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Sports economics, Reverse-order drafts, Behavior economics, J44, L83,

Investigations into the level of competitive balance within the four major North American professional team sports leagues suggest that the National Basketball Association (NBA) exhibits the lowest level of competitive balance. Given the role competitive balance plays in maintaining consumer demand, the authors examine the role the star attractions of the NBA play in promoting fan interest. The evidence presented suggests the choice of functional form alters the significance of the relationships uncovered. Specifically, the significance of star power is only uncovered in a multiplicative model rather than in the commonly employed linear form. Additional empirical results are reported in the text.Competitivebalanceinprofessionalteamsportshasbeenthesubjectofnumerous theoretical and empirical publications. The theoretical literature argues competitive imbalance, or the on-field domination of one or a small number of organizations, reduces the level of uncertainty of outcome and consequently reduces the level of consumer demand. 1 The empirical literature, whether examining game day attendance 2 or aggregate season attendance, 3 has also generally confirmed a relationship between uncertainty of outcome or competitive balance and demand for tickets to sporting events.Decision makers in the professional sports industry have not needed economists to understand this basic relationship.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the drivers of NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision total revenues from the 2007 to 2012 seasons. Design/methodology/approach The author uses both ordinary least squares and quantile regression to estimate the impact that winning and lagged attendance have on real total revenue. Findings The author finds that the marginal revenue of winning changes substantially from one end of the conditional distribution to the other end of the conditional distribution but the marginal revenue of lagged attendance is more consistent as compared to winning. Originality/value This will have implications for researchers investigating NCAA football coaches’ salaries and NCAA football player valuation.

No abstract