"A deft mix of sports, history, and accessible economic ideas. Read it and enjoy." --Tim Harford, author of The Logic of Life and The Undercover Economist "I can think of no better introduction to the economics of sports than Stefan Szymanski's Playbooks and Checkbooks . With wonderfully accessible writing, Szymanski takes the reader through the organization of professional leagues, as well as the role both the government and media play in creating what we see on the field. This book should prove to be indispensable reading to anyone who wishes to truly understand the nature of modern sports." --David J. Berri, coauthor of The Wages of Wins: Taking Measure of the Many Myths in Modern Sport "In Playbooks and Checkbooks , Stefan Szymanski has provided an excellent introduction to the major issues in sports economics. His treatment is lively, literate, lucid, and edifying.

He does a marvelous job of explaining the dynamic of the sports industry in the United States and Europe, as well as presenting the underlying economic theory that helps us interpret how sports leagues, teams, and athletes behave." --Andrew Zimbalist, author of May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy "Szymanski artfully introduces the principles of sports economics for those new to the subject. This is an engaging, compelling, and very important book." --Leo H. Kahane, cofounder and editor of the Journal of Sports Economics "This terrific book explains numerous sophisticated ideas in the economics of sports in plain English. It relates differences in modern sporting structure in the United States and the United Kingdom to differences in the evolution of technological, cultural, legal, and social developments across the northern Atlantic Ocean." --John Siegfried, Vanderbilt University.