Description
Book SynopsisWhat economic rules govern sports? How does the sports business differ from other businesses? This title takes a look at the fundamental economic relationships shaping modern sports. It focuses on the ways that the sports business does and does not overlap with economics. It uncovers the core paradox at the heart of the sports industry.
Trade Review"Mr. Szymanski, an economics professor at the Cass Business School at City University in London, tackles the apparent paradoxes of the sports business in the head-on style of an N.F.L. linebacker... He displays an impressive global knowledge of sports ranging from basketball and cricket to tennis and rugby, and provides a wealth of revealing financial information as well as entertaining sports trivia."--Harry Hurt III, New York Times "Playbooks and Checkbooks is not a snoozer but a sleeper; equal parts eminently readable and wholly fascinating... Szymanski's non-elaborated notion places his book with the best art history, for art also is a creature of its time."--David M. Gordon, The Browser "Szymanski covers most relevant topics in modern sports economic theory in a very elegant and in my opinion comprehensible fashion. Personally, I really enjoyed his explanation of wage formation in sports labour markets, and his (sociological/historical) views on the development of sport as business... It is well written, well structured and sometimes even funny."--Kjetil K. Haugen, Nordic Sport Studies Forum
Table of ContentsPreface vii Chapter One: Sports and Business 1 Chapter Two: Organizing Competition 27 Chapter Three: Sports and Antitrust 59 Chapter Four: Sporting Incentives 92 Chapter Five: Sports and Broadcasting 125 Chapter Six: Sports and the Public Purse 155 Epilogue 180 A Beginner's Guide to the Sports Economics Literature 185 Acknowledgments 197 Index 199
