An Absence of Competition

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Neil Longley

   Pages 1-7

3. Some Conceptual Foundations: A Primer on the Economic Structure of Professional Sport

   • Neil Longley

   Pages 9-21

4. The USFL as a Case Study

   • Neil Longley

   Pages 23-40

5. A Brief History of Post-World War II Rival Leagues

   • Neil Longley

   Pages 41-55

6. Explaining Competitiveness: Alternate Theoretical Frameworks

   • Neil Longley

   Pages 57-63

7. Property-Based Resources: Franchise Locations, Stadiums, and Players

   • Neil Longley

   Pages 65-94

8. Knowledge-Based Resources: Managerial Competencies

   • Neil Longley

   Pages 95-104

9. The Way Ahead: The Prospects for the Reemergence of Rival Leagues

   • Neil Longley

   Pages 105-113

10. Back Matter

    Pages 115-119

    PDF

This book takes a multi-disciplinary approach to analyzing the nature of ‘competition’ and ‘competitive advantage’ within the U.S. pro sport industry. By many measures, the four major pro sports leagues in the U.S. – the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Baseball (MLB) – are now some of the most successful business entities in the country. While these established leagues have generally been highly profitable throughout their respective existences, the past two decades have been particularly lucrative, with franchise values in all four leagues growing rapidly, and at levels well beyond market rates of return. Within this context, the book seeks to explore the nature of the competitive advantage that these leagues apparently possess. The purpose is to identify not only how these leagues have been able to get to where they are today, but also to examine the competitive threats and opportunities that these leagues face as they move forward. A key contribution of the book is that it analyzes these issues from a multi-disciplinary approach including a traditional economics perspective, public policy and public choice theory and strategic management, to provide a parallel explanation for the success of each of the four major leagues. It argues that no single conceptual approach can, in itself, adequately explain the full richness of the issue. Its stresses that these various approaches should generally be viewed as complements, rather than as being mutually exclusive, and that a full understanding of the issue requires one to adopt a multi-disciplinary perspective, making it of interest to scholars in strategic management, sport management, and economics. It can serve as an effective teaching tool in both graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses for students in these fields, and is particularly useful for faculties seeking to emphasize to their students theimportance of a multi-disciplinary, integrative, approach when analyzing business and management issues. The book may also be of interest to leaders within the sport industry itself, and will help to provide insight and perspective as leagues seek to enhance their competitive advantage in the marketplace.

• Competition
• Competitive Advantage
• Major League Baseball (MLB)
• National Basketball Association (NBA)
• National Football League (NFL)
• National Hockey League (NHL)

• Department of Sport Management, University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management, Amherst, USA

  Neil Longley

Neil Longley has both an MBA and a PhD in Economics and has published 23 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals during his career, along with five chapters in edited scholarly books. His research has spanned several areas in applied microeconomics: public choice, public finance, labor economics, international trade, and sports economics. With the latter, his research pertaining to labor market discrimination in sports has been particularly influential, and has significantly impacted the direction of the literature in that area. His research has appeared in such journals as Applied Economics Letters, Public Choice, Contemporary Economic Policy, Atlantic Economic Journal, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Journal of Sports Economics, and Managerial and Decision Economics, to name a few. Most recently, he had an article (co-authored with Leo Kahane and Rob Simmons) accepted for publication in the prestigious Review of Economics and Statistics. The paper uses a sport setting to examine the extent to which co-worker heterogeneity impacts firm-level output. Longley was the recipient of the 2010-11 “Outstanding Research Award” in the Isenberg School of Management, out of approximately 125 full-time faculty in the School.

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