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This paper presents a model that examines sports teams' strategic choices about the extent of offense/defense to adopt in competing with other teams. The mathematical formulation adopted permits the derivation of a team's optimal strategy under different game scenarios (current score and time left to play), and team characteristics (playing at home or away, and each team's quality). A novel feature of the model is that teams can choose a strategy at several moments in the game, thereby incorporating a comprehensive dynamic element. The National Hockey League is used as an application. Optimal coaching behavior is derived in this setting, and the impact of rule changes is assessed. The study found that removing the overtime period, disproportionally increasing the rewards for a win, or removing the point that is currently awarded to the team that loses the shootout at the end of overtime, would all lead to the adoption of more offensive strategies during the game. That outcome is aligned with higher fan interest and team revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the relationship between National Basketball Association player career performances and their market values as revealed by their rookie card prices and their career salaries. This permits a novel identification of the similarities and differences between card collectors and team owners in how they value the same sample of 185 players. The analysis includes all players who began their careers in 1993 or after and completed their careers by 2019, and who renegotiated their rookie contract so that their card price and salary values are based on their National Basketball Association performances. Offensive statistics largely determine a player's salary and card value. Team owners place greater value on team attributes such as tenure with the team and games started, while card collectors place greater relative value on individual performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The salary cap that the National Basketball Association (NBA) instituted before the 1984-85 season was regarded as soft given it allowed team payrolls to exceed the official cap when teams intended to re-sign their own free agents. The results for equation (1) relating the Gini index to the NBA season, expansion years, and the salary cap showed that only I Expansion i SB t sb ( I b i SB 2 sb = 0.01420, I p i = 0.05) and I Salary Cap i SB t sb ( I b i SB 3 sb = 0.03091, I p i = 0.003) were statistically significant. [Extracted from the article]

The results for the first period (1992 - 2002) showed that only HT ht ( I b i SB I 4 i sb = 2.752, I p i = 0.039) and I Prior NFL experience i SB I i,t i sb ( I b i SB I 7 i sb = 2.706, I p i = 0.008) were statistically significant ( = 0.05); the overall I R i SP I 2 i sp = 0.329. The results for the second period (2003 - 2021) showed that HT ht ( I b i SB I 2 i sb = 0.007, I p i = 0.001), HT ht ( I b i SB I 3 i sb = -3.067, I p i = 0.006), HT ht ( I b i SB I 4 i sb = 3.805, I p i < 0.001), I Conference i SB I i,t i sb ( I b i SB I 6 i sb = -1.192, I p i = 0.001), and I Prior NFL experience i SB I i,t i sb ( I b i SB I 7 i sb = 2.781, I p i = 0.033) were all highly significant and the interaction term HT ht ( I b i SB I 5 i sb = 4.062, I p i = 0.059) was marginally significant ( = 0.10); the overall I R i SP I 2 i sp = 0.407. [Extracted from the article]

Competition is a key feature of the market process assumed to improve market outcomes. But how strong is the relationship between competition and positive consumer experiences, and how does the relationship vary across space and type of competitor? Phoenix is a suitable setting in which to explore these questions because it is a major metropolitan area with thousands of unique restaurants rated on Yelp. The consumer experience is measured based upon Yelp user-generated reviews through July 2016, with higher ratings reflecting better customer experiences. Competition is defined in different ways depending upon the number of overall, same-price and same-type restaurants nearby. Given differences between chain and independent restaurants, competition is further segmented across these two types of establishments. After controlling for restaurant characteristics, census-tract-level demographics, census-tract fixed effects and sub-industry fixed effects the results suggest that spatial competition is only associated with better customer experiences for same-category independent restaurants within driving distance (1-5 miles). The association is not present for overall and same-price independent restaurant competition nor for chain restaurants. Consistent with the sprawling layout of the Phoenix area, the effect of competition is only for restaurants within driving distance. These findings are relevant for cities designing policies to attract residents by offering high-quality consumer amenities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tests the efficient market hypothesis and the profitability of a simple betting strategy in college football. All games are examined that have a point spread for inter-conference matches involving a Power Five/Automatic Qualifying team from September 2003 through January 2016. The tests reject the efficient market hypothesis for these matchups, with a large subset of matches driving this result. The betting strategy evidence suggests it is nonrandom but it is not particularly profitable for the entire sample. However, there is evidence that betting on certain conferences to cover the point spread (win the bet) results in profitable returns over the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigated the efficiency of the college football betting market for the following season's first game for members of the final Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Market inefficiency was identified, with bets against these teams winning significantly more than half the time. Separate analysis of the top 10 and the remaining members of the Top 25 indicated that the inefficiency was due to the previous season's top 10 being significantly overvalued in the betting market at the start of the next season. Bets against the top 10 teams won significantly more than the 52.4% necessary for profitability. This was especially true when they played non-Power 5 schools. Efficiency could not be rejected for the teams ranked 11 through 25. The study contributed to the literature on betting market efficiency by providing evidence that bettors could be backward-looking and over-rely on outdated information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Football League's (NFL's) hard salary cap together with the league's reverse-order player draft help level the playing field in trades and acquisitions. With the Super Bowl 54 champion (2020) Kansas City Chiefs, Reid's success rate was 83.3% (100.0%) of all trades involving exclusively draft picks (active players). Simple bilinear regression of player AV points received against player AV points traded away enables one to compare past trade performance of head coaches and general managers in the NFL. [Extracted from the article]

Our research contributes to recent literature on the socioeconomic determinants of Olympic success at the national level. We find that less corruption increases the chances of national Olympic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper used Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) world ranking points data to examine how linguistic heterogeneity has an impact on technology transfer from the most developed countries. The major findings were that the learning effect from the most developed countries on team performance is larger for developing countries than for developed ones and that linguistic heterogeneity has a detrimental effect on technology transfer for developed, but not developing countries. The results presented here are interpreted to imply that the importance of common and proper comprehension of team strategy among members, which improves team performance but is hampered by linguistic heterogeneity, depends on the stage of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have been conducted analyzing factors affecting the demand for Major League Baseball (MLB) games. This paper revisits the factors affecting the long-run demand for attendance, employing an unbalanced panel technique for all home games played over the period from 1979 to 2004 seasons for the 12 non-expansion, non-adjustment teams from MLB. Combining both teams and every home game played during 1979-2004 seasons, dimensions provide better understanding of long-run demand for attendance. The study finds that time factors, fan interest, city characteristics, team's performance, and fan's attendance behavior have strong influences on the game attendance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of the payments in professional golf tournaments is heavily weighted to reward the top performers more handily. On the PGA TOUR, for example, the winner typically receives 18% of the purse, second place receives 10.8%, and so on down to 0.2% for 70th place. This payment structure brings up the possibility that the PGA TOUR is disproportionately rewarding one-time, exceptional performances rather than consistent steady play. To examine the extent of this effect, this paper correlates the 2002 earnings of the top 100 PGA TOUR professional golfers with their average performances, the variance around the averages, and the skewness of the individual distributions of their scores. Mean performance, variance, and skewness are all significantly related to earnings per tournament in the theoretically predicted directions. The research makes connections to and has implications for several topics in the sports economics literature including competitive balance and the hot-hand phenomenon. Additionally, it uncovers a heretofore unappreciated consequence concerning the relationships among the distributions of effort, performance, and remuneration in the tournaments compensation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which examines the impact of sports venues on the foreclosure rates in the county where the venue is located. It mentions the four major professional sports leagues in North America including National Basketball Association (NBA) with 29 U.S. teams, National Hockey League (NHL) with 24 U.S. teams, and National Football League (NFL) with 32 U.S. teams. Results show that Northeast has experienced lower foreclosure rates among the counties with a sports team.

The article presents a study which evaluates the effect of team racial composition on team performance in the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA). It examines the hypothesis that the potential negative cross-group effects due to team diversity can be overcome by the necessary cooperation inherent in team sports. It states that Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI), which is used in the study to quantify the degree of diversity, is applied for each of the last three championship seasons of the NBA such as the 2007-08, 2006-07, and 2005-06. It highlights that team diversity in the NBA appears to be neither an asset nor a liability to team performance, in which the last three NBA Champions including Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs, and Miami Heat, have widely different HHIs.

The author reflects on the increase of ticket prices of baseball team champions. He states that Boston Red Sox increased by 9.3% for ticket prices. He argues that if winning a title increases the demand for tickets, then ceteris paribus tickets should also rise. Information on the ticket price of the World Series champions in Major League Baseball (MLB) is presented.

The article deals with the income and locations of AAA minor league baseball teams in the U.S. According to the author, minor league baseball in this country offers a recreational activity for fans. Higher income of the local population leads to bigger demand for professional baseball, which will lead to the presence of a baseball team in the city. The other key factors are income, population, alternative recreational activities and proximity to other teams. Population is a major determinant of the presence of sports teams. Meanwhile, the impact of income is not clear.

The article focuses on the measurement of players' loyalty among baseball's Hall of Famers. The Herfindahl index has been confined to studies of industrial concentration and market structure, but it was used to all of baseball's Hall of Famers who played their last year between 1940 and 1999. It is said that free agency had an influence on the permanency of baseball's Hall of Fame players.