FiT Publishing

Revenue sharing is a pervasive policy in professional sports leagues. While it is usually justified as promoting competitive balance, previous work has shown that it actually worsens balance in models where equilibrium outcomes are determined by contest success functions and when the league’s goal is to maximize aggregate revenue. This paper offers an alternative justification for revenue sharing in such settings—namely, to balance two offsetting externalities: the “rent-seeking externality” and the “spillover externality.” The first reflects the “race” to be first, and the second captures...Read more

American universities, belatedly following their professional sports counterparts, are constructing new stadiums. A portion of the funds typically provided to athletic departments are drawn from general university resources. Besides increased revenue flows, indirect benefits that contribute to university objectives are typically cited as part of the demand for a new college stadium. Examples of these spillover benefits are an enhanced campus community, a higher quality student body, and more alumni donations. We analyze a university’s stadium proposal and apply standard capital budgeting...Read more

This paper provides an empirical analysis of attendance to Division I women’s collegiate basketball programs from 2000-2009. The evidence suggests that women’s basketball attendance is sensitive to many of the same variables known to influence attendance to men’s collegiate basketball, including current and recent team quality, recent post-season success, and school characteristics. We further investigate whether college football is a complement, a substitute, or an independent of women’s basketball on campus. Investigating complementarity is of practical importance as schools continue to...Read more