The Unique Economic Aspects of Sports

Abstract

This paper offers nine concepts that represent the economics of sports as unique from the economics of other industries. These concepts are: (1) the effect of rules to enhance competitive balance, (2) the question of natural monopoly in sports leagues, (3) the unique types of barriers to entry to these monopoly leagues, (4) the assumption of profit-maximization, (5) the relatively large share of mind devoted to sports, (6) what is the product that sports sells, (7) how sports is really just “watching people work” and how that creates the potential for relatively high pay of athletes, (8) pricing, and (9) the special antitrust treatment afforded to sports leagues. It is argued here that sports owners have used their industry’s uniqueness for protection from and to extends their monopoly power and courts and governments have often been manipulated or coalesced. As we enter the second century of the sports industry colliding with the economics of antitrust law and regulation, we may be reaching a recognition that while sports may be peculiar, they are not so alien as to require a hands-off policy approach.