This paper evaluates the magnitude and the economic impact of NFL mega-events including the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl. The paper also reviews the theory behind the usual findings that the observed economic benefits of mega-events are almost always a fraction of the benefits claimed a priori.

Sports leagues constitute one of the few examples of legally operating cartels. In this paper I examine how gate revenue sharing may serve to coordinate talent investmentswithin these cartels. I show that sharing revenues has the potential to raise cartel profits, because it decreases the...

Tournament design is of crucial importance in competitive sports. The primary goal of effective tournament design is to provide incentives for the participants to maximize their performance both during the tournament and in the time period leading up to the tournament. In spectator sports, a...

The institutional racial discrimination that existed in American professional team sports prior to World War II resulted in African American players effectively being barred from playing in the major professional leagues. Although the NFL color barrier did officially fall in 1946, to be quickly...

In this paper, we analyze Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)-level data in the U.S. to examine the economic impact of college athletics. Specifically, we examine the relationship between total athletics revenues (aggregated across all colleges in an MSA) and MSA-level...

This paper provides an empirical examination of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our analysis of taxable sales in the counties in which Olympic events took place finds that some sectors such as hotels and restaurants prospered while other retailers such as general...