1. . Evaluate a professional sports franchise:
Students are required to choose ONE sports franchise from any professional North American league, examine the market conditions, revenues and costs for this franchise. Specifically, information on market conditions should include analysis on market size, income levels, corporate head offices and some economic specific conditions such as tax advantages and the effect of exchange rate. Revenue and cost information should, at a minimum, include gate receipts, broadcasting revenue, corporate sponsorship and player costs.
Note: Forbes is a publisher of extensive market analysis on Professional sports franchises. You may look at their analysis but please DO NOT duplicate their reports.
2. Investigate the relationship between revenue and wins:
Students are required to choose one league from the North American professional sports market. Using data from Professor Rodney Fort’s website (see Reference 1 below) or from the league’s website, analyse the relationship between revenue and wins using a Multiple Regression model. An example of the regression model can be seen below:
Revenue=h0+h1×Wins+h2×WinsLagged+h3×MarketSize+h4×NewStadiumDummy+e
Note: To simplify the data collection, students may use cross-sectional data of any given year. If you are using multi-year series, please make sure that the revenue series are converted to real values and you may pool the observations together.
In the report, please explain the data source and variable definitions. The results from the regression model must be presented in a table format with proper labelling. Students must explain the results in detail using proper economic terminology.
Data Resources and References:
1. Professor Rodney Fort’s website (Data): https://sites.google.com/site/rodswebpages/codes Professor Rodney Fort has the largest sports data collection in North America and it is publicly accessible.
2. Sports Economics by David Berri (Textbook), Worth Publishers, 2018 (Ryerson Bookstore) e-book
3. The Economics of Sports by Leeds and Allmen (Textbook), the earlier editions are available through Ryerson Library.
4. Forbes https://www.forbes.com/lists/list-directory/ Forbes have extensive market analysis on sports franchises.
5. Power Play - the Business Economics of Pro Sports by Hodgson and Lefebvre (Conference Board of Canada): •This book is written by two economists at the Conference board. It includes many case studies that are focused on the Canadian professional sports market. http://www.conferenceboard.ca/powerplay.aspx (Hardcopy: $20, Kindle: $4.99)
There is also a webinar recorded: https://www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=6143. Free Access from Ryerson Campus.
6. Conference board of Canada: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/. • _Conference board of Canada produces specific industry reports, including the sports industry. You can use their search engine and look for topics that are related to your research interests.