Many participate in sporting activities and attend sporting events as a form of escape, to get away from the business world. However, it is getting more difficult to separate the sporting world and the business world, as the headline in the sports section of a paper/broadcast can be something ripped off the headline in the business section — takeovers, exchange of assets, labour deals. While one considers the business side of sports, it is quite amusing to see that there are a few things that are unique in the sports world.
While it is quite difficult to fathom, some of the most well-paid athletes are a little like seasonal workers — compared to most working people, there is a long period (a few months) where they do not "work" ; during the off-season, many athletes wonder whether they will find employment for the upcoming season (this wait sometimes extend to the period after a new season begins). Of course, there are some things top-tier athletes can do to their employers that most of us would never dare to do. For example, an athlete, while under contract, can withhold one's services until one's compensation demand is met. We would likely have to start browsing through "Help Wanting" postings if we were to try this manoeuvre on our own employers.
There are some business practices that may be unique to the sports world. For example, teams can purchase or sell its assets like an ordinary company, but the sporting world may be the only realm where one party trading people to another in exchange of other people or money is an acceptable practice (outside the sports world, this practice would likely be called slave trading or human trafficking). Nowhere else can a company tell one of its workers that he/she has to leave the company's premises and report to a (often direct) competitor ASAP. In some leagues, an athlete can be loaned from one team to another, providing that such athlete does not compete when the two teams involved in the deal are playing against each other. The only parallel in the business world may be commercial spies (except that these people are the most active when their true employer and the company they "work for" at the moment are directing competing).
The sporting world may be the only sector where there are specified periods where employers can recruit workers (athletes) from their direct competitors. While teams scout athletes they wish to recruit all the time, they cannot make any offer to these athletes to join outside these prescribed periods.
Many major sporting leagues conduct an annual draft, where an athlete cannot report to work for another team within the league unless the team that drafted the athlete is involved in a trade with another team. So an athlete has little choice in the short-term, even if the athlete is never offered a contract. While a new graduate may have limited options in choosing one's employer, it is rare to have such restrictive rules, where one is not allowed to seek alternative employment once a company decides to the candidate is short-listed, in the business world. (Interestingly, the draft only exists in sports where one league is much superior to the rest. Otherwise an athlete can choose to join a league with similar standard of play.)
Most of the above labour issues revolves around athletes, so what about coaches, managers, trainers, team doctors, etc.? As far as I know, they are more like workers outside the sports world — they can change employers (subject to compensation to the original employer), be hired or fired at any time.
(The above applies mostly to athletes participating in team sports only. Athletes participating in individual sports are more like contractors — one earns participation in events by past performance and referrals.)
In most business sectors, a company can register and begin attracting business at any time, not so in the sporting world. A team has to enter a competition at a time so allowed by the regulators (although this has more to do with maintaining the participatory fairness of the teams involved in the competition than restricting the freedom to compete).
A start-up company can ascend to the top rather quickly if it provides a product/service of high quality that is received well by the consumers and garners a large market share. In sports, however, it is highly difficult for a start-up squad to achieve such rocket-paced ascend.
In North America, when a team joins a top-tiered league, the rules are often set up so that it is difficult for the new entrant to be competitive in its inaugural period. For example, the initial roster of an expansion team is often full of athletes discarded by the existing teams, which often results in a period where achieving mediocrity may be considered success. While there are many sectors where existing business work to undermine a new entrant to the sector and to keep it from being competitive, it is quite rare to see such unity between supposed competitors outside the sports world.
In Europe (in football at least), meanwhile, the rules are set up so that a newly-formed team would have to garner multiple promotions before reaching the top division. One reason such rule is in place is that a new squad has to show that it is competitive and is worthy of a place higher up in the competitive ladder. As the team ascends the ladder, a team has to adhere to more strict regulations, the same way a company having to adhere to a set of regulations in order to become a publicly-listed company.
When a company wishes to relocate, there are often protests against such a move and pleas for the company to stay put, the same that occurs when a team announces its plans of relocation. However, most companies seeking relocation probably don't need approval from a majority of its competitors, a policy practised by some leagues.
While most sports fans (myself included) probably prefer sports to be just fun and games, the serious (business) side of professional sports can be quite amusing as well, as the ways of doing business in the sporting world can be quite a departure from those outside.
(A little confession: My knowledge of economics and the business world is rather thin. So forgive me for my simplification of the business world and my lack of understanding of the finer workings in transaction-making in sports or in business.)