Stefan Szymanski, author of PLAYBOOKS AND CHECKBOOKS: An Introduction to the Economics of Modern Sports writes a compelling article in England’s Telegraph discussing how the U.K. football leagues could learn a lesson from U.S. pro sports:
“Many fans are in denial, but the reality of professional sport is that money buys success: spend enough and the balance will tip in your favour. Of course, there are no guarantees, but year after year the teams that spend the most on player salaries tend to end up at the top of the league and those that spend the least end up at the bottom. This is not only true for football. The New York Yankees have won baseball’s World Series 26 times (the nearest rival has won it only 10 times) and no one doubts that the financial muscle of the Big Apple lies behind this feat.”
Read the entire article here.
In another realm of the online world, David M. Gordon, reviews the book on The Deipnosophist, remarking after including a quote from the book:
“And with that last quotation, you have the first glimmerings of what elevates this book above others — the economics of sport (and, I dare add, all economics) does not rise from a vacuum, but is of a piece with the prevailing social, spiritual, financial, and moral zeitgeist. Szymanski’s non-elaborated notion places his book with the best art history, for art also is a creature of its time.”
Read David Gordon’s review here.
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On July 22nd, 2009 at 11:20 am AMH replied:
It is certainly no secret that money buys success, but the money has to be well spent. There are plenty of incidents where the sports team get practically a zero ROI. It’s those that spend wisely who do so well and as much as I hate to admit it - the Patriots come to mind.
On October 29th, 2009 at 2:06 am Christopher Lance replied:
Nice information alot of this stuff I had no idea about great information on pro sports.
On November 10th, 2009 at 5:59 pm alex harrison replied:
It’s true. I am in complete denial as a UK football (or soccer supporter) fan. The game used to be the domain of the working class man and anyone who had decent skills had a chance of making it. Now the top guys earn about $250k a week when the average UK supporter earns less than $50k a year. It’s now what we call a game for the middle classes as they are the only ones who can afford to go to the games with tickets at $70 for just 90 minutes worth of entertainment.
Really good post, I enjoyed it.