Pay Dirt
eBook - PDF

Pay Dirt

The Business of Professional Team Sports

  1. 576 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Pay Dirt

The Business of Professional Team Sports

About this book

Why would a Japanese millionaire want to buy the Seattle Mariners baseball team, when he has admitted that he has never played in or even seen a baseball game? Cash is the answer: major league baseball, like professional football, basketball, and hockey, is now big business with the potential to bring millions of dollars in profits to owners. Not very long ago, however, buying a sports franchise was a hazardous investment risked only by die-hard fans wealthy enough to lose parts of fortunes made in other businesses. What forces have changed team ownership from sports-fan folly to big-business savvy? Why has The Wall Street Journal become popular reading in pro sports locker rooms? And why are sports pages now dominated by economic clashes between owners and players, cities with franchises and cities without them, leagues and players' unions, and team lawyers and players' lawyers? In answering these questions, James Quirk and Rodney Fort have written the most complete book on the business and economics of professional sports, past and present.



Pay Dirt offers a wealth of information and analysis on the reserve clause, salary determination, competitive balance in sports leagues, the market for franchises, tax sheltering, arenas and stadiums, and rival leagues. The authors present an abundance of historical material, much of it new, including team ownership histories and data on attendance, TV revenue, stadium and arena contracts, and revenues and costs. League histories, team statistics, stories about players and owners, and sports lore of all kinds embellish the work. Quirk and Fort are writing for anyone interested in sports in the 1990s: players, players' agents, general managers, sportswriters, and, most of all, sports fans.

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Yes, you can access Pay Dirt by James P. Quirk,Rodney D. Fort in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. List of Illustrations
  6. List of Tables
  7. Update (for the paperback edition)
  8. Preface
  9. Chapter 1 Introduction
  10. Chapter 2 The Market for Sports Franchises
  11. Chapter 3 Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes
  12. Chapter 4 Stadiums and Arenas
  13. Chapter 5 The Reserve Clause and Antitrust Laws
  14. Chapter 6 Why Do Pro Athletes Make So Much Money?
  15. Chapter 7 Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues
  16. Chapter 8 Rival Leagues and League Expansion: Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey
  17. Chapter 9 Rival Leagues: The Great Football Wars
  18. Postscript
  19. Appendix to Chapter 3
  20. Appendix to Chapter 6
  21. Appendix to Chapter 8
  22. Data Supplement
  23. Bibliography
  24. Index of Names
  25. Index of Court Cases