Matthew Futterman on Players and the Business of Sports

EconTalk

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2016

⏱️ 64 minutes

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Summary

Fifty years ago, many of the best players in the National Football League took jobs in the off-season to augment the salaries they earned playing football. Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal and author of Players talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how much football and so many aspects of sports--from tennis to golf to apparel to broadcasting to Olympics--has become incredibly more lucrative. Futterman shares the insights from his book and how all that money has changed sports, the athletes who compete, and the fans who watch.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:09.3	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.8	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:18.9	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.7	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done
0:25.9	going back to 2006.
0:28.3	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:30.8	We'd love to hear from you.
0:34.6	Today is July 6, 2016, and my guest is Matthew Futterman, Wall Street Journal reporter
0:40.0	and author of Players, the story of sports and money and the visionaries who fought to
0:46.2	create a revolution, which is our topic for today, Matt.
0:49.0	Welcome to Econ Talk.
0:50.0	Thank you so much for having me.
0:52.3	So your book is a fascinating and incredibly entertaining look at a real revolution, how
0:57.6	a sleepy part of our lives called sports became a multi-multi-billion dollar behemoth,
1:04.8	sometimes a monster, sometimes something very glorious.
1:09.0	What changed?
1:10.0	Obviously, a lot of things changed, but sometime between the 1950s and today, and it came
1:17.1	at different times for different sports, but something changed, and it runs through
1:21.4	your book.
1:22.4	What is that?
1:23.8	Well, I think what really changed was the athletes, the people who were the real subjects
	...

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