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Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1: The Sports Business Is Different -- Is the Business of Sport Different from 'Real' Business? -- The Americans Are Different -- Public Policy and Political Economy -- References -- Chapter 2: Our Tool Kit: Theory, Concepts, and Numbers -- The Language of Economics -- Theory, Models, and Formulae (but Don't Be Afraid) -- The Value of Numbers -- Our Tool Kit -- Imperfect Markets and Imperfect People -- References -- Chapter 3: Commodification: Has Money Ruined Sport? -- Introduction -- The Sporting Product -- The Demand for Sport -- The Supply of Sport -- Characteristics of the Sport Product -- What Do Sports Teams Produce? -- Market Failures -- Has Money Ruined the Game? -- References -- Chapter 4: Mass Participation, Sports Clubs, and Commercial Amateurism -- Supplying Sport for All -- Children -- Economics of the Sports Club -- Commercial Amateurism -- References -- Chapter 5: Professional Recruitment, Earnings, and Labour Relations -- Professional Sportspeople -- Recruitment -- Mobility -- Earnings -- Contracts -- Retirement -- Unionism and Collective Bargaining -- References -- Chapter 6: Sportswomen and Gender Economics -- Introduction -- Women as Fans and Participants -- Unequal Pay for (Un)equal Work? -- Are Female Sportspersons Different? -- References -- Chapter 7: Attendances and Audiences -- Attracting Paying Customers -- You Don't Have to Be There -- References -- Chapter 8: Seeking Profit or Utility: Objectives of Owners and Entrepreneurs -- Profit or Utility Revisited -- Ownership Motivation -- To Market, To Market: Sports Entrepreneurs -- References -- Chapter 9: Tournaments and Leagues -- Tournaments -- Leagues -- Open Leagues -- Closed Leagues -- Expansion and Contraction -- Searching for the Holy Grail.

Based on a vast range of club and association records, Pay Up and Play the Game, first published in 1988, presents a systematic economic analysis of the emergence of mass spectator sport during the years prior to World War I. It explores the tensions behind an increasingly commercialised activity that was nonetheless suffused with 'gentlemanly' values at many levels, and highlights the retreat of the latter as working-class consumption and participation became predominant, symbolised most dramatically by the celebrated victory of proletarian Blackburn Olympic over the Old Etonians in the FA Cup final of 1883. Wray Vamplew examines the linkages between sport, gambling, crime and spectator violence, and concludes that many supposedly 'recent' developments (notably football hooliganism) in fact have their origins in this, the 'Golden Age' of sport in Britain

The pre-1914 British golf club exhibited bonding social capital formation rather than bridging, seeking to exclude rather than include. Generally the course, but especially the clubhouse, were sites for males of similar social background to meet in a homosocial environment, one protected by cost and membership policies. Segmentation of clubs within the same geographical area allowed for further social differentiation between men from different occupational groups. Numerous golfing societies also brought men together with a common business interest. However, female and working-class players were accommodated without breaking down the male, middle-class dominance, by parent-club development of separate "ladies" sections and artisan clubs. Nevertheless, restrictions on when and where they could play served to segregate them from the full-fee paying male club members.

Golf was one of the fastest growing recreational sports in Britain before 1914. It created a market for professional golfers as shopkeepers, teachers, green‐keepers, and craftsmen. A database of 3,000 players was used to examine their social and economic experience at club and competitive level, and this experience was then compared to that of professionals in horseracing, cricket, and football. Golfers were the first sportsmen to permanently organize themselves with the establishment of the PGA in 1901, which provided welfare services and promoted tournaments, thus actively and uniquely assisting the development of the industry within which its members worked.

The Jockey Club, founded in 1752, has influenced racing for two centuries and controlled it by the consent of the racing industry since the 1870s. Despite legal challenges and public criticism of a self-perpetuating, private club governing a major British sport, it maintained its pre-eminent position until the 1990s. In 1993 it began to share power with the British Horseracing Board, though retaining the regulatory and disciplinary role. Failure to take full cognisance of human rights legislation, media publicity over corruption in the sport, and a conflict of interest via its ownership of racecourses led to proposals for a new, independent governing body.