ABSTRACT
Sport became a commodity when consumers became willing to pay to play or watch it. These consumers purchase player products (games, equipment and costumes, instruction and assistance, facilities, and club memberships), spectator products, and associated products (goods and services that have been allied with sport in some way but that are not really necessary to the playing or watching of sport). Aggregate demand for these is influenced by income and wealth, prices, population, time, and taste. The supply of sport comes from entrepreneurs combining various factors of production (natural resources, labour, and monetary resources). Sports products can be non-durable and non-predictable; function as an intermediate, merit, or complementary product; and be consumed as a private or public good. The efficiency with which sports resources are allocated can be undermined by public goods, limited competition, externalities, and imperfect market information. The chapter concludes with a discussion of hyper-commodification and whether money has ruined sport.
