099: Rodney Fort on Sport Economics, Big Data in Baseball and the Value of Hosting an Olympic Games

Rodney Fort is Professor of Sport Management at the University of Michigan after spending 23 years in an economics department at various universities.

Professor Fort teaches Sports Economics and Research Methods for Sport Management and research interests include sport economics, regulation and microeconomics.

Rodney is a recognized authority on sports economics and business, both in the U.S. and internationally. 

He has written 7 books including the best seller Sports Economics, 63 refereed journal articles, and 56 other publications that cover sports topics as diverse as cross-subsidies in U.S. sports leagues to comparative analysis of North American and world sports leagues.

Rodney also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Sports Economics, the International Journal of Sport Finance, and Managerial and Decision Economics.  He also currently serves as a vice-president of the International Association of Sports Economists.

Rodney’s work includes being a sports economics consultant, writes for numerous blogs including his own rodsportseconomics and holds the most complete data on the economics and business of U.S. pro sports leagues in existence at Sports Business Data Pages.

Resources:

• Patricia’s Various Basketball Stuff
• USA Today
• Baseball Prospectus
• Baseball Reference

Links:

• http://rodsportseconomics.blogspot.ie/
• Rodney Fort’s Sports Business Data
• Scully, G. (1974). Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball. American Economic Review. Vol. 64, No. 6 (Dec.), pp. 915-930.

Where to Find Professor Fort

• Twitter: @RodneyFort
• Website: Rod Sports Economics

Books

• The Hustler’s Handbook by Bill Veeck
• The Lords of the Realm by John Helyar
• The Sports Business in the Pacific Rim by Young Hoon Lee and Rodney Fort.
• 15 Sports Myths and Why They’re Wrong by Rodney Fort and Jason Winfree.
•  Sports Economics by  Rodney Fort.
• International Sports Economics Comparisons by Rodney Fort and John Fizel (eds.).
• Economics of College Sports by John Fizel and Rodney Fort (eds.).
• Hardball: The Abuse of Power in Pro Team Sports by James Quirk and Rodney Fort.
• Pay Dirt: The Business of Professional Team Sports by James Quirk and Rodney Fort.

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