222 research outputs found
Circling the Bases: Essays on the Challenges and Prospects of the Sports Industry
No full textIn Circling the Bases, leading sports economist Andrew Zimbalist continues his discussion and analysis of the major issues and challenges confronting the sports industry in the second decade of the 21st century. Presenting a general overview of the sports business at both the college and professional levels, this volume places concerns such as the antitrust status of sports leagues, the stalled progress of gender equity in college sports, and the control of Performance Enhancing Drugs in historical context.
Zimbalist also provides a deeper understanding of how sports have fared and changed with the sharpening financial crisis and 2009 economic downturn—from the morphing role of salary caps and revenue distribution and the rapid escalation of college coaches\u27 compensation to the financing of sports facilities and the economic impact of hosting the Olympic Games.
In Circling the Bases, Zimbalist continues to show how the business of sports is evolving and how the sports industry is becoming more closely linked with the corporate sector and thus more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the U.S. and world economies. Zimbalist deftly shows how sports are facing the uncertainties of the future and what the implications are for sports fans, players, owners, and leagues.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_books/1005/thumbnail.jp
Rio 2016
No full textA clear-eyed, critical examination of the social, political, and economic costs of hosting the 2016 summer Olympics
The selection of Rio de Janeiro as the site of the summer 2016 Olympic Games set off jubilant celebrations in Brazil—and created enormous expectations for economic development and the advancement of Brazil as a major player on the world stage. Although the games were held without major incident, the economic, environmental, political, and social outcomes for Brazil ranged from disappointing to devastating.
Rio 2016 assembles the views of leading experts on Brazil and the Olympics into a clear-eyed assessment of the impact of the games on Brazil in general and on the lives of Cariocas, as Rio's residents are known. Edited by sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, the other contributors include Juliana Barbassa, Jules Boykoff, Jamil Chade, Stephen Essex, Renata Latuf, and Theresa Williamson
Rio 2016
No full textA clear-eyed, critical examination of the social, political, and economic costs of hosting the 2016 summer Olympics
The selection of Rio de Janeiro as the site of the summer 2016 Olympic Games set off jubilant celebrations in Brazil—and created enormous expectations for economic development and the advancement of Brazil as a major player on the world stage. Although the games were held without major incident, the economic, environmental, political, and social outcomes for Brazil ranged from disappointing to devastating.
Rio 2016 assembles the views of leading experts on Brazil and the Olympics into a clear-eyed assessment of the impact of the games on Brazil in general and on the lives of Cariocas, as Rio's residents are known. Edited by sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, the other contributors include Juliana Barbassa, Jules Boykoff, Jamil Chade, Stephen Essex, Renata Latuf, and Theresa Williamson
Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup
No full textThis is a third edition of a book that analyzes the claim that cities chosen to host either an Olympics or World Cup experience an economic windfall. The author focuses on the upcoming Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics and World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Zimbalist looks at major cities like London, Barcelona, Rio de Janerio, and Boston that have previously hosted these sporting events to provide context for cities that are currently bearing the weight of exploding expenses, corruption, and protestshttps://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_books/1002/thumbnail.jp
Panama at the Crossroads: Economic Development and Political Change in the Twentieth Century
No full textIn December 1989, the United States invaded Panama, deposed its government, and established another in its place. While this act of violent intervention brought Panama to public attention, the justifications for it obscured the underlying instabilities that have plagued the country throughout its history. Although a stated purpose of the invasion was to remove one man, Manuel Noriega, from power, Panama at the Crossroads demonstrates that the crisis sweeping Panama in the late 1980s was not caused by one man, but in fact derived from the history of U.S. domination and the nature of Panamanian society itself. Panama is located at a crucial geographic crossroads, a fact that has greatly influenced the country's history since the sixteenth century. Labor scarcity and inhospitable terrain, joined with its location, contributed to the mercantile orientation of Panama's economy. Accordingly, the country's politics and economics have been consistently dominated by foreign trading interests, first from Spain, then Colombia and the United States. Now in the 1990s, Panama stands at a historical and economic crossroads, and according to Zimbalist and Weeks its traditional entrepot institutions are no longer able to promote and sustain growth. Before building the basis for long-term economic expansion, Panama must first undo the devastating economic and political damage engendered by nearly three years of U.S. economic sanctions and the U.S. invasion. In this timely book, Zimbalist and Weeks document the origins and characteristics of this crossroads. Their analysis points the way to a more encompassing and equitable strategy for Panama's economic development
The Sabermetric Revolution: Assessing the Growth of Analytics in Baseball
No full textFrom the front office to the family room, sabermetrics has dramatically changed the way baseball players are assessed and valued by fans and managers alike. Rocketed to popularity by the 2003 bestseller Moneyball and the film of the same name, the use of sabermetrics to analyze player performance has appeared to be a David to the Goliath of systemically advantaged richer teams that could be toppled only by creative statistical analysis. The story has been so compelling that, over the past decade, team after team has integrated statistical analysis into its front office. But how accurately can crunching numbers quantify a player\u27s ability? Do sabermetrics truly level the playing field for financially disadvantaged teams? How much of the baseball analytic trend is fad and how much fact?
The Sabermetric Revolution sets the record straight on the role of analytics in baseball. Former Mets sabermetrician Benjamin Baumer and leading sports economist Andrew Zimbalist correct common misinterpretations and develop new methods to assess the effectiveness of sabermetrics on team performance. Tracing the growth of front office dependence on sabermetrics and the breadth of its use today, they explore how Major League Baseball and the field of sports analytics have changed since the 2002 season. Their conclusion is optimistic, but the authors also caution that sabermetric insights will be more difficult to come by in the future. The Sabermetric Revolution offers more than a fascinating case study of the use of statistics by general managers and front office executives: for fans and fantasy leagues, this book will provide an accessible primer on the real math behind moneyball as well as new insight into the changing business of baseball.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_books/1003/thumbnail.jp
No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities are Passing on the Torch
No full textIn 2013 and 2014, some of Massachusetts’ wealthiest and most powerful individuals hatched an audacious plan to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to Boston. Like their counterparts in cities around the world, Boston’s Olympic boosters promised political leaders, taxpayers, and the media that the Games would deliver incalculable benefits and require little financial support from the public. Yet these advocates refused to share the details of their bid and only grudgingly admitted, when pressed, that their plan called for billions of dollars in construction of unneeded venues. To win the bid, the public would have to guarantee taxpayer funds to cover cost overruns, which have plagued all modern Olympic Games. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) chose Boston 2024’s bid over that of other American cities in January 2015--and for a time it seemed inevitable that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would award the Games to Boston 2024. No Boston Olympics is the story of how an ad hoc, underfunded group of diverse and engaged citizens joined together to challenge and ultimately derail Boston’s boosters, the USOC, and the IOC. Chris Dempsey was cochair of No Boston Olympics, the group that first voiced skepticism, demanded accountability, and catalyzed dissent. Andrew Zimbalist is a world expert on the economics of sports, and the leading researcher on the hidden costs of hosting mega-events such as the Olympics and the World Cup. Together, they tell Boston’s story, while providing a blueprint for citizens who seek to challenge costly, wasteful, disruptive, and risky Olympic bids in their own cities.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_books/1001/thumbnail.jp
Female Athletes Are Undervalued in Both Money and Media Terms
No full textChapter 20 from Whither College Sports: Amateurism, Athlete Safety, and Academic Integrity by Andrew Zimbalist:
Intercollegiate athletics is under assault from all sides. Its economic model is yielding increasing and unsustainable deficits and widening inequality. Coaches and athletic directors are the highest paid employees at FBS universities (NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision) by factors of five to ten, or more. Athletes are being cheated on their promised education, do not receive adequate medical care, and are not allowed to receive cash income. Substantial change, either toward reasserting the intended primacy of education for intercollegiate athletes or a further surrender to commercialism, is coming. This book lays out the starkly different paths that college sports reform can follow and what the ramifications will be on the athletes and on the institutions in which they are enrolled.
Source: Publisherhttps://scholarworks.smith.edu/swg_books/1013/thumbnail.jp
Assessing The Contribution Of Sport To The Economy
No full textSport has always been an important part of society but it is now becoming an increasingly important part of the economy. Consequently, the measurement of the economic impact of sporting events has become a focus of some interest to a number of groups including policy makers and sporting officials. In this paper the established procedures for measuring economic impacts are evaluated from the perspective of the nature of the information required by decision makers. It is found that the traditional approach to the measurement of the economic impacts of sporting events is conceptually flawed and potentially misleading. An alternative series of measures are suggested. These measures are more focused on information requirements and better grounded in the principles of welfare economics than those that are now widely used.sport, cost benefit analysis, economic impact
Inequality in Intercollegiate Athletics: Origins, Trends and Policies
No full textIn this paper, the author provides an overview of economic inequality in intercollegiate athletics, tracing it from its origins in the late 19th century, through home rule, the introduction of the NCAA’s national broadcasting policy and its subsequent regionalization after Oklahoma v. NCAA, conference realignments, RSNs, the BCS and NCAA distribution policies. The paper argues that the current economic situation and the growing inequality is unsustainable and that policies to reverse the course are necessary. Policies to moderate inequality will not only assist in promoting financial stability but will also blunt the all-out drive to win and thereby help to reestablish the primacy of education in intercollegiate athletics
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