IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v74y2007i1p204-213.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Freedom of Entry, Market Size, and Competitive Outcome: Evidence from English Soccer

Author

Listed:
  • Babatunde Buraimo
  • David Forrest
  • Robert Simmons

Abstract

A primary prediction of the theory of sports leagues is that teams with higher revenues will have higher league positions or winning percentages than teams with smaller revenues. Behind this prediction lies the key influence of market size, yet this has been underexplored in the empirical literature on sports leagues. This paper combines detailed census of population data with panel data on team performance for an open sports league, the English Football League, to test the hypothesis that market size matters for team performance. We find a particularly important role for population close to the team's location. The impact of local population is reduced but not eliminated when allowance is made for entry in the form of competition from neighboring clubs. We assess implications of these findings for both European and North American sports league structures.

Suggested Citation

  • Babatunde Buraimo & David Forrest & Robert Simmons, 2007. "Freedom of Entry, Market Size, and Competitive Outcome: Evidence from English Soccer," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 74(1), pages 204-213, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:74:y:2007:i:1:p:204-213
    DOI: 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2007.tb00834.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2007.tb00834.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2007.tb00834.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Babatunde Buraimo & Rob Simmons & Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "English Football," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 8, pages 162-181, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. David Forrest & Robert Simmons & Babatunde Buraimo, 2005. "Outcome Uncertainty And The Couch Potato Audience," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 52(4), pages 641-661, September.
    3. El-Hodiri, Mohamed & Quirk, James, 1971. "An Economic Model of a Professional Sports League," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(6), pages 1302-1319, Nov.-Dec..
    4. David J. Berri & Martin B. Schmidt & Stacey L. Brook, 2004. "Stars at the Gate," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 5(1), pages 33-50, February.
    5. Martin B. Schmidt & David J. Berri, 2001. "Competitive Balance and Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(2), pages 145-167, May.
    6. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "A Market Test for Discrimination in the English Professional Soccer Leagues," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 6, pages 136-150, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Stefan Szymanski & Ron Smith, 2010. "The English Football Industry: Profit, Performance and Industrial Structure," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 1, pages 1-26, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. Scully, Gerald W, 1974. "Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 915-930, December.
    9. David Forrest & Robert Simmons & Patrick Feehan, 2002. "A Spatial Cross–Sectional Analysis of Elasticity of Demand for Soccer," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 49(3), pages 336-356, August.
    10. John D. Burger & Stephen J. K. Walters, 2003. "Market Size, Pay, and Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(2), pages 108-125, May.
    11. Stefan Kesenne, 2000. "Revenue Sharing and Competitive Balance in Professional Team Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 1(1), pages 56-65, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andy Barlow & David Forrest, 2015. "Benefits to their Communities from Small Town Professional Football Clubs," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 232(1), pages 18-29, May.
    2. Terry Robinson, 2012. "Dyed in the wool? An empirical note on fan loyalty," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(8), pages 979-985, March.
    3. Thomas Cristofaro Warrener & Carlos Eduardo da Gama Torres & Igor Viveiros Melo Souza, 2022. "The relationship between financial and sporting performance of professional football clubs: empirical evidence from brazilian football," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 641, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    4. Christopher Huth & Markus Kurscheidt, 2022. "Season Ticketing as a Risk Management Tool in Professional Team Sports: A Pricing Analysis of German Soccer and Basketball," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, September.
    5. Dirk Semmelroth & Bernd Frick & Robert Simmons & Hojun Sung, 2022. "Where to Go Next? Examining the Effect of Franchise Expansion and Location on Game-Level Attendance in Major League Soccer," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(5), pages 524-547, June.
    6. Justin Doran & Declan Jordan, 2018. "The effect of geographical proximity and rivalry on performance: evidence from the English Football League," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(11), pages 1559-1569, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso & Marco Di Domizio, 2021. "Relative wages, payroll structure and performance in soccer. Evidence from Italian Serie A (2007-2019)," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Politica Economica dipe0015, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    2. Raul Caruso & Marco Di Domizio & Domenico Rossignoli, 2017. "Aggregate wages of players and performance in Italian Serie A," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 34(3), pages 515-531, December.
    3. Marco Di Domizio & Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso, 2022. "Payroll dispersion and performance in soccer: A seasonal perspective analysis for Italian Serie A (2007–2021)," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 513-525, July.
    4. Caruso, Raul & Carlo, Bellavite Pellegrini & Marco, Di Domizio, 2016. "Does diversity in the payroll affect soccer teams’ performance? Evidence from the Italian Serie A," MPRA Paper 75644, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "The Economic Design of Sporting Contests," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Comparative Economics of Sport, chapter 1, pages 1-78, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Wladimir Andreff, 2014. "Building Blocks for a Disequilibrium Model of a European Team Sports League," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00971782, HAL.
    7. Allen R. Sanderson & John J. Siegfried, 2003. "Thinking about Competitive Balance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(4), pages 255-279, November.
    8. Wladimir Andreff, 2009. "Équilibre compétitif et contrainte budgétaire dans une ligue de sport professionnel," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 60(3), pages 591-633.
    9. Kevin Mongeon & Jason Winfree, 2012. "Comparison of television and gate demand in the National Basketball Association," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 72-79, January.
    10. Andrew Zimbalist, 2003. "Sport as Business," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 19(4), pages 503-511, Winter.
    11. Pelnar, Gregory, 2007. "Antitrust Analysis of Sports Leagues," MPRA Paper 5382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. David J. Berri & Martin B. Schmidt, 2006. "On the Road With the National Basketball Association's Superstar Externality," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(4), pages 347-358, November.
    13. Rodríguez Guerrero, Plácido, 2012. "La economía del deporte/The Economics of Sport," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 30, pages 387-418, Agosto.
    14. David J. Berri & Martin B. Schmidt & Stacey L. Brook, 2004. "Stars at the Gate," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 5(1), pages 33-50, February.
    15. John R. Crooker & Aju J. Fenn, 2007. "Sports Leagues and Parity When League Parity Generates Fan Enthusiasm," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 8(2), pages 139-164, May.
    16. Stefan Szymanski, 2013. "Wages, transfers and the variation of team performance in the English Premier League," Chapters, in: Plácido Rodríguez & Stefan Késenne & Jaume García (ed.), The Econometrics of Sport, chapter 3, pages 53-62, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Di Domizio Marco, 2008. "Win the best, win the largest or win the richest. Some empirical evidence from Italian championships," wp.comunite 0047, Department of Communication, University of Teramo.
    18. Scott Tainsky & Chad D. McEvoy, 2012. "Television Broadcast Demand in Markets Without Local Teams," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(3), pages 250-265, June.
    19. Kelly Goossens, 2006. "Competitive balance in european football: comparison by adapting measures: national measure of seasonal imbalance and Top 3," Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport, Centro di diritto e business dello Sport, vol. 2(2), pages 77-122, Dicembre.
    20. Pedro Garcia‐del‐Barrio & Francesc Pujol, 2009. "The Rationality of Under‐employing the Best‐performing Soccer Players," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(3), pages 397-419, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:74:y:2007:i:1:p:204-213. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.