Professional Sports Franchises Research Articles

The economic impact of a casino monopoly: Evidence from Atlantic City

Place-based policies and investments are often targeted at areas in economic decline and sometimes take the form of a granted monopoly (e.g., state flagship universities, professional sports franchises, mega events). After New Jersey voters approved legalized gambling as an economic development strategy to revive the blighted seaside resort town, Atlantic City held a regional monopoly on casinos east of the Mississippi River from 1978 through 1992. Using synthetic difference-in-differences, I find that commercial casinos had an immediate impact on the Atlantic City Metropolitan Area (Atlantic County) in the first five years through an increase in employment (26 percent), wages (9 percent), personal income (5 percent), and house prices (19 percent). The casinos’ positive impact on the metropolitan labor market was persistent and increasing through the early 1990s, but I find evidence that the city’s 1992 monopoly expiration negatively impacted the growth of local wages and personal income through 2000.

A Data-Driven Approach to Evaluate the Worthiness of Markets for Professional Sports Franchises

A Data-Driven Approach to Evaluate the Worthiness of Markets for Professional Sports Franchises

Dead Spaces: Sport Venues and Police Stops in a Major League, Upper Midwestern City in the United States

Attention by sport management researchers and practitioners toward the societal externalities of professional sport franchises and venues has increased recently. This study asserts that while sport organizations are very active in this regard, there remain several issues that have not received much attention in the sport management literature nor by sport organizations themselves. Criminal activity, or the perception of criminal activity, at and near sport venues is one of these issues. The negative binominal regression analysis of police stops in Minneapolis revealed that police stops were greater within a quarter and half a mile of Minneapolis professional sport venues on event days. Furthermore, during nonevent days, the venues can be urban “dead spaces” and the design of venues in urban areas should address the internal and external amenities of the sport venues and the potential increase in crime and police-related activity on days with and without events.

Antecedents and Outcomes of Social Capital: Evidence from a Professional Baseball Franchise.

PurposeThe empirical paper aimed to develop a theoretical model of social capital in professional spectating sports by investigating the antecedents and outcomes related to social capital from the spectator’s viewpoint.Participant and MethodBrothers Elephants, a professional baseball franchise in the Chinese Professional Baseball League, provided the research setting. The study’s participants consisted of 422 spectators of a Brothers Elephants game at its home field, Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Field. Around half of the participants were male; 46.4% of them aged between 30 and 39 years old. Data analysis was conducted through structural equation modeling.ResultsResults revealed that social interactions positively correlated with social capital, prosocial behavior, and spectator intention to re-attend the sporting event. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) also positively predicted intention to re-attend the sporting event, social capital, and prosocial behavior. Social capital significantly correlated with prosocial behavior and subjective well-being, and prosocial behavior significantly correlated with subjective well-being and intention to re-attend the sporting event.ConclusionThe results suggest that social capital can be developed through social interactions and perceived CSR in the context of professional spectator sporting events, with such social capital increasing, in turn, prosocial behavior, subjective well-being, and intention to re-attend the sporting event. From perspective of practical implication, professional sports franchise can develop more campaigns that boost sports spectators’ perceived social interactions and CSR, which can increase their social capital, prosocial behavior, subjective well-being, and their intention to re-attend the sporting event.

Determinants of consumption for regional sports network programming: an examination of inheritance effects, lead-in, lead-out, and game viewership

ABSTRACT The financial health of major North American professional sports franchises is closely tied to Regional Sports Networks. These networks purchase local market broadcast rights from franchises and then create sequenced pre-game and post-game show content bookending each live contest. Despite the financial importance of Regional Sports Networks, no study has empirically examined the drivers of viewership for this sequential content. We create a sample of sequenced pre-game show, game broadcast, and post-game show ratings and uncover statistically significant audience carryover from each broadcast to the next. We also demonstrate substantial variance in the viewership determinants for each live program, suggesting viewers have different consumption preferences for each program type. We further illustrate that local team performance relative to expectations significantly impacts ratings for the subsequent non-adjacent pre-game show broadcast. The results are crucial to broadcast rights valuation, advertising values, and programming strategy.

Sensemaking of novelty: the dynamic nature of integrating esports within a traditional sport organization

ABSTRACT Novel innovations influence the way sports organizations are managed. Sport organizations must embrace these innovations for growth opportunities yet also proactively account for the dynamics associated with their integration. Hence, we examine the investment of a professional sport franchise in an esports team and the emergent challenges and opportunities. We adopt a strategy-as-practice (SAP) perspective to examine the deliberate sensemaking strategies used by practitioners within the sport franchise to help create and give meaning to this decision. We augmented interviews with press releases and media coverage, revealing that practitioners used sensemaking strategies initially to foster a progressive culture, create a shared understanding of esports, and promote operational synergies. Subsequent managerial and operational changes required tactical shifts to address gender stigmas and brand demarcation limiting cross-promotion between the sport franchise and esports team. We contribute to the growing SAP perspective by identifying that practitioners engaging in deliberate strategy can proactively utilize sensegiving, sensebreaking, and sensehiding strategies to integrate and legitimize novel activities within an organization and position them to external stakeholders.

Branding a Professional Sport Team that Reenters the Same Marketplace: Stakeholders’ Perspectives

Abstract: This study explored stakeholders’ perspectives in building a professional sport franchise brand that is reentering the same marketplace for a third time following the folding of two previous franchises within the same sport league. To accomplish the study’s purpose, a qualitative method was employed where semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 stakeholders of the reentering franchise. The findings uncovered five antecedents: game-extensions, owners’ credibility, community outreach, cross-promotions , and aligning with established brand . Theoretical contributions, practical recommendations, and directions for future research are provided.

Persuasion effect of corporate social responsibility initiatives in professional sport franchise: Moderating effect analysis.

This study used the elaboration likelihood model as a theoretical basis to explore the effects of various persuasion strategies on consumer perception and attitude regarding the corporate image of sports organizations that engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The moderating effects of involvement, sports team identification, and sports fan curiosity were also examined. The multiple-study approach was employed to increase the external validity of the research. Two studies with cross-sectional between-subject pre–post experimental design were conducted with a total of 390 participants. The research setting was the Fubon Guardians baseball team of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Study I and the Taiwan Beer Basketball Team of the Super Basketball League in Study II. Communication through the central and peripheral routes improved consumers’ CSR perception. Furthermore, under low involvement, weak sports team identification, and low sports fan curiosity conditions, communication through the central route and peripheral route improved the participants’ CSR perception. However, under high involvement, strong sports team identification, and high sports fan curiosity conditions, the different communication methods had nonsignificantly different effects. The findings of this study provide both academic contributions and practical implications.

Small business success: factors influencing the NBA's D-league

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of initially controllable market factors on franchise success within NBA's Development League (D-League).Design/methodology/approachThe open systems theory provided the foundation for analyzing characteristics contributing to small business success, as measured by attendance capacity for NBA D-League teams. Multiple regression analysis was utilized.FindingsThe results of this study indicate specific market characteristics increase franchise success in NBA's D-League. Population, income, facility size and ownership model all influenced attendance capacity.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to the teams that have operated in NBA's D-League. Contextual factors related to new business survival are not unique to minor league basketball and can be applied by scholars or professionals to any new business to help understand new business survival.Practical implicationsThis research is also useful to cities looking to invest in a professional sports franchise and for all small business owners to understand market characteristics that can contribute to success.Originality/valueThe results from this study significantly contribute to small business literature by being the first empirical study on NBA's D-League.

Organizational Structure, Public-Private Relationships, and Operational Performance of Large-Scale Stadiums: Evidence from Local Governments in China

The financial sustainability of large-scale sport stadiums has become a challenging issue for sport organizations in China due to increasing market competition, lack of professional sport franchises to tenant the facilities, and gradual slow-down in Chinese GDP growth. Previous findings about operational performance of sport organizations identify organizational structure and public-private partnership (PPP) as important predictors. The aim of the current study was (a) to propose a predictive model for operational performance of large-scale stadiums in China and (b) to examine the relationships among organizational structure, PPP, and operational performance. We conducted a literature review to establish a theoretical framework for the proposed model, selected Yangzhou Sports Park and Xuzhou Olympic Sports Center to examine the relationships, and conducted expert interviews to examine the research questions. We found that Xuzhou’s operational performance was more effective due to several mechanisms related to both organizational structure and PPP: incentive, supervision, and assessment. Notably, using built-in benchmark monitoring procedures, Xuzhou managers identified a variety of constraints early on to address onsite problems while maintaining efficient communication among key PPP stakeholders.

Holding Out for a Better Deal: How Big Four Professional Sports Franchises Should Handle Hold Outs

Holding Out for a Better Deal: How Big Four Professional Sports Franchises Should Handle Hold Outs

Rank Power Analysis For Comparative Strength Of Professional Sports Franchises

Major professional sports teams are nowadays complex businesses, intrinsically concerned with matters of economics and finance. Performances of each teams and each franchises vary greatly. This paper makes comparative performance analyses for four profession franchises in North America. Four financial measures are chosen to represent team performances: attendance, revenue, payroll, and profit. First, the box-plot was utilized to measure the spread of the power (wealth) of each league with respect to each measures. Second, the rank-power distribution was used to visualize the team’s relative standings in each measures and in each franchises. Most team performances were observed to follow the Pareto principle: few teams scored very high (significant few); large numbers of teams scored very low (trivial many). These qualitative findings can be a useful guide for franchise owners and commissioners for the future strategic planning.

Which Professional Sport Team Has the Best Marketing Performance in Driving Attendance? The Stochastic Frontier Approach

Abstract: While assessment of team-level marketing performance for a professional sport franchise is important for both the team marketer and the researcher to develop a marketing strategy and understand marketing performance, no evidence using a full set of teams for a long period of time currently exists. We propose that marketing performance can be estimated with a stochastic frontier model. Using twenty seasons of Major League Baseball (MLB) attendance data, we estimate the frontier attendance (i.e., the maximal attendance a team can reach) after controlling for factors unrelated to marketing, and we argue that the efficiency (i.e., the difference between the frontier and the actual attendance) represents the team’s marketing performance. We also test whether our estimates capture marketing performance successfully by using the honeymoon and novelty effects, both of which are clearly shown in our estimates.

Managing a Professional Sport Franchise: An Extended Case Approach to Learning

This article describes the use of an extended case that simulates the front-office management of a National Basketball Association franchise during the off-season. Undergraduate students in an introduction to sport management course are tasked with making a series of sequential and interconnected decisions over a semester related to hiring a coach, producing a press release and press conference, analyzing player performance, creating a turnaround plan, managing a roster, establishing a culture following change, and relaunching the team’s brand. The benefits of this approach include the application of knowledge to practice, an understanding of a sport sector, making decisions in teams, adapting to new organizational environments, understanding how to make sequential decisions, and understanding how decisions are interconnected over time and across departments.

Business analytics, revenue management and sport: evidence from the field

We surveyed 72 managers and executives from Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS), as well as other North American professional sport organisations including auto racing, golf, and tennis regarding the use of business analytics in sport marketing and revenue generation. We explore the use of business analytics to drive improvement in ticket pricing, customer retention, lead scoring, sponsorship, premium sales, digital marketing, food and beverage, merchandising, and fan/game experience. The main contribution of this paper is to show how managers of professional sport franchises in North America utilise business analytics to drive revenue generation and to provide possible theoretical avenues of future research. Managerial implications are that customer relationship management (CRM) and food, beverage, and merchandising are increasing areas of interest. Areas of prevalence are highlighted as well as areas of potential improvement for the use of analytics in professional sports organisations.

Business analytics, revenue management, and sport: evidence from the field

We surveyed 72 managers and executives from Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS), as well as other North American professional sport organisations including auto racing, golf, and tennis regarding the use of business analytics in sport marketing and revenue generation. We explore the use of business analytics to drive improvement in ticket pricing, customer retention, lead scoring, sponsorship, premium sales, digital marketing, food and beverage, merchandising, and fan/game experience. The main contribution of this paper is to show how managers of professional sport franchises in North America utilise business analytics to drive revenue generation and to provide possible theoretical avenues of future research. Managerial implications are that customer relationship management (CRM) and food, beverage, and merchandising are increasing areas of interest. Areas of prevalence are highlighted as well as areas of potential improvement for the use of analytics in professional sports organisations.

Do professional sport franchise owners overpromise and underdeliver the public? Lessons from Brooklyn’s Barclays Center

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a number of promises typically made by owners of professional sports franchises in the USA that are also typically ignored or underevaluated by public bureaus and their elected principals using the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York as a case study. Ex post subsidy outcomes are evaluated against ex ante subsidy promises in order to draw lessons that can inform and improve subsidy debates elsewhere. Design/methodology/approach The case study adopts a pre-post strategy drawing on data from multiple sources over a period of up to ten years in order to triangulate the narrative and build credibility. The franchise owner’s ex ante promises and financial projections were obtained from various media including newspaper, video and interviews between December 2003, when the arena was publicly announced, and September 2012, when the arena opened. Data on ex post outputs were obtained from financial documents and government records covering periods from September 2011 through June 2016. Findings The franchise owner is found to have exaggerated the arena’s financial condition, under-delivered on its employment promises, and exaggerated the scope and timeliness of ancillary real estate development. Only promises of event frequency and attendance levels, measures of the public’s demand for the facility, have been met during the first three years. Research limitations/implications Because the evaluation is a case study, causal conclusions cannot be drawn and some aspects of the Barclays Center context may not be applicable in other jurisdictions or subsidy debates. In addition, the case study does not evaluate an exhaustive list of the promises franchise owners make. Practical implications Franchise owners have a financial incentive to overpromise public benefits, since subsidy levels are tied to what the public is perceived to receive in return. This case study demonstrates that the public sector should not take owners’ promises and projections of public benefits at face value. Moreover, the case study reveals that the public sector should put more effort into ensuring ex post policy and data transparency in order to facilitate benefit-cost analyses of such subsidies. Originality/value The data required to evaluate promises, other than economic development ones, made by franchise owners are not systematically collected across state and local governments in the USA, making large-n studies impossible. Case studies are underutilized approaches in this area of public affairs, and this paper illustrates their usefulness. By focusing on a single facility, an evaluation of the franchise owner’s less acknowledged and arguably more important promises about the facility and its local impact is possible.

Puck Drop in the Pacific Northwest: Building Brand Equity for a New Professional Sport Franchise

This case asks participants to take on the role of a brand consultant, working for the fictional brand management firm, BrandNew, to advise on the branding of a new National Hockey League (NHL) franchise. The consultant will need to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the brand equity for three previous NHL expansion or relocation teams (i.e., Vegas Golden Knights, Winnipeg Jets, Carolina Hurricanes) in order to understand what goes into selecting an effective team name, color scheme, logo, mascot, and how to socially integrate into the host city market. Consultants will then make recommendations for the NHL’s next expansion team in Seattle, Washington, so as to build sustained brand equity in the Seattle market.

ESTIMATING THE IMPACT OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL GAMES ON LOCAL AIR POLLUTION

Professional sporting events attract millions of fans to urban areas each year as they cheer on their favorite teams. While benefits, such as increased tax revenues and economic development, are often cited as reasons to host a professional sports franchise, the public and private costs receive much less attention. This paper uses air quality readings from the Environmental Protection Agency and Major League Baseball schedules to estimate the impact of Major League Baseball games on local air pollution. The results suggest that attendance at a Major League Baseball game has a statistically significant but negligible impact on local air pollution. (JEL Q53, R11)

Do Applicants Care? Assessing the Influence of Socially Responsible Communication on Job Seekers in the Sport Industry

Human-resource management is a unique challenge for professional sport franchises (PSFs). A lack of research on full-time employees in sport means we know little about the perceptions of those most connected to PSFs despite the unique nature of the sport industry. This paper investigates whether communicating socially responsible behavior (SRB) in sport job postings generates more prospective person–organization fit (POFit) and greater application intention. Uncovering these relationships will help sport practitioners optimize their hiring process by targeting recruitment messages. The analysis does not support the idea that communicating SRB in a sport job posting enhances prospective POFit or application intentions, even for socially conscious applicants. These findings contradict similar exercises carried out in other industries, highlighting the distinctiveness of professional sport.