Showing posts with label economics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economics. Show all posts

Soccer: The Ultimate Guide to the Beautiful Game Review

Soccer: The Ultimate Guide to the Beautiful Game
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Soccer: The Ultimate Guide to the Beautiful Game ReviewNow in a fully revised and updated second edition, Soccer: The Ultimate Guide To The Beautiful Game by Clive Gifford is an in-depth guide to the basic skills needed to play one of the world's most popular team sports. Included are all the rules and strategies, along with a brief history of the popular and widely beloved sport of soccer. Full-color illustrations throughout, including three-dimensional realistic computer models of soccer players handling the ball as well as photographs of real-life athletes, Soccer: The Ultimate Guide To The Beautiful Game stands out -- both as a "user friendly" how-to manual and as collectible to cherish for dedicated soccer enthusiasts. Soccer is very highly recommended for anyone of any age wanting to enjoy the game as either a participant or a spectator.Soccer: The Ultimate Guide to the Beautiful Game Overview

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Futebol: Soccer: The Brazilian Way Review

Futebol: Soccer: The Brazilian Way
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Futebol: Soccer: The Brazilian Way ReviewAlex Bellos, a British journalist for the Observer and Guardian, does an excellent job with this tremendously researched book. He takes the reader across the sprawling expanse of continental Brazil, and we are left with a very candid view about "futebol," along with its history, traditions, innovations, humorous characters, corruption, but above all, that it is underlying glue uniting a very diverse nation. One can argue that soccer is the common religion of Brazil. Perhaps more apt would be to say that Brazil is the temple for those who worship world soccer. We have found our Holy Book in this work by Mr. Bellos.
Mr. Bellos paints an interesting portrait, and interviewed hundreds of people for this book. Famous players, priests, soothsayers, a superfan, presidents of local teams, coaches, and everyday Brazilians whose lives are defined by soccer. He even ventured to the obscure Faroe Islands of the frigid North Atlantic to meet with a few of the "Brazilian Foreign Legion" that plys their trade in far off lands. His recounting of the story of Mane' Garrincha, a tragic Brazilian legend, was captivating. As was his interview with Socrates, a famous player and social activist from the great 1982 Brazilian National Team. Of course, no book about Brazilian football could exempt a story about Pele'. His descriptions and historical context about the Amazon region were very intriguing, along with the "Big Zero" marker between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Mr. Bellos is a reporter who is not afraid to get his feet wet. Both figuratively and literally. :-)
This book contains more than the theme of soccer. Mr. Bellos describes the social inequalities of Brazil, its unique culture, governmental apparatus, and many local vignettes that make this a very educational read. If you have a passion for futebol brasileiro, you will enjoy this book. Even if you are not a soccer fan, this book will educate you about a country that is defined by its national sport, but has much more to offer to the world.
Thank you for the opportunity to review this excellent book.
Futebol: Soccer: The Brazilian Way OverviewThrough the lens of Brazil's trademark sport, Alex Bellos brings us a fascinating portrait of Brazilian identity. The Brazilian soccer team is one of the modern wonders of the world. Its essence is a game in which prodigious individual skills outshine team tactics, where dribbles and flicks are preferred over physical challenges or long-distance passes, where technique has all the elements of dance and, indeed, is often described as such. At their best Brazilians are, we like to think, both athletes and artists. Soccer is how the world sees Brazil, but it is also how Brazilians see themselves. The game symbolizes racial harmony, flamboyance, youth, innovation, and skill, and yet it is also a microcosm of the country itself, containing all of its contradictions. Travelling extensively from Uruguay to the northeastern backlands, and from the coastal cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to the Amazon jungle, Alex Bellos shows how Brazil changed soccer and how soccer shaped Brazil. He tells the stories behind the great players, like Pele and Garrincha, the great teams, and the great matches, as well as extraordinary stories from people and pitches all over this vast country. With an unerring eye for a good story and a marvelous ear for the voices of the people he meets, Alex Bellos uncovers what Ronaldo called the 'true truth' about Brazilian soccer.

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The Economics of Football Review

The Economics of Football
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The Economics of Football ReviewI just got the newer version in the mail today. It is about 8 years more recent. Similar material and price but the newer version seems to have broken up some of the chapters into smaller pieces.The Economics of Football OverviewThis book presents an original economic analysis of the English professional football industry. The economic influences on decisions taken by owners, managers, players and spectators are all considered, using theoretical and empirical methods of economic investigation. The empirical analysis draws on English club-level data, with extensive international comparisons. Concludes with an extended discussion of a number of major economic policy issues affecting the future of the football industry, including European super league proposals, contractual arrangements in the players' labor market, and football's evolving relationship with the broadcasting media.

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1927: High Tide of the 1920's Review

1927: High Tide of the 1920's
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1927: High Tide of the 1920's ReviewThroughout U.S. history, there are certain defining years and 1927 was certainly one of them. It was situated between two World Wars, during the so-called "Golden Age of Sports" and "Golden Years of Hollywood", on the eve of the Wall Street "Crash" and subsequent "Great Depression." Arguably no other single year (before or since) embraced the scope and depth of human diversity that 1927 did. So many authentic celebrities: Capone, Chaplin, Coolidge, Darrow, Dempsey, Ederle, Edison, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Ford, Gershwin, Grange, Jolson, Jones, Mencken, Rockne, Ruth, Sacco and Vanzetti, Tilden, and Tunney. In 1927, Leinwand asserts that "Americans were bombarded with the staccato of rapidly developing events at home and abroad from the ever-bolder tabloids and from the newscasts of the still-infant radio....If 1927 was the `high tide' of the twenties, then during that year could be found signs that the `good times' were nearing an end. But who would dare call attention to the chilling evidence if doing so might unleash a self-fulfilling prophecy and perhaps an economic collapse? Ostrich-like, Americans kept their eyes glued to the movies, their ears to the radio, their hands on the steering wheel, and their heads in the sand."
Leinwand carefully organizes his material within a chronological framework which extends from New York's celebration of the arrival of 1927 (in Chapter 1) to December 17th when an entire submarine crew perished (in Chapter 12). The easiest way to understand Leinwand's strategy is to imagine that, on the reader's behalf, he has poured over all of the editions in 1927 of the nation's major newspapers, collecting information which best reveals those people, forces, events, and themes which most accurately define that year. With circumspection as well as precision, he also suggests correlations between and among the people and circumstances selected. His book is, in that sense, a literary pageant with a rock-solid foundation of historical fact. Leinwand answers three questions of greatest interest to me: First, what was it like to live in the United States in 1927? Next, what sets this year apart from any other in that nation's history? Finally, what were the nature and extent of 1927's impact (both positive and negative) on generations to come? For me at least, he successfully answers all three questions and does so with style and grace as well as with precision and conviction.1927: High Tide of the 1920's Overview

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Star-Spangled Soccer: The Selling, Marketing and Management of Soccer in the USA Review

Star-Spangled Soccer: The Selling, Marketing and Management of Soccer in the USA
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Star-Spangled Soccer: The Selling, Marketing and Management of Soccer in the USA ReviewGary Hopkins provides a terrific inside view of the extra-ordinary growth of soccer in the US over the last two decades.He is able to chronicle the quantum changes that were wrought by the ascendancy of Steinbrecher, Rothenberg, Gulati and Garber to the helm of the sport in the United States.
While Hopkins played a significant role himself he does not dwell on his own contributions but instead examines how a unique mix of personalities, corporate interests and FIFA's desire for a greater presence of soccer in the US came together with immaculate timing for the development of the game. Using his strong personal relationships he also takes us behind the scenes revealing the enormous leaps of faith required for the US to host the 1994 World Cup, the Womens' World Cup in 1999, and to initiate and sustain MLS through its early struggles.
This is however no dry academic study of the economic forces and management strategies that influenced soccer's development. His book has sufficient focus on the personalities of the major players and has enough humor to make it an easy read.
While his view of the future of soccer in America may indeed be overly influenced by his European roots he knows whereof he speaks. And who knows, he may be right!Star-Spangled Soccer: The Selling, Marketing and Management of Soccer in the USA OverviewStar-Spangled Soccer charts America's 25-year journey to becoming a soccer nation, the key business, decisions, personalities, and events that shaped its growth, and the developing perfect soccer storm that will propel its unstoppable march forward. The book takes its lead from a single premise that the granting of the 1994 World Cup to the United States set in motion a chain of events that has redefined soccer in America forever, good and bad, up and down, but ultimately positioned to become a major force in the rapidly changing American sports landscape. Drawn from a 20-year career as a senior executive in the American soccer market and supported by first person interviews and insights with all the key personalities and decision makers, Star Spangled Soccer is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the American soccer market, where it has come from, and why it is positioned for tremendous growth over the next 10 years.

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Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport (Caravan Book) Review

Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport (Caravan Book)
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Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport (Caravan Book) ReviewMichael Oriard explores an area relatively uncovered in the vast flow of information about football. And that is the establishment of the NFL as a business, especially a media and entertainment enterprise instead of a simple sport played by romanticized warriors.
Oriard is first-rate on the history of the game and its development from a minor sport to the top tier starting in the late 1950s and 1960s. He nicely balanced football and its personalities, such as Lombardi, with the awakening of football as a business, primarily under the timely leadership of Pete Rozelle. People who remember the 1960s should enjoy the history, and young fans could find much to learn. The author is informative and concise.
He then moves into the next wave, with Joe Namath as one of the anchors, with his free spirit and large contract as indicators that, in retrospect, were seminal that seem almost quaint by now. Wow, long hair and white shoes! Here again, the personalities and the business evolved as parallel trends, influencing each other. Pete Rozelle began to lose his grip and the stakes got too high as football became America's #1 sport and the media coverage meant problems became public. Financial visionaries such as Jerry Jones of Dallas were about to open another whole dimension.
Oriard writes extensively about the beginning of the labor movement within football, all the way to the current relative peace. This is possibly both one of the strongest and weakest parts of the book. The strength is that the topic is relatively unfamiliar and normally underestimated in its importance, plus Oriard the ex-player has that insider's perspective. The weakness may be that it may be more than many fans wanted to know, and Oriard certainly is not impartial. Even so, the one-sided nature of owner-player relationship in the old days is almost appalling to read now. Younger fans may also be shocked to hear how little revenue football had and how little players made.
Oriand tackles one of the third rails of sports, that of why black athletes dominate, black cultural issues as they relate to football, and both subtle and obvious racism. He makes some reasonable observations, while also hemming and hawing around specifics where you cannot really win. The "exception" in my title is that he really should have stayed away from intelligence, other than the obvious history of blacks being kept from so-called skill positions that allegedly needed mental skills beyond their capacity. Wading into general intelligence controversies served no purpose, and Oriand misrepresented the famous "Bell Curve" book anyway. In this case, stick to your knitting.
Oriand closed with the transition from Paul Tagliabue to Roger Goodell as the new commissioner, naturally a time to re-assess the state of the business. To Oriand, Goodell fits football's continued growth in complexity that demands far more than Pete Rozelle the PR man. Oriand is very optimistic about football's future, yet he doesn't shy from some of the risks.
That attitude helps the general tone and credibility of the book. A breathless "homer" would have been uninteresting. A negative beat-down would have been unrealistic and pointless. As he said near the end, "Is the NFL become primarily a media company, or, is it still, above all, a national *football* league? It is both, of course, but the balance has been shifting, and how the commissioner will manage that balance over the coming years will be the story of the post-new NFL, whatever it will be called."
I can't argue with that. What I hope Oriand and Goodell realize is that excessive commercialization is itself a major risk. Major sporting events already are flirting with unwatchability with all the commercials and side shows. It's one area that could have gotten a bit more attention here. Why exactly is it that people like me watch less football than before, why don't I want to pay for the NFL Network, and why don't I like being shaken down at every opportunity by Dan Snyder?Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport (Caravan Book) Overview

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Handbook on the Economics of Sport (Elgar Original Reference) Review

Handbook on the Economics of Sport (Elgar Original Reference)
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Handbook on the Economics of Sport (Elgar Original Reference) ReviewThis is very good book to understand about sport economics that recently noticed world wide. I am very satisfied to some views and opinions about sport business.
I can have leaned the system of marketing and management about circumstances round sports.Handbook on the Economics of Sport (Elgar Original Reference) Overview`The worldwide growth in sports participation, attendance and broadcasting has spawned a lively interest in economic analysis of sporting activities. The Handbook on the Economics of Sport is an original reference work by a stellar group of 65 experts whose monographs cover virtually all the significant aspects of the field. It is unique and valuable because of its global perspective, with contributors from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US. Prominent editors Wladimir Andreff and Stefan Szymanski recognize the importance of intellectual rigour in the essays. There is a nice blend of theory, practice and econometrics, with emphasis on empirical results, which should appeal to a broad spectrum of readers. The book's thoughtful organization, comprehensive coverage and authoritative analysis make it an indispensable resource for sports scholars and practitioners. Publisher Edward Elgar has distinguished itself by providing first-rate books on sports economics and is the premier literary source on this important new branch of social science.'- Paul Staudohar, former President of the International Association of Sports Economics (1992-2002), and co-founder of the Journal of Sports EconomicsThis comprehensive Handbook provides a survey of all the major research areas in sports economics written by almost all of the active researchers in this field. It offers not only an accessible insight into the major findings of the literature but also presents some of the world's principal researchers' views on the unanswered questions that face us today. Issues covered include:* sport in the economy* the demand for sport* cost-benefit analysis of sport* sporting governance and the state* individualistic sports* team sports* dysfunctions in sport including discrimination, doping and corruption.It is an indispensable guide to one of the most lively and rapidly evolving fields of economics.

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Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport Review

Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport
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Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport ReviewI was made aware of this book when I heard one of the authors give an interview. Many of the topics in the interview weren't in the book, but a host of other areas where. The book is easy to read and well researched. However, it is very much written from a British point of view - so don't let the Americanized title of Soccernomics fool you. It mainly appears to be a book that hopes to explain to the English that they are not the most rabid fans nor the best players of the game they invented 150 years ago.
Some of the chapters were so absolutely fascinating, I couldn't stop reading. Other chapters were so ultimately boring that I skipped them. The good thing is that you can skip around and read each chapter independently without really losing any overall scope of the book.
Even though I didn't agree with some the conclusions and read the data differently, I certainly feel much more knowledgeable about the current game and how we got here. If you are a fan of soccer, you should seriously consider this fact-filled book. It will make for great discussions around the TV during next summer's World Cup.Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport Overview

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Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously Review

Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously
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Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously ReviewAs a skiing enthusiast, I found that Bill McKibben's Long Distance revealed the world of physical and mental training that i never fully grasped existed. Even with all his training it was amazing to see that so much rested squarely on genetics, to see that after his many hours of training he could only become so much. The mental aspect was a plus to the book, as a past ski racer it was nice to see someone put into words how it feels out on the course:
"Except that the minute a race is done, you start trying to make it all add up, turn the thousand things that happen even in a three hour ski race in to some kind of coherent storay with a morale at the end: 'I couldn't focus,' or 'I bonked,' or 'Everything came together.'" -Bill McKibben.
To sum it all up, Mr. McKibben has written up an endurance trainer's dream and how he copes with the mental and physical pressures are fascinating to read. I would recommend this book to anyone that is remotely interested in cross-country skiing or how the elite athletes train.Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously Overview

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Leveling the Playing Field: How the Law Can Make Sports Better for Fans Review

Leveling the Playing Field: How the Law Can Make Sports Better for Fans
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Leveling the Playing Field: How the Law Can Make Sports Better for Fans ReviewMany of the major issues of modern professional sports revolve around issues of the law. Harvard's Henry J. Friendly professor of law Paul C. Weiler believes this firmly and "Leveling the Playing Field" is his attempt to explore this subject. Much of this terrain has been pursued in other works, but Weiler's perspective is interesting. Weiler takes the reader through the looking glass world of the sports business, exploring the nature of free agency, the various revenue streams of the major sports franchises, the long history of the shakedown for new sports complexes paid for with public money, the problems of steroids and other methods of cheating, and television and other revenues generated through sports activities. It is a familiar story, and Weiler tells it relatively well. His approach is balanced and his tone is evenhanded, even when the subject does not deserve it.
His solution to the problems of Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League boil down to one piece of national legislation. "The only way to avoid a regular replay of the experience of the 1990s is to have Congress pass a law that bars redistribution of middle-American taxpayer dollars into the pockets of wealthy Americans like George Steinbrenner." He adds, "I hope my readers now understand that as fans we would be better off if our favorite sports had the combination of a salary tax and a stadium cap" (p. 345). That might help, although I am opposed to any restraint on the ability of players to receive whatever income they are able to negotiate for their services since they are fundamentally the stars of the show, but I only wish it were that simple! I very much question all the problems of the sports business could be cured in this way, and I must add that the devil would be in the details of any such congressional action and its ramifications might be strikingly different from what was intended. Witness the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act and how it simply changed the rules of the game; it did not appreciably alter the game itself. Additionally, the ability to pass legislation of this type in early twenty-first century America appears virtually nil.
While I found this book quite interesting and worthy of consideration, I was annoyed by the relative lack of academic rigor in the discussion. At no point, for instance, did Weiler offer detailed thoughts on the nature of the legislation that he believes is necessary. Additionally, the book is completely without scholarly apparatus, not even a selected bibliography, and I find this unacceptable in a serious work.Leveling the Playing Field: How the Law Can Make Sports Better for Fans Overview

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Major League Losers: The Real Cost Of Sports And Who's Paying For It Review

Major League Losers: The Real Cost Of Sports And Who's Paying For It
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Major League Losers: The Real Cost Of Sports And Who's Paying For It ReviewBy ANDREW CLINEMark S. Rosentraub, Major League Losers: The Real Cost of Sports And Who's Paying For It: Basic Books, 1997, $27.50, 513 pages.
Within the past generation, the pro sports team owner has become one of the top threats to state and local taxpayers. He has achieved this position by hiring hack economists to conduct trumped-up economic studies purporting to show that new sports arenas will bring large financial returns to the general public.
In his new book, Major League Losers, economist Mark S. Rosentraub shows very persuasively how pro sports arenas do not generate the economic returns to the general public that the owners claim, and therefore public subsidies are not justified.
Major League Losers is more than an economics book, and Rosentraub more than an economics professor. The book is written not for the policy wonk or academic, but rather for the sports fan and the taxpayer. Rosentraub covers the issue from the perspective of a concerned citizen and avid sports fan who just happens to be an economist rather than an economist looking to win tenure.
Rosentraub, a professor at Indiana University at Indianapolis and an Indiana Pacers season ticket holder, begins his book by laying down a little background so the reader will not jump straight into a bunch of economic mumbo jumbo.
In the first chapter Rosentraub outlines in simple terms how a city's economy works and how professional sports fit into that economy. In the second chapter he gets into a bit of psychology by explaining why sports occupy so exalted a position that they can garner public subsidies when other, far more important industries cannot.
The next chapter covers the theory of supply and demand, or why all cities that want pro sports teams cannot have them. In this chapter Rosentraub serves up a history of the big sports leagues, showing how each formed and evolved and how each was designed as a cartel that would maximize owner profits by minimizing competition.
Chapters four and five get into the nitty-gritty of economic analysis. In them Rosentraub explains just how little pro sports actually means to a city's overall economy. Professional sports, the author shows, never make up more than one half of one percent of all jobs in any community in which they exist. Nor do they account for two-thirds of one percent of the total payroll of any community in which they exist.
Also, when it comes to generating job growth, pro sports produce jobs only in a very tiny area localized usually within the stadium's own zip code. There is no large ripple effect throughout the community. In fact, pro sports can sap jobs from outlying areas because people who would have spent their money on movies and restaurants in the suburbs will instead spend that money at the sports stadium, reducing business for suburban entertainment and food venues.
In chapters six through ten, Rosentraub uses the specific examples of Indianapolis, Cleveland, St. Louis, Toronto, Montreal, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh to show how little return taxpayers receive when they opt to spend tax money on pro sports stadiums.
Chapter eleven focuses on the fight between suburbs and center cities that occurs whenever communities try to land or keep pro sports teams within their boundaries.
In the last chapter, Rosentraub offers a quick prescription for how to avoid the subsidized disasters that have befallen so many communities that have caved in to the demands of sports team owners.
Major League Losers could have been a much shorter book. The educated reader will skim through much of the fluff to get to the meat of the economic discussion. But this fluff may prove important in explaining the situation to those serious sports fans who otherwise may tolerate subsidies to teams as a means of obtaining their favorite entertainment. The book clearly and simply achieves the author's objectives. It is a must read for all hard-core sports fans as well as all taxpayers.
Andrew Cline is director of publications at the John Locke Foundation, a nonprofit think tank in Raleigh, N.C.Major League Losers: The Real Cost Of Sports And Who's Paying For It Overview

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Beyond the Scoreboard: An Insider's Guide to the Business of Sport Review

Beyond the Scoreboard: An Insider's Guide to the Business of Sport
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Beyond the Scoreboard: An Insider's Guide to the Business of Sport ReviewIf you suspected that sports are big, big business this book will confirm that. It gives a detailed picture of just about every business aspect of major sports including TV, ownership, corporate sponsorship, government involvement, stadium design and financing, and union/sports agents involvement. It even has a chapter of the sports video gaming industry and fantasy leagues that have flourished in the last decade. There are interviews with the commissioners of the principal sports: Roger Goodell (NFL), David Stern (NBA), Gary Bettman (NHL) and Brian France (NASCAR). In addition to its thorough descriptions of the mechanics of the sports business, the book has "case studies" interspersed throughout the chapters that give examples of the complex dealings of the sports business world.
One domain of the sports world, just to give one example, is the evolution of the design, construction and financing of sports stadiums (stadia?). There is an architectural sub-specialty of sports stadiums and arenas that has brought about many design innovations now commonly seen across the nation: single sport stadiums (no longer shared between football and baseball) luxury suites, club areas, strategies for seating placement, vendors and concessionaires, and more. It's no surprise that complicated financing schemes have emerged to fund these mega million structures, involving corporate resources and government/business partnerships.
There is hardly an aspect of the business of sports that isn't covered in great depth by the authors. Whatever one's favorite sport might be there is much to be learned about what makes it tick in this book.Beyond the Scoreboard: An Insider's Guide to the Business of Sport Overview
Go behind the scenes with your insider's access to the high-pressure, high-stakes business of professional sport.

In Beyond the Scoreboard, Rick Horrow, sport business analyst for Fox Sports, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Businessweek, and the BBC and host of PBS Nightly Business Report's "Beyond the $coreboard," and Horrow Sports Ventures' vice president Karla Swatek take you to the boardrooms, negotiating tables, and executive suites of sport's most influential powerbrokers.

Beyond the Scoreboard tackles sport's hot-button topics head on. You'll see

• how sponsors measure return on investment with sport organizations;

• how pro teams negotiate with governments to make a stadium deal;

• the effect of the sport facility building boom on teams' bottom lines;

• how sport agents try to maximize the value of their in-demand clients; and

• the effect on teams and fans of revolutionary changes in modern ticket selling.

Whether you are one of the millions of people who play fantasy sports or you just want to know more about how your favorite teams determine their strategies, you'll learn how the experts make deals happen.

And with engaging sidebars and exclusive interviews from the most powerful figures in sport, including Roger Goodell, David Stern, Brian France, and Gary Bettman, you'll gain expert analysis from people who have played leadership roles in some of the most intense negotiations and lucrative business deals in sport history.

There's nobody better equipped to explain what it takes to be a success in sport marketing, sponsorships, facility financing, or generating media coverage than Rick Horrow, the Sports Professor. In Beyond the Scoreboard, Horrow and Swatek provide you with an all-access pass to the multibillion-dollar world of professional sport.


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Sport Funding and Finance (Sport Management) Review

Sport Funding and Finance (Sport Management)
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Sport Funding and Finance (Sport Management) ReviewI never recieved this item... no tracking number. lost in mail. bad deal.Sport Funding and Finance (Sport Management) OverviewSport Funding and Finance is written for students who wish to get both a broad and deep understanding of the commercial and financial structure of sport in various contexts. To this end, the book provides students with a three-tiered learning experience.The first tier provides students with a broad appreciation of the commercial evolution of sport, and how it has managed to move from the kitchen-table model to the corporate-boardroom model, and along the way become quite a sophisticated industry from a financial viewpoint. Attention will be given to the commercial development of sport using USA and European pro-sport leagues as a benchmark. Changes in the funding arrangement of sport will be highlighted, and the different funding sources will be examined in detail. The second tier will give students a sound grounding in the principles and practice of effective financial management. Students will be introduced to basic accounting principles and practice, and then led into more complex issues of pricing, costing, financial analysis, budgeting, and financial projections. The third tier will explore future developments in sport finance and funding, and examine how they will impact on sport management knowledge and skill requirements.Within this framework, the book will provide students with two types of learning outcomes. The first outcome is knowledge based and will include the following:* a grounded understanding of the commercial evolution of sport from 1950-the present* an understanding of the different commercialphases sport goes through to reach commercial maturity* an appreciation of the major global sport events and leagues, and their financial arrangements.* an insight intothe financialstrengths and weaknesses of contemporary sport.The second outcome is skill-based, and by reading the book and completing the cases students will be able to:* identify the different legal structures of sport organisations and the financial implications of each structure* explain the main accounting conventions and how they impact on the financial management of sport organisations* identify the foundations of double entry bookkeeping* construct a simple set of accounts for a sport organisation* use financial ratio analysis to evaluate the financial performance of sport organisations * understand different methods of constructing budgets, and use them to control the financial operation of a sport organisation* set up models for identifying and managing costs* identify different methods for setting prices for sport goods and services, and to apply them to specific settings and events.* undertake a financial planning exercise and/or feasibility study for a sport organisation or facility* undertake a cost-benefit analysis for a sport organisation event.Therefore, students will obtain both a broad knowledge of the commercial evolution of sport and its current financial operation, AND the necessary skills for understanding and supervising the financial operations of a sport organisation.* Provides a unique balance of macro analysis of sport finance and micro-instruction in the skills of financial management * Developed learning features specifically created for semester long courses create an excellent learning tool for both students and lecturers* Provides both a broad knowledge of the commercial evolution of sport and its current financial operation

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