“Katie & Casey was baseball mad,
Had the fever and had it bad.
Just to root for the home town crew.
Ev’ry sou Katie blew. . . “ – DeMain, 2011
This little-known verse of the beloved 1908 song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer encapsulates one of the key economic challenges facing sports.
Fans such as Katie are well aware of the sacrifice of many “sous” (a slang term for coins) just to attend a sport event in person. This is one of the reasons that attendance at less-expensive minor league baseball games flourished during the U.S. economic recession from 2007–2011 while attendance at major league baseball games waned (Howard & Crompton, 2013). In response to this demand, the number, or supply, of minor league franchises has more than doubled since 1989. If minor league franchise owners responded to this demand by increasing prices, however, how might this affect attendance and demand?
Consumers and sport leaders make decisions every day that affect the sport industry, but they do not make them in a vacuum. Instead, they follow certain economic principles common in every field, such as supply and demand. This week, you explore determinants of supply and demand as well as the concept of elasticity, which involves the responsiveness of consumers to price changes.
In addition, you examine how sport administrators, even those who work within different departments of the same organization, might address challenges following common economic models and how this might affect the function of the organization.
These models may include but are not limited to the following:
- Profit maximization
- Management utility maximization
- Sales maximization
- Growth maximization
- Satisficing behavior
- Winning
Post an explanation of how different departments within the same sport organization might employ different economic models and why. In your response, refer to specific examples of the models from your Learning Materials as well as specific applications in a department. Then, explain how this variation might impact the function of the sport organization.
250-350 WORDS; USE SCHOLARLY SOURCES!
