My professor (Richard Batsell) told an anecdote about the Rockets and Moses Malone, which people may or may not be familiar with, so I figured I'd throw it out there. When Malone was a Rocket, some researchers (professors or students at Rice, perhaps? I didn't quite catch it) decided to do some conjoint analysis to try to determine the value of Moses Malone to the team. They went to games and had people put in order by preference a series of cards describing various combinations of team w-l record, Malone being on the team or not, and the price of the game. Running the statistics on the results, they found three segments of attendees: those who went for Malone, those who went for winning records, and those that preferred a mix of Malone, winning, and price. From there, they calculated the difference Moses Malone made to ticket sales for the Rockets and estimated that the Rockets made $2 million more because of his presence. So, they called the Rockets GM and told him they did this study on Moses' worth and they wanted to show it to him. The GM said, "I know he's worth a lot of money" and hung up on them. Miffed, they called Malone's agent and told him about the study. He arranged to meet with them for a half hour, but ended up talking to them for awhile and then taking them out to lunch. That offseason, Malone signed with Philly for $1.8 million.
The Rockets essentially traded Malone to the 76ers for Caldwell Jones and a #1 pick. That pick, along with the Rockets own crummy record, enabled them to draft Ralph Sampson and Rodney McCray. Along with a continued crummy record, they were able to draft Akeem Olajuwon and the rest is history....
wow this is the most interesting read I've ever seen on bbs. I'm not trying to imply on something so dont guess
