Table of Contents

List of IllustrationsList of TablesPrefaceCh. 1Introduction1Ch. 2The Market for Sports Franchises23Ch. 3Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes88Ch. 4Stadiums and Arenas125Ch. 5The Reserve Clause and Antitrust Laws179Ch. 6Why Do Pro Athletes Make So Much Money?209Ch. 7Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues240Ch. 8Rival Leagues and League Expansion: Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey294Ch. 9Rival Leagues: The Great Football Wars333Postscript363Appendix to Chapter 3366Appendix to Chapter 6369Appendix to Chapter 8374Data Supplement377Ownership Histories378Attendance Records479Radio and Television Income505Bibliography513Index of Names531Index of Court Cases538

Promotional Information

Blending illuminating (and entertaining) anecdotes with economic analysis, James Quirk leads readers through the increasingly complex labyrinth of a significant industry--professional sports. Along the way he slays the notion that economics is the 'dismal science.' He demonstrates that decisions made in the executive offices of sports franchises can be as fascinating as, and can influence, what happens in the games. All Americans are involved in the sports business as ticketbuyers, taxpayers, and participants in the culture that shapes and is shaped by professional sports. So there should be a wide readership for this intelligent guide to reading newspapers' sports pages, which increasingly resemble business pages. -- George Will

About the Author

James Quirk is retired Professor of Economics at California Institute of Technology. He is a widely recognized expert on the economics of sports, and is the author of Minnesota Football: The Golden Years, 1932-1941. Rodney D. Fort is Associate Professor of Economics at Washington State University. He has written for numerous sports publications, and is the President of the Local Youth Baseball Association.

Reviews

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1993 "Call this volume The Wealth of Nations of professional sports. Unrivaled in scope, the [book] should stand for quite some time as the basic work from which all descendants will spring."--Steve Gietschier, The Sporting News "The book is written in a reader-friendly fashion, is chock-full of anecdotes, is conceptually sound, and is bulging with useful data. Pay Dirt is a solid scholarly contribution to the literature on the economics of sports."--Gerald Scully, Journal of Political Economy