popular

Covering a range of issues which players, fans and administrators will have to confront, this study looks at the impact of global marketing industries, shareholding and the financial powers of mass media.

The editors should be commended for taking on such a big task, and succeeding so well. This book should be in the library of every institution where students have to write a paper that may be related to sport, or on the shelf of any lecturer teaching economics or public finance who has even a remote interest in sport. The material is very accessible, and useful in many different settings. Ruud H. Koning, Jahrbücher f. Nationalökonomie u. Statistik Edward Elgar s brilliant market niche is identifying a topic in economics, finding editors who know the area backwards and challenging them to assemble the best cross-section of relevant articles either already published or newly commissioned. Handbook on the Economics of Sport is Edward Elgar at its very best. If you love economics you ll find many fascinating insights here; if you love sport but know little economics then this book is mostly accessible and will teach you a lot; and if you are a sports-mad economist then you will be in hog heaven. Furthermore, if, like this reviewer, you are broadly very sceptical about the reports consultants produce for governments on the supposed economic windfall from hosting a big event or subsidising a stadium then you will get a lot of good counter-arguments in this volume. Indeed there are several chapters on the above theme that I m sure I ll be copying frequently to government officials in years to come. . . The demand for sport is a fascinating subject and it is hard to pick out just one chapter from the second section. Read them all they make a wonderful 65-page treat. . . Part VI was a real feast, a smorgasbord. . . This is a magnificent piece of work and the 36-page index rounds it all off splendidly. John Blundell, Economic Affairs The book covers the most important areas of research of an emerging economic sub-discipline spanning the past half a century. It serves admirably the purpose of an introduction into the rich and growing area of reflection for all concerned. . . the editors and authors of the Handbook have done a commendable job of accumulating sophisticated material for many economists, managers, politicians and self-conscious fans, who are sure to find excellent training ground for the whole heptathlon. . . This book will be invaluable for advanced students investigating professional sport. From the point of view of lawyers, particularly those engaged with the relationship between law and sports governance, the Handbook offers invaluable analysis of the economic issues that are alluded to in those debates but rarely examined in detail. . . These insights will also prove useful for policy analysts and sports administrators for whom many sections should be considered mandatory reading. Aleksander Sulejewicz, Journal of Contemporary European Research Over 800 pages on the economics of sport. What a feast! What a treat! The editors have done a wonderful job both in terms of breadth from David Beckham to child labour in Pakistan and depth, tournaments and luxury taxes for example. . . The 86 chapters are uniformly of a very high standard and illuminating. And there are real gems in some of the contributions. British Journal on the Economics of Sport This very interesting and comprehensive book achieves its objective, namely to present an overview of research in sports economics at an introductory level. . . [The editors] have produced an excellent reference book that belongs in all academic institutions libraries. It provides extensive introduction to the growing body of literature in the rising field of economics of sport. The book s relevant monographs should be read by institutions, cities and countries prior to their committing major resources towards sports facilities or a sporting event. James Angresano, Journal of Sports Economics One could think of this book as the sports-and-economics counterpart to Joy of Cooking, because it will satisfy the needs of those with a keen interest in such subjects as the