Taxes in Britain and Options Markets for Tickets

Two interesting posts on The Sports Economists today. The first points to a story pinting out that Britain’s high tax rate puts the Premier League at a disadvantage relative to its Continental neighbors, forcing English clubs to offer higher wages to players in order to remain competitive.

The firm said a player seeking net pay of £50,000 a week would need a £100,000-a-week gross salary in Britain compared with £66,000 in Spain.

Also, as we are all eagerly waiting to find out if we scored World Cup tickets, theres a post on an options market for tickets. Sadly, no options to purchase FIFA World Cup tickets or Major League Soccer playoff tickets (yet?). It’d be fascinating to see ticket sales broken down by team. That is, to give some insight into how confident fans will make it to the playoffs, semi-finals, final round.

After opening an account, members can buy options to purchase tickets to a number of specific championship sporting events – NFL postseason games, BCS bowl games, NCAA Men’s basketball Regional Finals and Final Four, etc. – at face value for a given team.