Competitive balance in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), 1897–1999

The issue of competitive balance of sporting leagues and how it may be impacted by market conditions and labour market regulations has been studied extensively for elite level sporting competitions across the world. There has been much less study of minor leagues, although some papers explore divisional structures in European football (soccer) and feeder structures such as minor leagues in baseball in the US. The operation of leagues for Australian Rules football in Victoria provides a unique setting, where the subelite competition, the Victorian Football Association (VFA) which was the pre-1897 incumbent league operated as a competitor without a promotion/relegation setting of a divisional league or a feeder team minor leagues structure with the elite Victorian Football League (renamed the Australian Football League from 1990) which was the post-1897 rival league.