November 20, 2008
Interleague Competition
In the NYT today, a curious passage about the international baseball free-agent market.
As interest from scouts affiliated with Major League Baseball escalated and Japan’s Oct. 30 draft of amateur players approached, Tazawa requested that all Japanese teams not select him. They acquiesced, smoothing his path to the United States’ free market.Except the market is not entirely free. Officials of major league teams have a wide spectrum of views as to whether Tazawa should be signed.
Here we have the unusual case of two monopoly cartels -- the baseball cartels in the U.S. and Japan -- competing for a scarce input -- Mr. Tazawa. He is a rather unique case of brand new Japanese talent not connected with the Japanese monopoly trying to sell his services within the U.S. cartel.
Now, the hidden point of the article seems to be that the leagues would rather not have to compete with each other for inputs; instead, they'd rather control their own supplies. The leagues had previously set up formal and informal rules making it difficult for young players to sign with any team in the other league.
But some teams in the U.S. cartel see a first-mover or market-shifting advantage to hiring Mr. Tazawa, so not at all surprisingly, there are differing views of how well the current territorial agreements are working.
Any which way, there's little either side can do about it. The U.S. league may cross the antitrust barrier if they try to stop the acquisition of Mr. Tazawa and others.
As for formalizing any rule barring the signing of amateurs outright, some major league team officials think that could violate American antitrust or anti-discrimination laws. And if one team pursues a top player, others will surely follow.
Then the floodgates will have opened, leading perhaps to the dreaded bidding war -- featuring not just intra-league, but also inter-league competition -- for new talent.
So it's left to the Japanese league to punish the poaching -- by punishing the players, or course!
Fearful that Tazawa’s signing would encourage more Japanese amateurs to follow him, Nippon Professional Baseball recently passed a rule that requires any amateur who jumps to a major league team to sit out two or three years before being able to return to play in Japan.
January 11, 2007
Beckham
A few years ago when Real Madrid was in town to play the Galaxy, rumors that David Beckham wanted to play in Los Angeles had already made the rounds. After watching a post game interview, it was fairly obvious that it was just a matter of time. The time has arrived and David Beckham has signed to play for the L.A. Galaxy for an eye popping 248 million. Will he suceed in making America into a soccer nation? Who knows, but now is as good a time as any.
December 13, 2006
Hawker Wages
Ever wanted to know how much those guys walking up and down the stairs at sporting events selling ice cream make? Well, now you do ( via HaloHeaven):
RHF: What is your pay rate/commission rate?AH: We get a flat rate of 20% commission. If we happen to not make enough commission we make something close to minimum wage hourly--I'm not sure what it is because I never have made hourly. My average sales are about $700 to $800 a night game with day games often breaking $1,000.
November 23, 2006
Collina’s stuff on auction
A local daily Haveeru has organized an auction of items used by the world's most popular referee, Pierluigi Collina of Italy during the 2002 FIFA world cup finals. The proceeds of the auction are to go to families who lost their homes in the tsunami disaster of 2004. They will be on E Bay soon, auction closing on the 25th December.
Related; Some cool pics of Pierluigi Collina
July 19, 2006
Lessons of Zidane Incident
It all depends on the perspective of your side; have a look at these videos.
Meanwhile Materazzi is holidaying in the Maldives.
Related;
French forgive as Zidane explains
Best of Materazzi- (via Division of Labour)
July 9, 2006
Podcast of the Day- Sporting Globalization & why Soccer is not boring
Globalization now describes just about everything, from the way we do business right through to the way we watch the football World Cup. So what are the implications for sport in a world where global is rapidly replacing local? Listen to the podcast.
Related;
Why Tyler Cowen find soccer boring
Tell that soccer is boring to this woman from Maldives; a 55 old lady smashes TV set, throws around noodles following Brazil’s World Cup loss- soccer is truly universal.
Merkel makes hay while Germans watch the play
If football was a drug it would be outlawed
The World Cup Final of Culture
If still you find soccer boring try this; How to appreciate a soccer game on TV
June 28, 2006
The World Cup Paradox
“ I mean the--the World Cup is a paradox because it’s at once a great spectacle of globalization fueled by multi-national corporations giving the world this common language of soccer, but at the same time it’s--it’s a festival of nationalism, so people thought that globalization was going to smush nationalism and the World Cup proves that it can actually facilitate nationalism.”
Franklin Foer, author of How Soccer Explains the World- An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
More from the latest Foreign Exchange show with Fareed Zakaria.
June 21, 2006
If India Played the World Cup
Hindu ascetics play soccer on the banks of the River Ganges in Allahabad, India. India did qualify for world cup in 1950. (Via Sepia Mutiny)
More World Cup Madness
The Ghanaian Football Association has apologised after defender John Pantsil waved an Israeli flag to celebrate the World Cup win over the Czech Republic.
Ghana tells mines to cut power during Cup
University suspends exams for World Cup
‘I can see Spain facing Argentina in the Final’
June 18, 2006
Game Theory in Soccer
Tim Harford explains why to be good in soccer you’ve to be a master strategist;
“The answer comes from a wartime collaboration between economist Oskar Morgenstern and mathematician John von Neumann. They produced a “theory of games” which, applied to this problem, says the strategy of the striker and the keeper cannot be predicted. The striker might shoot to the right two times out of three, but we cannot then conclude that it will have to be to the left next time.Von Neumann and Morgenstern also say that each choice of shot should be equally likely to succeed, weighing up the advantage of shooting to the stronger side against the disadvantage of being too predictable. If shots to the right score three-quarters of the time and shots to the left score half the time, you should be shooting to the right more often. As you do, the goalkeeper will respond: shots to the right will become less successful and those to the left more successful. It might sound strange that at this point any choice will do, but it is analogous to saying that if you are at the summit of the mountain, no direction is up.
Von Neumann and Morgenstern did not produce game theory to help footballers: they believed it could illuminate anything from pay negotiations to waging war. The trouble is that for these applications the wrinkles of reality always obscure whether ordinary people actually follow the strategies that game theory predicts they should. Yet penalty taking is different. The objective is simple, the variables easy to observe, and the results immediate.
Ignacio Palacios-Huerta, an economist at Brown University, found that individual strikers and keepers were, in fact, master strategists. Out of 42 top players that Palacios-Huerta studied, only three departed from game theory recommendations. Professionals such as the Brazilian Rivaldo and Italy’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon are apparently superb economists: their strategies are absolutely unpredictable and, as the theory demands, they are equally successful no matter what they do, indicating that they have found the perfect balance between the different options. These geniuses do not just think with their feet.”
Related;
More blogs on the World Cup- My Sofa World Cup, World Cup Hippo, Getty Images-Sports blog, Sports Business, Dead Spin, Labour’s World Cup 2006 blog (British politician).
Economics of Golf; Stephen Shmanske, an economics professor at California State University and author of "Golfonomics," talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene about the U.S. Open Championship and the economics of golf.
Body Type, Steroids and Sports Performance
Learning Curves
It can be said that a sports team doesn't really belong to its owners, but to the fans. No other product comes in for as much criticism or loyalty as sports does. What other product ever gets a parade afterall? Some teams are good, others bad and so attract various levels of devotion. I've mentioned that I'm an Angels fan(No, I won't type out that monstrocity of a name) before. The organizations story is interesting in that it went from being the second team to the Dodgers to one of the better franchises in sports in the last years. The previous owner, Jackie Autry, had said that the Angels were a middle market team and should act like one. The most recent owner, Arte Moreno, had different ideas and has effectively made the team a big market club.
The Angels are now going through a transition period of replacing aging veterans with rookies. For most teams that had in the past 4 years won the World Series and made the playoffs 2 other times, it could be an ominous sign of years of mediocrity. The Angels, however, are loaded with young talent in the minor leagues. They are now getting their shot at playing and the results are ugly. Not to say ugly in Kansas City sort of way, but rather play has been very inconsistent. Of the five rookies given the opportunity to play everyday, on two have performed at plate adequately, Dallas McPherson and Mike Napoli. This is not to say they have performed in the field though. The team as a whole has 55 errors, bottom in the AL.
At 6 games under .500 and only 6 games back in the west, the situation could be worse. However, after reading the message boards and some blogs, it seems many are ready to give up on the season. You expect rookies to go through some growing pains. Being only 6 games back, if the learning curve effect kicks in and rest of the west maintains mediocrity, this division is easily winnable. The only question is should any moves be made. One in particular is whether the second basemen, one the best defensive players in the AL, should be moved to make room for Howie Kendrick, a .400 hitter in AAA. This would mean 4 rookies would be playing.
If the Angels are, in fact, going to make a move, it should be done now rather than at the trade deadline. It is obvious to everyone that Howie Kendrick will be the second basemen next year unless a blockbuster trade is made. Adam Kennedy will be gone through either a trade or free agency any way. Also, the Angels need a real center fielder. The current one, Chone Figgins, isn't and still makes rookie mistakes despite it being his fourth full year in the majors. More importantly, the uncertainty in the learning curve effects in major league baseball seems somewhat large and it seems unlikely that the current team can consistently perform. With Howie Kendrick and an experienced center fielder, the team on paper looks superior though with a higher variation in possible outcomes. Bill Stoneman, the GM, should pull the trigger. The inconsistency will continue, but if the learning curves kick in they could still make a run at the playoffs in August and September. Playoffs or no this year, 2007 looks great.
Edit: I almost forgot to eat crow. A few years ago I had a post joking about the Angesl drafting this guy. He is now devloping into a top prospect.
June 12, 2006
World Cup and Productivity
In the US;
"The World Cup will likely cost American companies 10 minutes of productivity a day for 21 days, according to the outplacement company of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That comes to about $121.7 million in lost productivity in the US, a large figure, particularly painful for any company dominated by Englishmen, Germans or Brazilians perhaps."
In UK;
"Based on an average hourly wage of £12.50, the law firm Brabners Chaffe Street calculated that during the tournament, if half of British workers surf the net for an hour a day, it will cost Britain nearly £4 billion in lost time"
Related podcast; A History of Soccer- The Football (or Soccer) World Cup now attracts the largest following of all sporting events. Rear Vision podcast investigates the history of the world's most popular game, participated by Professor Tony Mason (International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montford University, UK), Dr Bill Murray (Widely published sports historian School of Historical and European Studies, LaTrobe University Australia), Professor Jim Walvin (Department of History, University of York, UK) and Les Murray, Football commentator, SBS.
June 10, 2006
May the Best Team Win
Another set of links on the World Cup and Soccer.
Podcast of an interview with Andrew Zimbalist, professor of economics at Smith College; talks about the growth of Major League Soccer in the U.S., corporate interest in World Cup soccer, and the World Cup's financial beneficiaries.
Blast it like Beckham? When taking a penalty kick, a player ought to score (provided the referee applies all the rules). He can fail in two ways: by missing the target altogether, or having a shot on target stopped by the goalkeeper. We can look on taking a penalty as a game, in which both the shooter, S, and the goalkeeper, G, must choose from a finite list of tactics. For each choice made (S might aim low right, G might dive to the left), we can estimate a payoff - the chance a goal will result. The shooter's aim is to maximise his expected payoff, G aims to minimise the same quantity. This is the classical set-up of a zero-sum game.
Modeling Tactical Changes of Formation in Association Football as a Zero-Sum Game; Although tactical decisions made by managers during a match of team sports are very important, there have been few quantitative analyses which include the effect of interaction between both teams’ decisions, because of the complexity of the problem where one team’s decision will affect the other team’s. A game theoretic approach can be useful for tackling this type of problem. See also Formulaic football and Time Has to Be Right to Risk a Red Card.
Mathematics of the Soccer Ball
History of Soccer Ball; Which One Have You Kicked
On the ball; Data collected from professional soccer matches suggest strongly that the times when goals are scored are fairly random, with two minor modifications: more goals are scored, on average, in a given five-minute period late in the game than earlier; and "goals beget goals" in the sense that the more goals that have already been scored up to the present time, the greater the average number of goals in the rest of the match. But these two points are second order factors: by and large, the simple model which assumes that goals come along at random at some average rate, and irrespective of the score, fits the data quite well.
World Cup Stock Exchange; Instead of buying virtual shares in sports stars, you buy shares in World Cup teams.
Get the most recent coverage about the World Cup from the BBC and their Blog, Google, SoccerBlog, WorldCupBlog.
Live Footy- World Cup Edition (To be able to see Live soccer/bastekball matches without pay even 1 cent, declares the website).
June 9, 2006
Podcasts Carnival – Economics Edition
Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University and a former U.S. Treasury official, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene in New York about the impact of monetary policy on the stock market, global economic growth risks and the outlook for the meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Eight nations in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Two Views on Global Development: Revive the Invisible Hand or Strengthen a "Society of States"? Deepak Lal, (Reviving the Invisible Hand: The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-first Century ), and Ethan Kapstein, (Economic Justice in an Unfair World: Toward a Level Playing Field) debate at Cato
Foreign Aid and Developing Economics
The Undercover Economist; Tim Harford acknowledges that Oscar Wilde's famous definition of a cynic - 'someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing' - is now commonly applied to economists (discussion starts later in the program)
Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know is Wrong; Featuring John Stossel, Co-Anchor of ABC's 20/20
A New Era at the Federal Reserve: Some Challenges and Opportunities for Change; Featuring Shadow Open Market Committee members: Charles Plosser, Cochair; Anna Schwartz, Cochair; Gregory Hess; Lee Hoskins; Alan Stockman; Bennett McCallum; and Mickey Levy.
Harvard Kennedy School of Government Professor George Borjas, often called America’s “leading immigration economist,” discusses with James Reese the American immigration situation.
Dr. Roszbach, is a research economist at The Riksbank in Stockholm, the oldest central bank in the world, founded in 1668. He discusses with James Reese the banking systems in Sweden and Europe.
What IN: Inside Innovation Is All About (Business Innovation).
Mr. Risk Goes to Washington;Why Paulson will make a difference at Treasury
Medical Guesswork; when the effectiveness of most treatments cannot be demonstrated
Business in India; discussion with Simon Long, South Asia bureau chief of The Economist.
Science fiction and reality; a discussion about the latest Technology Quarterly in The Economist.
Making Poverty History: Slogan or Reality? Charles MacCormack, President, chief operating officer, and member of the board, Save the Children Federation
TCS Daily Hayek Series Event: The Creative Class vs. Capitalism (video)
Professor James Robinson, Harvard University, discusses the nature of institutional persistence and examines the mechanisms whereby elite minorities are able to manage the distribution of economic and political authority. See also an earlier post about him; Politician Proof Policy.
Happiness and Economics; Research by Professor Andrew Oswald has questioned the supposed link between economic growth and happiness and indicated that it may not be in our national interest to continue our focus on increased consumption
Melissa Hageman on Open Access; Information technology isn’t just for surfing the web and listening to audio. Developing countries can take advantage of ICT to increase transparency in governance, improve their financial infrastructure, or reduce waste. By linking people together across borders, information technology can also serve as a cheap way for sharing knowledge. Melissa Hageman of the Open Society Institute discusses open access initiatives in this podcast.
Anderson and Hoekman on International Trade; In this session, we step past our borders toward the question of international trade. Because it is the most basic unit of interaction between countries, trade is one of the building blocks for the development process. Kym Anderson, Lead Economist, and Bernard Hoekman, Research Manager, comment on trade liberalization and international negotiations
Robert Bates on Governance Systems and Political Effectiveness
Water Management in Australia; A new study by the CSIRO says the cost of water is set to rise dramatically, while politicians are arguing over who should have the ultimate responsibility for water management. So have the states neglected our water infrastructure? Should there be more water trading between regions? And will it take higher prices to finally force consumer change and less wastage?
The Wal-Mart Effect; Author Charles Fishman calls the giant US retailer Wal- Mart the world's most powerful company. He argues that it has had a profound effect on America - it has transformed its economy, its working life and the way it sees the world.
Torn Curtain - The Secret History of the Cold War; Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4.
The politics of abuse, and the abuse of politics; Spiked.com columnist Mick Hume says that the more acrimonious an argument or election contest appears to be, the less likely it is that anything of principle is really at stake. He says the current leadership battle at the top of British politics is evidence of this
Nine Lies about Global Warming; Are we being lied to about Global Warming? In a new publication Ray Evans argues that we are told nine big lies about Global Warming. We discuss the evidence and consensus on Global Warming with two scientists; Dr Michael Manton and Dr Vincent Gray.
Some more; Brad De Long has now started a series of podcasts- Afternoon Tea Podcasts.
Radio Economics is also starting a new series of podcasts.
World Bank News Podcasts and their other more useful podcasts.
University Warwick has more podcasts including the World Cup specials which I linked before.
And finally Microeconomics Lectures from a Berekely course (via Harry Clarke).
Podcasts Carnival- World Cup Edition
How to Predict a Winner; After analysing the outcomes of 4500 international games Henry Stott gives his guide to the likely World Cup champions.
On Beckham and English Managers
Going global in a frenzy of football
Trends in Football Management; New research by Dr Sue Bridgewater from Warwick Business School has revealed that over 500 managers from the four top English divisions have been dismissed from their post since 1992 bringing damaging instability to the game. However she also outlines how a new professionalism in the post of manager is already achieving results on the pitch and could thus help managers stay post longer.
Damo's Bedside Guide to the World Cup: Everything you never knew you needed to know; The World Cup of football was the brain- child of FIFA's third president, Frenchman Jules Rimet. The World Cup was intended as more than just a sporting competition. Rimet was an idealist whose vision of the tournament had grown alongside the internationalist movement for peace that swept through Europe in the aftermath of World war One. Rimet had enormous optimism in the potential of football as a unifying force and believed that a truly international tournament, which brought together nations in a spirit of friendly competition, would help to diminish the threat of another Great War
Garry Richardson chats to footballing legend Pele, FA Chief Executive Brian Barwick and John Barnes.
June 6, 2006
Orwell and Bono on Soccer
"Football, it seemed to me, is not really played for the pleasure of kicking a ball about, but is a species of fighting."
- George Orwell
World Cup "closes the schools, closes the shops, closes a city and stops a war."
-Bono
Thanks Pablo for an excellent set of links on the coming World Cup. Just to add some more links.
The Economist has a article ($ required) on virtual stock markets betting on the World Cup teams; STOCCER, Ball Street, Cortal Consors, Postbank, Eurosport, Handelsblatt, Wmxchange,TradeSports, Bluevex, Prognosys Electronic Stock Markets.
Coverage from some blogs; Social Econ Blog, Eldis News Weblog, This Blog Sits Here on the Mystery of Soccer.
Going Global in a Frenzy of Football- a podcast coming up in next Friday.
Some country slogans- my favourites;
Brazil - "Vehicle monitored by 180 million Brazilian hearts"
Costa Rica- "Our army is the team, our weapon is the ball. Let's go to Germany and give it our all"
Japan - "Light up your Samurai spirit!"
Mexico - "Aztec passion across the world"
Saudi Arabia - "The Green Hawks cannot be stopped"
Trinidad and Tobago - "Here come the Soca Warriors – the fighting spirit of the Caribbean"
Tunisia – "The Carthage Eagles... higher and stronger than ever"
Iran - "Stars of Persia"
USA - "United we play, United we win"
Is Daniel Drezner right after all?
“Soccer will never bring about peace on its own. The flip side is also true -- by itself, soccer cannot start a war. The World Cup, like the Olympics, suffers from a case of overblown rhetoric. Bono's assurances to the contrary, the passions inspired by the World Cup embody both the best and worst forms of nationalism.”
I don’t know whether soccer or anything else will bring peace on earth. I think Bono is stating a fact and a possibility. The best part of a game is not the game itself, but at the end of the game when players hug, handshake and share their T-shirts – competition and cooperation are built into out genes.
June 3, 2006
When Goalkeepers Strike
Even if you don’t like soccer you might find the following couple of videos educational and humorous;
Colombia goalkeeper scoring against Poland
Fabien Barthez, the ever peripatetic French goalkeeper who was rarely to be found in goal but mostly charged out to tackle opposing strikers.
Maradona’s nightmare ad; he was apparently paid $350,000, by brewer Guaraná for this TV ad, who again happens to be one of the main Brazilian national team sponsors.
Some Soccernomics;
Learning About Globalization By Watching A Soccer Game; Soccer is not only the world's most popular sport, but also probably its most globalized profession. It is inconceivable that Brazilian, Cameroonian or Japanese doctors, computer scientists, blue-collar workers, or bank tellers could move from one country to another as easily as Brazilian, Cameroonian or Japanese soccer players do.
Game theory and Soccer; According to data from 2,885 matches in Italy, England and Spain, a bad team playing at home is more likely to score than a good one playing away.
The Case of Penalty Kicks in Soccer; In Europe, Levitt is feted as one of the authors of the "penalty-kick paper". Probably only a trio of economists would have watched videos of 459 penalties taken in the French and Italian football leagues. The authors were testing a complex point of game theory. What they found was that the best place to put a penalty was the middle of the goal, largely because goalkeepers always dive. Yet few penalty-takers actually choose the middle. "I think one reason people don't is that it's just incredibly humiliating to a kicker if he kicks in the middle and doesn't score," guesses Levitt.
The Great World Cup ticket scandal and Red card for Fifa in World Cup tickets fiasco?
Football 'to deliver £1bn kick to spending'; WORLD CUP-related purchases are expected to boost total consumer spending by an extra 50 per cent to £3 billion during the month of the tournament.
On Choosing England’s Manager; The search for the next England manager highlights three problems faced by many organizations looking for a new boss: incommensurabilities, cognitive biases and groupthink. These problems mean it’s very hard to identify the “best” candidate.
Soccernomics 2006; The world economy will benefit most from an Italian victory at the football World Cup in June/July, according to ABN AMRO's economists in their 'Soccernomics 2006' study, which they have prepared – both for education and enjoyment – for the third time. With the World Cup in Germany only three months away, the ABN AMRO Economics Department has made a prediction, as it did in the run-up to previous major football competitions, as to which country would benefit the global economy the most if its team were to win the World Cup. This time it is Italy
A workshop on Economics and Psychology of Football
Economics Professor Seeks U.S. Soccer Model; He recently tried to talk an engineering student out of leaving Columbia to join a youth soccer program that Gulati himself helped to create. "It's very different than it is in England or Brazil, or in Italy where a gifted 17-year-old isn't thinking about the University of Rome, he's thinking about playing for A.C. Milan," Gulati said. "If a kid is choosing between a place like Columbia, that's a different decision from somebody who doesn't have 1400 SATs and might be thinking about another alternative. Opportunity cost, as we would say in Principles of Economics."
Some podcasts on soccer from Radio National;
Going totally Dutch; The Australian Socceroos are off to the World Cup with a secret weapon in their Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, who was a part of one of football's great innovations, the Dutch idea of 'total football'
Australia versus Greece; The most recent installment of the Socceroos' journey to Germany for the 2006 World Cup
Globalisation and Sport; Globalisation now describes just about everything, from the way we do business to the way we watch football. So what are the implications for sport in a world where global is rapidly replacing local?
The Birth-Month Soccer Anomaly; If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in next month's World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk: elite soccer players are more likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months. If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup and professional ranks, you would find this quirk to be even more pronounced. On recent English teams, for instance, half of the elite teenage soccer players were born in January, February or March, with the other half spread out over the remaining 9 months. In Germany, 52 elite youth players were born in the first three months of the year, with just 4 players born in the last three
Maradona Explains Monetary Policy; At the annual Mais lecture at City University's business school last night, Merv took the audience back to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, when England were single-handedly demolished by two goals from Diego Maradona (see the picture above), one a blatant handball to all but the ref and linesman and one a work of genius. The Hand of God goal was comparable to the old 'mystery and mystique' approach to central banking, he said, as the action was unexpected, time inconsistent and against the rules. His second, involving a mazy run past five England players before burying the ball in the back of the net, represented the power of expectations in the modern theory of interest rates, apparently. See Mervyn King’s speech
Some blogs covering soccer related economics; PSD Blog, The Sports Economist, Soccerblog.
July 29, 2005
Friday Diversion
It's Friday, the blog is quiet, and I'm in a sporting mood after watching the decent Chelsea-DC match last night. Thus, two interesting links on soccer football.
The science and game theory of kicking.
(Click link to see animation.)
July 11, 2005
Reinsdorf the Benevolent
Of course this is not benevolence:
"I voted 25 times for [Podsednik]," said Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the White Sox. "Well, you know, this is Chicago, where the slogan is, 'Vote early and vote often.' And it would cost me money. He's got a clause in the contract that if he makes the All-Star team he gets a $100,000 bonus. But it's worth it."How much was it worth to the White Sox for Podsednik to make the All-Star team?
November 29, 2004
Jock Tax
While reading through the Tax Foundation's Tax Watch newsletter, I ran across an article on the origins of athletes paying income tax in states where they play away games. As one could imagine, it now affects many beyond the star athlete.
If state tax collectors have their way, we may all be jocks soon.Thats the finding of a new report from the Tax Foundation that explores the growth of jock taxestaxes requiring visiting athletes and other team employees to file tax returns in every state where games are played.
The jock tax began with California trying to get back at Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls for beating the Lakers in 1991, said David Hoffman, adjunct scholar with the Tax Foundation and co-author of the new report. Illinois fought back with a retaliatory tax the next year. Since then, many other states have joined in.
Today, of the 24 states with pro teams, 20 have enacted jock taxes, along with a half dozen cities.
The study finds that revenue-hungry state treasuries are extending their income taxes to more and more nonresidents who just work a few days a year in their states. Jock taxes were first aimed at a tiny number of wealthy athletes, but the study shows they are now beginning to spread to salespeople, newspaper reporters, lawyers and others, forcing non-jocks to pay as well.
New Jersey has begun taxing visiting attorneys, Cincinnati has levied a tax on touring skateboarders, and several jurisdictions have begun taxing traveling entertainers.
Click here to download the PDF and scroll to page 3 for the whole thing.
November 12, 2004
OSU Scandal
I would like to make some relavent comments about this scandel at Ohio State, but that would be quite foolish. Considering there has been a federal investigation of the institution which I would discuss and the miserable record of its sports program, there is no need to hang the laundry out so to speak on the internet(statutes of limitation has ended by now for all but the most serious crimes right?).
My view of college sports is different than how I view professional sports. The latter does not need socialism to thrive. The key difference is that they are a different type of institution, profit maximizing is not the goal. Players should be paid a nominal though equal sum to play college football. For those who aren't aware, playing college football is a full-time job and then some. It means going to class in the morning and then practice/films in the afternoon. The day is basically filled from around 8 a.m. till 6 or 7 p.m. and, oh yeah, your dead tired at the end of the day when trying to study.
Studies have been done which say that most college programs lose money, but these don't take into account the social profit they produce. Let's face it, what kind of place would Nebraska be without their university football team? Paying the players a small amount would lessen the incentive for activity mentioned in the article and give players some compensation for the profit they produce.
November 11, 2004
NHL Lockout
A very interesting article and comments from The Sports Economist.
I will say this about sports in America; Europeans do it it better(that is one of the few things I'll grant them. The others have to do with beer and topless beaches). With regulation, what would Donald Sterling of the Clippers have done for all the years he's owned the team. It is, more or less, socialism that we practice or want to introduce here in our sports leagues. I'm happy for the NHL players to be able to give the finger to NHL owners and yet still make as much money. What most people don't recognize when they support trade unionism of the like in Europe is that they are regularly expected to take less of a wage hike to help control inflation. Here, we have the owners wanting to impose some sort of salary cap for the sake of "competition", but this is the opposite of the business enterprise who wants to be able to reward their most valuable employees. It is an anathema to most people that wages should be restricted, this should be true for athletes as well.
November 8, 2004
DC Baseball turns into Ping Pong
Looks like there are a still a few things to iron out for the new DC baseball stardium: Councilmen Propose D.C. Baseball Plan Changes.
Yesterday's WaPo carried an interesting commentary on the issue from Henry Aaron (no, not that one). Here's an excerpt:
My enthusiasm dissolved, however -- replaced by concern for the District's financial recovery -- when the details of what the city had offered to lure a team became public. The proposed deal imposes huge costs on the District and gives virtually all of the financial gains to the team. The city will bear the burden for years to come, while enjoying little real financial benefit from baseball's presence here.
At heart, the issue is a question of how much the new team and stadium might benefit DC. Both sides of the issue brandish various studies and opinions to suggest they are right.
I recently moved to DC from Chicago, where we have (in case you weren't aware) two major league baseball teams. One, the Cubs, is on the north side of the city, and the other, the White Sox, is on the south side of the city. One, the Cubs, continues to do very well, while the other, the Sox, does not. It seems to me that these two stadiums encapsulate the visions proposed by the opposing views.
On the optimists side, the area around the new DC stadium would look like the area in which Wrigley field sits: vibrant, populated, (relatively) well taken care of, and -- best of all -- expensive. The whole area is surrounded by expensive condos, decent restaurants, clubs, bars, and more.
On the other hand, the neighborhood surrounding Comiskey (and I still think of it as Comiskey) is notoriously unappealing. Despite the building of the new stadium several years ago, little has changed in the area: it's still dirty, unpopulated, and downright dangerous at certain times of the day.
Here's my view on the discrepancy: parking.
For Wrigley, the act of getting to or around the stadium on game day should never be attempted via car. There is easy public transit access from two different lines, walking from numerous neighborhoods is pleasent in decent weather, and there are rows and rows and rows of places to lock up a bike. The only real car traffic that does regularly move are cabs. And they can just keep moving. Sure, there are places to park for those coming in from out of town -- neighbors of Wrigley do a brisk business charging between 15 and 50 bucks for their parking spaces behind houses, in alleys, or in the parking lot of their small business, depending on the distance to the field. (And -- something that puts a smile on my face -- there is ample opportunity for price discrimination: "easy-out" parking is more expensive, but your car isn't blocked in Tetris-style behind 30 others so you can leave when you like.)
Comiskey, on the other hand, is surrounded by parking facilities owned, operated, and within close distance of the stadium. You rarely have to set foot anywhere else than the Sox facility to go see a game.
The effect is clear. People on their way to Wrigley field stop for souveniers, buy their peanuts, meet friends at their apartments, or gather in the bars for pre- and post-game drinks. The foot traffic that occurs because no one can park nearby turns a few square blocks into a sea of humanity that is hunrgy, thirsty, and looking to be consoled or to celebrate. The end of a Sox game is an orderly affair with people travelling only a short distance to their cars to make the drive home.
A large part of the argument about the benefits of a stadium involve the potential benefits to local business. I'd say that would only be the case if the people attending the game had cause to cross paths with those businesses. If the stadium goes up in Anacostia with a sophisticated complex for parking, I'd be willing to bet that there will be little to any benefit in Anacostia itself. And unfortunately for those small businessmen of Anacostia, it's highly unlikely that the hefty price tag on the stadium doesn't included sufficient parking only feet away from the field.
June 11, 2004
A More Efficient Organization
As previously noted, I am a fan of the Anaheim Angels and while the team has spent much of the season in first, the injuries have really mounted. In fact, much of the heart and soul of the organization has been on the disabled list: Darren Erstad, Tim Slamon, Troy Glaus, Troy Percival, Garret Anderson, Raul Mondesi, Aaron Sele and Brendan Donnely. To top it all off, I read today that a lingering injury may account for Bartolo Colon's poor season, looks like the guys may get some company. Injury plagued Angel teams aren't anything new for the Angels, the most famous incident is Moe Vaughn falling into the dugout and twisting his ankle. It is with this long and never-ending tradition that the organization has finally realized its folly and decided to chart a different course. This years draft marked the first steps in their new strategy:
Other sleepers from the Angels' draft are 14th-round pick Nick Adenhart, a right-handed pitcher from Hagerstown, Md., who would have gone very high in the first round if he didn't suffer an elbow injury last month that forced him to have season-ending Tommy John surgery.Adenhart will probably sit out his injury at the University of North Carolina, but Bane said he would fly to Maryland next week and talk to Adenhart's family.
"We've got some idea of what we can do," Bane said. "It's a sad situation. He knows he's not going to get the money he would have gotten."
Other sleepers, according to Bane, include 30th-round pick Alan Horne, a right-handed pitcher from Chipola Junior College who played for the same high school as top Angels prospect Jeff Mathis in Marriana, Fla.
Horne was a first-round pick of the Cleveland Indians and "turned down a lot of money," as Bane put it, to pitch at the University of Mississippi. Since then, Horne has had multiple arm injuries.
"We think we might be getting him at the right time," Bane said.
Exactly, why should we draft a healthy player, have him make it through the minors up to the big leagues only to get hurt? This cuts out a lot of the hope and expectations of the organization and the fans, just draft people you can immediately place on the DL. My only question is; What? The cripple in the wheelchair was taken ahead?
So forget the minors for these guys, just sign them to major league contracts.
May 23, 2004
What are They Thinking
I remember seeing this earlier in the week, but forgot about it until perusing the Bangkok Post. Here is some info:
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The Liverpool soccer club agreed in principle Tuesday to sell a 30 percent stake to Thailand."In principle, they agreed to give it to us and now we are working on details," Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said. "It has moved forward in a good way ... we still have to work out the details.
"By June, things will probably be concluded officially."
This is probably the most asinine thing I have ever seen a politician do. Thailand is not a rich country; if, say, Singapore were to announce a bid for Manchester Untied, it would be funny. Who knows, maybe they'll get a nice return on the investment and in the end put more resources into education and such, but I doubt it. It's not as if this is a local team, so you can't really compare it to the Green Bay Packer deal. The economics of this are dubious, Thaksin has done O.K. for Thailand, but come on.
Mark Matthews, if you are intrested in SouthEast Asian, mainly Thai, Equities, his is the only place to go, offers a different take:
People who think this is a bad move miss the point.Of course, further in the posts, he shows he's probably right:Emperor Augustus recognized the way to get the people "on side" was to give them "bread and circuses".
Thats why municipal and state governments build expensive football and baseball stadiums. Its fun to go to the ballgame. Thats why the Olympics happen. And that's what Thaksin's doing with Liverpool. The only strange thing is the circus is in so far away. But I hear part of the deal is to bring them here for part of the year and use them as a base to further sports in Thailand.
ABAC Poll, a survey conducted by Assumption University, shows positive result from its research on Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatras plan to buy a 30 percent stake in Liverpool soccer club, that hopes to take Thai football players to the international level. Our research shows that 83.2 percent of voters have agreed with the plan to buy a stake in Liverpool, said Abac Poll chairman Srisak Jamornmarn.It seems like it is a brilliant move politcally for Thaksin. But 83.2 percent of the voters like the idea? I could make some nasty comments here, but I'll refrain.
A summer election
Of course it could be worse, he could be proposing a massive new entitlement. This money could be a much cheaper way of keeping the people happy than a nationalized healthcare system, presciption drug benefit, welfare programs, social security and education. Do we get these ideas because the people aren't well-educated or are the people not well-educated because of these ideas?
May 18, 2004
Doctors Pay Athletes for Medical Care
Bill Pennington of The New York Times reports that, in exchange for promotion rights, tickets, and other goodies, doctors and hospitals are paying sports teams (rr) and providing free or highly discounted medical care:
Despite concerns among many doctors and the players' unions over the ethics of putting health care out to bid, about half the teams in the four major North American professional sports are now tied contractually to a medical institution. Industry analysts expect that number to grow significantly....Some medical care consumers might complain that this only makes healthcare more expensive for the rest of us. But this isn't so, since these organizations would have huge advertising and marketing budgets even without spending money and time on professional athletes.The Mets, for example, are paid more than $1 million a year by the New York University-Hospital for Joint Diseases, with the hospital providing the services of its doctors at no cost. In return, the hospital advertises at Shea Stadium and receives free tickets and periodic visits from players at hospital events. When the Mets signed their seven-year deal in 2001, their longtime team doctor, Dr. David Altchek, was let go.
Many doctors have a hard time accepting that their service should be packaged, marketed, and sold:
Many doctors, however, are deeply concerned about the propriety of these arrangements. "These groups should have to put out a disclaimer: `We paid for the ability to treat these top athletes,' " said Dr. Robert Huizenga, a former team doctor for the Oakland Raiders and past president of the National Football League Team Physicians Society. "What's it say about our profession when the most high-profile jobs are awarded not by merit, but by auction?"I think doctors have to stop kidding themselves. Most people--including doctors--strive to make money, regardless of their occupation. There is no reason why a responsible, moral person cannot make money providing medicine for people willing to pay. I gather that Dr. Matheson insists that money-striving doctors treat people who cannot pay along with those who can. But his argument in favor of medical charity has nothing to do with any particular advertising plan implemented by a medical facility.Dr. Dan Brock, director of Harvard Medical School's Division of Medical Ethics, called the marketing arrangements unseemly....
Dr. Gordon Matheson, editor in chief of The Physician and Sports Medicine, a journal, and Stanford University's team doctor, said: "It hurts us all. Do physicians fight over the right to take care of a run-down section of town? These arrangements can't help but imply some competition for secondary financial gain, and that doesn't jibe with the central values of health care."
Is he seriously arguing that without such an advertising-care agreement, the best possible care would always be given regardless of cost? Or that a greater emphasis will be put on cost-savings than was before? And that now, a lesser quality of care would be given?
Surely all these are possible outcomes, but how likely are multi-millionaires to accept bad medical care? How likely are sports team to compromise the health of their employees who make them all their money? Won't a contract for medical care specify the quality and cost up front, with appropriate punishments for not meeting the contract? If so, what's there to complain about?
In fact, some professional athletes are terribly concerned about the new arrangements, in spite of finding their medical care far more than adequate:
Mets pitcher Tom Glavine said he was satisfied with the care provided by the Mets' doctors but concerned about the principles of the new financial model. "Potentially, it's an issue that could be disturbing or warrant concern," he said. "You'd like to think the team is getting you the best possible care and you're not just treated by whoever gives the most money."Let me put Mr. Glavine's words into a different context:
As a fan, you'd like to think the team is presenting you with the best possible pitching, and you're not just treated to whoever makes the most money for the team.
But, I submit, if you think that, you're absolutely clueless.
In sports and medicine, putting together the best possible team--the one the wins the title or has the best record in saving lives--is a surefire way to become rich and famous.
Some say that fielding a top-notch team is only possible with an enormous salary fund. Others say you can do so by picking and choosing lower-cost options wisely. We've seen winning sports teams come from both management philosophies. How about medical teams?