Today's amateur and professional sports are "big business," and the sports industry has evolved into a distinct public policy area analogous to others such as housing, energy, and public health. This unique collection of original essays provides the first systematic look at the role of government in sport in ten years. The contributors, a variety of well-known sports authorities, practitioners, and scholars, employ a public policy perspective to examine the government-sport relationship. Dealing with such issues as anti-trust, labor, violence, franchise relocation, gambling, taxation, sexual discrimination, broadcasting, and players' agents, they critically analyze the role of government and law in both amateur and professional sports and discuss the implications for the future.

Today's amateur and professional sports are "big business," and the sports industry has evolved into a distinct public policy area analogous to others such as housing, energy, and public health. This unique collection of original essays provides the first systematic look at the role of government in sport in ten years. The contributors, a variety of well-known sports authorities, practitioners, and scholars, employ a public policy perspective to examine the government-sport relationship. Dealing with such issues as anti-trust, labor, violence, franchise relocation, gambling, taxation, sexual discrimination, broadcasting, and players' agents, they critically analyze the role of government and law in both amateur and professional sports and discuss the implications for the future.