Industrial Organization and Sports Business
Students are required to write a 1500-2000 word paper on the business
aspects of the sports market. Students can focus on one of the two areas: 1) a
professional sports league (NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB, etc.) in North America or
Europe, or, 2) an international sports event (the Olympics, the FIFA world
cup, etc.).
Try to choose a topic that is not too broad, and try to focus on a specific
aspect of the sports business, and narrow it to a business case. For example,
try to avoid writing about the business structure of the NHL itself but instead,
write about the success/failure of an NHL franchise. Similarly, you can
analyse the short run/long run effects of hosting the Olympics for a hosting
city but should try to avoid writing about the history of the Olympics or the
social and economic outcomes of the Olympics that are unquantifiable.
The writing of the paper should be primarily analytical and using economic
concepts that were reviewed in class. It is also important to include data
analysis (tables, graphs or data observations) to support your findings. Tables
and graphs should be properly labelled.