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Since the appearance of Simon Rottenberg's seminal paper on the baseball players' labour market in the Journal of Political Economy (1956), the literature on the economics of professional team sports has increased rapidly, fuelled by major changes in the restrictive rules which had pervaded these sports, themselves a consequence of battles in the courts and the collective bargaining arena. These changes have not been limited to North America, to which most of the literature relates, but also apply to Western Europe and Australia in particular. This monograph surveys this literature covering those various parts of the world in order to draw out both theoretical and empirical aspects. However, to argue that the existence of what is now an extensive literature “justifies” such a survey on professional team sports clearly begs a number of questions. Justification can be found in at least two major aspects.

One of the principal findings of the most recent enquiry into professional football was that: “Running a successful league club is now a major commercial activity”. In general terms, professional football clubs too were confronted with financial and management problems.

For managers of sports leagues, it is crucial to produce an attractive competition. For that to happen, it is vital to consider that leagues frequently have more sub-competitions than “just” the championship. In European top football leagues, for instance, four sub-competitions are common (championship, qualification for Champions- or Europa League, avoiding relegation). This paper introduces a new method for measuring competitive intensity (CI) in round-robin sports leagues considering all relevant sub-competitions and applies it to Germany's Bundesliga.

The newly developed model calculates a CI-Index for each sub-competition and the league as a whole. The application to the Bundesliga analyzes its viability and the development of the league's CI over the past 22 seasons.

The newly introduced CI-Indices prove to be a viable tool for evaluating a league's competitive intensity. The application to the Bundesliga shows that the seasonal CI dropped after 2009/10, which can mainly be attributed to a decline in the championship's CI.

The results show that it is important to facilitate a high CI in each of Bundesliga's four sub-competitions. Efforts have to be made to ensure that especially the Europa League remains as attractive as possible for the participating teams and their fans because this sub-competition constantly makes the greatest contribution to the seasonal CI.

The new method measures competitive intensity by quantifying the different sub-competitions and their contribution to the seasonal CI. This allows the organizers of sports leagues to assess the intensity of the individual sub-competitions as well as the league as a whole.

The Premier League (PL) and the Bundesliga (BL) were chosen for this study due to their fundamentally different approaches to ownership regulation and the distribution of media revenues. Regulation in the PL is very liberal if compared to the BL's 50+1-rule. In the BL, the distribution of media revenues is mainly based on past performance, whereas equal distribution is dominant in the PL. The specific aim of this paper was a longitudinal analysis with a focus on the final outcome of the seasons.

This study looks at competitive intensity (CI) in the men's BL and the English PL because it is a crucial indicator for the long-term success of a sports league and the participants. To calculate the CI of both leagues and of all relevant sub-competitions (championship, Champions League (CL), Europa League (EL), Conference League (CoL) and fight against relegation), a CI index (CII) model was generalised and applied for an examination period spanning from 1998/99 to 2020/21.

Until 2008/09, seasonal CI in the BL was somewhat higher than in the PL. But afterwards, the BL's championship race's CI dropped considerably, while the PL's CI for qualification for the CL rose profoundly. Results also showed that the introduction of the CoL raised the leagues' CI indices.

Besides a methodological contribution with the generalisation of the applied CI index model, the findings are discussed in the context of the above-mentioned regulatory and distribution mechanisms also taking into account the very current discussion regarding general regulatory changes within European football.

Global reach, together with rapidly increasing broadband coverage, makes the internet a potentially interesting distribution channel for video highlights and full-match viewings. This study investigateswillingness to pay as well as consumer preferences for type of report to derive marketing implications for soccer clubs. Survey results from more than 12,000 respondents supporting seven soccer clubs in the German first and second divisions underline the potential of this new distribution channel in finding a high average willingness to pay.

The purpose of this paper is to examine factors influencing the audience demand for televised post-season games of the Korean professional baseball league.

The data were collected from a total of 129 games – the entire post-season games from 2008 to 2016. Two dependent variables representing audience demand for televised baseball matches, obtained from the third-party television audit company AGB Nielsen, were regressed on a series of match-related and unrelated antecedent factors associated with each match. Pooled OLS regression with wild bootstrap standard errors with 100,000 replications was applied in the analysis.

Regarding match-related factors, higher television ratings and the greater numbers of television viewers were associated with matches with greater significance, outcome uncertainty and score sum. In terms of the match-unrelated factors, the broadcast platform appeared to be the most powerful predictor of both television ratings and the numbers of viewers. Other than the broadcast platform, night matches, matches with full stadium occupancy and team values showed positive impacts on both the television ratings and the numbers of viewers.

The sales of media rights and sponsorships are the major sources of revenues for professional sports leagues, and the size of these two streams of revenues is in proportion to the size of the audience demand for television and other media. This study provides valuable insights to the sports marketers of professional sports clubs and leagues by establishing proper understanding of the determinants of the audience demand for televised sports.

The characteristics specific to each professional league and country play unique roles in determining the antecedent factors of audience demand for televised sports; this study is one of the few attempts to examine Koran professional baseball league.

This paper analyses the media ownership of professional sports teams. The theory of vertical integration is used to identify internal efficiency gains, lower uncertainty and increased market power as general explanations. The industryspecific reasons are examined, particularly the importance of securing access to broadcasting rights. The potential implications for teams, leagues and fans are discussed. It is suggested that media ownership of teams may undermine the sporting and financial viability of leagues thus necessitating intervention by sports administrators and government regulators.

The present study aims to examine the impact of corporate governance quality on the capital structure of European soccer clubs and specifically on the level of debt that soccer clubs decide to issue.

A sample from 67 European soccer clubs over the period of 2005-2009 was analyzed, and panel data techniques were performed to assess the impact of specific corporate governance provisions on the capital structure of football clubs (FCs).

Evidence indicate that efficient corporate governance mechanisms such as the increased board size and independence and the existence of more dispersed ownership (managerial and institutional) result in a reduction in the level of leverage and debt, thus reducing the risk of financial instability.

This evidence suggests that corporate governance could be used as a monitoring mechanism for reducing the fictitious level of debt that characterizes the majority of European soccer clubs. This study could prove useful to Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) regulators because it provides an additional insight for the importance of establishing sound governance principles in European soccer so as to enhance the effectiveness of the recent “financial fair play” regulation which was launched in 2010, as well as to improve the financial status of the clubs and sustain their future viability.

This is the first study internationally that examines capital structure within FCs, thus extending the existent empirical evidence in the literature and adding to a growing body of research on the issues of corporate governance and financing decisions.

Two of the primary growth strategies for Major League Soccer (MLS) have been team expansion and the construction of soccer-specific stadiums. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship between these factors and game-specific MLS spectator attendance.

Two multiple regression models, one using multi-level mixed effects linear regression and another using interval regression, were developed to explain the variation in attendance utilizing the two factors of interest along with other control factors that have been identified as attendance determinants in previous literature. Game-specific data were collected for five MLS seasons, 2007-2011.

The two regression models explained approximately 40 percent of the variation in spectator attendance and the results showed that expansion teams and soccer-specific stadiums were significantly related to attendance. However, the effect of soccer-specific stadiums was minimized due to the extreme success of the Seattle Sounders in drawing about twice as many fans as the next highest drawing franchise, yet playing in an American football stadium.

While many of the standard factors such as the presence of holidays and novelty players, competition from other professional teams, and day of week, competition from other professional teams; team quality failed to show significance. Expansion teams drew better than incumbent teams and the impact from soccer-specific stadia is weak given the success of the Seattle franchise (and possibly negative when excluding Seattle). Censoring of the dependent variable had a discernible impact on many of the attendance factors.

These findings may be useful to managers of MLS and their teams along with other professional teams and/or leagues that are investigating the use of either team expansion or the construction of new facilities to increase spectator attendance.

This is the first study to investigate the relationship between expansion and new stadium construction in MLS over multiple years. The results indicate that MLS’s decision to use team expansion and the construction of soccer-specific stadiums has been beneficial with respect to spectator attendance.

The introduction of professionalism in 1995 posed serious challenges for Rugby Union in Ireland, Scotland and Wales given their limited fan bases and broadcast markets. It led to the creation of a new league, the Pro14, with teams from all three countries. The paper asks whether the Pro14 has been a success and whether it might offer lessons for other sports. It thus seeks to extend the knowledge base on professional team sports and derive lessons for management of professional sports leagues in small countries.

The authors analyse Pro14 performance using a range of metrics, including attendances, competitive balance and team performances, in European competitions. The authors also analyse the limited financial data available for Pro14 teams.

Pro14 teams have competed successfully in European competition, offering support for claims that mergers of smaller country leagues could improve competitive balance in European soccer. The Pro14 has increased attendances through specific measures and increased broadcast income through geographic expansion. Many Pro14 teams have struggled financially. Several English and French rugby clubs have also experienced financial problems, suggesting that European rugby may need to introduce financial fair play rules (FFPs) similar to soccer.

The paper has implications for the Pro14 and its member clubs, particularly with reference to competition design. It may also have lessons for European football where some have suggested that mergers of smaller country leagues could improve competitive balance in European competitions.

The paper contributes to the academic discussion on professional team sports, particularly Rugby Union. The paper has implications for Pro14 clubs and league organisers, particularly with reference to competition design. It may also have lessons for European soccer where some have suggested that mergers of smaller country leagues could reduce the dominance of larger country leagues.