The effect of professional sports on earnings and employment in the services and retail sectors in US cities

This paper explores the impact of professional sports teams and stadiums on employment and earnings in specific sectors in US cities. Previous research focused on aggregate measures of income or employment. We find that professional sports have a small positive effect on earnings per employee in one sector, amusements and recreation, and an offsetting decrease in both earnings and employment in other sectors, supporting the idea that consumer spending on professional sports and spending in other sectors are substitutes. This helps to explain the negative total economic impact of sports found in other studies. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.