Foreword	7
	Preface	9
	Contents	10
	Contributors	12
	Affinity in the Selection of a Player	14
	Jaime Gil-Aluja and Anna M. Gil-Lafuente	14
	1 Similarities and Affinities	14
	2 Affinities with Imprecise Preferences	16
	3 Affinity Indexes	18
	4 Affinities with Confidence Triplets	19
	5 Affinities and Groupings	21
	6 Affinities by Distance in an Arborescence	23
	7 Affinity in a Layered Graph	26
	References	27
	Game Systems in Team Sports	28
	Jaime Gil-Lafuente	28
	1 Concept and Content of Game Systems	28
	2 Game Diagrams	29
	3 Generalization of the Concepts of Our Diagrams	36
	4 Paths and Cuts in Complex Diagrams	37
	5 Partial Analysis of a Global Diagram	39
	6 Modification of the Diagrams for the Game	42
	7 Study of the Game by Zones	43
	8 The Function of the Structure of a Game Diagram	44
	9 Obtaining Minimum Schemes and Cutsfrom the Functional Structure	48
	References	50
	The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Sport in North America	52
	Brad R. Humphreys	52
	1 Introduction	52
	2 The Professional Sports Industry in Context	53
	2.1 Determinants of Demand for Professional Sports	53
	2.2 North American Professional Sports Leagues	54
	3 The Dimensions of the Financial and Economic Crisis in North America	58
	4 Impacts of the Financial and Economic Crisis	61
	4.1 Attendance	61
	4.2 Broadcast Revenues and TV Viewing	65
	4.3 Franchise Values and Bankruptcy	66
	5 Conclusions	68
	References	69
	Managing and Modeling the Combination of Resources in Professional Sporting Events	71
	Lionel Maltese and Lucien Veran	71
	1 Introduction	71
	2 Transition of the RBV Approach, from an Asset-Based to a Relational Perspective	72
	2.1 The ``Management View'': Dynamic Arrangement and Control of Co-specialized Assets	74
	2.2 Business Model and Asset Combination	75
	3 Method: Three Clinical Studies	76
	3.1 The Open13. A Relational Control of Resources Shared with the Main Stakeholders	77
	3.2 The BNP Paribas Masters. A Control of Resources, Which Are Not Shared and of Sporting Dependency	82
	3.3 Roland Garros Control Through the Brand, Creation, and Maintaining the Dependence of the Main Stakeholders Involved	88
	4 What the Clinical Studies Teach Us. Differentiated Combination and Control of an Identical Resource Pool	92
	5 Conclusion	94
	References	95
	Governance and Sporting Success of Top 20 Football Clubs After Economic Crisis	98
	Domenico Marino	98
	1 Introduction	98
	2 The European Market	98
	3 The Governance of Sporting Activities	99
	4 Baumol's Disease and a Simple Financial Fairplay Rule	100
	5 Neural Networks and the Problem of Predicting Sporting Success	101
	6 The Results of the Neural Classification and Conclusion	105
	References	106
	The Stadium Game in an Uncertain Environment: A Preliminary Look at Arena Discourse in Edmonton, Canada	107
	Daniel S. Mason	107
	1 Introduction	108
	2 An Overview of the Stadium Game	109
	3 A Proposed Arena Development Project in Edmonton	111
	4 Method	113
	5 Results	114
	5.1 Economic Development	115
	5.2 Civic Status	116
	5.3 Civic Priorities	119
	5.4 Financing	121
	5.5 Economic Downturn	125
	6 Emerging Frames	126
	7 Discussion and Conclusions	128
	References	129
	A Complex Network Approach to Crisis Recovering in Sport Applications	134
	Francesco Carlo Morabito	134
	1 Introduction	134
	2 Complex Networks: A Short Review	136
	2.1 Some Basic Concepts	137
	3 Network Economy	143
	4 Crisis in the Framework of Complex Networks	146
	5 Sport: A Network of Societies and Consumers	147
	6 To Escape from Crisis	149
	7 Conclusions	149
	References	150
	A Study of Fairness in Fourball Golf Competition	152
	Patrick Siegbahn and Donald Hearn	152
	1 Introduction	152
	1.1 History of Handicapping	153
	1.2 The USGA Handicap System	153
	1.3 Team Golf	154
	1.4 Assumptions	154
	2 Previous Work	155
	2.1 Dr. Clyne Soley	155
	2.2 Dr. Francis Scheid	155
	2.3 Trygve Bogevold and Dr. Richard Stroud	156
	3 Data Collection	156
	3.1 Data Source: Golfnet	156
	3.2 Curve Fitting	156
	3.3 Hole by Hole Distributions	157
	3.4 Validation	160
	4 Method	161
	4.1 The Algorithm	161
	5 Results	163
	5.1 Hypotheses	163
	5.2 Testing of the Hypotheses	163
	5.3 Variance	164
	5.4 Spread	167
	5.5 Australian Tiebreaker	170
	5.6 Handicap Allowance	173
	6 Summary and Conclusion	174
	6.1 Variance	174
	6.2 Spread	175
	6.3 Australian Tiebreaker	175
	6.4 Handicap Allowance	175
	7 Directions for Future Research and Improvements	175
	References	179
	Can Subsidies Help Buy Success? Revenue Sharing in English Football	180
	Rob Simmons and Ian Walker	180
	1 Introduction	180
	2 The FA Cup	183
	3 Model and Data	185
	4 Empirical Results	189
	5 Discussion and Conclusions	192
	References	193
	Commercial Football and the Economic Cycle	195
	Stefan Szymanski	195
	1 Introduction	195
	2 The Economics of Football Management	196
	3 The Impact of the Current Financial Crisis	200
	4 Trends in Europe Across Time	201
	5 Conclusions	204
	References	205
	Economics of Gambling on Sports: A Multistage Stochastic Programming Approach to American Jai Alai Gambling Strategies	206
	Qipeng P. Zheng, Yingyan Lou, and Panos M. Pardalos	206
	1 Introduction	206
	2 Modeling Randomness in the Game	208
	2.1 Game Results Simulation	208
	2.2 Payoffs	208
	3 Determination of Betting Strategies	209
	3.1 Scenario-Based Multistage Stochastic Betting Strategy	209
	3.2 Dynamic Programming Formulation and Optimal Policies	214
	3.3 Other Betting Strategies	216
	4 Numerical Examples	218
	5 Conclusion	221
	References	221