An Empirical Analysis of Athlete Compensation Decision-Making: Insights from the National Hockey League and National Lacrosse League

The purpose of this research is to improve our understanding of athlete compensation decision-making in professional team sport organizations, through an analysis of the perspectives of key decision-makers, namely general managers, owners, coaches, agents, and athletes. These stakeholder groups were chosen as they are directly involved in the decision-making process regarding athlete compensation. The issue that this study addresses is the relatively unknown effectiveness of athlete compensation decision-making. To further understand the effectiveness of athlete compensation decision-making, the study includes a set of nine expert interviews with key stakeholders involved in the decision-making process from both National Hockey League and National Lacrosse League organizations. The interviewees have current tenue or experience working in or with the professional team sport organizations. The interviews provide an improved understanding of the processes around, barriers to, dynamics of, and effectiveness of athlete compensation decision-making. The key contributions that this study provides includes more information symmetry for clubs and athletes to make better decisions, relevant factors organizations consider when making athlete compensation decisions, which will inspire future research, and key insights behind the interview process for future research.