Comparative Analysis of Concession Operations in the Context of Property Rights between Chinese and American Professional Basketball Events

Abstract

Concession operations in sports events, as a crucial part of the event franchise system, have become a pivotal source of revenue for event resource development. This paper, from the perspective of property rights, compares the concession models in professional basketball events between China and the United States through literature review, field research, and comparative analysis. The findings indicate that in terms of property rights structure, the property rights of professional sports events in China are attributed to individual sports associations and are under government jurisdiction; in contrast, the property rights of professional basketball events in the United States are collectively owned by the teams and are market-driven. Regarding the supply model, there is no significant difference between the concession supply of the CBA and the NBA; however, in practice, the CBA, due to the absence of a standardized concession system, exhibits low efficiency and a failure to become widespread. In terms of the consumption model, most CBA venues offer limited and sparse concession products and services, and the number of fans attending games in person is significantly lower than that of NBA events. Based on these observations, the following recommendations are proposed: firstly, to enhance the involvement of social capital by promoting cooperation between the government and social capital and encouraging social capital to actively participate in operations; secondly, to establish a standardized concession system by clarifying and confirming the interests of public and private sectors and by explicitly defining property rights and operating rights; and lastly, to improve and diversify products and services.