The Evolving European Model of Professional Sports Finance

Abstract

The sports business in Europe has been recently altered by a court decision granting greater freedom to players in the labor market. Also, the televising of major sporting events has become more popular, generating big increases in revenues to many clubs. These and other developments are transforming methods of financing sports operations. This article examines and compares four models of sports finance: European amateur, European professional (traditional), European professional (contemporary), and American. The authors relate the changes that are occurring in the product and labor markets to these models, and assess current and future impacts. Of particular interest is the convergence between the newly evolving European model and the one found in the United States.