Teams bring more than money to a city...
Taking an Economics of Sports class and learning about the various financial effects of a sports team on the city they represent has got me to thinking. I know that a real Economist is only concerned with the bottom line, the final number, but I think that the effects of sports teams go beyond what can actually be measured by a calculation or number. Last night I attended the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens game in Pittsburgh. I have attended many of the games at Heinz Field this season but each time have been more crucial of the economics side of the business (or team) that I was rooting for. Could they cut costs there? Should they make a bigger stadium? Why don’t they charge more for that? The list goes on. Last night however when I was standing in the parking lot 4 hours before the game drinking the legal beverage of my choice I realized that, at least in Pittsburgh, Steelers are about so much more than just a business. The effects of the team’s winning percentage are irrelevant to the atmosphere before the games, people from all walks of life come together to have a great time, to relieve the pressures of day to day life and the 64,546 people that packed Heinz Field last night experienced a type of emotion that is difficult to describe. Now last night’s game was an exceptional example considering the Ravens served the Steelers the win on a silver platter, but the effects are still the same. As I stopped at a rest area during my trip from Pittsburgh to Marietta at about one o’clock in the morning I realized that nearly every car in the Ohio rest stop were full of Steeler fans. Terrible towels, Steeler flags, logos, jerseys and more colored the rest area black and gold. I just think that to say that a few quick calculations could measure the true financial effects of a team on a city would be ignorant. Now of course, I am obviously a Steeler fan, and a Economics minor should I be able to separate emotion and passion for a team apart from the business side of the game? Maybe I should be able to, but I simple don’t think that it’s possible to do.
1 comment:
While researching the meaning of a "bubble market" I came across a decent explanation in a definition provided by Wikipedia. And now, reading through this post, I see the relevance. I agree with Josh that the Steelers are more than just a business. Everything that they have anything to do with is part of that business. However, is this true with any team, any franchise? Through the organizations that it is hard to separate passion and emotion from the business side, it is common that a bubble form. When the team is having a respectable season, the sales go up, the fans get more excited and it is easier to sell a product of excitement. Although the intrinsic value is generally overlooked at this time, it can be identified in hindsight. As the team has a struggling season, maybe two years down the road, the prices begin to drop greatly because they were unexpected to skyrocket through their better (and yet unpredictable) seasons of the past.
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