Professional sports

An Economic Analysis of Governance in Cycling

Over the past week professional cycling has been thrown topsy-turvy by the fallout from the US Anti-Doping Agency’s report on their investigation into performance-enhancing drug (PED) use in the U.S. Postal Service team, 1998-2006. The focus of the dossier is, of course, Lance Armstrong, and the eyewitness testimony is extensive and not very surprising to …

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Why Do We Ignore Women’s Sports?

Lynne Kiesling I’ve scheduled this to post while I’m out on one of my long rides … this interesting Outside magazine article explores why women’s sports attract so little attention. The article focuses on cycling: The Giro d’Italia Femminile is the biggest race you’ve never heard of. Covering 961.4 kilometers of Italian countryside over nine days, 127 …

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Nhl Suspends Torres for Hossa Hit; Have We Achieved Incentive Compatibility?

Lynne Kiesling This year’s NHL Stanley Cup playoffs are in the first round, and so far the violence has been horrific: “The most vicious and, perhaps, disgraceful first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs” was the verdict of Stu Hackel, the former director of broadcasting for the N.H.L., and this is now close to a …

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Super Bowl Price Gouging Complaints

Michael Giberson If you follow price gouging headlines, you become accustomed to seeing price gouging stories around big sports events: the Rugby World Cup, NASCAR races, NCAA basketball finals, and always the Olympics (a selection: Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Salt Lake City 2002, Athens 2004, Vancouver 2010, London 2012, and finally this extreme example). All of …

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Great Sports Journalism: Jason Gay on Jens Voigt

Lynne Kiesling I’ll spare you my observations on this year’s Tour de France, which I am enjoying mightily. Today, with three huge Alpine climbs, features both grueling riding and gorgeous scenery; I’m watching a descent through a series of steep hairpin turns as we speak. But I will share one thing, because Jason Gay’s recent …

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Fiesta Bowl Wants Money Back from Politicians

Michael Giberson In an actual episode of journalism, the Arizona Republic has been digging into the operations of the Fiesta Bowl, including, among other things, its lavish spending on state and local politicians. The Fiesta Bowl, which is negotiating with the Internal Revenue Service in an attempt to preserve its non-profit status, has concluded that …

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Iran Cuts Fuel Subsidies and Other Energy and Economics Links

Michael Giberson A couple of interesting readings: The New York Times reports, “Gas Prices Soar in Iran as Subsidy Reduced.” (Also: Washington Post, Wall Street Journal.) Cape Wind Project still has half of its capacity up for sale. (Local utility claims it can find cheaper renewable power elsewhere.) The Economist, “Why do firms exist?” on …

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Uncapping Prices in Secondary Ticket Markets

Michael Giberson David Harrington has an article in the new issue of Regulation on the consequences of state repeal of laws that put caps on ticket resale prices: “Uncapping Ticket Markets.” Harrington used StubHub data to compare NHL ticket resale prices in states that repealed price caps on resales to prices in states that hadn’t …

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