Scheduling slots and league objectives: An empirical analysis of Australia’s AFL

Abstract

While competitive balance is thought to be a primary objective of all sports leagues, this assumption should be questioned, particularly if it conflicts with revenue or profit-maximizing objectives. Indeed, many of the collective decisions made by league executives have distributional consequences that might be inconsistent with promoting competitive balance. We analyze the allocation of game-day scheduling slots to teams—a largely overlooked aspect of league scheduling—in the Australian Football League and ask whether more lucrative slot allocations to certain teams are consistent with competitive balance or revenue maximization goals. A key aim of our study is to determine whether the introduction of a historically lucrative broadcasting contract in the early 2000s altered game-day scheduling since broadcasters prefer matches between strong or popular teams over match ups that might better promote competitive balance. We find the broadcasting contract did alter scheduling allocations and that none of the other variables consistent with competitive balance were statistically significant. As such, the redistributions likely run in the direction of financially weak teams to strong ones, contrary to some previous suggestions.