Jonas Froch

Jonas Froch

PhD Student in Economics

Selected Media Appearances

Top sports business: the 59th Super Bowl is coming

February 08, 2025

I recently shared insights on the economic impact of the NFL Germany games. According to a study by The Sports Consultancy, the inaugural Munich game generated an estimated economic impact of €70.2 million, including €32.2 million in direct spending. Similarly, the Frankfurt games contributed around €110 million, with an additional €8 million in projected sales tax revenue. These figures suggest a notable boost to the local economies, especially in Frankfurt, which is less established as a major tourist hub.

Is an Olympics in Budapest a reality?

October 26, 2024

It was a pleasure to share my thoughts on Hungary potentially hosting the Olympics in 2036, a topic recently covered by Euronews. I explained that the costs typically far exceed the benefits. Common arguments about the short- and long-term advantages, such as job creation or increased tourism, can be easily refuted and thus fail to provide a direct economic rationale. While there may be some intangible value, such as boosting the host country’s image, it appears questionable whether this alone can justify such immense expenses. More likely, other factors, such as political considerations, drove the interest in hosting major sporting events in recent years.

161 Reading Online Sports Economics Seminar (ROSES)

October 11, 2024

I had the pleasure to present my working paper at ROSES. I embed the discussion on the intangible impact of a major league franchise in the local context of the departure of the Rams from St. Louis, delve into the relocation history, and unravel the local idiosyncratic factors underlying the role sports in general, and the Rams in particular play or played for the city of St. Louis. I incorporate my findings in a broader discussion on the public subsidization of stadium projects. While I find that the Rams generated substantial implicit amenity value in St. Louis, the magnitude effect is still not large enough to derive a compelling argument going beyond partial subsidies.

Die Fußball-EM wird die deutsche Wirtschaft nicht aus der Stagnation holen

June 18, 2024

I had the pleasure to be interviewed by Adam Magyar from Euronews. I discussed that while the direct, i.e. tangible economic impact of major sporting events, that is the impact in income and employment is vastly neglectable owing to substitution and crowding-out effects, the indirect, i.e. intangible effects could be substantially large as the experience of the “Sommermärchen”, the FIFA World Cup in 2006 in Germany has taught us. In particular increases in civic price and social cohesion and implictly enhance living quality may be observed during major sporting events.