"Sportonomics - the influence of money to the sports"

In this master thesis the main focus is directed towards the analysis of the interconnection between the sports and the economics from several different aspects and their interdependence of each other. This was enabled by the introduction of the concept of "Sportonomics", with the main concern on the relationship between the money and the sports, by taking into account different perspectives, such as the direct influence of money to the success, the growing significance of the financial component to the sports, analyzed through the comparisons between leagues (clubs) across the continent including their financial construction, then covering the commercialization of the sports and the on-going movements as an opposition to this trend of commercialization of the sport. Regarding the structure of the thesis and its chapters, in the first chapter it starts off with the most unattractive sport among the ones covered in the thesis by focusing on the financial strength and the actual performances of the clubs in some of the strongest domestic handball competitions in Europe (Bundesliga, ASOBAL, Division 1, Elitserien), as well as including an overview over the emerging new forces from Eastern Europe and the increasing competitiveness posed to the established Western European clubs. In the second chapter, as it moves on towards the sports enjoying higher degree of popularity and investments, there is the basketball game as the main subject of analysis. This part provides an overview of the situation on club and individual (player) level for both the Euroleague and the NBA, as well as clarification of the "salary cap" policy in terms of the limited spending on players' salaries within one team. The last chapter in the thesis, concentrates on the most popular and the most capital intensive sport, the football, with it attracting lots of investors and lots of money being circulated throughout this "market". First, it startx off the analysis with an overview over the top 10 clubs on the continent in terms of their revenues, with additionally taking a detailed look at their revenues structure, by dividing it into different subcategories. Later, it continues with an overview of the situation at the European level by including the Eastern European sides as well, before moving to the sensitive subject of the growing commercialization of the game and focusing of some sky-high figures and numbers surrounding the sport itself. As an addition to this subject, it continues with the movement set as a opposition to this trend, named as "Against Modern Football', and providing few examples as well as the exact reasons behind this movement fighting against the commercialization of the game. As last point in this third final chapter, it covers the UEFA "financial fair play", as a policy undertaken by the continent's official football association with the aim of limiting the on-going inflation in the football market as well as regulating the financial activity of the clubs involved into its membership. In the end there are several conclusions based on the overview of what has been covered within the master thesis. A look has been taken at the relationship between the money and the sports from two different standpoints and perspectives. Firstly, it is the sport's perspective, through the relationship between the money involved in running a club and the success coming out of it as an output as well as the correlation between the two of them, and then taking into account the second perspective by focusing on the business component and the impact of the money to the nature of the sports i.e. the commercialization of the game. Regarding the sport's perspective and the relationship between the money invested and the specific success on the field/court, as it can be concluded by the analysis of all the three sports (handball, basketball, football) included in the thesis, there is a finding suggesting that in present times money play a really significant role in achieving success and they are necessary for building the base required for high achievements, undoubtedly being important but not necessarily decisive factor. It came out of the fact that the standings are usually defined by the range of the budgets, with the clubs belonging to a range of teams with higher investments usually ending up in the upper half of the table, in comparison with the clubs included in the range of the teams with lesser investments usually making it in the bottom half of the table, meaning that the money might prescribe the success to some extent, but they can not precisely and directly determine the ending result, with many other factors also influencing the output. The second perspective, and the impact of the money through the increasing commercialization of the sports, suggests that the business component gains a growing share as part of the game. As covered in the thesis, the influx of many rich businessmen into the sports, has lead to inflation in the market through the enormously high salaries of the players, the escalating transfer fees, the increased prices for tickets, enormously high contracts for TV broadcasting of the games, all of which arise from the mindset inherited by the businessmen from their previous businesses, trying to replicate the same model into the sports. This has lead to a change in the nature of the sports and the way they are managed, directly affecting the values, beliefs and the tradition connected with it. However, on the other side, as covered in the thesis, there is the emergence of the "Against modern football" movement as an opposition of this trend, trying to conserve and stick to the original values of the game, and with the sports associations also introducing policies for indirectly limiting the spending in the sports, there is a tendency of exerting higher degree of control over the business component in the sports. The main purpose of this thesis is to discover certain pattern in the relationship between the money and the sports as well as provide an applicability through serving as a basis for future further analysis, research and definition of the linkage, the interconnection and the correlation between the money and the sports, and the increasing influence of the financial component to the nature of the sports themselves.