COMPETITIVE BALANCE IN THE ITALIAN BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Introduction – 1. The Competitive Balance in Professional Sports – 2. Alternative Measures of Competitive Balance – 3. The Italian Basketball Championship – Conclusions – ReferencesCompetitive balance, Bosman ruling, talent supply

Characterisation of the fused silica surface quality with a β-source

A method to characterise the quality of a fused silica surface using a β-source is presented. Two fused silica bars (5×10×400mm3) were fabricated for the Cherenkov detector for proton Flux Measurement installed at vacuum chamber of the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN. The resolution of such device is defined by the collection efficiency of the Cherenkov light, which is produced by relativistic charged particles in the fused silica. Thus, the surface quality of the radiator should be as good as possible to avoid light losses. The method is based on the scanning of the radiator surface with a90Sr radioactive source and measurements of the Cherenkov light rate, detected by a PMT attached to the quartz bars. The data have been compared with a Monte-Carlo simulation, providing an estimation of the radiator's probability of the total internal reflection and inefficient area at the edges of the bars

Il Competitive Balance nel campionato italiano di Basket

Introduzione – 1. Il Competitive Balance negli Sport Professionistici –2. Misurazioni Alternative del Competitive Balance – 3. Il Caso della Pallacanestro in Italia – Conclusioni – Bibliografia. – Abstract: Il presente lavoro analizza l’andamento del CB nel campionato italiano di pallacanestro. Innanzitutto si è guardato all’evoluzione del CB dal 1957 al 2009: la deviazione standard mostra che l’equilibrio delle singole stagioni non varia significativamente nel tempo, l’indice di Herfindahl-Hirschman che sempre più squadre si sono inserite nella lotta per il titolo, in particolare dopo la sentenza Bosman. Successivamente, ci si concentra sul comportamento del CB nelle stagioni post-Bosman e sulla sua relazione con il numero di stranieri, attraverso un’analisi sia descrittiva che econometrica che sembra evidenziare una certa correlazione negativa tra le due variabili. […] This paper aims at analysing the performance of CB in Italian basketball championship. First, it examines the evolution of CB from 1957 to 2009: the standard deviation shows the degree of competition of the single seasons does not vary significantly, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index highlights more and more teams became competitive for the title, especially after Bosman sentence. Then, it focuses on CB of the seasons following that sentence and on its relationship with the number of foreign players, making use of both descriptive and econometric analysis which seems to point out a certain negative correlation between the two variables. […]Basketball, Competitive balance, Sport Economics

Reform Effectiveness and Unresolved Issues of the Football in the Turkish Super League

Background. Following the successful outcomes of the national team, that finished third in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and the positive club performance in the UEFA competitions at the beginning of the new millennium, Turkish football was expected to reaffirm and further develop in the following years, exploiting also the favourable economic conditions. However, its growth and evolution did not meet the expectations, and in the latest years several managerial aspects of the Turkish Football Federation have begun to be questioned, which has led the federation itself to reform football in areas such as foreign players’ quota, financial requirements and stadiums. Objectives. The main aim of this article is to identify and discuss these issues and how effective the reforms implemented by the Turkish Football Federation have been in the short run. Methods. The research is done through the application of the historical method and the use of secondary data. Results. Our results show that these reforms do not seem to have had a significant impact so far. Conclusion. While some of the reforms likely need more time for their effects to be tangible, the general impression is that Turkish football would need a different approach and more incisive policy interventions

Cultural diversity and team performance in the Italian Serie A

Cultural diversity features prominently in management studies. A diverse range of skills and perspectives can produce innovation and a greater variety of solutions to day to day problems. At the same time, however, the same heterogeneous approaches and experiences can result in communication and coordination problems, lack of trust and intra/intergroup conflict. We analyse a newly constructed dataset on team composition and performance for 29 teams, 1,238 players and 1,899 matches in the Italian Serie A with information on the players’ place of origin, talent, position, demographics, manager experience and other factors. We compute indices of fractionalization and polarization and find that both measures of diversity have a strong and persistent negative effect on game scores and player objective performance ratings. This research provides new important insights into the drawbacks of cultural heterogeneity in the workplace and calls for more indepth analyses of the nexus diversity-performances on team performance

The Determinants of the TV Demand for Soccer: Empirical Evidence on Italian Serie A for the Period 2008-2015

This article investigates the determinants of the TV audience for Italian soccer in seven Serie A seasons (2008-2009 to 2014-2015). Italian viewers have committed behavior and that outcome uncertainty does not have an impact on the TV audience. When choosing whether to watch a match involving teams other than their favorite team, Italian consumers are attracted by both the aggregate quantity of talent and the matches involving teams at the top of the table. An increase in the TV demand is driven by an enhancement in the performance of the top clubs and in the quality of the entertainment

Production, efficiency and corruption in Italian Serie A : a DEA analysis

This paper uses data from Italian Serie A football to analyse the technical efficiency of Italian football clubs , utilising a panel dataset comprising season aggregated match statistics over ten seasons from 2000/01 to 2009/10 inclusive . While there has been considerable research on production and efficiency in most of the major European football leagues , corresponding evidence relating to Serie A is limited. T his paper addresses this imbalance , e stimating a production function for the league and the relative efficiency of 36 teams , taking into consideration the impact of the Calciopoli corruption scan dal in 2006 . To achieve this , Da ta Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models ha ve been used to calculate the frontiers of efficient production. The results highlight how playing style has changed in response to the corruption scandal , emphasizing the importance of attacking play in Serie A

Football team performance efficiency and effectiveness in a corruptive context: the Calciopoli case

Research question: While considerable research on production and efficiency is mostly on all European football leagues, corresponding evidence relating to the Italian Serie A is limited. To address this imbalance, this paper analyses the technical efficiency and effectiveness of Italian football clubs, taking into consideration the impact of the Calciopoli corruption scandal in 2006. This allows assessment of how clubs' efficiency and effectiveness were affected by the sanctions inflicted on the clubs involved in the scandal. Research methods: Utilising a panel dataset comprising season aggregated match statistics over ten seasons from 2000/01 to 2009/10, this paper estimates a production function for the league and, then, calculates the relative offensive and defensive efficiency and the football effectiveness of 36 teams. To achieve this, DEA models have been used to calculate the frontiers of efficient production. Results and findings: The results partially confirm the evidence of the literature but they also reveal how playing style changed, emphasising the importance of attacking play at the expense of defensive play in Italian Serie A. Clubs that suffered a points deduction following their involvement in the Calciopoli scandal changed their usual tactical behaviour, presumably to compensate for the impact of these punishments

Competitive intensity, fans' expectations and match day tickets sold in the Italian football Serie A, 2012-2015

This article investigates the impact of the competitive intensity on the stadium attendance for Italian soccer in three Serie A seasons (2012-13 to 2014-15). The central element of novelty concerning the existing literature is that fans expectations are also included among the explanatory variables of the Tobit model. Our results show that competitive intensity has a significant impact on match-day attendance in relation to all the sporting prizes but Europa League qualification. Moreover, we find evidence supporting the existence of reference- dependent preferences, where the attendance increases when the home team rank is higher than the pre-season expectations

TV demand for the Italian Serie A: star power or competitive intensity?

This article investigates the determinants of television audience for Italian Serie A football matches between 2012/13 - 2014/15 seasons (n=1079) using the AUDIBALL dataset. Specifically, we investigate the role of competitive intensity (CI) on TV demand by adapting a measure to incorporate both home and away teams competing for different prizes. Although we find significant positive impacts for all our CI indicators, our conclusion differs from previous work as the coefficients are small. Additionally, our results indicate a significant negative impact of uncertainty-of-outcome, supporting the “David vs Goliath” effect. Finally, our results show a significant positive impact from star quality suggesting Serie A should focus on star quality rather than competitive intensity