The Challenge of Achieving Competitive Balance in Football
Competitive balance is a key driver of consumer demand for sports, and it is one of the primary motivations for conference realignments in college athletics. The Supreme Court has ruled that limiting player compensation in the name of competitive balance is a legitimate goal for leagues to pursue, and many of the rules implemented by sports leagues today are designed with this goal in mind.More info :เล่นได้ที่ www.UFABET
The most common tool used to affect competitive balance is revenue sharing, which shares some portion of national television deals among all teams in a league. The second most popular tool is team salary restrictions, which limits the ability of some teams to pay above-market prices for players.
Leveling the Playing Field: The Challenge of Achieving Competitive Balance in Football
Both revenue sharing and team salary restrictions can be viewed as ways to create an optimal degree of on-field competitive balance, but both have drawbacks. For example, revenue sharing can reduce the incentive for underperforming teams to improve their performance, and it may lead to a greater concentration of wealth among some teams in a league. This can cause a “merry-go-round” effect where underperforming teams are constantly replaced by richer clubs, which can ultimately lead to an overall reduction in the level of competition in a league.
Previous research has suggested that an effort to achieve a higher level of competitive balance is one factor motivating conference realignments in college athletics, especially in football, a high revenue sport. This study tests whether this hypothesis is valid by comparing competitive balance levels in football between the Big 8 Conference and four members of the Southwest Conference ten years before and ten years after their merger.
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