Widely Received: Payoffs to Player Attributes in the NFL

We examine wide receivers drafted into the NFL to assess what attributes explain draft rank and correspond to high salaries and performance in their first year in the league. We find that tangible measures of player quality are valuable signals. Consistent with expectations, faster and more accomplished college receivers are drafted earlier and earn more. However, we find no significant relationship between 40-yard dash times and first year performance for wide receivers. In addition, media exposure received by players prior to the draft is positively related to draft placement and higher earnings even after controlling for measured physical attributes.Sports Economics, NFL, Draft, Media

Returns to Education in Professional Football

After three years in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), collegiate football players face a trade-off between spending more time in the NCAA and pursuing a career in the National Football League (NFL) by declaring for the draft. We analyze the starting salaries and signing bonuses for 1,673 rookies in the NFL, who entered the league between 2001 and 2009 through the NFL draft. We instrument the endogenous decision to enter the professional market with a player's month of birth. A player's true talent is only imperfectly observed and the instrument pro- vides a causal link between time at college and subsequent salaries in the NFL through the relative age effect. Our estimates suggest that a player enjoys a 6% higher starting salary in the NFL, and a 15% higher first-year signing bonus, for each year with the college team. On average, a rookie is estimated to earn $131,000 more in his rookie season, if he enters the NFL one year later. Our analysis of a typical labor market in professional sports shows that the returns to ed- ucation in sports are sizeable and surprisingly similar to returns to formal education. The results of our analysis provide information for the players who are deciding about declaring for the draft, however, also colleges and the teams in the NFL may find the results of interest.NFL, returns to education, ability bias, labor markets in sports

Returns to Education in Professional Football

After three years in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), collegiate football players face a trade-off between spending more time in the NCAA and pursuing a career in the National Football League (NFL) by declaring for the draft. We analyze the starting salaries and signing bonuses for 1,673 rookies in the NFL, who entered the league between 2001 and 2009 through the NFL draft. We instrument the endogenous decision to enter the professional market with a player's month of birth. A player's true talent is only imperfectly observed and the instrument provides a causal link between time at college and subsequent salaries in the NFL through the relative age effect. Our estimates suggest that a player enjoys a 6% higher starting salary in the NFL, and a 15% higher first-year signing bonus, for each year with the college team. On average, a rookie is estimated to earn $131,000 more in his rookie season, if he enters the NFL one year later. Our analysis of a typical labor market in professional sports shows that the returns to education in sports are sizeable and surprisingly similar to returns to formal education. The results of our analysis provide information for the players who are deciding about declaring for the draft, however, also colleges and the teams in the NFL may find the results of interest.labor markets in sports, returns to education, ability bias, NFL

Inter-Regional Transfer Trade Flows in the English Football League

This paper examines the pattern and extent of inter-regional transfers of professional footballers between clubs in the English football league system over the period 1990-1991 to 1999-2000. Our study emlploys a variant form of an established trade flow model and, in presenting and confirming tbe pattern and extent of inter-regional transfers, it indicates the wider applications of the conventional trade model.

PRESENTING THE MARKET VALUE MODEL OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN IRAN: A CONSTRUCTIONIST APPROACH OF GROUNDED THEORY

The present study intends to design a value model for professional players in the Iranian Football. The present study has been done with exploratory nature and with the aim of expanding the existing knowledge and understanding about capabilities in the field of football in order to present the model from the findings derived from the code, an attempt has been made to use a structural approach of data-based theory of the Charms Foundation. Three overlapping processes in the structural analysis of data-based theory are: Primary, centralized, and theoretical coding. In the implementation of the research, data collection and analysis were done consciously simultaneously, and the initial data were collected in order to form the process of continuous data collection. Participants included people familiar with the Iranian professional football, who were purposefully selected. Based on the findings in this stage of the research, out of about 220 sentences implemented from the interviews, after removing duplicate and unrelated items, 109 primary codes were identified and marked by the researcher in the first stage. In centralized coding, it was divided into 7 categories. Finally, at the highest level of reduction or brevity, the categories of construction were reduced to three general categories of equity, requirements and market value of a player, which in the most desirable way, integrated the concepts created in the research into three levels. The final price or value of a football player in the Iranian Premier League in the transfer market is determined based on the player's special values. Article visualizations

Reserve Price Formation in Online Auctions

We use a unique hand collected data set of 6 258 auctions from the online football manager game Hattrick to study micro-patterns of reserve price formation. We find that chosen reserve prices exhibit both, very sophisticated and “irrational” behavior by the sellers. Reserve prices pick up the “birthday effect” in sales prices, documented in Englmaier and Schmöller (2008) and are adjusted remarkably nuanced to the resulting sales price pattern. Moreover, reserve prices are too clustered (around multiples of €50 000) as to be consistent with fully rational behavior. Furthermore, we find evidence for entitlement effects and the sunk cost fallacy as there is a huge positive effect on the reserve price when the player has been acquired previously.auctions, reserve price, bounded rationality, heuristics, entitlement effect

League Control of Market Opportunities: A Perspective on Competition and Cooperation in the Sports Industry

An issue unsettled for at least the past decade is the proper characterization of a professional sports league for antitrust purposes. Recent litigation over the efforts of the National Football League to block the move by the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles should have been the occasion for a significant judicial clarification. The Ninth Circuit decision in the case seeks to limit league discretion and give individual clubs the right to pursue their separate entrepreneurial advantage. When subjected to close examination, however, the decision appears to be premised on themes that are fundamentally inconsistent. The present article suggests that a more coherent view of the antitrust issues in league governance requires that greater weight be given to the corporate nature of the league\u27s enterprise. An outcome sensitive to this characteristic is more apt to satisfy the basic antitrust policy of enhancing consumer welfare. Other antitrust and public policy questions remain, but their resolution should not proceed from a conspiratorial view of league governance

Key Players and Key Groups in Teams: A Network Approach Using Soccer Data

This paper provides a way of evaluating a player's contribution to her team and relates her effort to her salaries. We collect data from UEFA Euro 2008 Tournament and construct the passing network of each team. Then we determine the key player in the game while ranking all the other players too. Next, we identify key groups of players to determine which combination of players played more important role in the match. Using 2010 market values and observable characteristics of the players, we show that players having higher intercentrality measures regardless of their field position have significantly higher market values.Social networks, team game, centrality measures