Chapter X: The Tour de France: a success story in spite of competitive imbalance and doping

International audienceThe chapter goes as follows. In the first section it is demonstrated how the Tour de France is a high quality product. This is a result from its accurate design, its management, its economic model and its finance structure, both in comparison to other mega-sporting events and with reference to tournament theory. It is not easy to assess the competitive balance in the Tour de France since, as was demonstrated in chapter 10, it is at the same time an individual and a team sport contest. After reviewing some results published in literature so far, a new metrics for evaluating competitive balanced in the Tour de France is presented in section 2. Finally, the Tour de France cannot ignore doping as a potential threat to fan attendance and TV viewing. We therefore discuss the issue of doping and a new procedure to deal with doping in section 3

Co-opetition models for governing professional football

In recent years, models for co-creating value in a business-to-business context have often been examined with the aim of studying the strategies implemented by and among organisations for competitive and co-operative purposes. The traditional concepts of competition and co-operation between businesses have now evolved, both in terms of the sector in which the businesses operate and in terms of the type of goods they produce. Many researchers have, in recent times, investigated the determinants that can influence the way in which the model of co-opetition can be applied to the football world. Research interest lies in the particular features of what makes a good football. In this paper, the aim is to conduct an analysis of the rules governing the “football system”, while also looking at the determinants of the demand function within football entertainment. This entails applying to football match management the co-opetition model, a recognised model that combines competition and co-operation with the view of creating and distributing value. It can, therefore, be said that, for a spectator, watching sport is an experience of high suspense, and this suspense, in turn, depends upon the degree of uncertainty in the outcome. It follows that the rules ensuring that both these elements can be satisfied are a fertile ground for co-operation between clubs, as it is in the interest of all stakeholders to offer increasingly more attractive football, in comparison with other competing products. Our end purpose is to understand how co-opetition can be achieved within professional football

Sport in the city: measuring economic significance at the local level

In many cities throughout Europe, sport is increasingly being used as a tool for economic revitalisation. While there has been a growth in literature relating to the specific economic impacts of sports-led development, including professional sport facilities, teams, and sport events, limited research has been undertaken on the contribution of the whole sport sector to output and employment. In the United Kingdom (UK), studies have focused on evaluating sport-related economic activity at the national level, yet despite the increasing use of sport for local economic development little research has been undertaken at the city level. To address this situation, this article uses the National Income Accounting framework to measure the economic importance of sport in Sheffield, UK. It shows that the value-added in 1996/97 was 165.61m or 4.11% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), approximately twice the amount predicted from current national estimates. It is argued that this can primarily be explained by previous studies under-estimating the economic importance of sport, largely due to methodological differences. It goes on to suggest that future research on the significance of sport should be undertaken at the local level to provide policymakers with information at the spatial level where regeneration programmes are being implemented.</p

Professional Sports Firm Values: Bringing New Determinants to the Foreground? A Study of European Soccer, 2005-2013

Since 2004, Forbes has proposed a list of the most valuable soccer clubs. One year later, Transfermarkt began to estimate European soccer players&rsquo; value. This article estimate the determinants of firm values in European soccer over the period 2005-2013 incorporating player valuations, clubs&rsquo; operating income, and new ownership, three variables not included previously. The results of this study demonstrate that these variables are significant factors in club valuations. More generally, club assets including stadium age, club ownership type, supporter numbers and income, and past sports performances all have a significant impact

How to predict the 2014 World Cup winner (in one simple equation) : determinants of national football team results 2011-2013 - a new methodology

This short note sets out an approach to predicting national football team results using a new, hybrid economics-based methodology. It draws on previous work in the field and was tested on almost 3,000 international football matches over the period 2011- 2013. The same methodology can be used in a predicative way and could be used, for example, to predict the result of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. A forthcoming article to be published by the Fraser Economic Commentary will seek to predict Scotland’s likely progress in the forthcoming Euro 2016 competition

Determinants of European national men’s football team performance : Scotland's potential progress in the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers

In this paper, we estimate the potential outcomes for Scotland in the 2016 Euro qualifiers, based on a model of the outcomes of previous European men's football matches. The sampled dataset includes all matches played between European national men’s football teams between August 2012 and December 2013, that is 368 matches in all. According to our model, Scotland should fail to progress to the UEFA Euro 2016 playoffs by only one goal in Group D. This result is confirmed when we correct our model to take into account the difference between real scores and scores provided by the model for each team in Group D. Nevertheless, in a third model – which is a better predictor – Scotland should come third in Group D and thus proceed to the playoffs in which it could hope to qualify for the Euro 2016 Finals. A fourth and final approach predicts that Scotland could even come second in Group D, behind Germany, and thus qualify directly to the UEFA Euro 2016 Finals in France

Walter C. Neale 50 Years After: Beyond Competitive Balance, the League Standing Effect Tested With French Football Data

International audienceIn 1964, Neale suggested, in addition to competitive balance, a league standing effect that was never tested per se with empirical data. A model that explains fan attendance in the French football Ligue 1 over 2008-2011 is presented. It takes on-board point difference with the closest competitor chasing a different sporting stake, and positive and negative changes regarding the different sporting stakes. Econometric testing exhibits a negative impact of point difference (i.e., a positive impact of the possibilities of changes), a positive impact of positive changes, and no significant impact of negative changes

The Economic Determinants of the Olympic Performance in Communist and Post-Communist Countries

International audienceThe chapter first reminds the statist model of sport, its overshooting Olympic performance, and reforms before its final collapse. Moving towards a market-compatible sport system during the transformational economic crisis was not without hindrances ending up into a hybrid sports industry. All these changes affected Olympic performance downwards. Econometric modelling explains all nations’ medal totals at Summer Olympic Games by GDP per capita, population, a host country effect, regional sport specialisation, and a political regime variable taking on board communist and post-communist specificity. A similar model is adapted to Winter Games by adding two variables, snow coverage and endowment in winter sports resorts. Both models provide a statistically significant explanation of how medal totals have evolved in post-communist nations. Used for forecasting, the Winter Olympics model enables checking the impact of doping on Olympic performance with a natural experiment at the 2014 Sochi Games