Deck 10: The Professional Sports Industry and Sports Careers

Question 1

We can conclude from knowledge in sport sociology about the social and economic organization of sports that:

A) most teams in the major professional sports leagues in the U.S. are publicly owned by the cities, municipalities, or citizens where they are located.
B) once a professional sports league is formed, it is almost guaranteed commercial success.
C) commercial sports in the U.S. are not stratified.
D) the global growth of commercial sports has been driven by the desire of sports leagues, media corporations, and corporate sponsors of sport to expand their markets and maximize profits.

Answer 1

the global growth of commercial sports has been driven by the desire of sports leagues, media corporations, and corporate sponsors of sport to expand their markets and maximize profits.

Question 2

An implication of the antitrust exemption granted to Major League Baseball by the Supreme Court in 1922 is that:

A) owners were legally able to restrict players' salaries and their movement to other teams.
B) players were given the legal right to free agency.
C) individual owners were legally permitted to start and move franchises without constraint by other owners.
D) owners were legally compelled to submit to arbitration to settle disputes about players' salaries.

Answer 2

owners were legally able to restrict players' salaries and their movement to other teams.

Question 3

A manifestation of the effective cartel-like or monopolistic structure of professional sports is:

A) restricted opportunities of prospective new owners to enter a league.
B) a weak bargaining position of a league in contractual negotiations with the television industry.
C) steeply escalating player salaries.
D) entrepreneurial or independent behavior by individual sports franchise owners competing economically against each other in a league.

Answer 3

restricted opportunities of prospective new owners to enter a league.

Question 4

Research has generally shown that public financing of professional sports facilities, such as Orioles Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank (Ravens) Stadium, results in:

A) a huge tax bill or lease for sports team owners.
B) increased year-round employment opportunities for a large number of poor citizens living near these facilities.
C) substantially more tax revenue than other commercial enterprises could have generated on these sites.
D) more financial benefits for commercial developers and investors than for average citizens whose taxes have paid for these facilities.

Question 5

If Marx were alive today, he would:

A) support public subsidies of professional sports stadiums such as M&T Bank (Ravens) Stadium.
B) be more supportive of the interests of players than the interests of the management councils of professional sports leagues.
C) be a believer in the achievement of the American Dream through sport.
D) be concerned about the threat to the financial viability of professional sports posed by high player salaries.

Question 6

Discussions about NASCAR and the NFL in the text and in this course revealed that:

A) the NFL is a family business, while NASCAR is a cartel.
B) union activity by athletes has been more of a challenge for NASCAR than for the NFL.
C) the sharing of league revenue is closer to equality among teams in the NFL than it is among teams in the other three major professional sports leagues in North America.
D) unlike other athletes in major commercial sports in the U.S., NASCAR drivers control the revenue in their sport.

Question 7

Discussion in the text and in this course about commercialism and franchise values of teams in the major North American sports leagues (i.e., the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL) revealed that:

A) the NHL generally has the least valuable franchises among the major North American sports leagues.
B) all NFL franchises are more valuable than any other sports franchise in North America or the rest of the world.
C) the most highly valued franchise in North America in recent years has also been the most dominant team in athletic competition in its sport in those years.
D) spending the most on players assures teams of championships.

Question 8

The special "sport in the news" feature about Brazilian soccer in the text indicated that:

A) Pelé's move to the U.S. late in his career to promote soccer was strongly endorsed by the soccer establishment in Europe.
B) soccer has been very popular and successful in Brazil despite widespread disorganization and corruption.
C) there is no evidence of a Golden Triangle in Brazilian soccer.
D) there is no Brazilian version of an American Dream in soccer because the top Brazilian players come from middle class backgrounds.

Question 9

In considering the Golden Triangle in relation to professional and commercialized sports, we can conclude that:

A) global Golden Triangles associated with specific professional sports such as soccer have pursued capitalistic goals, while Golden Triangles of professional sports within nations such as the U.S. have not been interested in capitalism.
B) major "actors" or elements in Golden Triangle networks generally have been linked by processes of organizational rationalization, commercial partnership, and a shared desire for economic expansion.
C) Golden Triangles exist in professional sports but not in amateur sports such as college athletics.
D) the influence of the Golden Triangle on a professional sport means that it is not really a business.

Question 10

In their research about the connections of media and entertainment corporations and entrepreneurs to North American professional sports leagues, Harvey, Law, and Cantelon found that:

A) the concept of the Golden Triangle used in the text and in this course is a myth.
B) the most prevalent and powerful pattern of media/entertainment ownership involved local and regional entertainment businesses.
C) wealthy and successful media executives such as Rupert Murdoch have been unable to use their wealth and economic success to exert influence over sport.
D) media and entertainment businesses are highly represented among franchise owners in North American professional sports leagues.

Question 11

According to recent evidence about the relationship of the media to major North American professional sports:

A) television rights fees have made Major League Baseball the richest league in North America.
B) the establishment of the NFL Network reflects the willingness of the NFL to allow its broadcast partners to control the generation and flow of media profits in the sport.
C) NASCAR earns more in media rights fees than the NHL earns.
D) unlike the NFL, Major League Baseball does not permit its teams to negotiate local television contracts.

Question 12

In the recent history of women's professional sports leagues in the U.S.:

A) the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) were and have been successful in taking economic advantage of a monopoly position in their sports.
B) women's professional sports leagues in sports such as soccer and basketball have been able to use their popular appeal to negotiate lucrative national television contracts comparable to the contracts negotiated by their male counterpart sports leagues.
C) the financial survival of the WNBA for more than a decade was due in part to subsidies from the NBA.
D) dual ownership of NBA and WNBA teams has helped WNBA teams more than it has helped NBA teams.

Question 13

The professional sports league "wealth gap":

A) can be measured by making a percentage comparison between the revenue generated by the poorest team in a league with the revenue produced by the richest team in the league.
B) is significantly greater in the NFL than in European soccer.
C) is significantly greater in the NFL than in Major League Baseball.
D) tends to be much larger in leagues that put more restrictions on economic competition among the teams in the league.

Question 14

In comparing the economic structures of different types of professional sports, we see that:

A) sports such as tennis and golf are salary-based, while sports such as football, baseball, and basketball are winnings-based.
B) the income of athletes in a winnings-based sport tends to be more secure and predictable than the income of athletes in a salary-based sport is.
C) a single major boxing event can generate more revenue than most big-league professional sports teams other than those in the NFL earn in a season.
D) unlike major professional sports leagues in North America, NASCAR has not had a monopolistic structure.

Question 15

Evidence regarding ticket prices in professional sports in the U.S. has indicated that:

A) team owners have typically been sympathetic to the economic stresses on average middle-income and lower-income fans and have tried to keep ticket prices down to accommodate them.
B) the average "Fan Cost Index" in 2005 was highest in Major League Baseball and lowest in the NFL among the four major team sports in North America.
C) monopolistic control of sports and sports markets has been associated with rising and inflated ticket prices.
D) the willingness of fans to purchase personal seat licenses and luxury box seats shows that Veblen's concept of conspicuous consumption does not apply to sports fans.

Question 16

In their analysis of the evolution of the professional sports ballpark, Ritzer and Sullivan argued or observed that:

A) as sports facilities have become bigger, they have become increasingly rationalized or McDonaldized, risking their appeal to fans.
B) the baseball stadiums that existed in the early modern era were distinguished by their large seating capacity and multipurpose use for various types of sports.
C) the baseball stadiums of the late modern period were much more appealing to fans and had more of the charm of the early modern period than the postmodern ballparks.
D) ballparks that were McDonaldized "cathedrals of consumption" were more likely to be found in the early modern than in the late modern or postmodern period.

Question 17

Efforts to expand the reach of sports in the global sports marketplace:

A) have not included professional sports that have been part of the hegemonic culture of sports in North America.
B) have included sports outside North America that have limited their growth exclusively to within their national borders.
C) have included a Golden Triangle of the NFL, Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), and British television.
D) have involved cultural but not economic globalization.

Question 18

According to Miller, Rowe, McKay, and Lawrence's analysis of the media and professional sports in North America, Germany, and Great Britain:

A) many of the major professional sports in these countries inundated or saturated their domestic media markets in the 1990s.
B) powerful corporate media investors such as Rupert Murdoch made bids for television broadcast rights that resulted in a major trend of declining television rights fees for major North American and European professional sports in the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries.
C) TV ratings for the NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, and the NHL have consistently and dramatically increased over the past decade.
D) major professional sports in North America, Germany, and Great Britain substantially increased media telecasts within their countries and avoided overseas broadcasts to deal with a media saturation problem.

Question 19

Free agency in professional sports:

A) resulted in more economic freedom for players.
B) reduced tensions between players and management.
C) is a monopolistic practice.
D) has been opposed by player unions.

Question 20

Which is not a part of Bill Bradley's conception of the "life on the run" of professional athletes?

A) the enjoyment of constant travel
B) loneliness and a sense of impermanence
C) frequent public attention
D) invasions of privacy

Question 21

In rankings of rich, popular, and powerful celebrities and athletes:

A) the majority of people in the Forbes "Celebrity 100" in 2007 were professional athletes.
B) Michael Jordan was the top athlete on "Celebrity 100" list in 2007.
C) NBA players dominated the 2007 Sports Illustrated list of its "Fortunate Fifty" of the top U.S. money earners in sport.
D) Formula One auto racers dominated the Sports Illustrated "International 20" list of the top international money earners in sport.

Question 22

Data concerning earnings in the sports of professional golf and professional tennis show that:

A) on average, female touring athletes earn as much as male touring athletes in these sports.
B) getting a chance to compete in a major tournament in these sports assures athletes of a large paycheck whatever place they finish in the tournament.
C) club pros in golf and tennis earn as much as the top money winners on the tours of these sports.
D) money is distributed very unequally in tournaments in these sports.

Question 23

Howe's research about the commercialization and professionalization of Welsh rugby union football showed that:

A) the players liked being considered "mortal engines."
B) the pressures on the players to take risks with their bodies increased as the sport was transformed from amateur to professional.
C) none of the injuries in the sport resulted from legitimate or "legal" tackles.
D) the professional form of rugby union was safer than the amateur form because the sport rejected the influence of contact sports in the U.S. such as U.S.-style football.

Question 24

The discussion in the text and in this course about pain and injuries in professional sport indicated that:

A) the number of serious injuries putting players on the injured reserve (IR) list in the NFL in 2004 dropped significantly from the average number of players on the IR list during the 1998-2004 period.
B) professional sports officials, executives, coaches, and players are not concerned about minimizing the number of injuries in their sport.
C) contact sports are structured to make injuries in the sport virtually inevitable.
D) the culture of major professional sports and the opportunities to earn fame and substantial amounts of money in these sports make professional athletes less willing to risk pain and injuries in playing their sport.

Question 25

Studies commissioned by the NFL Players Association, which surveyed retired NFL players whose careers ranged from the 1940s to the 1990s, showed that:

A) nearly all of the players retired due to injuries.
B) a majority of the retired players reported having lingering or long-term effects of a football injury.
C) the percentage of players who had permanent injuries as a result of their football careers steadily decreased each year between the end of the 1950s and the 1980s.
D) the percentage of players reporting a disabling injury as the main reason for retiring significantly dropped from year to year between 1990 and 1993.

Question 26

According the special feature in the text, what were Zimbalist's three major conclusions in his synthesis of research and analysis about the issue of public investment in professional sports franchise facilities?

Question 27

How was the unusual creativity, smoothness, and grace of Brazilian soccer players explained by experts cited in the special "sport in the news" feature in the text?

Question 28

What is a cartel, how have professional sports leagues operated as cartels in the U.S., why do their cartel-like structure and operations make professional sports leagues, such as Major League Baseball, peculiar in the U.S. economy?

Question 29

What are the five general patterns of media/entertainment ownership in North American sports leagues found by Harvey, Law, and Cantelon and discussed in the text, and what is an example of each?

Question 30

How does NASCAR differ organizationally from North American professional sports leagues such as the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NHL?

Question 31

What did the findings from an unscientific reader survey conducted in 2006 for the SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily reveal about the major perceived threats to sports among the surveyed readers, and what type of conclusion should members of the Golden Triangle draw from these findings?