Private Financing and Sports Franchise Values: The Case of Major League Baseball

This paper examines the impact of receiving a new stadium on team franchise values. I argue that a new stadium will increase the franchise values of teams regardless of how construction was financed. A team playing in a stadium that it owns will be able to capitalize the value of the stadium in the team’s franchise value and will thus have a higher franchise value. Using panel data for Major League Baseball teams from 1990-2002, I find that, after controlling for team quality and metro area differences, regardless of the financing mechanism, a team playing in a brand new stadium realizes an increase in its franchise value. I also find that a team playing in its own stadium has a higher franchise value than a team playing in a public stadium. However, the difference in franchise values between playing in a team-owned stadium and playing in a public stadium does not offset the average cost of constructing the stadium. The paper thus provides a deeper understanding the determinants of franchise values and of the motives of sports team owners in their lobbying efforts for public subsidies.Stadiums, Baseball

Revenue Sharing in Sports Leagues: The Effects on Talent Distribution and Competitive Balance

This paper uses a three-stage model of non-cooperative and cooperative bargaining in a free agent market to analyze the effect of revenue sharing on the decision of teams to sign a free agent. We argue that in all subgame perfect Nash equilibria, the team with the highest reservation price will get the player. We argue that revenue sharing will not alter the outcome of the game unless the proportion taken from high revenue teams is sufficiently high. We also argue that a revenue sharing system that rewards quality low-revenue teams can alter the outcome of the game while requiring a lower proportion to be taken from high revenue teams. We also argue that the revenue sharing systems can improve competitive balance by redistributing pivotal marginal players among teams.competitive balance, revenue sharing, sports labor markets, free agency

Major League Duopolists: When Baseball Clubs Play in Two-Team Cities

This paper focuses on examining the attendance of MLB teams that play home games in the same metropolitan area – duopoly teams. Comparisons were made between the determinants of attendance for duopoly teams and monopoly teams. While duopoly and monopoly teams share most of the same determinants, the estimated weights on some determinants differ. There is evidence that one duopolist’s attendance is negatively related to the other’s performance. Evidence is therefore provided that fans of one team respond to quality changes in the other team in a city

Personality as a potential moderator of the relationship between stigma and help-seeking

Many persons who could potentially benefit from psychological services do not seek help or follow through with treatment. While there are a variety of reasons why an individual might not pursue psychological treatment, the stigma associated with seeking help has been identified as a significant obstacle. Stigma, the perception that one is flawed, is based upon a real or imagined personal characteristic that is deemed socially unacceptable. Two types of stigma (i.e., public stigma and self-stigma) are involved in the help-seeking process and serve to decrease positive attitudes toward help- seeking and one\u27s willingness to seek counseling. Researchers have recognized that dimensions of one\u27s personality (e.g., the Big Five), a pervasive aspect of human behavior, are likely to influence one\u27s experience of stigma and the role that stigma plays in one\u27s decision to seek help. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the role of personality in the relationship between stigma and one\u27s attitudes towards seeking professional assistance from a mental healthcare provider. The general hypothesis is that personality will play a moderating role in the relationship between the public stigma of seeking help and the self-stigma of seeking help, as well as the relationship between self-stigma and attitudes towards counseling. Based upon the general hypothesis, four specific hypotheses were formulated: 1) Neuroticism will amplify the statistically positive relationship between public stigma and self-stigma. 2) Neuroticism will amplify the statistically negative relationship between self-stigma and attitudes towards counseling. 3) Extraversion will moderate the relationship between public stigma and self-stigma and act as a buffer, so that persons with high reported Extraversion will have lower levels of self-stigma compared to individuals with low reported Extraversion. 4) Extraversion will moderate the relationship between self-stigma and attitudes towards counseling and act to enhance the relationship. University student participants (N = 784) completed an online survey with a response rate of 89.4%. The survey consisted of six parts: the IPIP NEO, SSOSH, SSRPH, ATSPPH-S, HSCL-21, and a six item demographics questionnaire. The results indicated that Neuroticism moderates the relationship between public stigma and self-stigma, but not the relationship between self-stigma and attitudes towards counseling. Even after controlling for gender, prior treatment, and psychological distress the relationships remained. It was found that as public stigma increased, those high on Neuroticism reported less self-stigma than those low on Neuroticism. Additionally, the results showed that Extraversion moderated the relationship between public stigma and self-stigma, but not the relationship between self-stigma and attitudes towards counseling, even after controlling for gender, prior treatment, and psychological distress. Those high on Extraversion reported less self-stigma at low levels of public stigma, however at high levels of public stigma those high on Extraversion reported feeling more self-stigma than those low in Extraversion. It was also found that prior exposure to treatment lessened the amount of self-stigma. Possible explanations for the findings are discussed, including the implications of the results for counseling psychology, theoretical implications, and the strengths and limitations of the study

Leading Organizational Change: A Case Study in Improving Performance by Improving Culture

This paper will discuss the role that positively changing organizational culture plays in positively improving organizational performance. The research presented will look at how organizational culture is best defined, as well as expand on some key concepts like trust and engagement that are typically present in effective cultures. It considers the role leadership accepts in managing organizational change through their willingness to choose the right model for change and embrace the fact that challenges and complexities exist during the course of change. Both the research and the case study provided will support encouraging an organization looking to improve its performance to start with improving its culture. The writing outlines the cultural journey that my organization, Brazeway KY (BK), underwent over the course of several years. The positive results in the case of Brazeway KY, support the research that suggest intentionally focusing on cultivating a better culture leads to experiencing better organizational performance. Keywords: Organizational Culture, change, engagement, trus

History Mysteries: Crowdsourcing to Involve Alumni with SWOSU\u27s Institutional Repository

Crowdsourcing is the strategy Southwestern Oklahoma State University Libraries is using to fill in the gaps for many unidentified images in the SWOSU Digital Commons (https://dc.swosu.edu/). A photo gallery was created of some of the repository\u27s unidentified images of persons, events and activities. An intriguing title - History Mysteries - was chosen to attract attention, and the page requested help from the public in identifying the unnamed items in the photographs. SWOSU Libraries began promoting the page during he SWOSU Homecoming in 2016, which was the 20th anniversary of winning the NAIA Football Championship. The increased number of alumni visiting campus during homecoming were invited to visit the site and view the History Mysteries page to see if they could identify any of the images. IntenseDebate commenting system was used as the vehicle for public responses

The NaK Population: A 2019 Status

The statistical debris measurement campaigns conducted by the Haystack Ultrawideband Satellite Imaging Radar (HUSIR) on behalf of the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office are used to characterize the long-term behavior of the small, low Earth orbit (LEO) orbital debris environment. A long-recognized, unique component of the LEO environment is composed of small Sodium-Potassium (NaK) eutectic nuclear reactor coolant droplets associated with the Soviet Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite (RORSAT) program. Beginning with the flight of Cosmos 1176, RORSAT vehicles would nominally separate their reactor core at end of mission, thereby venting the NaK coolant and producing the NaK droplet population. In this paper, we describe the methodology by which NaK are segregated from the statistically sampled general debris population and their sizes inferred; the current NaK environment; how it has changed over time; and a potential new source of NaK: RORSAT vehicles that did not separate their reactor core by either design or apparent malfunction

Recent Results from the Goldstone Orbital Debris Radar: 2016-2017

Since 1993, the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office has used the Goldstone Orbital Debris Radar (Goldstone) to sample statistically the orbital debris environment. Due to the sensitivity of this radar, which can detect an approximately 3 mm-diameter conducting sphere at 1,000 km, it has filled an important role in the characterization of the sub-centimeter-sized orbital debris population. Through the years, the capabilities of this system have increased recent updates include increased receiver bandwidth and a change in the bi-static observation geometry both of which enhance the radars ability to estimate orbital parameters. In 2016, dual polarization capability was added, making this the first year where both right- and left-hand circularly polarized information was available from this sensor. This additional polarization information may enable better characterization of sub-centimeter-sized particles in low Earth orbit, particularly since the receiver triggers on reflected energy from both left- and right-handed circular polarizations independently. In this paper, we present measurements and results derived from data taken during the calendar years (CY) 2016-2017 by Goldstone and compare this dataset to measurements taken by the Haystack Ultra-wideband Satellite Imaging Radar (HUSIR) during a similar timeframe