final exam Flashcards
Which of the four major professional leagues in the US has the greatest average attendance per event?
NFL
How much greater was the average attendance at MSU home football games in 2023 than the approximate average attendance per game for FBS college football overall (among the 130 +/- teams in the FBS, the top division of college football) last year?
Not quite twice as great.
Among the four major Detroit pro sports teams, which had the highest and which had the lowest total attendance for last season? (You may want to look up the attendance for pro sports teams for last season (2023) using the URL from the class lecture notes).
Highest: Tigers Lowest: Lions
Which professional sports team has the highest market value (according to Forbes’ latest data)?
Dallas Cowboys
Compare the market value of the Detroit Tigers to the Chicago White Sox (MLB) and the value of the Detroit Red Wings to the Chicago Blackhawks (NHL). (You will want to look up the value for pro sports teams as estimated by Forbes using the URL from the class lecture notes). In each case, which is the higher value team?
White Sox (but the Cubs are much higher!); Blackhawks
According to the most recent estimates, the most valuable of the four Detroit-area professional sports teams is the Detroit Lions primarily because
the Detroit Lions benefit from being in the most valuable of the U.S. professional sports leagues.
In the U.S. the spectator sports industry accounts for about what percentage of national GDP (that is, total national income)?
Less than 1 percent
The NFL Super Bowl is the most watched single sports event on television broadcasting in the U.S. each year. Which of the following is correct (identify all that apply)?
A. In recent years, about 40 percent of U.S. households with TVs were tuned to the Super Bowl.
B. Super Bowl TV ratings were higher 10 years ago than in the last several years.
C. Less than half of the people in the U.S. watch the Super Bowl typically.
The NFL is the most valuable sports league in the U.S. Who owns the NFL?
The owners of the NFL teams
Who authored, sponsored, and was most responsible for the adoption of the first major federal antitrust (anti-monopoly) law in the U.S., adopted in 1890? (You may have to do some independent research for this one.)
Senator John Sherman, try Wikipedia, Sherman Antitrust Act
MLB is exempt from US antitrust laws because
baseball is not interstate commerce, according to a Supreme Court case and decision.
Because of MLB’s treatment under the antitrust laws, MLB team owners may engage in which of the following activities that NFL team owners are not allowed to do?
A. Block the moves of teams to different cities.
B. Cooperate in preventing a new baseball league from forming.
C. Control ticket prices for all of the teams, if the League wished.
Which professional sports league has had the fewest challengers (rival leagues) historically?
MLB
Who was Pete Rozelle and what did he do? (You may want to read the excerpt posted on the class D2L site for this module.) (Professional Leagues)
A. He was Commissioner of the NFL from 1960 to 1989.
B. He lobbied Congress to adopt the Sports Broadcasting Act in 1961.
C. As Commissioner, he introduced revenue sharing to the NFL.
D. He arranged the NFL’s first national TV contract (CBS in 1962).
What was the effect of the federal Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961?
It permits the pro sports leagues to negotiate league-wide media contracts and specify how the revenue is divided.
Sometimes owners of sports teams are not concerned about the amount of profit earned by the team because they are using the team to sell another product. Historical examples often cited in the US include the Atlanta Braves and Anaheim Mighty Ducks. According to research, pro baseball in Japan, especially represented by the Yomiuri Giants, likely started as a way to increase sales of what product?
Newspapers
What percentage of revenue for the four major professional sports leagues in the US comes from ticket sales, on average approximately?
22%
Which pro league gets the largest share (that is, percentage) of revenue from ticket sales?
NHL
Which pro league gets the smallest share (that is, percentage) of revenue from ticket sales?
NFL
Ticket sales provide about what share of MSU athletics revenue?
18%
Which US pro league has the lowest average face-value ticket price?
MLB
Which US pro league has the highest average face-value ticket price?
NFL
If a game is not sold out, then the marginal cost to a team of letting one additional fan into the game venue is
essentially zero.
To maximize revenue from ticket sales, what price should the NCAA set?
$150
At the revenue-maximizing price, how many tickets would the NCAA sell?
12,000
- Suppose in the NCAA case in problems #8 and #9, the demand turns out to be the same but the NCAA only arranged for a facility with room for 10,000 spectators. In that case, what price should the NCAA charge for tickets?
- How many tickets would be sold at that price?
- $175, this is the highest price at which all 10,000 tickets can be sold. MR is still positive at this price, but the arena will not seat any more spectators.
- 10,000
The observed increase in sports ticket prices in recent years is primarily due to
increase in fan interest in and increase in the demand for attending games.
Baseball teams might charge higher prices for Saturday games than Tuesday games because
they expect demand to be greater on Saturday than Tuesday.
If the quality of a sports team decreases dramatically (that is, it wins many fewer games or loses by larger margins), then
demand for tickets is expected to decrease (shift leftward) because of a change in consumers’ attitudes about the team.
If an individual buys a ticket to a sporting event from another individual through the official marketplace “StubHub”, which is true?
The buyer, seller, home team, and StubHub are all better off (or at least not worse off).
Colleges as well as pro teams have embraced secondary ticket markets, and most have contracted with one company for reselling their tickets. For example, “The Official Ticket Marketplace of the Spartans” is
SeatGeek
Which pro sports league in the US shares the most revenue?
NFL
Which pro sports league in the U.S. relies on broadcasting (TV) for the largest share of revenue?
NFL
Under its new contract how much does ESPN pay the NFL annually for the rights to broadcast Monday Night Football?
$2.6 billion
In the NFL (pro football), what source of revenue is not shared?
Luxury boxes & suites
For the 2023 season, how many MLB teams had to pay the “competitive balance tax” (sometimes referred to as the luxury tax)?
8
Suppose in one league the observed actual standard deviation in winning percentages among the teams in one year is 0.375. If the teams were all of equal quality so the each team had an equal chance of winning every game, the expected standard deviation of winning percentages would be 0.125. Calculate the competitive balance statistic “R.” What do you conclude?
League is very imbalanced.
Considering play during the season, which statement best characterizes competitive balance historically (variation in winning percentages) among the U.S. pro sports leagues?
The NFL has been the most balanced and NBA the least.
Since 2000, which of the pro sports leagues in the U.S. has had the fewest number of teams win the league championship?
NBA
The Marginal Revenue Product of Labor is
A. Marginal Product of Labor x Marginal Revenue.
B. the monetary gain from another worker.
C. the demand for labor.
A monopsonist pays a wage that is
less than the marginal revenue product of the worker.
Suppose adding pitcher Mark Mulder to the Detroit Tigers roster yielded 3 additional wins and each additional win added $3 million in revenue to the Tigers. The Tigers paid Mulder $5 million. What is the Marginal Revenue Product of Mulder to the Tigers, and what is the amount of monopsonistic exploitation given his salary?
MRP: $9 million
Exploitation: $4 million
The “Reserve Clause” meant that
teams had a perpetual option (or right) to keep players.
Unions of professional sports athletes have
Grown in importance at the same time overall union importance in the economy has declined.
Which of the following is true?
A. Top athletic superstars earn much less than the top entertainment superstars.
B. MLB players have the highest average salary among the four major professional sports leagues.
C. NFL and NHL players have the lowest average salary among the 4 major professional sports leagues.
D. Professional sport salaries have increased about the same rate as the increase in national economy since the 1970s.
NFL and NHL players have the lowest average salary among the 4 major professional sports
Since 1970, the salaries of professional athletes in aggregate have
increased at a faster rate than salaries in the economy overall.