scholarly journals Realignment in the NHL, MLB, NFL, and NBA

2014 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Macdonald ◽  
William Pulleyblank
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Professional Sports ◽  
Sports Leagues ◽  
League Structure ◽  
Professional Sports Leagues ◽  
Initial Focus

AbstractSports leagues consist of conferences subdivided into divisions. Teams play a number of games within their divisions and fewer games against teams in different divisions and conferences. Usually, a league structure remains stable from one season to the next. However, structures change when growth or contraction occurs, and realignment of the four major professional sports leagues in North America has occurred more than 25 times since 1967. In this paper, we describe a method for realigning sports leagues that is flexible, adaptive, and that enables construction of schedules that minimize travel while satisfying other criteria. We do not build schedules; we develop league structures which support the subsequent construction of efficient schedules. Our initial focus is the NHL, which had a need for realignment following the recent move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, but our methods can be adapted to virtually any situation. We examine a variety of scenarios for the NHL, and apply our methods to the NBA, MLB, and NFL. We find the biggest improvements for MLB and the NFL, where adopting the best solutions would reduce league travel by about 20%.

scholarly journals Big Data, Big Problems: Analysis of Professional Sports Leagues’ CBAs and Their Handling of Athlete Biometric Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-81
Author(s):  
Sarah M. Brown ◽  
Natasha T. Brison
Keyword(s):  
Athletic Performance ◽  
Professional Sports ◽  
Professional Sport ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Biometric Data ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Federal Level ◽  
Sports Leagues ◽  
Revenue Streams ◽  
Professional Sports Leagues

The use and integration of wearable technology (wearables) into professional sports is increasing rapidly. At a minimum, the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS have all integrated wearables into their training. Teams’ hope the biometric data obtained from the wearables will sharpen athletic performance, create competitive advantages, enhance fan experience, and generate new revenue streams. However, to obtain these desired outcomes leagues must adequately protect their athlete’s biometric data (ABD).  The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the CBAs of the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS management of wearables and ABD. Specifically, this paper will discuss the potential gaps in protection of ABD within the CBA and explore whether federal and state laws are applicable to protect the data. Findings from this analysis improve our understanding of professional sport leagues management of ABD and expose the limitations of protection at the league, state, and federal level.

scholarly journals Revenue Sharing in Major League Baseball: The Moments That Meant so Much

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane Rockerbie ◽  
Stephen Easton
Keyword(s):  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Professional Sports ◽  
Revenue Sharing ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Small Market ◽  
Major League ◽  
Sports Leagues ◽  
Professional Sports Leagues

Revenue sharing is a common league policy in professional sports leagues. Several motivations for revenue sharing have been explored in the literature, including supporting small market teams, affecting league parity, suppressing player salaries, and improving team profitability. We investigate a different motivation. Risk-averse team owners, through their commissioner, are able to increase their utility by using revenue sharing to affect higher order moments of the revenue distribution. In particular, it may reduce the variance and kurtosis, as well as affecting the skewness of the league distribution of team local revenues. We first determine the extent to which revenue sharing affects these moments in theory, then we quantify the effects on utility for Major League Baseball over the period 2002–2013. Our results suggest that revenue sharing produced significant utility gains at little cost, which enhanced the positive effects noted by other studies.

A Look Back at the Hearings

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David George Surdam
Keyword(s):  
Professional Sports ◽  
Revenue Sharing ◽  
Financial Data ◽  
Free Agency ◽  
Congressional Hearings ◽  
Look Back ◽  
Sports Leagues ◽  
Territorial Rights ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Professional Sports Leagues

This conclusion discusses the aftermath of the Congressional hearings. During the hearings, the owners' general prerogatives survived essentially intact, although free agency of some sort was imminent in all sports by 1976. Legislators did not repudiate the reserve clause, the reverse-order draft, or territorial rights, despite their qualms regarding these institutions. The legislators and their aides missed some opportunities to subject the team financial data from the 1950s to analysis, which could have shed light on such questions as the effects of revenue sharing. Some fans gained when their hometown landed an expansion or existing franchise, while other fans lost when legislators did not prevent franchise relocation. Congress has held several hearings in the intervening decades since 1989. The professional sports leagues have also evolved. Technology has altered the landscape.

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