This study proposes the use of standardised win cost as a simple and transparent measure of sporting efficiency in professional team sports. Standardised win cost measures the ratio of sporting performance (i.e., output) to financial expenditure (i.e. input). The specific version developed for league performance in (association) football is the wage cost per league point standardised across seasons to allow for changes in the general level of player wages as well as league restructuring. The use of standardised win cost to analyse team performance and efficiency is illustrated with data from the FA Premier League for the period 1995 – 2007.
QuirkJ.FortR., Cross-Subsidization, Incentives, and Outcomes in Professional Team Sports Leagues, Journal of Economic Literature, 1995, 33, 1265–1299.
2.
SzymanskiS.KuypersT., Winners and Losers: The Business Strategy of Football, Viking, London, 1999.
3.
GerrardB., Analysing the Win-Wage Relationship in Pro Sports Leagues: Evidence from the FA Premier League, 1997/98 – 2001/02, in: RodriguezP.KesenneS.GarciaJ. eds, Sports Economics after Fifty Years: Essays in Honour of Simon Rottenberg, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, 2006, 169–190.
4.
GerrardB., A Resource-Utilisation Model of Organisational Efficiency in Professional Team Sports, Journal of Sport Management, 2005, 19, 143–169.
5.
PorterP. K.ScullyG. W., Measuring Managerial Efficiency: The Case of Baseball, Southern Economic Journal, 1982, 48, 642–650.
6.
DawsonP. M.DobsonS. M.GerrardB., Estimating Coaching Efficiency in Professional Team Sports: Evidence from English Association Football, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 2000, 47, 399–421.
7.
DawsonP. M.DobsonS. M.GerrardB., Stochastic Frontiers and the Temporal Structure of Managerial Efficiency in English Soccer, Journal of Sports Economics, 2000, 1, 341–362.
8.
HaasD. J., Technical Efficiency in the Major League Soccer, Journal of Sports Economics, 2003, 4, 203–215.
9.
ReesB.Financial Analysis, Prentice Hall, New York, 1990.
10.
SloaneP. J., The Economics of Professional Football: The Football Club as a Utility Maximiser, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 1971, 18, 121–146.
11.
FortR., European and North American Sports Differences(?), Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 2000, 47, 431–455.
12.
GerrardB, Is the Moneyball Approach Transferable to Complex Invasion Team Sports?, International Journal of Sport Finance, 2007, 2, 214–230.
13.
LewisM., Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Norton, New York, 2003.
14.
LuciforaC.SimmonsR., Superstar Effects in Sport: Evidence from Italian Soccer, Journal of Sports Economics, 2003, 4, 35–55.
15.
MakadokR., Toward a Synthesis of the Resource-Based and Dynamic-Capability Views of Rent Creation, Strategic Management Journal, 2001, 22, 387–401.
16.
GilmoreS.E.GilsonC.H.J., Finding Form: Elite Sports and the Business of Change, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 2007, 20, 409–428.
17.
GilmoreS., The Importance of Asset Maximisation in Football: Towards the Long-Term Gestation and Maintenance of Sustained High Performance, International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 2009, 4, 465–478.
