The Economics of Sport. Specifics of the Sports Labour Market

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Health - Sport - Sport Economics, Sport Management, grade: 1,7, University of Manchester, language: English, abstract: It is commonly known that some top-athletes tend to earn disproportionately high salaries. According to the Forbes list 'The world's highest-paid athletes' the best-paid athlete in 2015 is the boxer Maywheather with a total pay of about $300 million (Forbes, 2015). However, he is not the only athlete with an enormous wage. The high salaries are not only restricted to one or two types of sport. There are a significant number of different sports, such as tennis, basketball or golf with athletes earning enormous wages (Forbes, 2015). This shows that the trend of high salaries for top-athletes is not restricted to some exceptions; it is rather a general pattern in the world of sport. This essay will identify the factors that justify these high salaries for top-athletes. It will explain the structure of the sports labor market. After that, the economics of superstars will be discussed and tournament theory will be considered. Additionally, real-world examples will be provided. The research includes secondary information from journal articles, books and websites.