I am not a huge football fan, but I find the transfer fee system fascinating. Does one guy really make that much of a difference? How do you even price these fees? Do they use some sort of financial model to determine (i) effect on Win-Loss, (ii) effect on attendance revenues, (iii) effect on marketing revenues, (iv) other?
Like I said, fascinating.
I love how you're such a geek for sport
Simply put; there's no one model that you're suggesting. The length of the players contract will have an effect, how good the player is is another. But when it comes to superstar players and those that are 'brands' then yes, the price will be affected by their marketability. I remember when Beckham went to Madrid, it didn't matter how much he went for, it'd be recouped by shirt sales. The same with Ronaldo.
In football it's also a little bit more complicated, DB. There's no financial parity between clubs. The rich owners tend to have more power, such as Madrid and overpay to get their man. Part of this is surely due to the selling club's ability to higher the price knowing the other team can afford to pay. It can get quite political and stupid.
It's why I admire the American football system, the draft, salrary cap, and there's a lot more of players honouring their contracts.
