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December 8, 2009

8 Franchise Relocations That Didn’t Happen

In the spirit of my earlier post about markets that would be able to support major professional sports franchises, here is a list of eight franchise relocations that fell through. In several cases, we can all consider ourselves blessed that the proposed relocations collapsed (the Saskatoon Blues?). Then, there are the novel franchise swaps that in one case happened and in one case didn’t. In the one that didn’t, can you imagine what it might have been like if The Great One had been plying his trade in the renamed Maple Leaf Forum in Toronto rather than Los Angeles after being traded from Edmonton? Gretzky was already a huge hit with the Toronto media but had he been playing for the hometown team, it would have been rock star like – Beatles proportion.

Posted by Mark

December 8, 2009

NCAA Discusses Expanded Men’s Basketball Tourney with TV

The NCAA currently has an 11 year, $6 billion deal with CBS to broadcast the men’s basketball tournament. It has an escape clause that allows it to terminate the agreement after the 2010 Final Four. According to an article in the Sports Business Journal, the NCAA has begun the process of shopping the tournament to broadcast and cable networks to determine the interest level in the event it decides to open up bidding. It is also trying to gauge the impact of moving the tournament to cable.

Also under consideration and discussion with the television networks is an expansion of the tournament to 96 teams. While the NCAA is not committed to expansion, it is favored by coaches for obvious reasons. Expansion, under current NCAA thinking, would mean an additional week added to the tournament with the top 32 teams receiving byes.

Theoretically, an expanded tournament should result in a larger TV contract as there will be more games and more selling opportunities for broadcasters. Whether that would actually result in additional revenue to any one school would be determined by how many conference members reach the tournament in its expanded format. The power conferences are only likely to favor expansion if they believe that their relative position in the tournament will be maintained so that they will not suffer any revenue loss. The public is likely to favor an expanded tournament in general and particularly if the additional teams are weighted more heavily in favor of the mid-majors and lower level conferences to enhance the possible Cinderella effect.

Whether CBS wants to commit an additional week to the tournament remains to be seen. ESPN, which has made no secret of its desire to land the tournament, would presumably welcome an additional week, seeing little problem in selling the inventory and seeing it as an additional reason to pass along a higher subscription fee to the cable operators.

So folks, the next few months promise to be interesting in Indianapolis as the NCAA looks to make the deal that funds its operations while without an Executive Director. One would think the deal would wait for an Executive Director to be named but since there is a deadline for opting out of the CBS deal, it would depend on how long the NCAA takes to find Myles Brand’s replacement.

Posted by Mark

December 7, 2009

Where Should the Major Professional Leagues Expand and Which Markets Are Overextended?

The five major professional leagues, yes sports MLS is a major league – live with it, are currently located in most of the major metropolitan areas of the country with one glaring and obvious exception. The NFL has been working to remedy that exception for the last twenty years. Of coure, we’re talking about Los Angeles and while, more progress has been made on a stadium there in the last 12 months than in the previous ten years, the prospect of a franchise moving to LA does not look all that great at the moment, and since the NFL has no intention of expanding, it will take a franchise relocation for a team to play there.

In a recent study conducted by Portfolio.com/bizjournals Los Angeles was rated as the most attractive city in which to locate a professional sports franchise. Since the Southland already boasts multiple franchises in each of the four sports other than football, it’s the NFL that is so attractive.

From the same study, it was determined that the financial base necessary to support a team was highest in baseball, followed by football, and hockey and then basketball and finally soccer. The study used a metric it called available personal income to determine its rankings. Available personal income is determined by first calculating the total personal income of the metropolitan area (simply, the sum of all money earned by all residents in a year) and subtracting for that sum the minimum income base needed to support the particular franchise, which was determined by reference to ticket prices and team revenue.

Using that metric, Portfolio.com came to the conclusion that each of the five sports could do as follows:

1. MLB. Could only expand into two markets, both of which are existing markets: New Jersey and Southern California

2. NFL. With the popularity of the NFL, could expand almost at will. As noted, LA is almost a “no brainer” by their standards and Portfolio.com also suggests Montreal and Sacramento. I would add Toronto and Vancouver, although Toronto could be a relocation spot for Buffalo.

3. NBA. Expansion by four would be feasible and suggests Louisville, Las Vegas, Tidewater, Va and Seattle. There are arena issues in both Louisville and Seattle but this study didn’t deal with that factor at all.

4. NHL. The best American markets would be Hartford and Portland, Ore, with as many as three Canadian cities capable of supporting franchises: Quebec City, Hamilton and Winnipeg. At least and possibly as many as three or four of those cities is likely to get a relocated Sun Belt franchise in the next several years.

5. MLS. Given the relatively low costs of operating a MLS franchise, almost any decent size metropolitan area with an interest in soccer could support a franchise. The most likely locations for upcoming expansion are: Montreal, Rochester, St. Louis, Miami and Atlanta, all of whom failed to land a franchise in the most recent round of expansion, which saw MLS grant franchises to Philadelphia, Portland and Vancouver.

While I’m not so sure I would use the same metrics to determine the capacity in a particular market, I don’t particularly quibble with the results. To me, a better measure of a market’s capacity to support a professional sports franchise is to first look at its corporate community and see what public corporations have either headquarters or very significant regional or subsidiary headquarters in the market. Then, look at the private corporate community for similar sized private companies that have been large supporters of United Way or the local collegiate athletic department and may be reasonably thought to become sponsors or suite holders of a professional sports franchise. It is the suite sales and sponsorships that make or break a franchise more than it is the sale of tickets, although a significant amount of tickets do need to be sold. The personal income of the market is important but the corporate community is probably more important.

Posted by Mark

December 7, 2009

Cats Land New Years Day Bowl

Congratulations to Pat Fitzgerald and the Northwestern Wildcats for receiving the school’s first ever bid to the Outback Bowl and the Cats first bid to a New Years Day bowl since the 1997 Citrus Bowl. The Cats will be facing the Auburn Tigers who gave the number one Alabama Crimson Tide a scare in the Iron Bowl, a week ago.

NU finished the season 8-4, 5-3 in the Big Ten. The Wildcats handed Iowa — ranked No. 4 at the time — its first loss of the season Nov. 7, and they beat No. 16 Wisconsin 33-31 in their season finale. The Cats and Wisconsin finished tied for fourth in the conference.

Auburn led Bama until the final two minutes before losing 26-21. The War Eagles finished 7-5, 3-5 in the SEC and tied for fourth in the tough SEC West in coach Gene Chizik’s debut season. Auburn runs a spread offense, as does NU so it will be interesting to watch the two teams go at it. They certainly ought to be somewhat familiar with defending the spread.

So, congrats Cats and I look forward to spending New Years Day watching the purple mop up Ray Jay with Auburn, even if 11:00am is a little early for New Years Day.

Posted by Mark

December 7, 2009

Louisville Looks to Strong

The Louisville search for a new football coach appears to be rapidly narrowing to down to Florida Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong. Cardinal Athletic Director Tom Jurich spent several hours on Sunday talking with Strong and acknowledged: ”I was very, very impressed by him,” Jurich said. “He’s a quality guy.”

Even so, Jurich said that there was more work to do and that no offer was made. However, Jurich also noted that during the course of his research, he had received several recommendations on Strong, including one from former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy. ”Not a bad recommendation,” Jurich said.

It seems clear from Jurich’s comments that Strong is the leader in the clubhouse. Florida, however, will try to keep him and depending on how the dominos fall this week with other coaching vacancies, Strong may also wind up a candidate elsewhere, although it appears that he and Louisville are the only ones talking to each other now. Given the manner in which Jurich has conducted past coaching searches, Strong has to be his number one guy, and he must feel fairly confident about getting him. Jurich doesn’t reveal information about prospective hires until he is ready for it to go public.

Posted by Mark

December 4, 2009

The Yankees Take On A Blogger

Do you enjoy Major League Baseball? Are you enough of a fan that you want to start a blog and share your enthusiasm with your friends, neighbors and the friends you haven’t me yet that are out there in the ether somewhere? Well, if so, be very, very careful about the name you choose for your blog.

If you choose a name that includes the name of your favorite team, or prominently display the logo of that team somewhere on your site, as most fan blogs do, then Major League Baseball may send the lawyers after you. That is just what happened to a poor hapless Yankee blogger, Moshe Mandel,who put up a blog, together with some friends, to share his Yankees love. He wasn’t looking too cash in on this site. In fact, there were only a few sidebar ads to try and pay hosting fees; but the Yankees and MLB didn’t care. All they cared about was the purported infringement of their trademark rights. So, he receives a letter from one of the MLB lawyers demanding that he cease and desist from using the trademarks.

In response, Mandel has removed the Yankee logos from the site but it’s still called the Yankee Universe, which the Yankeees also claim. A copy of the cease and desist letter is here - I suggest reading the whole thing to get the complete flavor of what MLB is doing. Then, go to the Yankee Universe and read their response. If that doesen’t satisfy the Yankees, and if you believe everything that was in the lawyer’s letter, it won’t, a very interesting lawsuit is about to take place. Maintaing a trademark in something as broad as the Yankee Universe seems to me to be a difficult case, especially against a blogger who should receive some working media consideration. Stay tuned.

Posted by Mark

November 29, 2009

You Have Six Months to Fund Your Offshore Betting Account

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee wants to repeal the restrictions on online gambling and would like to legalize and then tax it since we all know the government could use all the revenue it could get. So, far, his efforts have not been fruitful but he has not had the weight of his position behind him chairmanship and a Democratic Congress behind him until now.

In 2006, Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, making it a crime for financial institutions to process transactions used to place bets online. In other words, no more funding your offshore account by wire transfer from your bank or by using your Visa or MasterCard. However, following intercession by Rep. Frank and others, the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve gave financial institutions six months to comply with the new rules. The delay will give Rep. Frank additional time he needs to attempt to repeal UIGEA and the related underlying prohibition on online gambling itself. The compliance extension will give legislators time to “undo this ill-advised law,” Frank said in a news release today.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on the effect that the legalization of online gaming could have on various existing US gambling operations and companies lining up for the new opportunities.

Posted by Mark

November 26, 2009

Could Dickie V Call the Final Four in 2011?

Thanksgiving Week traditionally brings the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day and a raft of college football rivalry games on the weekend, usually starting on Thanksgiving with Texas – Texas A&M, as it does this year. It also marks the first intense week of college basketball with preseason tournaments across the country and then some, from the Virgin Islands and Cancun to Hawai’i and Alaska. Yes, just because you can’t find the Great Alaska Shootout on ESPN doesn’t mean it isn’t being played or isn’t being televised. Check your local Fox Regional Network, it should be there in the late night listings.

The landscape of these preseason tournaments has changed in the last couple of years and if it nows seems as if they are all on ESPN, it’s because most of them are owned and operated by ESPN Regional, the WWLS, event marketing and syndication arm. SI’s Luke Winn has an excellent post up giving the history of how we got to where we are today and why it’s so hard for you to find the Alaska Shootout, what was always one of my favorite tournaments (I don’t sleep much so I’m a sucker for late night live sports).

However, the most interesting nugget he threw into the post came at the end. The NCAA may opt out of its 11-year, $6 billion contract with CBS to broadcast the men’s basketball tournament by July 31, 2010. Not coincidentally, the NCAA contract with ESPN for the preseason NIT expires on July 31, 2010. I’m sure that the folks in Bristol are already hard at work trying to determine how much it’s going to take to entice the NCAA to opt out of its CBS contract. Since I’m confident that even if the NCAA opts out, the contract would give CBS first shot at renewal, the new contract number is going to be considerably north of $6 billion. Should ESPN land March Madness to go along with the women’s tournament, not only would it be one more road to the WWLS’ goal of total domination of the sports world, but it would inflict upon the world, likelihood of Dickie V calling the Final Four, a prospect so depressing not even Digger’s ties could cheer me up.

Posted by Mark

November 23, 2009

MLS Expansion: Montreal 19th City? Becks Has Option for 20th Team

In interviews on the sidelines of the MLS Cup over the weekend, MLS Commissioner Don Garber confirmed what many felt was obvious following the last expansion round: Montreal is the likely destination for the 19th MLS city. Entry into Montreal isn’t likely until 2012, but Montreal must first get a stadium built.

Potential owner Joey Saputo, owner of the NHL Ottawa Senators, has a second division team playing in 15,000 seat Saputo Stadium. He and MLS are working on a stadium renovation and expansion deal with the city and province and assuming that is worked timely worked out, expect Montreal in 2012.

Beckham may also be joining in 2012 with the 20th team. His current contract grants him an option for a team upon his retirement from playing with the Galaxy, which,this weekend, he said that he plans to exercise. He is currently looking at potential cities and refused to name them. Montreal is not one of them however. Don’t be surprised if he gets involved in a second team in the New York area, which has been on Garber’s agenda for some time.

Posted by Mark

November 23, 2009

NFL Wakes Up; Adopts Saner Policy on Concussions

It almost took an act of Congress. The NFL has long ignored the implication of concussions suffered by its players. In addition, the current medical system of the league whereby it is the team doctor who certifies to the coach and GM that a player is ready to play is so filled with obvious conflicts of interest that it’s a wonder that the NFLPA ever agreed to it.

Fast forward to six weeks ago, a study sponsored by the NFL is released which finds that Alzheimer’s and other cognitive disorders occur in former NFL players at a rate of up to 19 times higher than normal for men ages 30-49. The NFL tried to discredit the study, as it has with most other studies implicating football, concussions and cognitive disorders later in life.
Following the release of the study and the NFL’s apparent refusal to change its policies in response to it, the House Judiciary Committee conducted a hearing on the issue last month.

Last night, Commissioner Roger Goodell indicated that the NFL has finally adopted the rational policy of requiring teams to use an independent neurologist for advice while treating players with brain injuries and hopefully for final medical certification on whether a player is ready to return to contact in practice and then to game action. While the full details of the
new policy are not yet public, Goodell was in full spin mode on NBC last night:

“As we learn more and more, we want to give players the best medical advice. This is a chance for us to expand that and bring more people into the circle to make sure we’re making the best decisions for our players in the long term.”

The shift in policy, laudatory as it is, will still have to define who is independent in order to minimize conflicts. The other problem which is harder for any policy to impact is the tendency of players to hide concussion from the team so they can keep playing in a league without guaranteed contracts. It will require keen observation from vigilant and highly trained medical and training staffs to monitor players, hoping to catch those who may be hiding concussions. Having independent neurologist available to whom players can report concussions and other brain related injuries without fear of the team immediately learning of them should go a long way towards easing the players fear of reporting injuries that currently exists.

Posted by Mark

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