IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Login to save this paper or follow this series

Antitrust Analysis of Sports Leagues

Author Info

  • Pelnar, Gregory

Abstract

I present an overview of the antitrust literature on sports leagues, with particular emphasis on the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League, as well as on sanctioning organizations such as NASCAR. I review the major antitrust court decisions, the commentaries of the leading antitrust experts on these decisions, and the extensive sports economics literature touching on issues raised in these cases, particularly empirical studies assessing the anticompetitive and procompetitive effects of various league rules and policies. I also review the broader industrial organization literature on issues such as factors affecting the stability of joint ventures. I conclude with a summary of proposals for addressing the monopoly power of sports leagues.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/5382/1/MPRA_paper_5382.pdf
File Function: original version
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 5382.

as
in new window

Length:
Date of creation: 12 Oct 2007
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:5382
Contact details of provider: Postal: Schackstr. 4, D-80539 Munich, Germany
Phone: +49-(0)89-2180-2219
Fax: +49-(0)89-2180-3900
Web page: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de
More information through EDIRC

Keywords: antitrust; sports leagues;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
  • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies
  • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as in new window
  1. John J. Siegfried & Andrew Zimbalist, 2000. "The Economics of Sports Facilities and Their Communities," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 95-114, Summer.
  2. Scott E. Atkinson & Linda R. Stanley & John Tschirhart, 1988. "Revenue Sharing as an Incentive in an Agency Problem: An example from the National Football League," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(1), pages 27-43, Spring.
  3. Roger G. Noll, 2003. "The Organization of Sports Leagues," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(4), pages 530-551, Winter.
  4. Cave, Martin & Crandall, Robert W, 2001. "Sports Rights and the Broadcast Industry," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(469), pages F4-26, February.
  5. Kanazawa, Mark T & Funk, Jonas P, 2001. "Racial Discrimination in Professional Basketball: Evidence from Nielsen Ratings," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(4), pages 599-608, October.
  6. Paul M. Sommers & Noel Quinton, 1982. "Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball: The Case of the First Family of Free Agents," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(3), pages 426-436.
  7. Roger G. Noll, 2007. "Broadcasting and Team Sports," Discussion Papers 06-016, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
  8. Scully, Gerald W, 1974. "Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 915-30, December.
  9. Acemoglu, D. & Pischke, J.S., 1997. "The Structure of Wages and Investment in General Training," Working papers 97-24, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
  10. Craig A. Depken II & Dennis P. Wilson, 2006. "NCAA Enforcement and Competitive Balance in College Football," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 72(4), pages 826–845, April.
  11. Kahn, Lawrence M, 1993. "Free Agency, Long-Term Contracts and Compensation in Major League Baseball: Estimates from Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(1), pages 157-64, February.
  12. Thomas J. Miceli, 2003. "A Principal-Agent Model of Contracting in Major League Baseball," Working papers 2003-01, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
  13. Stefan Kesenne, 2000. "Revenue Sharing and Competitive Balance in Professional Team Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 1(1), pages 56-65, February.
  14. J. Colin & H. Jones & Serge Nadeau & William Walsh, 1999. "Ethnicity, productivity and salary: player compensation and discrimination in the National Hockey League," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 593-608.
  15. Roger Noll, 2002. "The Economics of Promotion and Relegation in Sports Leagues: The Cases of English Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 169-203, May.
  16. Daron Acemoglu & Joern-Steffen Pischke, 1998. "Beyond Becker: Training in Imperfect Labor Markets," Working papers 98-12, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
  17. E. Eckard, 1998. "The NCAA Cartel and Competitive Balance in College Football," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 347-369, June.
  18. Hausman, Jerry A & Leonard, Gregory K, 1997. "Superstars in the National Basketball Association: Economic Value and Policy," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(4), pages 586-624, October.
  19. Frederic Palomino & Luca Rigotti, 2001. "The Sport League's Dilemma: Competitive Balance versus Incentives to Win," Industrial Organization 0012003, EconWPA.
  20. Mark Gius & Donn Johnson, 1998. "An empirical investigation of wage discrimination in professional basketball," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(11), pages 703-705.
  21. Allen R. Sanderson & John J. Siegfried, 2003. "Thinking About Competitive Balance," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0318, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
  22. Grier, Kevin B. & Tollison, Robert D., 1994. "The rookie draft and competitive balance: The case of professional football," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 293-298, October.
  23. Pacey, Patricia L & Wickham, Elizabeth D, 1985. "College Football Telecasts: Where Are They Going?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(1), pages 93-113, January.
  24. Dennis W. Carlton & Alan S. Frankel & Elisabeth M. Landes, 2004. "The Control of Externalities in Sports Leagues: An Analysis of Restrictions in the National Hockey League," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(S1), pages S268-S288, February.
  25. Jordan Rappaport & Chad Wilkerson, 2001. "What are the benefits of hosting a major league sports franchise?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Q I, pages 55-86.
  26. Telser, L G, 1995. "The Ultimatum Game and the Law of Demand," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(433), pages 1519-23, November.
  27. Michael A. Leeds & Sandra Kowalewski, 2001. "Winner Take All in the NFL," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(3), pages 244-256, August.
  28. Angelo Cocco & J. C. H. Jones, 1997. "On going south: the economics of survival and relocation of small market NHL franchises in Canada," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(11), pages 1537-1552.
  29. Stefan Szymanski & Stefan KÈsenne, 2004. "Competitive balance and gate revenue sharing in team sports," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 165-177, 03.
  30. Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 1999. "The growth effects of sport franchises, stadia, and arenas," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 601-624.
  31. White, Michael D, 1986. "Self-interest Redistribution and the National Football League Players Association," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(4), pages 669-80, October.
  32. Palomino, Frederic & Sakovics, Jozsef, 2004. "Inter-league competition for talent vs. competitive balance," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 783-797, June.
  33. Donald Cymrot & James Dunlevy & William Even, 2001. "'Who's on first': an empirical test of the Coase Theorem in baseball," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 593-603.
  34. Sonia Falconieri & Frédéric Palomino & József Sákovics, 2004. "Collective Versus Individual Sale of Television Rights in League Sports," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(5), pages 833-862, 09.
  35. Stephen F. Ross, 2003. "Competition Law as a Constraint on Monopolistic Exploitation by Sports Leagues and Clubs," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(4), pages 569-584, Winter.
  36. Brad R. Humphreys, 2003. "The Anova-Based Competitive Balance Measure: A Reply," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(1), pages 81-82, February.
  37. J. Jones & S. Nadeau & W. Walsh, 1997. "The wages of sin: Employment and salary effects of violence in the national hockey league," Atlantic Economic Journal, International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 25(2), pages 191-206, June.
  38. William Putsis & Subrata Sen, 2000. "Should NFL blackouts be banned?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(12), pages 1495-1507.
  39. Mark Baimbridge & Samuel Cameron & Peter Dawson, 1995. "Satellite broadcasting and match attendance: the case of rugby league," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(10), pages 343-346.
  40. Scully, Gerald W., 1995. "The Market Structure of Sports," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226743950, May.
  41. Pablo Casas-Arce, 2004. "Firm Provision of General Training and Specific Human Capital Acquisition," Economics Series Working Papers 198, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  42. Martin Schmidt, 2001. "Competition in Major League Baseball: the impact expansion," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 21-26.
  43. Stefan Szymanski, 2006. "Tilting the Playing Field: Why a sports league planner would choose less, not more, competitive balance," Working Papers 0620, International Association of Sports Economists;North American Association of Sports Economists.
  44. Kahn, Lawrence M & Sherer, Peter D, 1988. "Racial Differences in Professional Basketball Players' Compensation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(1), pages 40-61, January.
  45. Vrooman, John, 2000. "The Economics of American Sports Leagues," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 47(4), pages 364-98, September.
  46. E. Woodrow Eckard, 2001. "The Origin of the Reserve Clause: Owner Collusion versus 'Public Interest'," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(2), pages 113-130, May.
  47. Lawrence M. Kahn, 1992. "The Effects of Race on Professional Football Players' Compensation," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(2), pages 295-310, January.
  48. Lawrence M. Kahn, 1992. "The effects of race on professional football players' compensation," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(2), pages 295-310, January.
  49. Flynn, Michael A & Gilbert, Richard J, 2001. "The Analysis of Professional Sports Leagues as Joint Ventures," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(469), pages F27-46, February.
  50. Alessandra Tonazzi, 2003. "Competition policy and the commercialization of sport broadcasting rights: The decision of the Italian Competition Authority," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 17-34.
  51. Brown, Gregory W. & Hartzell, Jay C., 2001. "Market reaction to public information: The atypical case of the Boston Celtics," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2-3), pages 333-370, May.
  52. Drahozal, Christopher R., 1986. "The impact of free agency on the distribution of playing talent in major league baseball," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 113-121, May.
  53. Kogut, Bruce, 1989. "The Stability of Joint Ventures: Reciprocity and Competitive Rivalry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 183-98, December.
  54. Allen R. Sanderson, 2002. "The Many Dimensions of Competitive Balance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 204-228, May.
  55. Gerald W. Scully, 2004. "Player salary share and the distribution of player earnings," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 77-86.
  56. Daniel R. Marburger, 1997. "Gate Revenue Sharing And Luxury Taxes In Professional Sports," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 15(2), pages 114-123, 04.
  57. Donald G. Ferguson & J. C. H. Jones & Kenneth G. Stewart, 2000. "Competition Within A Cartel: League Conduct And Team Conduct In The Market For Baseball Player Services," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(3), pages 422-430, August.
  58. Craig A. Depken, II, 2002. "Free Agency and the Concentration of Player Talent in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(4), pages 335-353, November.
  59. Daniel Sutter & Stephen Winkler, 2003. "NCAA Scholarship Limits and Competitive Balance in College Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(1), pages 3-18, February.
  60. David Forrest & Rob Simmons & Stefan Szymanski, 2004. "Broadcasting, Attendance and the Inefficiency of Cartels," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 243-265, 05.
  61. Craig Depken, 1999. "Free-Agency and the Competitiveness of Major League Baseball," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 205-217, May.
  62. Margaret C. Levenstein & Valerie Y. Suslow, 2002. "What Determines Cartel Success?," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2002-01, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
  63. Lawrence M. Kahn, 2000. "The Sports Business as a Labor Market Laboratory," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 75-94, Summer.
  64. Stefan Szymanski & Tommaso M. Valletti, 2005. "Promotion and Relegation in Sporting Contests," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 95(3), pages 3-39, May-June.
  65. E. Woodrow Eckard, 2003. "The Anova-Based Competitive Balance Measure: A Defense," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(1), pages 74-80, February.
  66. John J. Siegfried & Molly Gardner Burba, 2003. "The College Football Association Television Broadcase Cartel," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0320, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
  67. Andrew S. Zimbalist, 2002. "Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues: An Introduction," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 111-121, May.
  68. Baimbridge, Mark & Cameron, Samuel & Dawson, Peter, 1996. "Satellite Television and the Demand for Football: A Whole New Ball Game?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 43(3), pages 317-33, August.
  69. Phillip A. Miller, 2000. "A Theoretical and Empirical Comparison of Free Agent and Arbitration-Eligible Salaries Negotiated in Major League Baseball," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 67(1), pages 87-104, July.
  70. J. Richard Hill & Peter A. Groothuis, 2001. "The New NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Median Voter Model, and a Robin Hood Rent Redistribution," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(2), pages 131-144, May.
  71. AC. Krautmann & E. Gustafson & L. Hadley, 2000. "Who pays for minor league training costs?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(1), pages 37-47, 01.
  72. Joshua Utt & Rodney Fort, 2002. "Pitfalls to Measuring Competitive Balance With Gini Coefficients," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(4), pages 367-373, November.
  73. Stefan Szymanski & Ron Smith, 1997. "The English Football Industry: profit, performance and industrial structure," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 135-153.
  74. Rodney Fort & Joel Maxcy, 2001. "The Demise of African American Baseball Leagues: A Rival League Explanation," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(1), pages 35-49, February.
  75. Brown, Robert W, 1993. "An Estimate of the Rent Generated by a Premium College Football Player," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(4), pages 671-84, October.
  76. Fleisher, Arthur III & Shughart, William II & Tollison, Robert D. & Goff, Brian L., 1988. "Crime or punishment? : Enforcement of the NCAA football cartel," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 433-451, December.
  77. Jones, J C H & Ferguson, D G, 1988. "Location and Survival in the National Hockey League," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 443-57, June.
  78. Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 2001. "The Economic Consequences of Professional Sports Strikes and Lockouts," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 737-747, January.
  79. Oliver Gürtler, 2005. "A rationale for the coexistence of central and decentral marketing in team sports," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers bgse4_2005, University of Bonn, Germany.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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

as in new window


Cited by:

  1. Pelnar, Gregory, 2009. "Competition and Cooperation between Professional Sports Franchises: The Impact on Ticket Prices," MPRA Paper 17787, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. Oliver Budzinski, 2011. "The Institutional Framework for Doing Sports Business: Principles of EU Competition Policy in Sports Markets," Working Papers 1103, International Association of Sports Economists;North American Association of Sports Economists.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:5382. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Ekkehart Schlicht)

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.