Here is a quick fact of a modern Economics of sports 
and Athletes

By Malampakacom.blogspot.com  reporter

When players of any sports join a franchise, in their minds is to make more money and expand their brands to a global market. Fans become even more passionate and what they want is to see teams they support winning multiple championships.

Currently teams are categorized as small, medium and larger markets. Size of the teams market is measured by its match TV ratings, YouTube hits, internet search hits, number of jerseys pre-sold per year, Size and value of fixed assets, number of global recognized players in the franchise, etc. 

For example for those who fancy Soccer, Reading FC, Norwich FC and Queens-park rangers FC are small markets. On the other hand Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool FC are medium market while Real Madrid, Inter-Milan, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester United are bigger markets.

For those who fancy NBA Basketball, Lakers, Miami Heat and New York Knick are currently the big markets given the above criterions. Small and medium markets include the Cavaliers, Sacramento Kings, Timberwolves, Houston Rockets, etc.

That is the key reason why players, superstars especially, switch from one team to the other. Two years ago, for instance, some people almost committed suicide when Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers and joined Miami Heat with his two best friends and made Miami Heat one of the biggest market in the sport of Basketball in terms of TV ratings, Ticket sales, merchandise, etc.

How about when David Beckham joined Real Madrid (one of the largest sports franchise in the world) from Manchester United, it was a shocker. How about Thiery Henry, Cesc Fabrigas, Marc Overmars and Emanuel Petit left Arsenal FC (medium Market) at different times left Arsenal FC and joined Barcelona Football (Large markets)?

By the way, I still cannot believe Andy Carrol left Newcastle FC for Liverpool FC while the same unbelievable move is that one of Manchester United sweet-heart Mr Ronaldo who left for Real Madrid so as to make more money?

Another astonishing shocker, is that one happened few nights ago, when one of my favorite NBA players Dwight Howard (Superman) left the Orland Magic (Small Market) and joined the LAKERS despite the fact that fans had posted hundreds of thousands of threads on internet campaigning for him to stay. Did he betray the Fans? I don’t think so, he went for the money and big market where he can get multiple endorsements, not necessarily a single championship. 

I am a diehard Arsenal fan, (I want somebody to pinch me) still cannot believe Robin Van Persie has just left the club to our rivals (Manchester united) who are a bigger market than my Arsenal. It is a business though, and very well executed to be fair, would have done the same if I was an Arsenal executive. The Club has earned lots of money that can help future building of the team. Fans, we can cry while executives are popping multiple bottles of champagnes. Making it rain, they say. Manchester United has taken a huge gamble, given the fact that Van Persie is always injured and not real marketable personality. Anyways, the winner will be revealed in the long-run.

So far, since I started following Arsenal with all my heart, the Club bought Anelka, Toure, Nasri, Adebayor, Henry, Vieira, Petit, Overmars, Van Persie, fabrigas for a Total of £42m in total and later sold them at a total of £206m. I don’t know how much they generated for the club from other merchandises and operations. Who won? 

That’s the Economics of sports and Franchises these days. Players demand more money, or go somewhere else where they get a bigger cheque and enough bags of money. While the executives say, give me two players plus some money and I will give you my superstar player. That simply means, listing a franchise superstar in the market to gain more players or even more money for the franchise.

That’s the modern economics of sports franchise operations. Who cares about trophies? No body. Fans, you job is to make noise and cheer. Coaches are to train players. Executives are working daily to minimize costs and make few players superstars then maximize more profit in the long-run