Competitive balance: Results of two natural experiments from Rugby Union

Arbeitspapier

The paper presents results from two natural experiments on the impact of revenue sharing and salary caps on competitive balance in sports leagues arising from the introduction of professionalism in Rugby Union in 1995. The first involves the English Premiership, which traditionally applied a binding salary cap, and the French Top 14, which only introduced a (non-binding) salary cap relatively recently, while the Premiership also has a higher level of revenue sharing than its French counterpart. The second involves French rugby and soccer as the French soccer league is generally recognised as having a more even distribution of revenue and greater competitive balance than other major European soccer leagues. We find short- and long-run competitive balance is higher in the Premiership, than in the Top 14, while French soccer appears more evenly balanced than rugby. Unlike soccer, balance within and between leagues in rugby has not been negatively affected by European competitions. This could change as the Anglo-French teams' share of European competition revenues is set to increase from 2014/15 while broadcast revenues for both leagues are also set to increase substantially.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: UCD Centre for Economic Research Working Paper Series ; No. WP14/13

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis ; Firm Behavior: Theory ; Firm Organization and Market Structure ; Organization of Production ; Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
• Subject: professional team sports ; competitive balance ; salary caps

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Hogan, Vincent ; Massey, Patrick ; Massey, Shane
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University College Dublin, UCD School of Economics
• (where): Dublin
• (when): 2014

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/109708
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET