Sports Business News

Countdown to Super Bowl XLVI – a Giant Legacy

2012-02-01T00:03:00.002-05:00

The New York Giants (who actually play their home games in New Jersey) are currently owned and operated by John Mara and Steve Tisch who bought them in 1925 and 1991 for $500 and $150 mil, respectively. According to Forbes the 2011 New York Giants are worth more than $1.3 billion.

In 1925 the National Football League (just five years old) had yet to establish a franchise in New York City. NFL President, Joseph Carr, traveled to New York to offer boxing promoter Billy Gibson a franchise. Gibson, the former owner of the NFL's last New York franchise, the New York Brickley Giants, wasn’t interested.

He suggested Carr speak to his friend Tim Mara. While Mara did not know much about football, Mara's friend, Dr. Harry March, did. March, a former physician for the Canton Bulldogs of the pre-NFL "Ohio League" and the future author of the first professional football history book “Pro Football: Its Ups and Downs”, soon became the Mara’s first team secretary.

This backing led Mara to purchase the NFL franchise for New York at a cost of $500. Mara and March, even signed Jim Thorpe to play several half games in order to boost attendance. However many of the New York sports fans still followed college football and stayed away from the pro sport.

During the Giants' first season, attendance was so poor that Mara lost more than $40,000. To tap into New York's college football fans, Mara tried to sign ex-college football superstar Red Grange only to find that he already was a member of the Chicago Bears. However still looking for a way to cash in on Grange's popularity, Mara scheduled a game against the Bears to be played at the Polo Grounds (the home of the National League’s New York Giants). More than 73,000 packed the Polo Grounds for a total take of $143,000 for that one game against Grange and Bears. Mara had recovered all of his losses for the 1925 season.

Following the 1930 season, Mara transferred ownership of the team over to his two sons to insulate the team from creditors, and by 1946, he had given over complete control of the team to them. Jack, the older son, controlled the business aspects, while Wellington controlled the on-field operations. After their initial struggles the Giants financial status stabilized, and they led the league in attendance several times in the 1930s and 1940s.

Before the 1956 season, the Giants, who had previously been renting the Polo Grounds from baseball's Giants at a rate of $75,000 a year, began playing their home games at Yankee Stadium. The Giants run of championship game appearances in their late 1950s and early 1960s combined with their large market location translated into financial success. In 1958 they set a new home attendance record when 71,163 fans attended their November 8th game against Baltimore. And in 1959 they established their next four highest home game totals by drawing between 66 and 68 thousand fans for games versus the Eagles, Packers, Browns, and Steelers.

By the early 1960s, the Giants were receiving $175,000 a game under the NFL's television contract with CBS—four times as much as small-market Green Bay, which was one of the most successful teams of the era. However, in the league's new contract, the Maras convinced the other owners that it would be in the best interest of the NFL to share television revenue equally, a system still used, and is credited with strengthening the NFL.

It was the Maras of the early 1960’s who took the boldest leap in the evolution of the National Football League. They believed it was in the best interest of the 13 teams that comprised the NFL for the teams to pool their local television revenues and the money they were generating.

The Giants and professional football as a whole were helped financially by their contest against Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts in the 1958 NFL Championship game. The televised game on CBS became the first professional football game to go into overtime, and became recognized as one of the keys to the increasing the popularity of the NFL in the US.

The explosion in interest in pro football was evidenced in the Giants financials: in 1956 they had less than 8,000 season ticket holders and by 1963 that number had increased to over 50,000.

In the early 1970’s the Maras decided they wanted their own stadium – East Rutherford, New Jersey became that home in 1976. The stadium cost $78 million to build, and had a capacity of 80,242. The Giants led the league in home attendance in 1978, drawing 604,800 in their eight games.

In February 1991, after being diagnosed with cancer, Tim Mara sold his 50% interest in the team to Bob Tisch for a reported $80 million. The sale was actually worked out before the Super Bowl but not announced until afterwards, so as to avoid distracting the team. It marked the first time since their inception in 1925 that the Giants had not been wholly owned and controlled by the Mara family.

Tisch was technically the team's co-chief executive at first, however given his lack of football knowledge he chose to defer to Wellington Mara on football decisions in his initial seasons with the club. Although he later took a more active role in making decisions related to the football side of the team, in general, Tisch concentrated on the financial aspects, while Mara focused on the on-field product.

On October 25, 2005, Giants patriarch Wellington Mara died after a brief illness, at the age of 89. Mara had been involved with the Giants since he was nine years old, when he was a ball boy for the team. Mara was universally beloved by the players.

"The Giants’ organization cares about its players more than most teams in the NFL. This stems from the top. The Maras are family men and Wellington, especially, has sought to cultivate a family atmosphere in the team,” said Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson, who played during some of the team's losing years in the 1970s. “If any NFL owner deserves a championship, it is Mara."

According to former Giants coach Bill Parcells, Wellington made an effort to get to know each of his players. "The Giants are Wellington Mara’s whole life, they have been his whole life. He’s at the office every day, he’s at practice very day, he loves hanging around the locker room and getting to know the players."

Despite his strong religious convictions, he put aside his personal beliefs, and avoided preaching to players who were having problems.

"Nobody did more for me than Wellington Mara." Former Giant and a member of the Football hall of Fame Lawrence Taylor said. "He didn’t have to save me, he didn’t have to keep helping me to find help.... And he never lectured me. I could tell he disapproved but he never lectured me."

On November 15, 2005, just twenty days after Mara's death, Tisch died at the age of 79. He was diagnosed in 2004 with inoperable brain cancer. Tisch was a philanthropist all his life and donated considerable sums of money to charitable causes. After his diagnosis, he donated money to institutions aimed towards the research of drugs and treatments to control brain tumors.

In 2010, the New Meadowlands Stadium (not known as MetLife Field) opened, replacing Giants Stadium. The new stadium is a 50/50 partnership between the Giants and Jets, and while the stadium is owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority on paper, the two teams jointly built the stadium using private funds, and administer it jointly through New Meadowlands Stadium Corporation. MetLife Field was built at a cost of $1.2 billion and will host Super Bowl XLVIII in February 2104

The Giants had previously planned a $300-million renovation to the Meadowlands, before deciding in favor of the new stadium which was originally estimated to cost approximately $600 million, before rising to an estimated cost of $1.2 billion.

One advantage gained by owning the stadium is that the teams saved considerable money in tax payments, leasing the land from the state at a cost of $6.3 million per year. The state paid for all utilities, including the $30 million needed to install them. Both teams received $150 million loans from the NFL to pay for construction of the stadium.

The Giants today are owned by John K. Mara and Steve Tisch—the sons of Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch.

John Mara is in his 21st season with the Giants. The franchise’s president and chief executive officer, he assumed the team presidency upon the passing of his father in 2005. John Mara is the oldest of Wellington Mara’s 11 children. He had been the team’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Mara is a third generation owner of the Giants. Among NFL franchises, only the Chicago Bears (controlled by the Halas-McCaskey family since 1921) have been in the hands of one family longer than the Giants.

Steve Tisch has the distinction of being the only person on the planet with both an Academy Award and a Super Bowl ring. He won the former as one of the producers of “Forrest Gump,” which was awarded the Oscar for Best Picture of 1994, and the latter as Chairman of the Giants, who defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

The New York Giants have won four NFL championships and two Super Bowls. Sunday in Indianapolis Mara and Tisch hope to continue what has become a family tradition – winning championships.

Sources used in this Insider Report: New York Giants history and Wikipedia.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Countdown to Super Bowl XLVI – Robert Kraft, a true Patriot

2012-01-31T00:02:00.002-05:00

In the simplest terms Robert Kraft is the best owner in professional sports today. Robert Kraft doesn’t have the profile of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, or the late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner or Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban but in the last decade the New England Patriots have become the example not only sports organizations should follow but most businesses might emulate if they want to enjoy the success both on and off the field the New England Patriots have experienced with Robert Kraft at the helm.

Robert Kraft announced his intention to bring New England a championship the day he bought the team in 1994. In the 17 years since, he has made good on that pledge, as the Patriots have won an unrivaled three Super Bowls, five conference championships and nine division titles.

Back in 1994, Kraft's talk of the Patriots winning championships was likely interpreted as delusions of grandeur from a man who had just invested an unprecedented amount of money to purchase a floundering franchise. In the four seasons immediately preceding Kraft's acquisition (1990-93), the Patriots compiled an NFL-worst 14-50 (.219) overall record, which included a 1-15 finish in 1990 and a 2-14 record in 1992. They were not only last in the standings; they were also last in attendance and in overall revenue.

It didn't take long for Kraft's vision to come into focus. His personal investment in the team restored the faith of Patriots fans and rejuvenated interest throughout New England. The year he bought the team, season ticket sales eclipsed 40,000 for the first time in franchise history. By the start of his first season, every game was sold out, a feat that had not been accomplished in the franchise's previous 34 seasons. The achievement ensured that local broadcast blackouts would be lifted and every Patriots game, home and away, would be televised throughout New England for the first time in team history.

That year, the Patriots won their final seven regular season games to qualify for the postseason, ending an eight year playoff drought. By his fifth anniversary as owner, the Patriots had already established themselves as perennial playoff contenders, qualifying for the postseason four times, twice as division champions. In 1996 they won the AFC Championship to represent the conference in Super Bowl XXXI against the Packers.

The transformation of the Patriots under Kraft's leadership constitutes one of the greatest long-term, worst-to first revivals in sports history. In 2005, Forbes magazine valued the Patriots franchise at one billion dollars. The Patriots were just the fourth sports franchise in history to eclipse that financial plateau. That year, Forbes also named the Patriots "The Best Team in Sports."

In their most recent NFL franchise valuation Forbes believes the Patriots are now valued at $1.40 billion, a 40 percent increase in six years.

In Kraft's first 18 seasons in the NFL (1994-2007), no other NFL team won more than the New England Patriots.

Few owners in the history of professional sports have experienced the level of success enjoyed by the Kraft family over the last decade. In that time, the Patriots have won three Super Bowls, four conference championships and a franchise-record six consecutive division titles. In 2003 and 2004, the Patriots compiled back-to-back 17-2 seasons highlighted by consecutive Super Bowl championships. The 34 total victories in a two-year span set an 85-year NFL record.

During that time, the Patriots also claimed pro football's consecutive-win records with the longest win streaks in the postseason (10), regular season (18) and with an overall 21-game win streak. Along the way, the Patriots also won 21 consecutive games at Gillette Stadium, the longest home win streak in franchise history.

Kraft's impact on the Patriots was immediate and since 1994, has played an integral role on many of the NFL's most prominent league committees. As a member of the broadcast committee, he played a principal role in negotiating the two most lucrative broadcasting contracts in the history of sports. He was also instrumental in putting together a deal that made New England- headquartered Reebok International, Ltd. the official and exclusive apparel manufacturer for the NFL, helping to create a new model for the sports license apparel industry.

Kraft began his business career with the Rand-Whitney Group, Inc. of Worcester, Mass., a company that converted paper into packaging for various industries. He later acquired the company. In 1972, he founded International Forest Products, a trader of paper commodities that now does business annually in more than 80 countries. Together, Rand-Whitney and International Forest Products comprise one of the largest privately-owned and fully integrated paper and packaging companies in the United States.

Kraft founded The Kraft Group to serve as the holding company for the family's varied business interests, which are concentrated in five specific areas: the distribution of forest products, paper and packaging manufacturing, sports and entertainment, real estate development and private equity investing.

From 2000 to 2002, The Kraft Group's real estate development team oversaw the on-time and on-budget construction of Gillette Stadium, a privately-financed $325 million state-of-the-art stadium that the Patriots and their fans are proud to call home. The financial commitment from Kraft provided a solid foundation on which to build for the first time in the franchise's nomadic history.

Moving from Foxboro Stadium into the majestic Gillette Stadium marked another worst-to-first transformation for the Krafts, who now operate New England 's premier entertainment venue. After opening Gillette Stadium, Kraft was recognized as the Sports Executive of the Year and Sports Industrialist of the Year by two national publications.

The construction of Gillette Stadium was the first project of The Kraft Group's development team. Their current project, known as Patriot Place, is a 1.3 million square foot mixed-use lifestyle center and entertainment complex. The first phase of the project was completed in 2007 and features New England's first outdoor superstore Bass Pro Shops, as well as other large retailers.

The next phase of the project included a lifestyle center that features a 14- screen Cinema de Lux movie theater, a state-of-the-art sports medicine and healthcare facility, a four-star hotel, a team pro shop and Patriots Hall of Fame as well as restaurants, retail shops and office space.

Throughout Kraft's professional career, many of his biggest risks have yielded the greatest rewards. That was true throughout his pursuit of Patriots ownership, beginning in 1985 when he first purchased an option on the land surrounding the old stadium. It was a large investment for an underdeveloped parcel of land, but proved to be an important first step in a long process toward owning the Patriots.

In 1988, he took another step by purchasing the stadium out of bankruptcy court. It was another large investment, this time to purchase an antiquated stadium that was eventually demolished. But, with a binding lease through 2001, the acquisition of the old stadium proved invaluable in his quest to own the team.

When his opportunity came in January of 1994, Kraft faced a difficult business dilemma. He had to decide between committing over $172 million of family resources to purchase the Patriots or accept a lucrative $75 million buyout offer to void the final years of the team's stadium lease and allow the team to move out of New England. On Jan. 21, 1994, Kraft passed on the buyout offer, choosing instead to make an 11th-hour bid to buy the team.

On Feb. 26, 1994, a day after Kraft earned league approval; season tickets for the 1994 season went on sale and Patriots fans showed their support for Kraft's decision in record numbers. By the end of the first business day, amidst a winter nor'easter, 5,958 season ticket orders were processed, shattering the previous single-day sales record of 979. The show of support validated Kraft's decision to buy the team and gave him the confidence to focus on another risky, long-term project: the construction of Gillette Stadium.

In 2000, Kraft took another risk when he surrendered a first-round draft choice to a division rival to acquire the services of Head Coach Bill Belichick from the New York Jets. The decision was heavily criticized at the time, but like so many of Kraft's decisions along the way, the risk was answered with great reward. Since then, the Patriots have recorded more wins and more championships than any other team in the NFL and Belichick became the first head coach in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in four seasons.

For Kraft, a lifelong football fan, each decision represented a tremendous risk, but they were risks he was willing to take in pursuit of his goal of bringing New England a championship.

In 2001, the Patriots made their final season in Foxboro Stadium a memorable one. After a 1-3 start, the Patriots won 10 of their last 11 regular season games to claim another division title. In the final game at the 31-year-old stadium, the Patriots hosted the Oakland Raiders in a divisional playoff game under a heavy snowfall that created a heavenly ambience. The Patriots' 16-13 overtime victory over the Raiders is described by many as one of the most memorable games in NFL history. The victory propelled the Patriots through one of the greatest playoff runs in NFL history, as they advanced to score dramatic victories over two heavily favored opponents in championship games, including a 24-17 victory over the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh and a 20-17 victory over the St. Louis Rams on the final play of Super Bowl XXXVI.

In 2002, the Kraft family enjoyed a memorable season opener when they celebrated the grand opening of Gillette Stadium with the unveiling of New England's first Super Bowl championship banner on Monday Night Football. That night, the Patriots defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 30-14, before the then largest home crowd in franchise history. Since the stadium’s opening, the Patriots are 36-9 at Gillette Stadium and have won 32 of their last 38 regular and postseason home games.

In 2003, the Kraft family enjoyed a historic 10th anniversary season that culminated with a second championship celebration just two seasons after winning the first title in team history. After suffering a season-opening loss, the Patriots rebounded to win 17 of their next 18 games and enjoyed a 15-game season-ending win streak. Only the 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins enjoyed a longer single-season win streak.

In 2004, the Patriots became just the second team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in a four-year span and the seventh club to win consecutive Super Bowl championships.

In 2006, the Patriots extended their franchise record by winning their fourth consecutive division championship, but fell short of their quest of another conference title when they relinquished their lead to the Colts in the final minute of the AFC Championship game in Indianapolis.

The 2007 season….undefeated until their stunning Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII. The Patriots enjoyed successful regular seasons in 2008, 2009 and 2010 but failed in the playoffs. The Patriots are back in the Super Bowl, in large part because of the leadership Robert Kraft brings to the franchise. Kraft doesn’t micromanage the team; he lets Bill Belichick manage the complete day-to-day affairs of the football team. Kraft focuses his time on the business side of the Patriots and the evolution of Patriots Place – making money.

A native of Brookline , Mass. , Kraft attended local public schools before entering Columbia University on an academic scholarship. Upon graduation, he received a fellowship to attend Harvard Business School , where he earned a master's degree in business administration.

Kraft first became a fan of the Boston Patriots in their AFL days during the early 1960s. He attended games at each of the team's Boston venues: Boston University Field, Fenway Park, Boston College Alumni Stadium and Harvard Stadium. When the team moved to Foxborough in 1971, he invested in season tickets for his family. Kraft credits the memories and experiences shared with his family and other Patriots fans at Foxboro Stadium for his passionate pursuit of ownership of the franchise.

And when it comes to the image of his players an example Kraft set for the Patriots in 1996 stands as a testament to the man. Whenever a member of the Patriots is linked to off-field issues the media loves to recall how longtime Patriots owner Robert Kraft handled the Patriots selection of Christen Peter in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL draft.

Kraft took a stand against employing players with criminal records. In the fifth round of the 1996 NFL draft, the Patriots picked Nebraska defensive lineman Christian Peter, who had been arrested eight times, and convicted four times, during college for a variety of offenses, including the assault of a former Miss Nebraska and the rape of another woman. When Kraft’s wife, the late Myra Kraft alerted her husband of Peter’s past, Kraft cut the player before he was even offered a contract. "We concluded this behavior is incompatible with our organization's standards of acceptable conduct" said Kraft. While he received numerous letters of support from high school and college coaches, he was not praised by the NFL. Peter’s had a seven-year NFL career.

Robert Kraft – a championship owner going for Super Bowl number four Sunday in Indianapolis.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Countdown to Super Bowl XLVI – a look back

2012-01-30T08:52:00.002-05:00

The first Super Bowl held in January 1967 at the Los Angeles Coliseum didn’t sell out. Tickets for the game were priced at $5 and $10 each. Super Bowl XLVI is set for Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Field Sunday. The face value for tickets -- $1,000. Most of the 75,000 who will consider themselves blessed to be at the game will be paying more than $2,000 for the “privilege” of seeing the New England Patriots meet the New York Giants. More than 100 million people will watch the game on NBC, making it the most watched television program of the year. The evolution of the Super Bowl, like the NFL, what billion dollar dreams are made of.

Born in 1960 the American Football League proved to be much more of a competitive league than National Football League owners imagined forcing a merger, at the start of the 1970 season. The two leagues agreed to hold a championship game between the two leagues after the 1966, 1967 and 1968 seasons. The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl I and II.

On his flight from Los Angeles to New York City the day after Super Bowl I, the late NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle turned to his cohorts, suggested in no uncertain terms Super Bowl I would be the last Super Bowl that would not be sold out.

Super Bowl II and III were held at Miami’s Orange Bowl (which hosted five Super Bowl games). Working closely with the automotive industry the NFL created a series of sweepstakes opportunities. The sales driven incentives offered local dealerships a chance to “win a week in Miami”, get a little golfing in and see a football game. Those sweepstakes opportunities became the hallmark of the Super Bowl’s success. The NFL offered Super Bowl ticket packages to their sponsors, including those packages in the NFL advertising packages companies purchased from the NFL.

Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers dominated Super Bowl I and II. With the NFL, AFL merger still off in the distance the Baltimore Colts were a 21 point favorite over New York Jets at Super Bowl III. Jets quarterback Joe Namath guaranteed the Jets would win the game, and backed up that guarantee leading the Jets to a stunning 16-7 win over the Colts. The first famous Super Bowl commercial was for Noxzema; Namath was a part of their 1973 Super Bowl commercial.

A year later in the final NFL-AFL Championship game the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs defeated the NFL's Minnesota Vikings 23–7 in Super Bowl IV in New Orleans.

The NFL realigned into two conferences after Super Bowl IV; the former AFL teams plus three NFL teams (the Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Cleveland Browns) became the American Football Conference (AFC), while the remaining NFL clubs formed the National Football Conference (NFC). The champions of the two conferences would play each other in the Super Bowl.

Lamar Hunt, owner of the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs, first used the term "Super Bowl" to refer to this game in the merger meetings. Hunt would later say the name was likely in his head because his children had been playing with a Super Ball toy (a vintage example of the ball is on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio). In a July 25, 1966, letter to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, Hunt wrote, "I have kiddingly called it the 'Super Bowl,' which obviously can be improved upon." Although the leagues' owners decided on the name "AFL-NFL Championship Game," the media immediately picked up on Hunt's "Super Bowl" name, which would become official beginning with the third annual game.

NBC has sold 58 30 second spots for Sunday’s game at a cost of $3.5 million per spot, $100,000 per second, or $203 million in advertising revenue from the game.

A 30 second spot at Super Bowl I cost $37,500. At Super Bowl X a 30 second spot cost $110,000. Super Bowl XX $525,000. Finally at Super Bowl XXX a 30 second spot surpassed $1 million, $1.15 million for a 30 second spot at the 1995 game. The 1999 Super Bowl saw 30 spots selling for $1.6 million. A year later at the 2000 game the average spot sold for $1.1 million. A year later the infamous .com Super Bowl saw the average 30 second spot sell for $2.1 million. 19 .com’s (most spending their entire advertising budgets on the Super Bowl) promoted their businesses on the Super Bowl broadcast, many going bankrupt as a result.

Close to 100 million people watch the Super Bowl, making the Super Bowl annually the most watched television program. The Super Bowl is the one event that families gather together to watch.

The Super Bowl has evolved from a football game (a championship game) to an unofficial American holiday. The Super Bowl is much more than a football game – it’s an American institution and its very big business.

Roger Goodell – the man for the NFL

2012-01-26T00:02:00.002-05:00

The National Football League announced NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has signed a contract extension through the 2018 season. The announcement was made by Atlanta Falcons Owner and Chairman Arthur M. Blank, who serves as chairman of the NFL Compensation Committee.

NFL clubs unanimously approved a resolution at a December 14 league meeting in Dallas that said, “The commissioner has performed his duties in an exemplary fashion since his election in 2006 and the membership has determined that the interests of the NFL would be best served by a continuation of the commissioner’s employment beyond the terms of his current employment contract.”

The resolution authorized the Compensation Committee to complete negotiations on a new contract, the third of Goodell’s tenure as commissioner. His original five-year contract was extended in 2009. The new contract continues until March 31, 2019.

Other members of the Compensation Committee are Tom Benson (New Orleans), Pat Bowlen (Denver), Robert Kraft (New England), Jerry Richardson (Carolina), and Steve Ross (Miami).

“I speak on behalf of 32 NFL club owners in saying we are fortunate to have Roger Goodell as our commissioner,” Blank said. “Since becoming commissioner in 2006, the NFL – already the leader in professional sports – has gotten even stronger. As evidenced by this contract extension, we have great confidence in Roger’s vision and leadership of the NFL. Our clubs, players and fans could not ask for a better CEO.”

On September 26, 2007 Business Week called Goodell the most powerful man in sports. He was chosen over four finalists for the position, winning a close vote on the fifth ballot before being unanimously approved by acclamation of the owners. He officially began his tenure on September 1, 2006, just prior to the beginning of the 2006 NFL season. Goodell is the eighth chief executive in the NFL’s 91-year history.

As the NFL continues to grow in popularity, Commissioner Goodell has focused his priorities on strengthening the game and all 32 NFL franchises through innovation and communication.

He has addressed a wide range of issues, including player health and safety, the medical needs of retired players, personal conduct, revenue sharing, stadium construction, media innovation, and international development.

In addition to securing a landmark 10-year Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association, the longest in the history of professional sports, Commissioner Goodell created the first NFL Player Advisory Council, strengthened the league’s anti-steroids policy, launched innovative new television contracts and a new series of international regular-season games, and improved the NFL’s news media access policies to better serve fan interest.

Along with the collective bargaining agreement, one of Goodell’s landmark legacies will be the NFL Conduct Code. On April 10, 2007 Goodell announced the National Football League would implement a code of conduct for its players (in 2010 the code of conduct was extended to all NFL employees).

"It is important that the NFL be represented consistently by outstanding people as well as great football players, coaches, and staff," Commissioner Goodell said at the time. "We hold ourselves to higher standards of responsible conduct because of what it means to be part of the National Football League. We have long had policies and programs designed to encourage responsible behavior, and this policy is a further step in ensuring that everyone who is part of the NFL meets that standard. We will continue to review the policy and modify it as warranted."

“We must protect the integrity of the NFL," Commissioner Goodell said in the April 2007 release. "The highest standards of conduct must be met by everyone in the NFL because it is a privilege to represent the NFL, not a right. These players, and all members of our league, have to make the right choices and decisions in their conduct on a consistent basis."

In a letter to each player, Commissioner Goodell wrote: "Your conduct has brought embarrassment and ridicule upon yourself, your club, and the NFL, and has damaged the reputation of players throughout the league. You have put in jeopardy an otherwise promising NFL career, and have risked both your own safety and the safety of others through your off-field actions. In each of these respects, you have engaged in conduct detrimental to the NFL and failed to live up to the standards expected of NFL players. Taken as a whole, this conduct warrants significant sanction."

The first players to feel the teeth of the new policy were Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones and Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry, college teammates at West Virginia whose first two years in the NFL were marred by arrests. Henry died a tragic death on December 17, 2009 succumbing to injuries suffered from a car accident.

The third player suspended was Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson. On August 24, 2007, Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback Michael Vick filed a plea agreement and pleaded guilty in his involvement in illegal dog fighting and euthanization, and was suspended indefinitely without pay; his reinstatement occurred in time for him to play in the 2009-2010 season.

Prior to being named commissioner, Goodell managed an array of football and business operations during a 24-year career in the NFL.

Goodell, 52, joined the NFL in 1982 as an administrative intern in the league office in New York. After spending the 1983 season as an intern with the New York Jets, Goodell returned to the league office in 1984 as an assistant in the public relations department. In 1987, he was appointed assistant to the president of the American Football Conference, Lamar Hunt, by then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle.

“It is a privilege for me to serve the NFL,” Goodell said. “It is the only place I have ever wanted to work. I am grateful for the contributions and counsel of NFL owners in managing our league, the talented staff that supports us, and the players and coaches that perform their magic on the field. It is truly a team effort. I am eagerly looking ahead to the challenge of building on our momentum and doing all we can to improve our game for the fans and everyone that is part of our league.”

In addition to nurturing the NFL to new heights of fan popularity, Goodell has led the way in creating new playing rules, policies, and programs to make the game better and safer. This includes $100 million committed to medical research during the 10-year term of the new CBA. Goodell’s leadership on health and safety has had a significant positive impact on all levels of football and other sports.

Under Paul Tagliabue, Goodell served in various senior executive roles and was appointed executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2001.

As chief operating officer, Goodell was responsible for the league’s football operations and officiating departments in addition to supervising all league business functions.

Goodell was instrumental in many league accomplishments prior to becoming commissioner, including expansion, realignment, and stadium development. He directed the dramatic transformation and growth of the NFL’s business units, played a lead role in the launch of the NFL Network, and was a key member of the negotiating team that produced the NFL’s television agreements.

In football operations, he helped lead the 1994 initiative for rules changes to improve offensive production, initiated the creation of a senior football operations position in the league office, oversaw the administration of the instant replay system, and restructured the officiating department.

One of the more interesting activities Goodell conducts as commissioner are the series of events he holds with NFL fans when he travels to NFL games in different cities. His counterparts in the NBA (David Stern), MLB (Bud Selig) and NHL (Gary Bettman) rarely hold ‘town hall’ meetings allowing fans of their sport to have direct access to the person entrusted with management of their sports league.

Throughout the negotiations with NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, Goodell acted in what he believed were the best interests of the NFL owners he represented. Both Goodell and Smith were professional and never ‘threatened’ each other with tough talk, unlike David Stern, Billy Hunter and their NBA labor talks.

The NFL Conduct Code, the CBA, the billion dollar TV agreements, the NFL is the sports industries gold standard. In large part the NFL is one of the best businesses in the world today and that is in large part because of the leadership Roger Goodell has brought to the National Football League.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Tim Thomas – what were you thinking

2012-01-25T08:36:00.002-05:00

Professional athletes fortunate to win a championship are offered the chance to visit The White House and enjoy the opportunity to meet the United Sates President. The Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins had that opportunity Monday, however American-born Tim Thomas embarrassed the National Hockey League, the Boston Bruins organization and his teammates Monday by first deciding to not attend the White House ceremony and by releasing a political manifesto right out of the American conservative playbook.

"I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People.

“This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.

“Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.

“This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic. TT"

It’s Tim Thomas’ right to express his opinion. A professional athlete has the responsibility to represent the organization whose uniform he or she wears. Thomas is in the third year of a four year $20 million contract.

"Everybody has their own opinions and political beliefs and he chose not to join us," Bruins team president Cam Neely said. "We certainly would have liked to have him come and join us, but that's his choice. Obviously, it's not a choice that most of the guys, all the guys came except for Tim. That's his decision and his choice."

The Bruins and the NHL didn’t take the bait Thomas offered them. They choose to take the higher road, suggesting that Tim Thomas had the right to his ‘freedom of speech’. What Tim Thomas doesn’t understand, or appreciate, is that with freedom of speech comes a responsibility that once you say something controversial you can expect reaction, and not the type of reaction the Bruins offered.

“My advice to him is to stick to hockey,” said Phil Johnston, a top state Democrat who served under President Clinton. “I think Bruins players are taken seriously for their hockey, not for their politics.”

A native of Flint, Mich., Thomas wears a helmet adorned with the patriotic slogan “Don’t Tread on Me” and is a fan of conservative pundit Glenn Beck, formerly of Fox News.

The puck-stopper’s high-profile snub went viral as “Tim Thomas” became a trending topic on Twitter and Democrats hammered him, including lefty pundit Keith Olbermann, who fired off a tweet calling the goalie a “fool.”

Massachusetts Democratic Party spokesman Kevin Franck told the Boston Herald: “I think anyone who really cares about the lives, liberty and happiness of the American people wouldn’t miss an opportunity to shake the hand of the man who got bin Laden.”

Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe called the Bruins' goalie self-centred and immature:

"Yesterday was not about politics and government until Thomas made it about politics and government. The day, long set on the calendar, was a day when the Boston Bruins were asked to visit Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate what they did as a team last season. It was their day in the national spotlight, until Thomas didn’t show, and then the focal point became, much the way it would be in a hockey game, on the guy who was no longer standing in goal.

Shabby. Immature. Unprofessional. Self-centered. Bush league. Need I go on? All that and more applies to what Thomas did, on a day when Cup teammates Mark Recchi (now retired), Shane Hnidy (a radio guy these days in Winnipeg), and Tomas Kaberle (a member of some Original Six team in Canada), all gladly joined the red-white-blue-black-and-gold hugfest at the White House."

Greg Wyshynski of the Yahoo blog Puck Daddy applauded Thomas for taking a stand.

"My take: Good on Thomas.

“Good on Thomas for using this moment — where a professional sports team participates in what's both an honor for its accomplishments and a political photo opportunity — to make a political statement of his own.

“It's the moment when Thomas will no doubt lose a lot of supporters, for sure, when they realize an athlete they celebrate has stark political differences than they have. He's not the first nor the last athlete to choose not to visit the White House.

“It's a moment in which a professional athlete uses his fame, his influence for something he believes in, and does something that won't be popular among fans or media."

The Washington Post’s Matt Brooks offered an interesting look at some “events” were athletes have used sports as a platform for their political opinions:

1967 - Muhammad Ali refuses enlistment in the United States Army after being drafted for the Vietnam War. Protesting: The Vietnam War.

1968 - American track and field stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos perform the ‘Black Power salute’ during the “Star-Spangled Banner” following their medal-winning sprints at the Mexico City Olympics. Protesting: The need for equality and black rights in the U.S.

1980 - The United States and 62 other countries boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Protesting: the Soviet Union’s Christmas Day invasion of Afghanistan.

1996 - Denver Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf refuses to stand for the National Anthem before NBA games. Protesting: U.S. foreign policy and ‘tyranny’ which conflicted with his new Islamic beliefs. (Abdul-Rauf was suspended by the NBA for one game for his action.)

2004 - Blue Jays outfielder Carlos Delgado refuses to stand for “God Bless America” during 7th inning stretch. Protesting: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2010 - The Phoenix Suns sport “Los Suns” jerseys on Cinco De Mayo for a playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs. Protesting: Arizona’s new immigration law targeting illegal immigrants.

There is a time and a place for protest. Tim Thomas’s political statement was where he stepped over the line. While you shouldn’t be forced to give up your freedom of speech when you’re a professional athlete you need to be sensitive as to how your words might impact others.

The National Hockey League fights for recognition every day. Later this week the NHL’s best will be in Ottawa for the league’s annual All-Star Weekend. Tim Thomas was part of another event that makes hockey great as a member of the 2010 United States Olympic Hockey team that won the silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics.

Tim Thomas is arguably the best at his practice between the pipes, but he was anything but hockey’s best when he released his “Tea Party” laced statement Monday night.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

The Tremendous Life and Tragic Times of Joe Paterno

2012-01-24T08:37:00.001-05:00

On November 9, 2011 Penn State University’s Board of Trustees did what they believed was in the best interests of Penn State University. They fired the man who built Penn State University; they fired Joe Paterno. The full measure of any man shouldn’t be how he lived the last 78 days of his life. At the same time any look at the legacy Joe Paterno created has to include what took place in the days that followed Jerry Sandusky’s indictment on more than 50 charges related to child sex abuse allegations, charges that included an alleged event that took place in the Penn State football locker room in 2002.

On Saturday, October 29, Penn State beat Illinois 10-7 giving Paterno his 409th win, surpassing Eddie Robinson's record for most wins by a college football coach. “JoePa” (as he was affectionately called) was presented with a plaque by then Penn State President Graham Spanier and Atheltic Director Tim Curley. The plaque read "Joe Paterno. Educator of Men. Winningest Coach. Division One Football." Six short days later, life changed forever for Paterno, Spanier, Curley and many more when former Penn State Assistant Football Coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted.

Sandusky’s arraignment created an international firestorm in the days and weeks that followed resulting in Paterno, Spanier and Curley’s firing. While the anger directed at Penn State has subsided, the original issue remains – why did Penn State and the school’s athletic department seemingly cover-up allegations Sandusky had raped young boys in the Penn State football locker room first in 1998 and again in 2002?

Pennsylvania Attorney General has made it clear when the indictments were announced on November 4; legally Joe Paterno had followed the law in dealing with what he was first told by then-graduate football assistant coach Mike McQueary on a Saturday morning in 2002. Paterno told Jenkins he had “no inkling” that Sandusky might be a sexual deviant.

While Paterno and Sandusky had worked together for more than 30 years, the two men were not friends socially and their relationship was professional in nature, according to Paterno. By 2002, the two men had little, if any, contact.

Joe Paterno’s football program was generating $50 million in revenue for Penn State University in 2002, making Paterno the most powerful man at Penn State. Paterno suggestion to his superiors that “we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?’” is as unacceptable today as it was when Mike McQueary first told Paterno about the horrific scene had he witnessed.

Paterno has three sons, two daughters and 17 grandchildren. As unimaginable a scene as Mike McQueary had painted for Paterno, he had to know what happened was wrong and he had to take charge. He had to know what he was being told would forever taint Penn State football, Penn State University and as the de facto leader of the Penn State community, Paterno had to know what to do.

The above statements are true but at the same time the greatness of Joe Paterno, his legacy in large part includes the millions of dollars he raised for Penn State and more importantly the profile he created for Penn State that allowed Penn State to become one of America’s leading universities.

Penn State’s Board of Trustees, the same Board of Trustees who fired Paterno on November 9 released the following statement following Paterno’s death: “We grieve for the loss of Joe Paterno, a great man who made us a greater university. His dedication to ensuring his players were successful both on the field and in life is legendary and his commitment to education is unmatched in college football. His life, work and generosity will be remembered always.

“The University plans to honor him for his many contributions and to remember his remarkable life and legacy. We are all deeply saddened. We are considering appropriate ways to honor the great life and legacy of Joe Paterno. The University's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is consulting with members of the Penn State community on the nature and timing of the gathering.”

The Penn State Athletic Department issued the following statement: “This is a tremendous loss for Penn State and the world. Joe Paterno was a great man who was one of the greatest influences on my life and the lives of Penn Staters. For all of us who played for Joe, he taught us so much. He was a teacher and an educator first. He taught us about self-discipline and paying attention to the small details. He built young men from the inside out. He’s famous for saying, “if you keep hustling and plugging away something good will happen” and we all discovered how true that was.

“Because of the way he led and taught Penn Staters, the world is such a better place, not just because of his direct influence, but because of the influence he had on so many who have graduated from Penn State to positively impact the world.”

The State of Pennsylvania announced Monday all flags in the State will be lowered to half-staff in tribute to Paterno.

State senators and House representatives held moments of silence in their chambers Monday and listened to remarks from two Penn State alumni in honor of Paterno.

House Speaker Sam Smith says he'll remember the dignity and humbleness of a man who turned down the riches of an NFL coaching contract so he could make a difference in the lives of Penn State students.

Sen. Jake Corman calls Paterno an educator and humanitarian who took an interest in young people's lives, not just in what they could do on the football field. He says if people remember Paterno's commitment to excellence he'll never truly be gone.

Are the words spoken by Penn State honoring Joe Paterno at the height of hypocrisy given their decision to relieve him of his duties in the days following the Sandusky arrest on November 5? No, they’re not. As was noted at the start of this look at the life and times of Joe Paterno (and Monday’s SBN Obit focused on many of Paterno’s accomplishments) must include what the university, Paterno and the Athletic Department did since the terrible events that took place in 2002.

Penn State University did what they had to do; they fired nearly everyone who could be linked to the scandal and to the cover-up. That was the right direction for Penn State to take then, just as it is the right direction to honor Joe Paterno this week, in the days following his passing. Joe Paterno lived the life he wanted to live, a life of greatness for the most part, but a life filled with tragedy and sadness in the last 78 days of his life, an asterisk on the life and times of Joe Paterno.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Joe Paterno – a life lived

2012-01-23T08:06:00.002-05:00

Legends live forever, for better or for worse; such will in part read the epitaph of Joe Paterno who died Sunday morning. It needs to be said Paterno will be remembered as one of the greatest college football coaches ever, but a man whose legacy was tragically impacted by the personal and professional fallout Paterno experienced as a result of the fallout from after Jerry Sandusky was indicted on more than 50 charges related to sexual abuse of children. The good, the bad and the ugly – the life and times of Joe Paterno. Today it’s the good, Tuesday; SBN will look at the bad and the ugly.

Paterno, who turned 85 last month, passed away surrounded by his family at Mount Nittany Medical Center, near the University Park campus. The legendary teacher, mentor and humanitarian had been diagnosed with lung cancer last November and recently had been hospitalized.

A member of the Penn State coaching staff for 62 seasons, Paterno tremendously impacted the lives of thousands of current and former Penn State students, student-athletes and staff, Nittany Lion fans, State College community members and followers of college athletics. The Nittany Lions' head football coach for nearly 46 years, he was among the first three active coaches to be inducted into the National Football Foundation's College Hall of Fame, in 2007.

Paterno passionately and vigorously served the Penn State football program and the university with principle, distinction and success with honor since matriculating to State College in 1950 as a motivated and enthusiastic 23-year-old with Rip Engle, his head coach at Brown University. After 16 years as an assistant coach under Engle, Paterno was named Penn State's 14th head football coach on February 19, 1966 when Engle retired.

Head coach of the Nittany Lions since 1966, Paterno is the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) leader in career victories, earning a 409-136-3 career record, a 74.9 winning percentage. The iconic Paterno is one of just three coaches in NCAA history to post 400 career wins, passing legendary Grambling coach Eddie Robinson for second place with the Nittany Lions' win over Illinois in Beaver Stadium on October 29, 2011.

Paterno also was college football's all-time leader in bowl victories (24) and appearances (37). His post-season record of 24-12-1 gave him a winning percentage of 66.2, good for No. 3 all-time among coaches with at least 15 bowl visits. The Nittany Lions were 12-5 in contests that comprise the Bowl Championship Series under Paterno.

Paterno's career was marked with distinction, glorious accomplishments and immeasurable contributions to Penn State. As a young head coach, he created the "Grand Experiment," boldly stating that his teams would be comprised of young men able to play football at the highest level, graduate and make significant contributions to society upon their graduation.

The NCAA's 2011 graduation data revealed that Penn State and Stanford, at 87 percent, posted the highest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) among teams ranked in the final 2011 Associated Press and USA Today Coaches' polls and Bowl Championship Series rankings. Penn State and Stanford were tied for No. 10 overall among the nation's 120 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institutions. Penn State's 87 percent GSR was significantly higher than the 67 percent FBS average and was second to Northwestern (94) among Big Ten institutions.

Penn State football student-athletes earned a nation's-best 15 CoSIDA Academic All-American® selections from 2006-10, bringing to 47 the number of Academic All-Americans® under Paterno (37 first team). The Nittany Lions' 49 all-time Academic All-Americans® are No. 3 nationally among FBS institutions.

Paterno's coaching portfolio included two National Championships (1982, 1986); five undefeated, untied teams; 23 finishes in the Top 10 of the national rankings; an unprecedented five American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Coach-of-the-Year plaques, and more than 350 former players who signed National Football League contracts, 33 of them first-round draft choices. Eight Penn State football student-athletes have been NFL first-round selections in the past eight drafts.

His teams registered seven undefeated regular-seasons and he had 35 teams finish in the Top 25. Penn State won the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy, emblematic of Eastern football supremacy, 24 times under Paterno, including in 2008 and `09.

During Paterno's remarkable tenure, there were 888 head coaching changes among Football Bowl Subdivision programs, an average of more than six changes per I-A institution.

Paterno passed his long-time friend and colleague, Bobby Bowden, on Sept. 20, 2008, for the lead in all-time victories among FBS coaches. His 46 seasons as head coach are the most in FBS history and he is second all-time in games coached (548) among major college coaches. Entering the 2011 season, Paterno's winning percentage of 74.7 ranked No. 4 among active Football Bowl Subdivision coaches (10 or more years).

Penn State is one of just eight teams with 800 wins all-time and Paterno has been a member of the Nittany Lion staff for 513 of them -- 62 percent of the 827 all-time total. Penn State posted a record of 513-184-7 since Paterno joined the staff in 1950, the nation's third-highest winning percentage.

Since 1966, Penn State has had 79 first-team All-Americans, with defensive tackle Devon Still being selected a consensus All-American and the 2011 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Under Paterno, the Nittany Lions counted 16 National Football Foundation Scholar-Athletes, 37 first-team Capital One/CoSIDA All-Americans® (47 overall) and 18 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners.

Paterno directed the Nittany Lions to 15 seasons with at least victories and 12-0 campaigns in 1973, 1986 and 1994. The '94 team captured Penn State's first Big Ten Championship and became the first Big Ten team to earn a 12-0 mark. Penn State also earned 21 seasons with at least 10 victories and 13 Top 5 finishes in the polls under Paterno's dedicated and enthusiastic leadership.

Paterno was the only coach to win the four traditional New Year's Day bowl games -- the Rose, Sugar, Cotton and Orange bowls -- and he owned a 6-0 record in the Fiesta Bowl. He was selected by the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame as the first active coach to receive its Distinguished American Award. Paterno also was the 1986 Sports Illustrated Sportsman-of-the-Year.

A member of the Nittany Lions' coaching staff spanning the administrations of 13 U.S. presidents (starting with Harry Truman), Paterno passed Paul "Bear" Bryant for the lead in career Division I-A wins on October 27, 2001 when the Lions secured his 324th victory by rallying from a 27-9 deficit to defeat Ohio State, 29-27, at the time the greatest Beaver Stadium comeback under the legendary coach.

On November 6, 2010, Paterno saw his resurgent and determined squad erase a 21-0 deficit to score touchdowns on five consecutive possessions and beat Northwestern, 35-21. The victory was No. 400 in Paterno's career as he became the first Football Bowl Subdivision coach to reach the milestone. The 100,000-plus fans in Beaver Stadium reveled as the Hall of Fame coach was honored in a post-game on-field ceremony. Not only had they witnessed win No. 400, but also the greatest Nittany Lion comeback at home under Paterno.

Paterno always concentrated on seeing that his student-athletes attend class, devote the proper time to studies and graduate with a meaningful degree. He often said he measured team success not by athletic prowess but by the number of his players that go on to be productive citizens and make a positive contribution to society.

In an exceptional display of generosity and affection for Penn State, Paterno, his wife, Sue, and their five children announced a contribution of $3.5 million to the University in 1998, bringing Paterno's lifetime giving total to more than $4 million. The gift was believed to be, according to Penn State Vice President for Development Rod Kirsch, "the most generous ever made by a collegiate coach and his family to a university."

The Paterno gift endowed faculty positions and scholarships in the College of the Liberal Arts, the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the University Libraries and supported two building projects -- a new interfaith spiritual center and the Penn State All-Sports Museum, both on the University Park campus. The museum opened in 2002 and the spiritual center was dedicated in 2003.

He and Sue were actively involved with the Special Olympics Pennsylvania Summer Games, held each June on the University Park campus. In 2008, the Paternos were inducted into the Special Olympics Pennsylvania Hall of Fame.

The Paternos announced a $1 million pledge in 2009 for the Mount Nittany Medical Center. Their gift helped support a three-floor, 42,000-square foot expansion of Centre County's primary health facility, which was completed in 2010.

In December 2007, Patrick and Candace Malloy honored Paterno's contributions to the University by committing $5 million to create the Malloy Paterno Head Football Coach Endowment at Penn State.

"All of Penn State has benefited from Joe's commitment to success with honor," said Patrick Malloy, a 1965 alumnus of the University. "He is so much more than a coach -- he's an educator. He teaches his players how to win in life as well as in football, and he teaches every Penn State fan how to make the world a better place through integrity, honesty, and excellence. We are also fortunate enough to know Sue Paterno, and we have the deepest admiration for her volunteer and philanthropic leadership at Penn State and beyond."

In January 2011, NCAA President Mark Emmert presented the Gerald R. Ford Award to Paterno at the NCAA Convention. The award honors an individual who has provided significant leadership as an advocate for intercollegiate athletics on a continuous basis throughout his or her career.

In 2007, Paterno was inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame. He received the NFF's Gold Medal in 2006. The American Football Coaches Association presented Paterno with its highest honor in 2002, the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award. The award honors those "whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football."

As a football coach Joe Paterno is second to none. He understood how to get more out of his players, more out of teams that most coaches in any sport ever have, ever will for matter. He won both on and off the football field, it’s important to understand and recognize that, more than important its essential in understanding the life Joe Paterno lived that he was a great football coach. There can be no doubt that Joe Paterno cared deeply for Penn State and his football players.

One question needs to be asked, should be asked – did Joe Paterno coach too long? If Joe Paterno had retired 10 or 15 years ago would what took place in 2002 (and his firing) have ever taken place? Did Joe Paterno overstay his welcome? No, he won when he was in his late 70’s and 80’s as a coach, buts it’s hard to not imagine if Joe wonders how different his life would have been if he had retired 10 of 15 years ago.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Muhammad Ali – the greatest turns 70

2012-01-17T16:49:00.003-05:00

He will be forever known as “The Greatest”. In 1979 Ali was training at his Deer Lake Pennsylvania training camp; a rustic setting located 20 miles from Reading, Pennsylvania served as the setting for Ali’s training from 1972 through his last bout against Trevor Berbick in 1981.

While training to fight his former sparring partner Larry Holmes in May 1980, a week spent at Ali’s camp remains one of the definitive moments of the life I’ve lived.
More than any athlete of the previous century, with the possible exception of the late Jackie Robinson, Ali has had the greatest impact on the world we live in. His conviction, determination, commitment and belief system, the Champ remains an American Icon of immeasurable quality.

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. on January 17, 1942 in 1999, was crowned "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated. He won the World Heavyweight Boxing championship three times, and won the North American Boxing Federation championship as well as an Olympic gold medal.

Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky and was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., who was named for the 19th century abolitionist and politician Cassius Clay. Ali later changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam and subsequently converted to Sunni Islam in 1975.

Ali met Sonny Liston on February 25, 1964 in Miami for the World Heavyweight Title. During the weigh-in on the previous day, the ever-bashful Ali—who frequently taunted Liston during the buildup by dubbing him "the big ugly bear", among other things—declared that he would "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee," and, in summarizing his strategy for avoiding Liston's assaults, said, "Your hands can't hit what your eyes can't see." – classic Ali bravado.

Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, Ali was the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

In 1964, Ali failed the Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were subpar. However, in early 1966, the tests were revised and Ali was reclassified 1A. He refused to serve in the United States Army during the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector, because "War is against the teachings of the Holy Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger. We don't take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers." Ali also famously said, "I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong" and "no Vietcong ever called me nigger."

Ali refused to respond to his name being read out as Cassius Clay, stating, as instructed by his mentors from the Nation of Islam, that Clay was the name given to his slave ancestors by the white man.

"Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name - it means beloved of God - and I insist people use it when people speak to me and of me. "

By refusing to respond to this name, Ali's personal life was filled with controversy. Ali was essentially banned from fighting in the United States and forced to accept bouts abroad for most of 1966.

From his rematch with Liston in May 1965, to his final defense against Zora Folley in March 1967, he defended his title nine times.

The America of the mid to late 1960’s was very different from the America of today. It’s not that far-fetched to suggest that Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the Army served as the catalyst for the anti-war movement and empowered the African American population to understand the leadership they could offer America.

Ali's actions in refusing military service and aligning himself with the Nation of Islam made him a lightning rod for controversy, turning the outspoken but popular former champion into one of that era's most recognizable and controversial figures.
Appearing at rallies with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and declaring his allegiance to him at a time when mainstream America viewed them with suspicion — if not outright hostility — made Ali a target of outrage, and suspicion as well. Ali seemed at times to even provoke such reactions, with viewpoints that wavered from support for civil rights to outright support of separatism.

Near the end of 1967, Ali was stripped of his title by the professional boxing commission and would not be allowed to fight professionally for more than three years. He was also convicted for refusing induction into the army and sentenced to five years in prison. Over the course of those years in exile, Ali fought to appeal his conviction. He stayed in the public spotlight and supported himself by giving speeches primarily at rallies on college campuses that opposed the Vietnam War.

"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs? " Muhammad Ali - explaining why he refused to fight in Vietnam.

When he was the best and most well-known athlete in the world, Ali was forced to the sidelines because of his beliefs. Muhammad Ali was a man who stood by his words, stood by his belief system. If that seems unmanageable in today’s world of million dollar athletes, the Muhammad Ali of the late 1960’s, the Muhammad Ali who was ready to risk everything he had stood for as a testament to a person the world has rarely seen. A true leader among men.

In 1970, Ali was allowed to fight again, and in late 1971 the Supreme Court reversed his conviction. Ali met Joe Frazier on March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden. The fight, known as '"The Fight of the Century", was one of the most eagerly anticipated bouts of all time and remains one of the most famous.

It featured two skilled, undefeated fighters, both of whom had reasonable claims to the heavyweight crown. The fight lived up to the hype, and Frazier punctuated his victory by flooring Ali with a hard left hook in the 15th and final round and won on points. Frank Sinatra — unable to acquire a ringside seat — took photos of the match for Life Magazine. Legendary boxing announcer Don Dunphy and actor and boxing aficionado Burt Lancaster called the action for the broadcast, which reached millions of people.

Ali beat Frazier in two rematches; beat George Foreman in 1974 to regain his Heavyweight title, lost a 1978 bout and then won a rematch against Leon Spinks (winning the title for the third time) before his last two fights (both losses) against Holmes and Berbick.

Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the early 1980s. Although Ali's doctors disagreed during the 1980s and 1990s about whether his symptoms were caused by boxing and whether or not his condition was degenerative, he was ultimately diagnosed with Pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome. By late 2005 it was reported that Ali's condition was notably worsening. According to the documentary “When We Were Kings,” when Ali was asked about whether he has any regrets about boxing due to his disability, he responded that if he didn't box he would still be a painter in Louisville, Kentucky.

He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony on November 9, 2005, and the prestigious "Otto Hahn peace medal in Gold" of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the US Civil Rights
Movement and the United Nations (December 17 2005).

On November 19, 2005, the $60 million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center opened in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth.

According to the Muhammad Ali Center website, "Since he retired from boxing, Ali has devoted himself to humanitarian endeavors around the globe. He is a devout Sunni Muslim, and travels the world over, lending his name and presence to hunger and poverty relief, supporting education efforts of all kinds, promoting adoption and encouraging people to respect and better understand one another. It is estimated that he has helped to provide more than 22 million meals to feed the hungry. Ali travels, on average, more than 200 days per year."

Ali’s net worth is reported to be in excess of $80 million. Ali earned more than $60 million as a boxer, but lost most of that money. He has earned tens of millions of dollars in retirement, the name Muhammad Ali synonymous with greatness and success.

Happy 70th Champ – truly the best there ever was, the best there is, the best there ever will be.

Sources cited and used in this Insider: Muhammad Ali bio. For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Joe Paterno – his long and winding road

2012-01-16T00:04:00.002-05:00

The last few months have not been kind to 84-year old Hall of Fame college football coach Joe Paterno. Fired after serving as Penn State’s head football coach on November 9, a frail Paterno was hospitalized Friday. Days after his firing, Paterno was diagnosed with treatable form of lung cancer. In December, Paterno was admitted to a hospital after fracturing his pelvis when he slipped and fell at his home. On Sunday, The Washington Post published the first interview Paterno granted since his firing, an interview that made it clear – while Paterno may have won football games – he was out of touch with reality.

The picture Washington Post writer Sally Jenkins painted of Paterno was not pretty. Paterno spoke to Jenkins while seated in a wheelchair, his body “wracked by radiation and chemotherapy.” The now soft- spoken Paterno wears a black wig to replace the hair he’s lost through chemotherapy.

On Saturday, October 29, Penn State beat Illinois 10-7 giving Paterno his 409th win, surpassing Eddie Robinson's record for most wins by a college football coach. “JoePa” (as he was affectionately called) was presented with a plaque by then Penn State President Graham Spanier and at the time Penn State’s Atheltic Director Tim Curley. The plaque read "Joe Paterno. Educator of Men. Winningest Coach. Division One Football." Six short days later, life changed forever for Paterno, Spanier, Curley and many more when former Penn State Assistant Football Coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted on more than 50 charges related to alleged child sex abuse, including an incident that took place in Penn State football locker room in 2002 (and in 1998).

Sandusky’s arraignment created an international firestorm in the days and weeks that followed resulting in Paterno’s , Spanier’s and Curley’s firing. While the anger directed at Penn State has subsided, the issue when the story was first reported remains – Why did Penn State and the school’s athletic department seemingly cover-up allegations Sandusky had raped young boys in the Penn State football locker room first in 1998 and again in 2002?

Pennsylvania Attorney General has made it clear when the indictments were announced on November 4; legally Joe Paterno had followed the law in dealing with what he was first told my then graduate football assistant coach Mike McQueary on a Saturday morning in 2002. Paterno told Jenkins he had “no inkling” that Sandusky might be a sexual deviant.

While Paterno and Sandusky had worked together for more than 30 years, the two men were not friends socially and their relationship was professional in nature, according to Paterno. By 2002, the two men had little, if any, contact.

Sandusky left Paterno’s coaching staff after the Lions 1999 season. Paterno and Sandusky met shortly after the Lions beat Texas A&M, 24-0, on December 28, 1999 in the Alamo Bowl. Paterno told Sandusky he wouldn’t be offered the chance to replace him when he retired. Paterno’s reasoning begins to paint an interesting picture.

“He (Sandusky) came to see me and we talked a little about his career,” Paterno told The Washington Post. “I said, you know, Jerry, you want to be head coach, you can’t do as much as you’re doing with the other operation. I said this job takes so much detail, and for you to think you can go off and get involved in fundraising and a lot of things like that. . . . I said you can’t do both, that’s basically what I told him.”

The other operation Paterno alluded to was Second Mile, the organization Sandusky allegedly used to lure young boys and rape them. Paterno had no understanding (as did everyone else) that Sandusky had created an organization to benefit his alleged sick perversions.

The 2002 incident in the Penn State football locker room resulted in Paterno losing his job. Paterno told Jenkins how he remembers the Saturday morning Mike McQueary his then graduate assistant visited his home: “He was very upset and I said why, and he was very reluctant to get into it,” Paterno told The Washington Post. “He told me what he saw, and I said, what? He said it, well, looked like inappropriate, or fondling, I’m not quite sure exactly how he put it. I said you did what you had to do. It’s my job now to figure out what we want to do. So I sat around. It was a Saturday. Waited till Sunday because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. And then I called my superiors and I said: ‘Hey, we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?’ Cause I didn’t know, you know. We never had, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn’t feel adequate.”

Graham Spanier was Penn State’s President, Tim Curley the athletic director and Gary Schultz one of the school’s vice president (who oversaw university police) in 2002.

Joe Paterno’s football program was generating $50 million in revenues for Penn State University in 2002, making Paterno the most powerful man at Penn State. It’s fine for Paterno to tell Jenkins what he remembers doing back in 2002, but Paterno had the power to make sure Jerry Sandusky was dealt with when McQueary met with him. Suggesting to his superiors that “we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?’” is as unacceptable today as it was when Mike McQueary first told Paterno about the horrific scene had he witnessed.

Paterno has three sons, two daughters and 17 grandchildren. As unimaginable a scene as Mike McQueary had painted for Paterno, he had to know what happened was wrong and he had to take charge. He had to know what he was being told would forever taint Penn State football, Penn State University and as the de facto leader of the Penn State community, Paterno had to know what to do.

Yet as Paterno told Jenkins, he didn’t know what to do when his graduate assistant told him about Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulting a ten-year old boy in Penn State’s locker room.

“I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was,” he said. “So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn’t work out that way.”

The plaque Joe Paterno was presented on October 29, referred to Paterno as an “Educator of Men.” While not written, it is implicit that an educator of men is a leader of men. During what will have been the greatest challenge of his legendary career, Paterno needed to take action and take control. He had to do what was right. Instead, he appeared lost and confused, sad and old. Old enough to run after an official in 2002, but too old to understand what needed to be done, too old to be the leader his followers believed he was.

“I didn’t know which way to go,” Paterno said. “And rather than get in there and make a mistake . . .”

Paterno has said repeatedly, “In hindsight, I wish I had done more.” Too late Joe, because you didn’t take charge, because you didn’t do more, you failed the toughest challenge of your life.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Once more – it’s Tebow Time

2012-01-13T00:17:00.003-05:00

The remarkable journey Tim Tebow has taken sports fans (and millions more) continues Saturday night in Foxboro, Mass. Tebow’s Denver Broncos meet the New England Patriots in the National Football League divisional playoffs. The business side of Tebow Time – CBS will win Saturday night’s prime time network battle, the selling of Tim Tebow continues to grow and Twitter may need an extra server or two!

Sunday, Tebow led the Broncos to a stunning 29-23 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The game ended on the first play from scrimmage in overtime when Tebow connected with receiver Demaryius Thomas on an 80-yard touchdown pass.

The game televised by CBS, drew a 24.0 rating and 40 share. The network said on Tuesday that was the highest NFL wild card playoff rating since a 24.1/48 for Kansas City-Miami in 1994. The average of 42.4 million viewers, was up 8 percent from last year’s Packers-Eagles matchup in the same slot — a game that at the time was the highest-rated in the wild-card round in a dozen years.

An ESPN poll bore out the reason why Tim Tebow generates ratings. In the 18 years of the ESPN Sports Poll that looks at who the most popular athletes in America are – there have been just 11 different athletes crowned as America’s favorite active pro athlete (by month).

The list includes Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and LeBron James.

With December 2011′s poll results comes a new name: Tim Tebow.

Tebow was recognized by 3 percent of Americans surveyed as their favorite active pro athlete, placing him above Kobe Bryant (2 percent), Aaron Rodgers (1.9 percent), Peyton Manning (1.8 percent) and Tom Brady (1.5 percent) in the Top 5.

It is by far the fastest and earliest any athlete has assumed the top position since the inception of the poll in 1994.

“To put this in perspective, Tim Tebow rose to the top before the end of his second pro season. It took Tiger Woods three years, LeBron James eight years and Kobe Bryant 11 years,” said Rich Luker, founder and director of the ESPN Sports Poll. “I think we may be at the front end of a new era in sports stars.”

The only other athletes to hold the top spot for at least a month since 2007 are Brett Favre, Manning, Woods, Bryant and James.

“This is an exciting finding and one that reflects the sentiment of all sports fans, not just the online or social media world,” said Artie Bulgrin, Senior VP for Research and Analytics, ESPN Sales and Marketing.

“For 18 years, ESPN Sports Poll has been the only on-going and nationally representative study about sports interest in America. And this past year we greatly improved the rigor and quality of our survey to include cell phone only and Spanish speaking respondents – to truly represent the opinions and attitudes of all American sports fans.”

The ESPN Sports Poll for December 2011 included 1,502 interviews from a nationally representative sample of Americans 12 and older.

Further illustration of the “Tebow Effect” comes from ESPN’s First Take, where Monday’s episode was the most-watched in the program’s history (an average of 587,000 homes, records since 2006). In fact, it was the fourth time this NFL season the show’s viewership record was broken — all coming after Tebow’s first 2011 start as Denver Broncos quarterback on Oct. 23.

“[Tebow] makes the needle move,” said Pardon the Interruption’s Tony Kornheiser. “He’s the guy that everyone is curious about.”

Ratings generator, America’s most popular athlete, what about Tim Tebow’s marketability?

AdAge reported this week that Tim Tebow has the potential to earn upwards of $10 million annually in endorsement dollars. Tebow currently is earning between $1 million and $2 million a year from the endorsement contracts he has with Jockey brand underwear, Nike, FNS energy drinks and EA Sports.

Tebow appears shirtless in the jockey ad. Tebow is the face of Jockey’s "staycool" underwear collection, the brands fastest-selling collection in the company's 135-year-old history.

"While we think "staycool" is an outstanding collection unto itself, we attribute a great deal of that success to Tim's endorsement," Jockey spokesman Mo Moorman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"What we saw in Tim was a smart, gifted athlete and we've always believed that he'd enjoy the same sort of success in the pros as he did in college. Jockey truly believes in Tim Tebow," Moorman said.

Tebow’s profile, Tebow’s success, Tebow delivering for his current sponsors – that’s what may lead to Tebow earning $10 million a year in endorsements.

"He's become an icon; he's bigger than football," said San Francisco-based sports-marketing expert Bob Dorfman, the executive creative director at Baker Street Advertising in the Ad Age report. "I can't see him beating New England (on Sunday) but I didn't see him beating Pittsburgh, either. But that's the thing with this guy -- he keeps defying logic. Everybody keeps waiting for him to fail but it doesn't happen. He has the kind of marketing potential that could put him in the Tom Brady or Peyton Manning category."

Said New York-based sports-marketing expert and Columbia University professor Joe Favorito: "Ten million a year? Yeah, I think it's reasonable so long as his career continues to move along. Absolutely."

In the immediate moments following the Broncos overtime win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tim Tebow nearly broke Twitter:

· Tebow shattered sports tweets/second record. There were 9,420 tweets/second on OT play. Women's WC Final had 7,196 tweets/second.

· Tweets/second for Tebow Sunday (9,420) vs. Tweets/second at height of last year's Super Bowl (4,064).

· Tebow tweets/second (9,420) beat out Royal Wedding (3,966), Bin Laden Raid (5,106) & Steve Jobs Death (6,049).

Darin David, account director at The Marketing Arm, Dallas, told Ad Age, Tim Tebow may already have the ability to earn close to $10 million a year. "I'm not so sure he didn't get to the $10 million [a year] level already after Sunday. To do that in the playoffs, to do that against a team like the [six-time Super Bowl champion] Steelers, the game that was the highest-rated playoff game in 20-something years?"

"As a marketer, you want somebody like that," added David. "He doesn't have the same kind of negative backlash as other players. He is just so newsworthy right now that you would want to capitalize on that."

In the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, Tim Tebow’s arrival was what the sports industry so desperately needed, a modern-day hero with old-fashion values. Is Tim Tebow saving the sports industry?

Clearly Tim Tebow offers a company an athlete with a wholesome image who embraces values that few if any professional athletes live their lives by. e appears He’s a leader who inspires others, but he’s also an athlete who is melding the sports and religion together.

In his press conference immediately following the Broncos win Sunday Tebow time and time again repeatedly thanked “his Lord.” Is it right for a professional athlete to leverage his athletic success in selling his religion? That is and isn’t what Tim Tebow is doing. Anyone who has followed Tim Tebow’s remarkable story understands he is being honest in talking about his love for his religion; he is a believer. But what if a Muslim athlete were to sing the praises of Allah in a post 9/11 America? Would that athlete be vilified? Would that athlete be driven out of the sports industry?

Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, two of the biggest athletes of the 20th century, changed their names from Cassius Clay and Lew Alcindor, and embraced their Muslim faith at the peak of their careers.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, was known as Chris Jackson when he played at LSU. He changed his name when he was a member of the Denver Nuggets. He will forever be remembered for refusing to acknowledge the American National Anthem during a 1996 game, effectively ending his NBA career.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s NBA career didn’t amount to very much; Tim Tebow is in his National Football League season. Clearly if Tim Tebow continues to win, the endorsement dollars will follow.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Is it time to pay college athletes?

2012-01-11T08:19:00.003-05:00

The NCAA convention officially begins today in Indianapolis and one of the hottest issues to be debated will be a proposal the NCAA’s executive committee announced in late October to pay student athletes an additional $2,000 above their full scholarships. The NCAA’s decision to try and push the $2,000 stipend through their membership without any real debate blew up in the faces of the NCAA’s leadership in December.

College athletes presently receive full scholarships (tuition, room and board) which amount to as much as $50,000 per year. While a majority of college athletes do not generate a significant return on the investment schools make in them, those who participate in revenue generating sports (football and men’s basketball) have long believed they deserve a piece of the pie.

NCAA President Mark Emmert told members of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics in October that he believed the NCAA was ready to look at offering college athletes additional financial support that goes beyond the current system’s offering.

On December 15, the NCAA announced that 125 schools had petitioned the NCAA to overrule the decision, forcing the governing body for college sports to deal with the issue at this week’s convention.

"In principal, I think it is a bad piece of legislation," University of Hartford President Walt Harrison told The Hartford Courant. "But unlike the Republicans and Democrats in Congress, I'm willing to compromise."

"I personally think the future of Division I and possibly the NCAA is at stake here. I think keeping Division I together is more important than this particular issue. And if this is what it took to satisfy the BCS schools, I was willing."

The long held belief of people like Harrison is the fear that the big revenue generating schools will break away from the NCAA, create their college competitive athletic system, and leave smaller schools on the outside looking in.

In 2010, the NCAA reported that only 22 of 346 Division I programs showed a profit.

"I see their argument," Harrison said. "But most of the rest of us are struggling. We don't have money. Most of us would rather spend money on other things than an additional $2,000 for a full scholarship."

One of the most vocal groups in support of student athletes receiving the stipend is the National College Players Association. The California based advocacy group believes college athletes should be able to share in a much bigger piece of the college athletic revenue pie they, in large part, generate.

“It’s time for colleges to finally do the right thing. The concerns they raised are insignificant compared to the real life toll that they will inflict on their student-athletes who are already living below the federal poverty line,” said NCPA President and former UCLA student-athlete Ramogi Huma.

“It’s cowardly of these colleges to try to rob student-athletes of this much needed increase behind closed doors. Believe me; student-athletes want to know exactly which of their schools are standing in the way of their financial relief. If this increase is eliminated, we will make sure that colleges’ positions on this issue will come to light and that their student-athletes and recruits know exactly where they stand.”

According to The Harford Courant’s Jeff Jacobs the NCAA plans to hold on online vote in February to determine which direction to go. While the issue won’t be voted on during the NCAA convention this week, it is expected to be one of the most discussed issues in Indianapolis. Many of those who expressed their opposition to the stipend were concerned about how the decision had come about.

A small, specially appointed, committee formed in the summer announced they determined student athletes should receive an additional $2,000 during a retreat in September and October. There was no debate and no discussion.

"The reason for us voting for the override was how this happened," Quinnipiac athletic director Jack McDonald said in the Hartford Courant report. "It happened so fast without, frankly, being asked about it. It's not just the cost.

"Football and non-football schools, Ivy League schools that don't award athletic scholarships, how it affects ice hockey and lacrosse, how it applies to women's sports … let's vet this, discuss it a lot more," McDonald said. "We're voting against the process, certainly not against the student-athletes. If the decision was good, it will be good a few months from now, too."

Fair points and what about the Ivy League?

Harvard University’s men’s basketball program is having a great season and has been ranked for much of the year. Ivy League schools have always had competitive men’s hockey programs. Would this force a student athlete to decide between an Ivy League school and a school where they’ll receive an additional $2,000?

Never. The chance to attend an Ivy League school and receive a degree from that institution is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you’re good enough to attend an Ivy League school the chances you’re going to care less about an additional $2,000 you might receive from a school interested in your athletic abilities.

It’s the cost that seems to be the biggest issue.

"One problem is it came in the middle of a fiscal cycle. There are so many of us that can't fund those additional costs in the middle of the year." Sacred Heart athletic director Don Cook told The Hartford Courant.

Central Connecticut State University athletic director Paul Schlickman offered this to the Hartford Courant: “Philosophically, is it something you'd like to implement across the board?"

"Or something you feel you have to implement in select sports in order to keep pace? If you do it in select sports, it's an immediate financial burden. If you do it across the board, it's essentially prohibitive for us, at least in the short term."

Is this really going to be about small schools taking on the big schools? Small as they may be, University of Hartford’s President Walt Harrison indicated even small schools have big athletic budgets.

"Our budget is in the $13 million-$14 million range and in the 50th to 60th percentile," Harrison said. "We don't make any money on athletics. We basically subsidize a lot of it. So if I'm going to spend money on student financial aid, I would rather spend it on poor students than good athletes."

"I also want to be in the top division in the NCAA and in order to be there I'm willing to compromise. I'm just sorry that the first thing they passed so obviously favored the larger conferences."

Complicating matters is that the chairman of the aforementioned committee was Graham Spanier. Spanier was fired by Penn State University after Jerry Sandusky was indicted on more than 50 charges relating to child sex abuse. Spanier left Penn State and college sports 15 days after the committee he chaired announced the plan to offer the $2,000 stipend.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

NHL Armageddon 2012 – here we go again

2012-01-10T09:07:00.004-05:00

The National Hockey League became the first major professional sports league to lose an entire season to a work stoppage six years ago, when the league and the NHL Players Association failed to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement causing the cancellation of the NHL’s 2004-05 season. The two sides agreed on a new six-year CBA on July 13, 2005. The current CBA expires before the start of the 2012-13 NHL season. The NHLPA now led by former Major League Baseball Players Association Don Fehr, over the weekend fired the first salvo in what could result in the NHL shutting down the league for the second time in six years.

In a series of emails to the NHL (and to the media) the NHLPA (Don Fehr) turned down the NHL’s planned realignment plans for next year.

“On the evening of December 5, 2011, the NHL informed the NHLPA that they proposed to put in place a four-conference format beginning with the 2012-13 season. As realignment affects Players’ terms and conditions of employment, the CBA requires the League to obtain the NHLPA’s consent before implementation. Over the last month, we have had several discussions with the League and extensive dialogue with Players, most recently on an Executive Board conference call on January 1. Two substantial Player concerns emerged: (1) whether the new structure would result in increased and more onerous travel; and (2) the disparity in chances of making the playoffs between the smaller and larger divisions.

“In order to evaluate the effect on travel of the proposed new structure, we requested a draft or sample 2012-13 schedule, showing travel per team. We were advised it was not possible for the League to do that. We also suggested reaching an agreement on scheduling conditions to somewhat alleviate Player travel concerns (e.g., the scheduling of more back-to-back games, more difficult and lengthier road trips, number of border crossings, etc.), but the League did not want to enter into such a dialogue. The travel estimation data we received from the League indicates that many of the current Pacific and Central teams, that have demanding travel schedules under the current format, could see their travel become even more difficult. On the playoff qualification matter, we suggested discussing ways to eliminate the inherent differences in the proposed realignment, but the League was not willing to do so.

“The League set a deadline of January 6, 2012 for the NHLPA to provide its consent to the NHL’s proposal. Players’ questions about travel and concerns about the playoff format have not been sufficiently addressed; as such, we are not able to provide our consent to the proposal at this time. We continue to be ready and willing to have further discussions should the League be willing to do so.”

The NHL through Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly was quick to react to Fehr’s annoucement: "It is unfortunate that the NHLPA has unreasonably refused to approve a plan that an overwhelming majority of our clubs voted to support, and that has received such widespread support from our fans and other members of the hockey community, including players," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.

"We have now spent the better part of four weeks attempting to satisfy the NHLPA's purported concerns with the plan with no success. Because we have already been forced to delay and, as a result, are already late in beginning the process of preparing next season's schedule, we have no choice but to abandon our intention to implement the realignment plan and modified playoff format for next season.

"We believe the union acted unreasonably in violation of the league's rights. We intend to evaluate all of our available legal options and to pursue adequate remedies, as appropriate."

Daly’s suggestion that “. We intend to evaluate all of our available legal options” isn’t a friendly response. Daly (and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman) and Fehr are all lawyers. It’s never good when one lawyer representing (in this case management and ownership) make a veiled suggestion “let’s see what we can do legally to change the mind of our workforce” (forget about trying to talk to the workforce).

The NHL’s realignment plan on many levels makes sense. Many of the divisions create geographical rivalries. It isn’t a perfect system. It may not be as good as the current divisions the NHL uses but the revised playoff formula (teams would play within their division for the first two rounds), is similar to the playoff system the NHL enjoyed many years ago. And that made for great hockey.

While as Fehr indicated realignment (the players’ right to agree to the proposed changes) are part of the current CBA, this is a classic example of choosing your battles. Is this a war Don Fehr and the NHLPA really want to fight (can they live with the proposed changes) and is this really more of a message the NHLPA (Fehr and company) are trying to send the NHL (Bettman and company)?

Under the Bettman proposed realignment, the NHL wanted to have two seven-team conferences based in the Eastern time zone: New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Washington and Carolina in one and Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, Florida and Tampa Bay in the other.

The other two conferences would have had eight teams, with Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas and Winnipeg in one, and Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Colorado in the other.

The USA Today obtained an email NHL Player Association general counsel Don Zavelo sent to Bill Daly that followed the Fehr’s NHLPA release that stopped the realignment process.

The second email suggested the NHLPA wouldn't sign off on the realignment because "we lack the information necessary to answer player questions and concerns about the proposal's impact on travel."

Daly told the USA Today "The deadline didn't come out of thin air. We actually asked for an answer by Tuesday and extended several days to accommodate further discussion."

National Hockey League players travel on private charters. They stay in five star hotels. The proposed changes put teams in the same time zone (easier travel for the most part). Teams would play at least one game in each NHL city during the regular season. Currently NHL franchises play an unbalanced regular season schedule were teams do not play each other in each other’s arenas each season. The proposed schedule would create some additional travel but it gives NHL fans what they’re looking for, a chance to see every NHL team in their buildings each NHL season.

This really seems to be about Don Fehr sending Gary Bettman a message. When the NHL and the NHLPA reached an agreement on a new CBA in July 2005 the NHLPA agreed to a salary cap, a system along the lines of what basketball and football players had agreed to in the 1980’s. The only North American professional sports league without a salary cap since the NHLPA accepted a salary cap are baseball players who were once led by Fehr.

Don Fehr knows he isn’t going to turn back the clock and return the NHL to the system that existed before July 2005. He isn’t going to undo the salary cap. The current CBA guarantees NHL players 57 percent of hockey generated revenue. In November NBA players accepted a new CBA that reduced their guarantee from 57 percent of the basketball related income to 50 percent of the basketball related income.

That’s the battleground Don Fehr and Gary Bettman are headed towards, the realignment salvo Don Fehr sent Gary Bettman – nothing more than a subtle message making it clear to Bettman – the NHLPA isn’t going to roll over and accept whatever the NHL wants the NHLPA too.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Penn State Gets their coach – but?

2012-01-09T05:06:00.002-05:00

Saturday Penn State University made it official, announcing New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien will be the school’s new head football coach. O’Brien may or may not be the right choice, but Penn State’s allowing O’Brien to be a part of the Patriots run to Super Bowl XLV is nonsensical. After a busy weekend at Penn State, O’Brien returned to Foxboro Monday to help the Patriots get ready for their NFL playoff game Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Nittany Lions, rudderless since Joe Paterno was fired on November 9, need their head football coach immediately - not a month from now (if the Patriots make it to Super Bowl XLV on February 5).

Penn State’s football program imploded on November 4 when former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted on more than 50 charges relating to alleged child sex abuse. Paterno who had been Penn State’s head football coach for 46 years was fired five days later; the Nitttany Lions stumbled to the end of their 2011 season under interim head coach Tom Bradley.

If there was ever a college football program that needed stability, it is Penn State’s. Like a salmon swimming upstream, O’Brien is facing two nearly insurmountable challenges – replacing a legendary head coach and taking over a college football program linked to one of the greatest scandals in sports history.

Penn State needs their new head football coach on campus NOW - not tomorrow - NOW!

O’Brien made clear Saturday that he’ll live by his commitment to the Patriots.

“One thing‑‑ in thinking about this day and how important this day is to Penn State, I want to address that question in this way: There is no way that I can stand up in front of our football team and our recruits and talk about loyalty and commitment and then leave the Patriots in the middle of a playoff run or the start of a playoff run. I have committed to the New England Patriots to see them through that playoff run. That's my loyalty and my commitment to that organization and what they've done for me.

“I will also continue any break I have, which there's not going to be a lot of sleep over the next two to three weeks, any break I have to make sure that I am full‑time as much as I can for Penn State and do the things necessary for Penn State.

“I'm in the process of putting together a staff, okay, in the process of putting together a staff. I'm going to put together the best staff for Penn State, the best staff that fits what we need to do at Penn State. And once I get that staff in place, which will be very quickly, over the next two or three days, those guys will hit the ground running and they'll get going as far as recruiting and those types of things.

“I will say this about our staff: I'm going to obviously talk to all the guys that are on the current staff, and I look forward to that. I was fortunate enough to meet one last night, Larry Johnson, the defensive line coach, who's been here for many years and coached many great defensive lines, and I don't know if he's here today, but I would like to say that he's committed to coaching on my staff, and I look forward to working with Larry”

With all due respect to O’Brien, that just isn’t good enough. It isn’t a matter of loyalty, but what’s in the best interest of Penn State football. Every day O’Brien is with the Patriots represents another lost day for the Nittany Lions. It isn’t a question as to whether or not O’Brien is doing what’s right for the New England Patriots (he is doing what’s right for the Patriots), it’s a question of what’s best for the Penn State football program. It is in Penn State’s best interest to have their new football coach on campus right now.

Compounding the challenge O’Brien is facing are outspoken former Nittany Lions suggesting the process for replacing Paterno “hasn’t been to their liking”.

“It would have been nice if we felt like we were part of the process,” said D. J. Dozier, a running back on the team that won the national title in the 1986 season, in a New York Times report. “This is a pretty important situation in transition for the university and the program. There are a lot of guys that feel a certain way. Today I have more questions than answers.”

Former Penn State All-American Lavar Arrington was very vocal on how he felt about O’Brien’s hiring.

"I will put my Butkus (Award) in storage. I will put my Alamo Bowl MVP trophy in storage", Arrington said. "Jerseys - anything Penn State, in storage. Wherever Tom Bradley goes, that's the school I will start to put memorabilia up in my home. I'm done. I'm done with Penn State. If they're done with us, I'm done with them.

"By these people making the decisions the way that they are making them, basically coinciding with everything that's being written about our university, if they get rid of Tom Bradley, that means they in essence have accepted the fact that we are all guilty. You might as well call it all the same thing” Arrington said.

"What we stood for and what we represented for so long, what we have been taught, what we have been trained to know and the values that I raise my own children with, you're basically telling me it's good, only as long as times are good."

There are also former Nittany Lions that are standing by the school’s new football coach.

Tim Sweeney, the president of the Penn State Football Letterman’s Club, told The New York Times in a phone interview that the negative comments of former players like Arrington, Brandon Short and others were not indicative of all former players. Sweeney said the club fully supports O’Brien and will welcome him into the community.

“You’re talking about 1,000 strong alpha males,” Sweeney said in the New York Times report. “That’s how they roll. We’re going to have some people in our group who are vocal about things that have transpired, and that’s their prerogative to do so. I think Coach O’Brien has a wonderful opportunity in front of him to come to a university that’s steeped in tradition.”

Both side’s positions are easy to understand. However, for the good of the Penn State program it does make the most sense for the school to hire someone like O’Brien - someone who has no connection whatsoever to anyone linked to Jerry Sandusky and the school’s interim head football coach Tom Bradley. Bradley will forever be tainted by the damage Jerry Sandusky created. While not fair for Bradley, it is for the good of Penn State’s football program to adopt a scorched-earth philosophy in moving forward.

Last week, the Associated Press reported a series of internal memos created by Penn State in the weeks immediately following Sandusky’s indictment and Paterno’s firing suggesting the school is very concerned about the impact the scandal will have on Penn State’s ability to raise money for the school.

Under Joe Paterno, Penn State’s football program had become an economic engine, generating in excess of $50 million annually for the school.

The memos focused in part on how Penn State could best manage their communications strategy among the school’s Board of Trustees. At the time of the memos, Penn State’s Board included 31 voting members and 16 emeritus members.

"We need to streamline the communications among and with members of the board," Chairman Steve Garban and Vice Chairman John Surma wrote, days after media reports surfaced of eroding support for Paterno and Graham Spanier. "First and foremost, there have been serious breaches in confidentiality of our discussions and we will take the necessary steps to address these. Second, a smaller group will be more effective to provide feedback to President Erickson."

In the days immediately following Sandusky’s indictment, Penn State was seemingly without a communications plan. When the Board fired Paterno and then-President Spanier on November 9, Penn State’s Board of Trustees began dealing with the media. They stopped waiting for the story to come to them, rather creating it themselves.

Bill O’Brien will be under immense pressure in the coming months. The Board of Trustees (there are at least five former football players on the current board) will have to stand by the decision to hire O’Brien. Replacing a legend is next to impossible. O’Brien and Penn State are still facing the microscope they’ll be under when Jerry Sandusky’s trial begins; challenges entirely unrelated to O’Brien’s ability to coach. Bill O’Brien will have to be a great deal more than a football coach for Penn State University.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Blooom

Should College athletes be paid?

2012-01-05T00:04:00.003-05:00

The NCAA announced in late October a plan that would give member intuitions the right to offer select athletes an additional $2,000 above the full scholarship athletes currently receive. The plan is now on hold and will be considered at next week’s Indianapolis NCAA Convention.

College athletes presently receive full scholarships (tuition, room and board) which amount to as much as $50,000 per year. While a majority of college athletes do not generate a significant return on the investment schools make in them, those who participate in revenue generating sports (football and men’s basketball) have long believed they deserve a piece of the NCAA money pie.

October 25, NCAA President Mark Emmert told members of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics he believed the NCAA was ready to look at offering college athletes additional financial support that goes beyond the current system’s offering.

"We are going to create a model that would allow -- probably ... up to $2,000 [in addition to tuition, fees, room and board, books and supplies]…I believe the Presidents are committed to creating rapid change to benefit the student-athletes on their campuses. We need to take serious action now to improve the student-athlete experience and make sure our conduct aligns with our values”, Emmert stated when he made the announcement. “All of these changes will happen in short order and will have a positive impact on the enterprise.”

The proposed changes announced were to go well beyond offering certain athletes a financial stipend. The proposed NCAA plan included:

•Increased emphasis on academic performance, including a minimum academic standard to qualify for postseason competition.

•More rigorous initial-eligibility standards, including tougher core-course requirements coming out of high school.

•Increased standards for two-year college transfers.

•Increased assistance to student-athletes, including up to an additional $2,000 miscellaneous-expense allowance toward incidental educational costs above tuition and fees, room and board, and books.

•Allowing institutions to award multi-year grants in aid.

Schools had the option of opting into the plan. The plan would have created a two-tier system - the haves and the have-nots - those who could afford to pay their student-athletes the additional $2,000 and those who couldn’t afford the luxury of paying their student athletes the $2,000.

On December 15, the NCAA announced that 125 schools had petitioned the NCAA to override the rule, forcing the governing body for college sports to deal with the issue at next week’s convention.

David Berst, Division I Vice President of Governance, hints that more than 1,000 athletes have agreed to school scholarships that already included the $2,000 bonus during the November signing period for high school student athletes. A change to the proposed system may be impossible, in some cases.

"We would honor the agreements that have taken place," Berst told The Associated Press. "So even if you were to rescind the rule as of December 26 and not operate under that rule in the future, we would honor those agreements. I think that causes the board to redouble its efforts at the January meeting”.

"My belief is that if the board believes the $2,000 proposal is appropriate, I think they will modify the proposal to make it clear that we expect institutions to comply fully with Title IX. I think we've already done that, but we'll make that abundantly clearer in January, and then we'll have to talk about the implementation time," Berst said. "My job is to help everybody accomplish what they're trying to get done. I believe the board was sincere in trying to provide for the miscellaneous expense allowance, and my job is to find what alternatives may be more pleasing for them."

As members of the Big Ten, the University of Minnesota provides a major stumbling block to the $2,000 stipend’s implementation. There isn’t a question as to whether Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State or Penn State will pay their football players the additional $2,000 per player. They can clearly afford it. For instance, Penn State’s football program has made a profit of at least $50 million each of the last five years. The same is true for the other Big Ten football revenue generating machines, but not necessarily true for the Big Ten football programs in Minnesota, Northwestern or Indiana. Could these schools afford to pay each of their 75 football players $2,000?

"I don't think [the stipend] is necessary for those who come from families that have means to help support their kids in college," Gophers athletics director Joe Maturi told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "If Joel Maturi's son or daughter is on a full scholarship right now, they don't need more than that, (with) all due respect. That's my personal opinion”.

"Those kids in need already are qualified for a Pell Grant, which at Minnesota is between $5,000 and $6,000. Kids in need can already get 5,000, 6,000 extra dollars, which isn't bad. But now we're potentially going to give them $2,000 above that."

New York Times op-ed columnist Joe Nocera offered an opinion piece Saturday in the Times asking “how can it be that the N.C.A.A. can define amateurism in one moment as allowing a $2,000 stipend and in the next moment as forbidding such a stipend? How can it justify rolling back a change that would truly help student athletes, such as the four-year scholarship, simply because coaches want to continue to have life-or-death power over their charges? How can the labor force that generates so much money for everyone else be kept in shackles by the N.C.A.A.? “

On November 28, Urban Meyer agreed to a multi-year contact with Ohio State University to save its football program after former coach Jim Tressel was fired. Meyer’s contact calls for a $4 million base salary and incentives that could add millions to his agreement. He will be one of the highest paid coaches in the NCAA.

“He is without a shadow of a doubt one of the premier leaders in football. It’s represented in his record. But more importantly, it’s represented in him, the man,” OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith said last month when introducing Meyer to the press.

“It’s the tail wagging the dog. It’s ridiculous that Ohio State is known for football and not for physics,” said Gordon Aubrecht, OSU professor of physics. “We are not the best university in the whole world — I wouldn’t claim that — but we are a very good university. ... There are so many opportunities for students to find something that will excite them and interest them. Yet all we hear about is football.”

If the football coach is being paid more than $4 million a year, how can the players of the football team not have earned some spending money?

"The NCAA and Presidents step up with this legislation and then the universities want to vote it down," said Christian Dennie, a former compliance officer at Missouri and Oklahoma who now practices sports law in Fort Worth, Texas, and writes an NCAA oversight blog.

"They say, `We don't have enough money,' and then the coach gets a $2 million raise," Dennie added in an AP report, speaking in general terms rather than about a specific school. "It's really a resource allocation issue."

Both Boise State and Indiana State commented as to why they want the $2,000 stipend overridden.

"There is never a guarantee that the incoming student-athlete will be a good fit for the program and the institution," Boise State wrote in its override request. "If it is a poor fit, the program is put in a difficult situation to continue to keep a student-athlete on scholarship."

"The current system works. We don't need to get into bidding wars where one school offers a 75 percent (scholarship) for two years and the other school then offers 85 percent for three years, etc., etc. This puts the kid into a situation where they almost need an agent/advisor just to determine the best "deal." Again, if it isn't broke, don't fix it", Indiana State offered.

It’s not a black-and-white issue. The major men’s football and basketball programs can and will pay the $2,000 stipend. However, how about the schools that can’t afford to pay their football or men’s basketball players? And what about programs that aren’t generating the money that men’s football and basketball does? What about women’s college sports programs? Do those athletes make as much of a commitment to their schools as student athletes at major schools do? Interesting times in Indianapolis next week for the NCAA.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Is the NBC Sports Network ready to take on ESPN?

2012-01-04T07:23:00.003-05:00

NBC rebranded Versus, the NBC Sports Network, early Monday evening following NBC’s broadcast of the NHL’s Winter Classic. The National Hockey League will be a key to any early success the NBC Sports Network enjoys. ‘The worldwide leader’ in sports, ESPN owns national cable rights to Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association (national cable rights it shares with Turner) and the National Football League (rights it shares with no other broadcaster). If the rights to games are a key to ratings success, the NBC Sports Network is on the road to success.

As chairman of the NBC Sports Group, Mark Lazarus has the monumental task of building a national cable sports network for NBC. The biggest issue? ESPN (which began broadcasting in 1979) owns the rights to every major sports property with the exception of the NHL.

“NBC Sports has a great heritage and legacy, but it had limitations,” Lazarus told The New York Times in mid-December, alluding to its lack of a cable sports side to add financial strength. “The Comcast Sports Group didn’t have that great heritage and legacy. One of the great joys is to create a new group where each side longed for what the other one had.”

Lazarus’ best chance at success lies either in garnering the NFL’s interest in creating a Thursday night package weeks 2 through 9 and offering that package, or offering an identical package that the NFL Network currently offers weeks 10 through 16 of the regular season. Much of ESPN’s success can be directly traced to ESPN’s first NFL broadcast in 1987. The NBC Sports Network is advised not to bid hundreds of millions of dollars on NFL rights, rights that will cost close to $500 million a year.

ESPN reaches 100 million homes; The NFL Network can currently boast 60 million. Time Warner Cable, America’s fourth largest cable provider, still does not offer the NFL Network. The NFL Network’s offering a full season of Thursday Night Football could force a showdown between Time Warner and its subscribers (easier said than done).

On New Year’s Day Time Warner Cable pulled the plug on the MSG Network in New York State, leaving New York City and Buffalo sports fans without the New York Rangers, Buffalo Sabres and other sports coverage.

Comcast acquired a majority stake in NBC Universal, the owner of Versus, in 2011. As a result of the merger, the operations of all Comcast's national sports channels were folded into the NBC Sports division.

NBC Sports Network will be accessible in roughly 76 million U.S. homes on opening day, which is about 23 million fewer than the reach of ESPN. ESPN’s real advantage lies in the fact that it is carried in almost all cable-satellite packages, whereas Versus/NBC Sports Network is a part of a package that many subscribers don’t purchase.

The cornerstone to the NBC Sports Network’s potential success will be the 90 NHL regular season games they own the rights to. These 90 do not include the Stanley Cup playoffs, the NHL’s two month playoff marathon, of which 50 games targeted for the NBC Sports Network. The NBC Sports Network will also focus on NBC’s Olympic rights, which could result in as much as ten-hours-per-day of coverage during the Games.

The NBC Sports Network will additionally cover 38 regular-season Major League Soccer games, 13 IndyCar Series races, 14 hours a day of Tour de France coverage throughout most of July, 20 hours of horse-racing coverage around the Triple Crown, and 40 college football, basketball, and hockey games in its early stages. The college football coverage – their big games – is similar to NBC’s Notre Dame home- game rights agreement.

NBCSN's college football games, which this season ran opposite ESPNU games, reached an average of 0.2% of its available households, compared to ESPNU's 0.3%. On Monday, January 2, ESPNU opened ESPN’s day-long college bowl game coverage with a game featuring Penn State and Houston meeting in the Ticketcity Bowl. On Versus (the name changed just after 6 PM eastern time) was a replay of an old NHL Winter Classic game.

But it seems hockey will be a key. The opening program on the rebranded network was “Cold War on Ice," a 90 minute special (that began shortly after 6 PM opposite ESPN’s Rose Bowl coverage). “Cold War on Ice” looked back at the legendary 1972 Canada/Russia hockey series. The show belonged on Canadian TV - not on an American sports cable network, let alone as its debut program.

Clearly those in charge at NBC Sports realize they have what can best be labeled a ‘work in progress’.

"You’ll see us change over time, they aren’t going to occupy as much space as they have in the past and over time we’ll be very selective and strategic about how we showcase the ’field sports’ programming," NBC Sports President Jon Miller told Multichannel News. "They’ll still have a home on the network for a while, and that portion of our programming will be rebranded as ’NBC Sports Outdoors.’ We won’t have as much of it, but there still will be a place for it on our air."

"I’m in my 34th year with the company and I can’t imagine anything in my career that could ever be more exciting and challenging than to be a part of this," Miller said. "We have a one-year vision, a two-year vision, a five-year vision and 10-year long-term vision and all of those things are within our grasp. We have a great partner in Comcast, which is committed to sports programming evidenced by the huge investments they’ve made over the last eight months."

But the key might (will) be the NFL. The NBC Sports Network will add a two hour Sunday NFL preview show that will begin at 10 AM. The NBC Sports Network NFL Sunday show will be up against ESPN’s long-standing NFL Countdown and the NFL Network’s 'NFL GameDay Morning’.

When the NFL makes the additional Thursday night package available (expected in the next few years), it’s likely whoever wins will pay close to $500 million for the rights to eight games. ESPN is paying the NFL $8.8 billion ($1.1 billion a year) for their latest eight year Monday Night Football agreement. The ESPN agreement does not include any playoff games. ESPN pays more for NFL games than does NBC, CBS or Fox. The NFL’s terrestrial (over-the-air) partners each have playoff and Super Bowl rights.

The eight-game Thursday night week 2 to week 9 package represents the ‘perfect storm’ for the NFL (at least in terms of selling their rights). Not ESPN nor NBC can afford to bid. The real question is whether ESPN will attempt to squash the NBC Sports Network by overbidding for the rights. Will NBC realize what ESPN understood in 1987 – that the NBC Sports Network must have the NFL if the network is ever going to work?

The answer – times have changed a great deal since 1987 when ESPN began televising Sunday Night Football. Cable TV was in its infancy in the 1980s; today there is a 500-channel universe.

The NFL is the sports industry’s gold standard, but it might make more sense for NBC to let ESPN overbid (and overpay) for the NFL, saving the excess funds on securing cable rights for Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. ESPN will retain their share of MLB and NBA, but with hundreds of MLB and NBA games to go along with their NHL programming, the NBC Sports Network will still offer solid programming.

ESPN is sports and sports is ESPN, and NBC Sports leaders likely know that. ESPN has the BCS and is expected to renew their current four-year agreement (through the 2014 BCS games) in the near future. ESPN is next expected to try and grab Fox’s MLB rights agreement, which will put the World Series on ABC - the LCS that Fox has on ESPN. ESPN has NBA rights. ESPN is the monster that has all but eaten the sports industry.

The NHL has a GREAT partner in NBC. The NHL attracts the much coveted 18-34 year old male demographic. The NHL is a sport ESPN is largely ignoring.

Maybe the best strategic decision NBC will make is to not compete with ESPN, letting ESPN spend billions of dollars. At the same time, NBC Sports can showcase the NHL, MLS and lesser sports while building an audience.

Perhaps ESPN is too big and can’t be beaten, but maybe in a 500-channel universe creating and building a network with great ‘overall programming’ will make money and draw an audience. This may be the best strategic move for the NBC Sports Network.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

The NHL in 2012 – more Canada please

2012-01-03T08:20:00.003-05:00

The NHL Winter Classic held yesterday at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park continues to highlight what the National Hockey League is doing right. The first Winter Classic was held at a snowy Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo in 2008, where Sidney Crosby’s shootout goal offered the NHL a showcase event. Five Winter Classics later NBC leveraged their Winter Classic coverage to launch their new sports network, the NBC Sports Network, one of 2012’s most anticipated sports business moments. ESPN may be the world-wide leader but the NHL’s decision to latch their brand to NBC will one day be a part of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s NHL legacy.

Looking into 2012, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the Lords of the Rinks face a couple major issues: the likely move of an NHL franchise for the second consecutive season; and a report that, more than ever, the NHL is Canada and Canada is the NHL.

The Toronto Star Monday obtained a copy of a ‘confidential report’ that shouldn’t have surprised anyone. According to Rick Westhead, the NHL’s six Canadian based 2010-11 franchises accounted for 33% of the NHL ticket revenue, or approximately $1.2 billion dollars. The six Canadian-based teams had six of the top seven highest totals, the New York Rangers being the lone American-based franchise.

After the 2010-11 season the Atlanta Thrashers relocated, returning the NHL to Winnipeg, which became the seventh Canadian-based franchise in the 30-team NHL. The Jets will be among the NHL’s top-ten when the report for the 2011-12 season is released.

“There will be a lot of people using these numbers to argue that the league would be better off with teams in Quebec City and Hamilton, Ont., rather than Columbus, Ohio, and a number of other locations where the NHL is not setting the world on fire,” said Marc Ganis, president of a Chicago sports advisory firm that has advised the buyers of several NHL franchisesm], in the Toronto Star report.

“The NHL had this initiative in the 1990s to expand into the U.S. sunbelt and by anyone’s definition, that strategy has been demonstrated to be only marginally successful,” Ganis said. "I think the argument for more Canadian teams definitely has merit."

The Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation at the University of Toronto published a report in 2011 that suggested Canada could be home to as many as six additional Canadian NHL franchises. Six may be a stretch but Canada will be home to two or three more NHL teams in the next five years.

The report suggested the NHL’s decision between the 1990s and early 2000’s to expand into Southern-based American cities has failed. The 21-team NHL added San Jose, Ottawa and Tampa in the early 1990s. San Jose and Ottawa are two of the NHL’s strongest franchises. It remains questionable if Tampa will be home to an NHL franchise in ten years’ time.

The Minnesota North Stars moved from Minneapolis at the start of the 1993 season to Dallas, an NHL franchise moving from a traditional to a non-traditional hockey market. The Dallas Stars were successful in the Lone Star State before becoming entrapped in Tom Hicks ownership woes a few years ago. The Stars were owned and managed by the NHL, forced into bankruptcy at the end of the 2009-10 NHL season. The Stars lost $38 million during their last fiscal year and $92 million over the last three seasons. Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi submitted the only bid for the team when the franchise was placed into receivership and auctioned off. It remains to be seen if the Stars have a long-term future in Texas.

The NHL added franchises in Miami and Anaheim at the start of the 1994-95 season. The Miami team has never worked. Los Angeles will never be a hockey hotbed - two teams in Los Angeles has never made financial sense. The Ducks and the Kings sell most of their tickets but it’s hard to make sense of Los Angeles having two teams, while hotbeds such as Toronto only feature one.

At the end of the 1995 season the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver and the Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix. The Colorado Avalanche define success. The Phoenix Coyotes are playing their last season in Glendale. The NHL was forced to move both the Jets and the Nordiques when they did. The Canadian dollar’s value as compared to the American dollar stood in the neighborhood of 65 cents in 1995. Both the Jets and Nordiques played in outdated facilities in 1995. There wasn’t any hope either city would build new arenas in the mid 1990’s.

The Toronto Star reported the Coyotes last year generated $420,000 in ticket revenues per game in 2010-11, down from $450,000 in 2007-08. The Coyotes are dead last in the NHL in attendance, averaging 11,423 fans per game. The Phoenix daily newspapers no longer cover the Coyotes on a regular basis. The 2011-12 season is the third year the NHL has owned the franchise. The Coyotes will not be playing in Phoenix at the start of the 2012-13 NHL season, regardless if Bettman is able to find a buyer by season’s end.

The NHL has looked everywhere for a buyer for the Coyotes. There remain a few interested groups but when all is said and done it’s likely the NHL isn’t going to find a buyer. The Coyotes are forecasted to be located in Quebec City by the start of the 2012-13 NHL season, if the city starts building a new arena.

The Quebec City arena remains in the planning stages. The facility reportedly will cost around $400 million. Quebecor, a Canadian media company, has a management contract (the company wants to own Quebec City’s NHL team as well) and has bought the naming rights for $33 million and $63 million (fee based on the area being home to an NHL arena). Everything appears to be in place, but construction has yet to begin and no date has been set as to when the shovels will start digging. Le Colisée de Québec (the 11,000+ arena the Nordiques played in) could be home to the new Nordiques next year. However, if civic leaders don’t start building their new arena, the NHL will (though they should not) move the Coyotes to Quebec City.

The Hartford Whalers (a traditional hockey market) moved to Raleigh, North Carolina (a non-traditional hockey market) at the start of the 1997 season. Tobacco Road is the home of ACC basketball, not the NHL. The Carolina Hurricanes have consistently been in the bottom third of NHL attendance, hardly a barometer for success.

In 1998, the NHL expanded to two more non-traditional NHL markets – Atlanta (where the league failed for the second time in 2010) and Nashville. The Nashville Predators, like the Hurricanes, have consistently been in the bottom third of NHL attendance.

At the start of the 2000 season, the NHL expanded for the last time, returning to a traditional hockey market in Minneapolis and a non-traditional market in Columbus. The Minnesota Wild have been successful. However, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ future in the home of Ohio State University is one of the issues Gary Bettman will face in the next few years.

Canada will be home to two or three more franchises in the next five years. Quebec City will move forward on their arena plan and an American-based owner will gladly sell his team to Quebecor. It’s not a matter of if, but when Southern Ontario will be home to a second or possibly third NHL franchise.

The long list of failing non-traditional NHL markets with failed or failing franchises doesn’t include the New York Islanders, who have a murky future on Long Island. The Greater New York area is home to three NHL teams, one franchise too many. Islanders’ owner Charles Wang failed in August in gaining the needed public support (taxpayer dollars) for a much needed new arena. If the NHL doesn’t sell the Coyotes to Quebecor, Wang will try and sell the Islanders to Quebec City interests.

There remains one very big issue the NHL faces before moving one, two, or even three franchises to Canada – the current NHL collective bargaining agreement

The NHL’s salary cap includes both a cap and a salary floor, dictating both the most and the least an NHL franchise can spend on their teams’ payroll. When the current NHL CBA was agreed to in July 2005 the Canadian dollar was worth 75 cents as compared to the American dollar. The six Canadian teams are the economic engine that is driving up the NHL’s salary floor. The2005-06 NHL $39 million salary cap was the 2011-12 salary floor. NHL teams in Miami, Dallas, Anaheim, Long Island, Columbus, Raleigh and Nashville can’t justify a team payroll of $39 million.

Canadian NHL teams are great for NHL players. Canadian NHL teams aren’t great for small market American-based franchises located in non-traditional NHL markets.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

NBA Armageddon 2011/Stern warnings – the NBA in 2011

2011-12-30T09:28:00.004-05:00

David Stern has been a part of the National Basketball Association since 1966, serving as the league’s commissioner since 1984. Basketball has enjoyed unparalleled growth under Stern. The globalization of basketball will be David Stern lasting legacy.

However when basketball pundits look back at 2011, it won’t be one of Stern’s best years. It may have actually been his worst year as NBA commissioner.

The NBA lockout began at midnight on June 30 and received little attention due to the NFL’s lockout. Ownership hammered home their position that the previous collective bargaining agreement, which gave the players 57% of basketball generated revenues, wasn’t working anymore. Initially management wanted the players to accept 43% of basketball-generated revenues.

The NBA Players Association (NBPA), led by Executive Director Billy Hunter and President Derek Fisher, agreed to give back between 4 and 5 percent of basketball-generated revenue.

Not a great deal happened in July. Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul talked about heading to China to play basketball this year, Nets guard Deron Williams signed a contract with Turkey's Besiktas which included an opt-out clause allowing Williams to return to the NBA once the lockout ended.

On August 1 the NBA filed unfair labor charges against the players union.

"For the parties to reach agreement on a new CBA, the union must commit to the collective bargaining process fully and in good faith," said NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Adam Silver.

Hunter responded: "We urge the NBA to engage with us at the bargaining table and to use more productively the short time we have left before the 2011-12 season is seriously jeopardized."

Not a great deal took place in August.

September rolled around and the two sides starting getting together on a more regular basis. The lockout took an interesting twist in terms of how the two sides communicated their message to basketball fans and to a lesser extent the media.

Ownership let David Stern do their talking while Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher had to contend with social media, in particular, Twitter. On September 7 Knicks guard Roger Mason Jr., a member of the players' executive committee, wrote "Looking like a season. How u" on his Twitter page. He later deleted the tweet, stating his account was hacked.

On the heels of Mason Jr.'s tweet, SI.com reports that Fisher text-messaged numerous players a week earlier, saying that progress had been made and implored them to be physically prepared in case the season starts on time.

The next day, Fisher refutes the report of his text message to players in an ESPNLosAngeles.com story.

Both the NFL and the NFLPA created their own websites during the NFL lockout. The NBA did have a labor related site the NBPA chose to not dedicate any real efforts towards effective communication throughout the lockout.

David Stern and NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Stern continued delivering the owners’ message. The players were going to have to accept significant changes.

On September 22, during an appearance at the University of Connecticut, Celtics guard Ray Allen says he is willing to sacrifice a whole season if necessary due to the NBA lockout.

"Nobody wants to miss a year," Allen said. "But I'm prepared to do what the team needs me to do, what my players association, players union team, what they need me to do, because we want to make sure we get the right deal for us."

The two sides meet several times in early October, with little if any, progress. They agree to bring Federal Mediator George Cohen into the talks.

Talks collapse just before Halloween. Stern announces all games are canceled through November 30.

"We held out that joint hope together, but in light of the breakdown of talks, there will not be a full NBA season under any circumstances," Stern said.

The 1998-99 season began on February 5, 1999 and featured each team playing 50 games. The two sides didn’t reach a settlement until January 6, 1999. There was still plenty of time left to save the NBA season.

By November 9, the union and NBA had met 22 times for over 148 hours trying to come to a new collective bargaining agreement.

On November 14 ‘the talks blew up’. The NBPA rejected a “take it or leave it” offer from the owners that would have seen the basketball related income (BRI) split move from 57/43 in favor of the players to 50/50.

The NBPA walked away, paving the way for a lawsuit that throws the season in jeopardy.

By filing a disclaimer of interest, the union ended its role as a collective-bargaining agent and NBPA Executive Director Billy Hunter became the executive director of a "trade association".

Outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler and attorney David Boies who, ironically, represented NFL owners when they thwarted the football players' decertification push last spring become the key figures for the players' side, taking over for Hunter and Derek Fisher.

David Stern offered what became one of 2011’s great sports business quotes that day: "We're about to go into the nuclear winter of the NBA."

Nine days later “secret talks” began and continued through the Thanksgiving Weekend holiday. The two sides announce a new collective bargaining agreement in the early morning hours of November 26.

The agreement included a 50-50 split of basketball-related income, a higher luxury tax with progressive tax rates and the retention of a soft salary cap system. The maximum length of player contracts lowered from six years to five and maximum annual increases in salaries will be 7.5% for teams re-signing their own players and 4.5% for teams signing free agents.

The NBA season began on Christmas Day with five games, all televised by ABC, ESPN and TNT. The ratings were record setting for Christmas Day. It remains to be seen if there will be any long-term fallout from the lockout.

While football fans were never going to be angry with the NFL, basketball fans seemingly didn’t care if the NBA played a game.

Baseball fans remained bitter after the 1994 World Series was lost to a labor dispute.

The NHL has the smallest fan base of the four major sports. Hockey fans were so happy when the NHL returned for the 2005-06 season they embraced the game as if the NHL had never missed a game.

Basketball fans almost seemed apathetic towards the NBA. If the NBA lost their entire 2011-12 season fans wouldn’t have cared. No anger, no longing for the game. All the good David Stern had done in the 25+-years he had served as NBA commissioner seemed to be falling apart.

The NBA will play a truncated 66 game schedule. An NBA champion will be crowned but the NBA had better pay attention to the laissez-faire attitude fans have towards the product being played on NBA basketball courts.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Blooom

NFL Armageddon – Tebow Time (the NFL in 2011)

2011-12-29T08:52:00.003-05:00

The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XLV and remain the prohibitive favorite to win Super Bowl XLVI. While the Packers were the NFL’s best team in 2011, the biggest National Football League business story was the protracted NFL lockout.

The NFL lockout began on March 11 following the break down of negotiations between the NFL and the NFL Players Association. The NFLPA filed antitrust lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to block a lockout. The two sides presented their cases before U.S. District Judge Susan Nelson in early April and she forced NFL owners to end the lockout.

The owners won a temporary stay of Nelson’s ruling on April 29 and the lockout was back on.
The Wall Street Journal reported the NFL had lost close to a billion dollars in off-season revenues as a direct result of the lockout. Two weeks after the court ruled in favor of the owners the two sides began serious talks.

Why the two sides didn’t continue to negotiate after the lockout began on March 11 and waited until the courts ruling remains not a mystery but, rather, an example of poor management by both parties.

On July 21 the NFL and the NFLPA announced the longest CBA in sports labor history, a ten-year collective bargaining agreement.

"We are pleased to announce that our clubs have approved the terms of a long-term negotiated agreement with the NFL players," said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. "It includes many positive changes that emerged from a spirit of compromise rooted in doing what is best for the game and players. DeMaurice Smith and his team, and the players and owners involved in the negotiations, deserve great credit for their skill and professionalism. If approved by the players, this agreement will allow the league and its players to continue to benefit from the NFL's popularity and will afford a unique opportunity to deliver to fans an even better, safer, and more competitive game in the future.”

“This has been a long road for everyone involved. While it is not yet over, the diligence demonstrated by active and former players speaks volumes to their dedication to reaching a fair deal,” said Kevin Mawae, NFLPA President. “This settlement is an essential component to what will be a long-term agreement benefitting players, owners and fans.”

"On behalf of the NFL, our teams and players, I want to express our deep appreciation to Chief Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan. Judge Boylan was the court-appointed mediator, but his contributions far exceeded that role. His patience, determination, and commitment helped keep everyone focused on the goal, and helped lead us to today's announcement."

The key for the owners was closer to a 50/50 split of football generated revenue. The previous deal was closer to 60/40 for the players. The players also received 55% of television related revenues.

On December 15 Roger Goodell announced new network broadcast agreement through the 2024 NFL season. Fox’s average rights fee will jump to about $1.1 billion a year from $725 million in 2013. CBS’s payments will increase to nearly $1 billion from $625 million, and NBC’s fees will go to $950 million from $612 million. Three months previous ESPN approved a 73 percent increase to $1.9 billion annually for eight years.

The NFL will generate more than $4 billion annually in broadcast revenues, an average of more than $134 million for each of the NFL’s 32 member franchises.

“In these difficult economic times, you want to create stability and planning for our business,” said Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and chairman of the league’s broadcast committee in a New York Times report.

“When we made our C.B.A. deal with the players,” he said about the collective bargaining agreement reached last summer, “we promised if they worked with us, they would be the big beneficiary — and they’re getting 55 percent of the TV money.”

“These agreements underscore the NFL’s unique commitment to broadcast television that no other sport has,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “The agreements would not have been possible without our new 10-year labor agreement and the players deserve great credit. Long-term labor peace is allowing the NFL to continue to grow and the biggest beneficiaries are the players and fans.”

There was little if any chance the National Football League would lose two months of their regular season schedule to a labor dispute like the NBA. The average NFL career is less than 3.5 football seasons and the average NFL salary is $1.9 million. The average NFL median salary is $770,000.
The minimum NFL salary for an NFL rookie in 2011 was $375,000.

The NFL generates more than $9 billion annually. Once the lockout ended and the two sides reached a new labor agreement several points stood out. NFL contracts are not guaranteed. While NBA, MLB and NHL players all enjoy guaranteed contracts, football players can be cut from their teams for any reason and be out millions.

The only guaranteed component of an NFL contract is the bonus. Guaranteed contracts were never an issue the NFL and the NFLPA even broached. A rookie rage scale, fewer practice days and the players receiving fewer dollars are all a part of the new CBA.

From the opening of training camps it became obvious very quickly the NFL wouldn’t suffer from any lingering anger football fans had regarding the lockout. The NFL may have lost close to one billion dollars in revenues but when the 2011 regular season ends Sunday night at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey, 2011 will be another year of record television ratings for the NFL.

According to Nielsen the three top rated television programs for 2011 was Super Bowl XLV, Super Bowl XLV (pre-game show) and Super Bowl XLV (post-game show). Nine of the top ten rated 2011 television programs were NFL games. While the Super Bowl preceded the lockout, it’s a pretty safe bet the three top rated TV programs for 2012 will again all relate to the Super Bowl.

Tim Tebow, and Tebowmania, has delivered exactly what the sports world needed in a time when the sports industry is experiencing a daily assault as a result of child sexual abuse scandals from Penn State to the heart of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).

An athlete people can believe in for all the right reasons.

The Broncos began their season with Kyle Orton as quarterback. After the team started 1-4, Broncos coach Jim Fox named Tebow the starting quarterback against the Miami Dolphins.
Tebow led the Broncos to a 7–1 record before being blasted in their last two games against New England and Buffalo. He led five game-winning drives in the fourth quarter and/or overtime.

Tim Tebow became the NFL’s most polarizing figure in 2011 generating great rahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftings. NBC failed to “flex schedule” the Broncos/Patriots game on December 18 even though All sports fans wanted to talk about leading up to the game Tim Tebow and his showdown with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Brady, not surprisingly, bested Tebow in the Patriots 41-23 win.

The Broncos meet the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday at Mile High Stadium. If the Broncos win, Tebow and the Broncos will host a playoff game the following weekend in Denver.

Wins and losses aside, Tim Tebow was good for the NFL in 2011. The lockout seems a distant memory, and with a network broadcast agreements that guarantee each NFL team more than $134 annually the NFL remains the sports industry’s gold standard.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

2011 – The year of the sports industry concussion

2011-12-28T08:56:00.003-05:00

The sports industry dealt with Child sex abuse allegations, scandals plaguing major college football programs, labor woes for the National Football League and National Basketball Association in 2011. However, one of the most important issues the sports industry was forced to deal with in 2011 was concussion and head related trauma.

The NHL suffered the loss of the game’s marquee player Sidney Crosby to concussions, two NHL players committed suicide and a third died from a drug overdose. All three deaths were linked to the role they played during their NHL careers.

Late last week two lawsuits were filed against the National Football League by former players alleging the league had ignored concussions they had suffered during their NFL careers.

The Associated Press reported over the last two weeks, 23 of 44 NFL players said they would try to conceal a possible concussion rather than pull themselves out of a game.

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Colby Armstrong suffered a concussion during a game against the Vancouver Canucks on December 17. He didn’t tell the team. Two days later Leafs trainers found Armstrong vomiting and suffering blurry vision.

“He didn’t tell the trainers or the doctors, but he had his bell rung,” said Leafs coach Ron Wilson according to the Toronto Star. “He was nauseated, blurry vision, so he’s got a concussion, and we didn’t know that.

“He’s going to be out however long he needs to be out now.”

“Everyone tries to play hurt, but you should never try to conceal a head injury — no one admires that or respects that,” Leafs President Brian Burke said. “We grudgingly respect when players hide other injuries, because they do it routinely. (Head injuries are) one where we absolutely insist the players be forthcoming.”

Colby Armstrong epitomizes the NHL’s nightmare, a fringe player hiding a life altering injury to try and save his career.

Crosby, the NHL’s best player, missed ten and half months before returning to play for the Penguins on November 21, 2011. Eight games later he began experiencing post-concussion symptoms and hasn’t played since.

If Crosby never plays another NHL game he’ll have more than made more than $50 million in his NHL career. Conversely, Colby Armstrong is in the first year of a three-year $9 million contract. Armstrong isn’t quite an NHL journeyman but he knows if he can’t play for whatever reason his NHL career will end when his current contract does. He clearly felt he had to play.

Crosby won’t return until he’s sure he’s concussion free, Armstrong tried to play with a concussion.

Just as disturbing was a report the Associated Press published over the Christmas weekend that suggested National Football League players will do whatever it takes to play football on Sundays.

Unlike the NHL, NBA and Major League Baseball, NFL contracts are not guaranteed. If an NFL player suffers a career ending concussion, he can be cut by his NFL team and lose his salary. In the National Football League only a player’s bonus is guaranteed.

"Hide it," Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew NFL's leading rusher told the Associated Press.

"The bottom line is: You have to be able to put food on the table. No one's going to sign or want a guy who can't stay healthy. I know there will be a day when I'm going to have trouble walking. I realize that," Jones-Drew said. "But this is what I signed up for. Injuries are part of the game. If you don't want to get hit, then you shouldn't be playing."

The Associated Press spoke to at least one player from each of the NFL’s 32 teams looking at whether concussion safety and attitudes about head injuries have changed in the past two years. The group included 33 starters and 11 reserves; 25 players on offense and 19 on defense; all have played at least three seasons in the NFL.

The players told the AP they were more aware of safety issue. Five of the 44 players admitted to hiding concussions they had suffered while playing in NFL games.

"You look at some of the cases where you see some of the retired players and the issues that they're having now, even with some of the guys who've passed and had their brains examined -- you see what their brains look like now," said Washington Redskins linebacker London Fletcher, the NFL's leading tackler. "That does play a part in how I think now about it."

"You want to continue to play. You're a competitor. You're not going to tell on yourself. There have been times I've been dinged, and they've taken my helmet from me, and ... I'd snatch my helmet back and get back on the field," Redskins backup fullback Mike Sellers offered in the AP report. "A lot of guys wouldn't say anything because a lot of guys wouldn't think anything during the game, until afterward, when they have a headache or they can't remember certain things."

The Associated Press report couldn’t have comforted the nearly two-dozen NFL players who filed a lawsuit against the NFL in lawsuits filed in Atlanta and Miami last week.

According to an Associated Press report: “one of the two lawsuits was filed Thursday in Miami on behalf of ex-Miami Dolphins team members Patrick Surtain, Oronde Gadsden and 19 other NFL players. Most now live in Florida. It accuses the National Football League of deliberately omitting or concealing evidence linking concussions and long-term neurological problems.”

The NFL was quick to deny the charges.

Following the Atlanta lawsuit, the NFL announced new concussion protocols for NFL teams.

“After reviewing our protocols for managing concussions with the NFLPA, our own medical advisors (including team physicians and athletic trainers), and outside experts, NFL clubs have been notified of two changes that will take effect with this week’s games.

“First, we have arranged for a certified athletic trainer to be at each game to monitor play of both teams and provide medical staffs with any relevant information that may assist them in determining the most appropriate evaluation and treatment. This athletic trainer will be stationed in a booth upstairs with access to video replay and direct communication to the medical staffs of both teams. In most cases, the athletic trainer will be affiliated with a major college program in the area or will have previously been affiliated with an NFL club. This individual will not diagnose or prescribe treatment, nor have any authority to direct that a player be removed from the game. Instead, the athletic trainer’s role will be to provide information to team medical staffs that might have been missed due to a lack of a clear view of the play or because they were attending to other players or duties. The athletic trainers are being identified and selected with the assistance of each club and the NFLPA. Their fees and expenses will be paid by the NFL office.

“Second, club medical staffs will be permitted to use their cell phones during games for purposes of obtaining information relating to the care of an injured player. This is not limited to concussions and is intended to assist team medical staffs in addressing a variety of injuries.

“Clubs also were reminded of the importance of team coaching and medical staffs continuing to work together to ensure that full information is available at all times to medical staffs, that players do not take steps to avoid evaluations, and that concussions continue to be managed in a conservative and medically appropriate way.”

The announcement of new policies followed a concussion Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy suffered after a helmet-to-helmet hit from Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison. Harrison received a one game suspension costing him over $73,000. The Browns “hope” McCoy returns for a meaningless final game against host Harrison and the Steelers in Cleveland Sunday.

The concussion issue will not go away just because the calendars change to 2012.

The NFL may need to make an example of someone like James Harrison the next time he throws a helmet-to-helmet hit. The NFL should consider banning Harrison for half an NFL season. His 2011 base pay was $1.25 million. A half season suspension would cost him half his salary. Only then will players like James Harrison learn that type of behavior isn’t acceptable in the National Football League.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

The shame the sports industry felt in 2011

2011-12-27T08:33:00.004-05:00

In 2010 ESPN and the ABC’s 20/20 reported on allegations of sexual abuse among youth coaches certified by USA Swimming. The sports industry reported the disturbing news but quickly moved onto other issues.

The sports industry was changed forever on Friday, November 4, 2011 when a Pennsylvania grand jury indicted former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on charges of sexual abuse. Others have since been alleged to have taken part in sexual abuse like the now fired Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, Bobby Dodd the now former head of the powerful American Athletic Union and now retired Philadelphia Daily News sports writer Bill Conlin. Conlin was recognized by the Baseball Writers of America in July at the Baseball Hall of Fame. All of these events occurred over the last two months.

"Sexual abuse affects everyone everywhere," says former U.S. Olympic swimmer Margaret Hoelzer, who was abused when she was 5 and has studied the topic and now speaks about it in an ESPN Outside the Lines report. "You can live in the richest gated community in the world, and I guarantee there is at least one sex offender, if not more, in that neighborhood."

So many questions for the sports industry as 2011 comes to an end and so few answers. Is the sports industry beyond repair? No, but the sports world has been changed forever and a sacred bond that once existed between the sports world and the adults who are empowered to mentor young people has been altered.

What is clear is “we,” the sports industry, have either chosen to ignore the specter of sexual abuse.

“I think there is a disillusionment there, but I think it’s reality. We haven’t seen behind the curtain before,” said Jarrod Chin, director for training and curriculum at the Center for Sport in Society at Northeastern University in an Associated Press report. “We’ve used sport as a way to ignore problems. But now what we’re seeing is they exist there, too.

“That’s what makes it the worst year in sports. What people are coming to realize is the thing we thought was such a great escape has a lot of the same issues we’re trying to escape from.”

A study conducted by sociology professor Sandra Kirby of the University of Winnipeg in 1995 concluded that 22.8 percent of respondents had sexual intercourse with a coach or other person in position of authority within their sport. As difficult as it has been for the sports industry to try and comprehend the news that has dominated the news since Sandusky was arraigned on November 4, it’s almost impossible to imagine what the Canadian study produced 16 years ago.

"Although there are a few cases where strangers accost a child and abuse occurs," domestic violence expert Lisa Smith of Brooklyn Law School told Yahoo Sports, "it is much more common for adults known to the child and, most importantly, trusted by the child to be the perpetrators. Sports provide an opportunity for contact and the building of trust, so the environment for abuse exists."

Parents bring up their children always telling them not to talk to strangers. The same set of rules never applied when Jerry Sandusky offered young, impressionable and often “lost boys” a chance to get close to Penn State’s football program.

It’s almost impossible to imagine how terrible the parents of Sandusky’s victims must feel today.

Penn State’s football program represented everything to everyone who lived in the region. The program was larger than life and Sandusky was part of the “magic”. The Nittany Lions won national championships in 1982 and 1986 and Sandusky was a key to their success.

After Sandusky ‘retired’ in 1998 his access to the Nittany Lions remained in place. Sandusky had access to the football team, the football teams’ locker room, to entire program. All too often parents believe so much in those they entrust to coach their children, a trust that is now forever shattered.

"Isn't that why you choose a certain coach?" Dan Lebowitz, executive director of Sports and Society at Northeastern University told Yahoo Sports. "The thinking is, this coach is better for the child development of your kid. Whether it's at camp at age 10 or college at age 18, these coaches become huge in the development of youth. Everyone's thinking this is the best place for my kid.”

The Associated Press should be applauded for making the Sandusky story their sports story of the year. The Sandusky report “finally” ensured allegations Bernie Fine who, for 36-years, served as Syracuse men’s assistant basketball coach would be brought forward.

That led to the Bobby Dodd AAU news and the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting that Bill Conlin was facing similar allegations.

Sports reporters have little, if any, understanding of what makes a child predator and similarly little, if any, knowledge of the aftermath the victims experience. Conversely, experts in sexual predation had little, if any, understanding of how the sports world operates.

"Your average dad isn't going to watch a Lifetime movie about some girl who got molested," says Hoelzer. "But you can believe he's watching ESPN and knows exactly what's happening at Penn State or Syracuse. And if there's a silver lining in this, that's it. This can introduce this topic to a new audience and serve as the wake-up call we so desperately need."

"I don't want to say I was holding my breath, waiting for this to happen, but it was always a matter of where, not when," says Kristen Dieffenbach, who teaches athletic coaching education at West Virginia University and has studied coaching ethics and sexual abuse in sports.

As hard as it is to believe, there is some good that can come out of this tragedy. Parents will now have to make sure whenever their children are part of sports team that they understand that they need to be attentive if they are alone with their coach.

The Penn State football program will one day move forward from the aftermath of Jerry Sandusky, and children will once again attend Penn State football games with caring adults who are there to mentor.

"We can't change what happened," Dieffenbach told ESPN. "But we have to get angry about it. We have the power and responsibility to prevent the culture from letting this happen again."

"You can have new policies and procedures and posters, but is that real change?" asks former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy, who was sexually abused as a youth hockey player in Canada in an ESPN report. "Most organizations don't even know where to start with this discussion. It's: Let's hope this never happens here, and if it does, we will put out the fire as fast as we can and shove it back under the carpet."

The process has begun. Awareness is everywhere. The next step is change and, as Sheldon Kennedy suggests, most organizations aren’t even aware of what is taking place in their organization.

It’s a safe bet that since the college sports world was rocked by the news from Penn State and Syracuse, every college athletic department is conducting extensive background checks on everyone associated with their athletic departments.

No one wants to be the next Penn State, the next Syracuse and experience what the AAU is going through and the only way that can happen is through better monitoring. The sad news is how many young children could have been saved if those in charge had paid closer attention to what was taking place?

Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and Penn State President Graham Spanier were both fired days after Sandusky’s first indictment largely because many believehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd they had played an active role in covering up allegations that Sandusky had raped a ten-year old boy in Penn State’s football locker room in 2002.

Sandusky was arrested for a second time on December 7 on additional counts of sexual abuse. One of Sandusky’s victims offered testimony that he had been raped by Sandusky in Sandusky’s home in 2004.

If Penn State had reported what Mike McQueary had told Penn State officials he had witnessed in 2002, victim number nine might never have been raped by Jerry Sandusky. Forget about whether or not Penn State officials may have broken the law by covering up the horrific 2002 allegations, a life was changed forever because of their inaction.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

College Athletics 2011 – Scandalous

2011-12-26T00:14:00.003-05:00

The year that was for college athletics isn’t quite over. With bowl games filling the holiday week, college sports hopes to take a respite from what can only be called one of the worst years in the history of the NCAA.

Allegations of child sex abuse dominated headlines over the last few months, but earlier in the year the Fiesta Bowl and football programs at Ohio State, North Carolina, and the University of Miami were each under the microscope for various infractions.

Former University of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro, serving 20-years for being at the center of a $930 million South Florida based Ponzi scheme, became the central figure in a Yahoo Sports investigative report that looked at Shapiro making improper payments to football and basketball players at the University of Miami between 2002 and 2010. According to the Yahoo report Shapiro made more than $2 million in illegal payments to Hurricane athletes during the eight-year period.

Shapiro believed his involvement was a direct continuation of Luther Campbell's activities. Campbell, like Shapiro, loved being close to Miami’s football program. In 1993, Campbell threatened to go public with various violations relating to the football program if Ryan Collins, a black player, wasn't named their starting quarterback.

Campbell was interviewed about his involvement with the Miami Hurricanes for the documentary The U, which aired on ESPN in 2009.

In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Shapiro said: “Here’s the thing: Luther Campbell was the first uncle who took care of players before I got going. His role was diminished by the NCAA and the school, and someone needed to pick up that mantle. That someone was me. He was ‘Uncle Luke,’ and I became ‘Little Luke.’”

Soon after Shapiro’s world fell apart, he reached out to many of the players he had allegedly offered gifts too. After none of the athletes returned his calls Shapiro contacted Yahoo Sports to tell his story.

The NCAA has yet to conclude their investigation of the University of Miami. Many so-called college athletic pundits believed Miami could receive the death penalty (having their program banned for at least one year). That isn’t expected to take place and, unlike Ohio State, Miami announced they would not attend a bowl game this year.

While Miami’s decision won’t impact what sanctions the NCAA could impose, it appears Miami is prepared to accept penalties for what happened.

Last Tuesday, Ohio State was cited by the NCAA for failure to monitor preferential treatment and extra benefit violations in its football program. Former Head Coach Jim Tressel also was found to have engaged in unethical conduct for not reporting NCAA rule violations.

Ohio State will play in the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl on January 2. The Buckeyes won’t be playing in a bowl game in 2012, face three years of additional probation and have lost nine football scholarships. As for Jim Tressel, he was fired.

When the penalties were handed down last week, Ohio State President Gordon Gee offered a few gems: "I think we stumbled out of the gate. I think we made mistakes initially. I think we did not get a strong start. I think we gathered ourselves and put together a good approach, and I think from that point on I think we've done very well."

The one who really stumbled and, in fact fell flat on his face, was Tressel. Tressel was first contacted by Columbus attorney Christopher T. Cicero, a former Ohio State walk-on player in the 1980s, and says he has been told that current Buckeyes players have been selling signed memorabilia to tattoo parlor owner Edward Rife, who is under federal investigation by the U.S. attorney's office.

Not only did Tressel ignore Cicero but, on September 13, 2010, Tressel signed an annual NCAA certificate of compliance form indicating he knows of no violations and has reported to the school any knowledge of possible violations. Given that Cicero and Tressel had exchanged more than a dozen emails after Cicero first contacted him on April 2, 2010, it would appear indeed Tressel never got out of the gate in trying to deal with the truth.

On the eve of the start of North Carolina’s 2011 football training camp, the school announced they were firing Butch Davis as head football coach. North Carolina’s football program came under fire in 2010 after ESPN broke a story that several North Carolina football players, notably San Francisco 49er Kentwan Balmer, had accepted money from agents while they were students at North Carolina.

North Carolina’s problems extended to nine football players and their relationship with a tutor. A source told ESPN that these former players might have had papers written by this tutor.
Somehow Davis managed to field a competitive football team in 2010 and even won a bowl game but the school waited until days before the start of their 2011 football training camp to fire him.

"Our academic integrity is paramount, and we must work diligently to protect it," North Carolina chancellor Holden Thorp said in a statement. "The only way to move forward and put this behind us is to make a change."

"I can honestly say I leave with the full confidence that I have done nothing wrong," Davis said. "I was the head coach and I realize the responsibility that comes with that role. But I was not personally involved in, nor aware of, any actions that prompted the NCAA investigation."

The NCAA met with North Carolina officials in late October and are expected to announced what sanctions the school will face in the next 30 days.

In 2010 the NCAA announced a series of sanctions against USC’s football program after an investigation revealed that former Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, and his family, had received improper benefits from agents vying to represent him. These incentives included free airfare and limousine rides, a car, and a rent-free home in San Diego.

As a result, the BCS stripped USC of its 2004 national title, and Bush returned the Heisman Trophy he had won in 2005.

In March 2011, Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker was fired after an investigation revealed he had been at the center of a cover-up that included payments to politicians over a 30-year period.

The Arizona Republic first broke the news that under Junker’s leadership the Fiesta Bowl had done whatever they had to do to ensure they would have the necessary political support, and taxpayer dollars, to facilitate the Fiesta Bowl’s future as a BCS event.

The common denominator in these five events is money. College athletics, and in particular football, is often an economic engine for a university.

The BCS, billion dollar national television contracts, boosters running amok are seemingly business as usual for the NCAA.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

The National Football League – monster TV

2011-12-22T17:50:00.001-05:00

NFL games are 23 of the 25 most-watched programs among all television shows this fall and draw more than twice as many average viewers as primetime broadcast shows. The economic engine that drives the National Football League –their broadcast agreements.

The National Football League has their television broadcast agreements in place through the 2024 NFL season. Fox’s average rights fee will jump to about $1.1 billion a year from $725 million in 2013. CBS’s payments will increase to nearly $1 billion from $625 million, and NBC’s fees will go to $950 million from $612 million. ESPN’s recent agreement can be added to that. Three months ago it approved a 73 percent increase to $1.9 billion annually for eight years.

The NFL will generate more than $4 billion annually in broadcast revenues, an average of more than $134 million for each of the NFL’s 32 member franchises.

“In these difficult economic times, you want to create stability and planning for our business,” said Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and chairman of the league’s broadcast committee in a New York Times report.

“When we made our C.B.A. deal with the players,” he said about the collective bargaining agreement reached last summer, “we promised if they worked with us, they would be the big beneficiary — and they’re getting 55 percent of the TV money.”

The NFL and the NFL Players Association reached an agreement for a new ten-year collective bargaining agreement that will last through the 2020 season in August.

“These agreements underscore the NFL’s unique commitment to broadcast television that no other sport has,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “The agreements would not have been possible without our new 10-year labor agreement and the players deserve great credit. Long-term labor peace is allowing the NFL to continue to grow and the biggest beneficiaries are the players and fans.

“CBS, FOX and NBC have served NFL fans with the highest-quality television production,” Commissioner Goodell said. “The networks will continue their outstanding coverage of the NFL while also helping to deliver more football to more fans using the best and most current technology.”

The NFL and NBC, who hold the broadcast rights for Super Bowl XLVI, announced this year’s Super Bowl will be streamed online at NBC.com for the first time.

“We are pleased to work with our partners NBC and Verizon to bring our fans more ways to watch their favorite sport during their favorite time of the year,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL Senior Vice President of Media Strategy and Development.

“With a heritage of streaming live NFL games since 2008, we are especially excited to now bring our unique and innovative SNF Extra video experience to the NFL Playoffs, Pro Bowl, and Super Bowl,” said Rick Cordella, Vice President & General Manager, NBC Sports Digital Media. “By adding multiple camera angles, HD-quality video, DVR controls along with social interactivity, our online streaming represents a compelling, second-screen experience that nicely complements NBC's on-air presentation.”

Which begs the question, in the toughest economic period since the Great Depression, why and how could network executives justify paying billions of dollars to televise NFL games?

Mark Lazarus, a former Turner executive who is now the chairman of the NBC Sports Group, told The New York Times: “In an early discussion, they said that this would have had a different value at a cable network, whether that’s Turner or whoever. They’ve seen what ESPN does with the N.F.L. on cable.”

Lazarus is the force behind the rebranding of Versus to the NBC Sports Network on January 2. Count on Lazarus to be even more aggressive with the NFL. Their new NFL agreement includes the rights for the Thanksgiving night game.

When the NFL makes additional Thursday night games available, NBC and the NBC Sports Network will bid very aggressively. Lazarus is well aware how important the NFL is to ESPN.

Lazarus will add a Sunday morning NFL show that reportedly will go head-to-head with ESPN’s Sunday three-hour NFL show, the NFL Network’s four-hour Sunday morning show and CBS and Fox’s one-hour broadcasts.

“Hopefully, it will improve our schedule,” said Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports. “It’s potentially significant.”

President and CEO of CBS Corp. Leslie Moonves added: "No other franchise delivers ratings the way an NFL game does. The League has proven time and again that it understands the importance of a healthy broadcast partner, and this historic new agreement strengthens that partnership. In addition, the deal continues CBS' ability to be profitable with the NFL throughout the coming decade and beyond."

David Hill, chairman of the Fox Sports Media Group, told The New York Times that the company was paying a lot more for largely the same package of rights it now has.

“It’s a strong increase, but you’re not talking about normal things,” Hill said. “The N.F.L. transcends everything, as it has soared to astronomical heights.”

"The National Football League is the greatest television property in the world and we are thrilled that it remains the cornerstone of Fox Sports and the Fox Network well into the next decade," Hill added

It would seem that it’s next to impossible for networks to turn a profit on their NFL programming. They lose money for the most part with the exception of the year(s) they broadcast the Super Bowl. The NFL is about much more than the advertising revenue that is part of each game.

NBC will use this year’s Super Bowl to showcase programming NBC offers during their primetime schedule. Fox, CBS and NBC use a significant percentage of their programming each game to showcase programming.

The NFL broadcast agreement ensures NFL teams in each teams’ home market will be able to see their team’s games on a terrestrial network. The NFL is the only sports league that can make that bold a statement. Monday Night Football games on ESPN are televised on an over-the-air station, as long as the home team meets the blackout rule for that game.

The NBA airs both of their conference finals are on cable. Major League Baseball airs one of the league championship series on Fox and the other on TBS. The NHL airs most of their playoffs on Versus, including at least two Stanley Cup Final games.

NBC Universal’s Chief Executive Steve Burke told the New York Times he was ready to pay more for NFL rights, but in order to sell it to his shareholders it had make good business sense. Getting the rights to the Thanksgiving Night game was a key,

“When everybody has finished their turkey and is ready to watch football, you are likely to generate significantly higher viewers than a Sunday night. Combine that with the fact that it’s the night before Black Friday and if you’re an advertiser, you have to be in the game.”

“Think of ways to add value to the existing package. So we did it until we got to a place where we were basically at break-even.” Burke concluded.

NFL players, as Kraft pointed, out receive 55% of television revenues.

The NFL TV deals are all about making money for everyone. It’s a money making machine for the players, the leagues and the network.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Sacré bleu – Entraîner Les Canadiens de Montreal

2011-12-21T17:43:00.002-05:00

On Saturday the Montreal Canadiens fired their coach Jacques Martin and hired Randy Cunneyworth as the interim head coach.

The Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup 23 times, more than any other National Hockey League franchise. Only the New York Yankees, with 27 World Series titles, have won more championships than the Canadiens.

For Cunneyworth it’s a dream come true, but that dream is quickly turning into a nightmare for the man who played 16 years in the NHL, served as a head coach for eight years in the American Hockey League, and spent past three and a half years as an NHL assistant coach.

While Cunneyworth appears to have the credentials to coach an NHL team, coaching the Montreal Canadiens isn’t like the other 29 NHL head coaching positions. The Canadiens are one of sports most cherished franchises and they play in Quebec, a Canadian province where more than 80% of the population speaks French.

Randy Cunneyworth is the first Montreal Canadiens coach since Bob Berry in the early 80s who
cannot speak any French.

Canadiens owner, President and CEO Geoff Molson made the following comments Monday.

“On Saturday, our general manager Pierre Gauthier made a coaching change and named Randy Cunneyworth interim head coach of the Montreal Canadiens until the end of the 2011-12 season.

“This important decision was made with the objective of giving the team a much-needed spark after disappointing results since the start of the 2011-12 season. We are responsible for providing our fans and partners with a winning team and believe that this move will contribute to improve the overall performance of our team and produce positive results this season. The action was taken to remedy the situation without further delay.

“Randy Cunneyworth is a qualified and experienced coach who has earned the respect of the players and everyone within the organisation and he was ready to take over the responsibility of head coach. As Pierre Gauthier indicated, the head coaching position will be revaluated at the end of the season and, at that time the selection process will be carefully planned.

“Although our main priority remains to win hockey games and to keep improving as a team, it is obvious that the ability for the head coach to express himself in both French and English will be a very important factor in the selection of the permanent head coach.

“Like all our fans we hope for the Montreal Canadiens to be among the top teams in the NHL and we are doing everything we possibly can to win.

“We would like to thank all our fans for their understanding.”

The Quiet Revolution marked a period of intense change in Quebec. Characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions. Many believe the birth of the Quiet Revolution was ignited by then-NHL Commissioner Clarence Campbell suspending Canadiens star Maurice Richard for the remainder of the 1954–55 season, including the playoffs.

French Canadiens believed Campbell was motivated in large part by Richard's French Canadian ethnicity. Campbell attended a game at the Montreal Forum four nights later and ensued causing an estimated $100,000 in property damage. 37 people were injured and over 100 arrests were made. Montreal, Quebec and Canada changed forever that night.

There aren’t many NHL coaches who can speak both English and French. Two of them, Claude Julien and Alain Vigneault, met in last year’s Stanley Cup Final between the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks. Both Julien and Vigneault had served as head coach of the Canadiens once upon a time.

Quebec’s Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre believes the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens should be able to speak French.

"I have the utmost respect for the language here and I am very aware of how important it is to try and learn the language," Cunneyworth said after running his first practice. "Obviously I know a few words, and not all the good ones."

Former Canadiens captain and head coach Guy Carbonneau echoed St-Pierre’s comments.

"He's (Cunneyworth) living a dream, which is doing what he loves for one of the best franchises in the NHL, and he's caught in a storm," said Carbonneau, a former Canadiens captain and coach.

"It's premature. You have to give him a chance to show what he can do and if he's willing to learn.

"But there's no doubt in my mind that the coach of the Montreal Canadiens has to speak both languages, at least to some extent."

Le Journal de Montreal, one of Quebec’s largest selling daily newspapers, threw more fuel onto the fire Tuesday, running a front page headline "Another Loss For Cunneyworth" to make sure he understood, after the Canadiens lost Monday night in Boston.

"I like to think we were hired on our hockey background first and foremost," Vigneault told The Canadian Press in Vancouver. "I think all of us (former Canadiens coaches) that have gone on to other teams have proven that it was the right decision at the time."

It isn’t as simple an issue as it appears. The head coach of the Montreal Canadiens may be the most important person in the Province of Quebec. Those who live in Wisconsin and in Green Bay love their Packers. New Englanders live and die with their Red Sox. Both passions pales in comparison to how Quebecers feel about their beloved Canadiens.

The Canadiens are much more than a sports franchise to Quebec; it serves as their cultural identity. The early years of the NHL Entry Draft allowed the Montreal Canadiens to protect two
Francophone players before the draft began. That practice ended after the 1969 draft when the Canadiens used that right to protect the two best entering the NHL that year, Rejean Houle and Marc Tardif.

There are three French Canadians currently on the Canadiens roster. The Canadiens captain is Brian Gionta who was born in Rochester, New York.

It really isn’t as simple and wins and losses in Montreal. Al MacNeil coached the Canadiens to a Stanley Cup during the one year he was the teams’ head coach in 1970-71, he only spoke English.

Randy Cunneyworth deserves a much better hand than he’s being dealt. In all likelihood he will be fired when the season comes to an end and replaced by a coach who speaks French and English.

He may not be as good an NHL coach as Cunneyworth but if you’re going to be successful coaching the Montreal Canadiens both on and off the ice you have to be able to speak French and English – those are the rules of the game as it is played in Montreal.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Texas Rangers contenders – Toronto Blue Jays pretenders

2011-12-20T18:08:00.004-05:00

Late Monday evening the Texas Rangers won the right to negotiate with Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish by submitting a winning bid of approximately $51.7 million that was accepted by the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. The Rangers now have 30 days to work out a deal. If they can't sign Darvish by then, he returns to the Fighters and they return the $51.7 million to the Rangers.

The Toronto Blue Jays who were very interested have nothing to show it.

The Rangers, winners of the last two American League pennants, but losers of the last two World Series sent a message to the rest of Major League Baseball that they are a major market baseball team.

The Blue Jays enjoyed a few days of suggesting to the baseball universe and their fans that they were finally moving from pretender to contender status in the American League East. It’s the strange case of two Major League Baseball franchises and the mixed message they managed to send out to the baseball world in the past week.

Darvish wasn’t a free agent. Baseball doesn’t have an international amateur player draft, so his team, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of the Japanese Baseball League, posted his rights. MLB teams submitted sealed bids for the rights to negotiate with Darvish and The Fighters accepted the highest bid.

"Darvish is the No. 1 pitcher in Japan, but we want him to become the ace of the world," Nippon Ham team representative Toshimasa Shimada said this month when Darvish rights were made available to the highest bidder.

Much of the attention as to which teams were interested in bidding on Darvish focused on the Rangers and the Blue Jays, the two teams who had their general managers fly to Japan to see the 25-year old pitch.

It might have made as much sense for the Boston Red Sox, whose new manager Bobby Valentine, managed in Japan against Darvish, but the Red Sox weren’t interested.
They were bitten once before by this process in the signing of Daisuke Matsuzaka to a six-year $52 million contract in 2006.

The Red Sox paid Matsuzaka’s Japanese team, the Seibu Lions, a posting fee of $51.1 million. Matsuzaka was injured for most of the 2011 season. He was effective for the Red Sox in 2007 and pitched to a record of 18-3 in 2008. However, he has missed large parts of the last three MLB seasons with injuries.

As much money as Boston likes to spend on talent, the next time the Red Sox invest more than $100 million on a Japanese pitcher they’ll be looking for a great deal more than the 69 wins Dice-K has given them over his first five years. The Red Sox learned a valuable lesson of caveat emptor - or buyer beware.

The Rangers have come close to winning the last two World Series and lost their best starting pitcher C.J. Wilson to division rivals the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels also signed Albert Pujols.

"Obviously this is a very exciting night for our organization, for our fans and for our community," Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said in a conference call an hour after Major League Baseball officially announced the Rangers had submitted the winning bid.

"This is just the first step in the process, but an important one," Daniels said.
"It's one that we hope will lead to signing Yu Darvish to a contract, but we understand the negotiations are just beginning. Our ownership group went the extra mile to support us on this."

ESPN Dallas reporter Jean Jacques Taylor may have summed it up best when he suggested: “This is about low-key owners Bob Simpson and Ray Davis, who gave Jon Daniels permission to reportedly drop $51.7 million on the Nippon Ham Fighters just for the right to negotiate a deal with Darvish, who reportedly wants a five-year deal in the neighborhood of $15 million per year.

“Finally, the Rangers are a big-market club in every sense of the word.”

Simpson and Davis had to send a message to Angels’ owner Arte Moreno that they’re not going to sit around and watch him buy a championship team.

It’s becoming clear the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox aren’t the only big market franchises willing to spend whatever they have to do win today. The Rangers and Angels are in the same boat.

The Toronto Blue Jays won the 1992 and 1993 World Series. On the eve of the 1992 season the Blue Jays added free agents Jack Morris and Dave Winfield and won the World Series. A year later, with Winfield having departed and Jimmy Key gone to free agency, the Jays signed Dave Stewart and Paul Molitor. Again, they won the World Series.

The 2011 Blue Jays won 81 games. The 1991 Blue Jays won the American League East but lost in the American League Championship series to eventual World Champion, the Minnesota Twins. The 1991 Blue Jays were one or two players away from winning a World Series, the 2011 Blue Jays are many, many players away from contending for a playoff spot, and are nowhere close to being legitimate World Series contenders.

If the Blue Jays had won the rights to negotiate with Yu Darvish they were looking at spending north of $120 million on one player. The Blue Jays are not a baseball team that can afford to invest anywhere close to $100 million on any baseball player.

The Blue Jays 2011 payroll was just a shade over $70 million. What made the Blue Jays reported interest in Darvish questionable was a press conference Blue Jays general Manager Alex Anthopoulos held shortly after the baseball winter meetings. Anthopoulos talked at great length about the Blue Jays payroll parameters.

"That’s probably not a question for me, it’s not impacting us in ’12, but I think in ’13 and beyond it’s going to impact us, certainly we’re going to be receiving less," Anthopoulos replied when asked whether the new baseball CBA would affect his payroll parameters. "I don’t get involved in those conversations with accounting, but there’s no question that’s going to be phased out and we’re going to lose dollars there.

"I’m sure that has some type of bearing and impact.

"If there’s something we need to go over for … with certain cases we’ll jump up beyond that," he said. "There’s no question that there’s areas I’ve been asked to be, and I can work within those areas. Whatever I’m handed to work with, I can make it work." Anthopoulos said.

The general managers of the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels and Rangers appear to have few, if any, so called “payroll parameters”. Each of those teams 2012 payrolls will be well north of $125 million; the Blue Jays 2012 payroll may not hit $80 million.

That’s not to suggest the Blue Jays can’t contend for a playoff spot in 2012, but that is to say Anthopoulos is operating under a competitive disadvantage when it comes to his signing of talent as opposed to the “big market” American League franchises.

The Blue Jays may not be pretenders but to suggest they’re contenders would be wrong. The Blue Jays aren’t quite ready to put their feet in the deep end just yet.

For this is Howard Bloom

It’s time for the NHL to change!

2011-12-19T19:56:00.005-05:00

The National Hockey League’s 2011-12 season will hit its home stretch in the next month or so. Spring will bring the Stanley Cup playoffs, the best time for hockey fans. However, the current “times” have been anything but the best of times for the Lords of the Rink.

Hockey fans remember 2011 as the year Minnesota Wild defenseman Derek Boogaard, Winnipeg center Rick Rypien and the recently retired Wade Belak all died tragically – Boogaard from a drug overdose, Rypien and Belak both committed suicide. Boogaard, Rypien and Belak were all NHL enforcers, players paid to fight. Their deaths are all connected to the sport they played as professionals.

Hockey’s marquee player Sidney Crosby missed playing hockey ten and a half months this year after suffering back-to-back concussions in games in early January. Crosby returned in mid-November, played eight games and is again forced to the sidelines suffering from what Crosby has called post-concussion syndrome. Thursday night Philadelphia Flyers captain Chris Pronger, a hockey player who represented Canada in the last four Olympic Games and will one day be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, had his 2011-12 season end as a direct result of a concussion. Its likely Pronger will never play hockey again.

Is it time for the NHL to change? Is it time for the “physicality” of hockey that National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman embraced two short weeks ago as “something our fans love” to undergo a fundamental change?

In an editorial published Monday, the Canadian Medical Journal interim editor-in-chief Dr. Rajendra Kale suggested it was time for hockey to change:

“Simultaneously, I was appalled by the disgraceful and uncivilized practice of fighting and causing intentional head trauma,” the neurologist said in an interview from Ottawa published by the Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s national newspapers.

“It doesn't seem to fit in ... I almost thought that these were two different games being played,” said Kale, who moved to Canada from London more than three years ago.
Ken Dryden, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, former Toronto Maple Leafs’ President and a former member of Canada’s Parliament, in an op-ed piece in the Globe and Mail, called for Gary Bettman to make changes to how hockey is played, while recognizing just how tough Gary Bettman’s job is.

“In the U.S., Mr. Bettman has to try to make hockey matter for more than just an intensely dedicated minority, and beyond the north and northeast. For Americans, it's Major League Baseball and the National Football League first, then the National Basketball Association, and then … the NHL. The result is a perpetual struggle to matter,” said Dryden.

“This means having teams in parts of the U.S. where the main aim has to be simple survival. Ask any chief executive officer what he or she would do if one-quarter of his or her stores were dragging down the others.

“The answer: Close them and focus on the business's strengths. But Mr. Bettman can't do that.

“I've disagreed with him at times, but I've found him right far more often than wrong. Of all the NHL presidents or commissioners I've seen, as a player, an administrator and a fan, Gary Bettman is easily the best.

“Today, though, he faces a bigger challenge: head injuries. He has seen the dangerous mess of the past few years, with the premature deaths of former players, suicides and concussions that have ended or shortened careers. Now, there's the grave uncertainty over the future of his league's biggest star, Sidney Crosby.

“All through it, I was sure there would come a point where Mr. Bettman would say, “Enough.” He would intervene on the issue of head injuries as forcibly as he has on franchise and collective-bargaining matters. Instead, he has left it to others – first to Colin Campbell, an NHL executive formerly in charge of player safety, and now to former star player Brendan Shanahan.”

Dryden “hits the nail on the head” in looking at the problem and what is being done. While the NHL has put the right person in place in trying to deal with the violence of the sport (Shanahan), given how the sport is viewed in the United States, it might be impossible to change the way the game is played.

Does Brendan Shanahan have the right pedigree to move the help move hockey forward? During his hockey career Shanahan was a member of three Stanley Cup winning teams, part of the 2002 Canadian team that won the gold medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics and the Canadian team that won the 1994 World Championship. He is the only NHL player to have scored more than 600 goals and collected more than 2,000 penalty minutes. Shanahan currently works in the NHL office as the league's vice president of hockey and business operations. He has the right background!

The question that needs to be asked is this: Is having the right person in place enough to make the changes to the sport, especially when you consider how serious those changes would impact the sport?

Sidney Crosby is the one athlete who this sport can’t lose. If LeBron James never plays basketball again, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade can each fill in. Peyton Manning, who will miss the 2011 NFL season, was the NFL’s biggest and most important player before the start of the current season. Tim Tebow, Aaron Rogers, Tom Brady and several other players make it clear no one player is bigger than the game itself. Ryan Braun, one of baseball brightest stars, is facing a suspension after testing positive for the use of a performance-enhancement drug and baseball hasn’t missed a beat. The National Hockey League cannot afford to lose Sidney Crosby and its clear Sidney Crosby’s hockey career is one hit to his head away from ending.

Twenty-three of the NHL’s current 30 teams are based in the United States. Canadians will forever love the frozen sport, but it’s the American population where the league, as Ken Dryden noted, faces its biggest challenge. Ask the average Canadian hockey fan what style of hockey they believe is best and they’ll tell you the international game. In the Olympics, the World Junior Hockey Championships and in college hockey – one fight and you’re handed a game suspension. In the National Hockey League, you’re given a five minute fighting penalty and allowed to return to the game.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman at a 2007 press conference broadcast on CBC Sports in Canada, was asked about fighting and the NHL: “Fighting has always had a role in the game...from a player safety standpoint, what happens in fighting is something we need to look at just as we need to look at hits to the head. But we're not looking to have a debate on whether fighting is good or bad or should be part of the game.”

Ask the families of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak how they feel about fighting in hockey today.

Hockey is a wonderful sport. It is the fastest game on two feet. Removing body-checking completely from hockey will never take place. Hockey without any body-checking is a sports event no one will watch. It isn’t entertaining.

Banning fighting and ending hits to the head must take place. The NHL must put an end to fighting. If a player fights in an NHL game, he should receive a match penalty (suspended for that game), a second fight in a game he should be suspended for two games. If a player hits a player to his opponents head, that player should immediately receive a two game suspension. That suspension should double each time.
The player who receives the penalty should also lose the equivalent of whatever they were going to be paid to play in that game.

There are other changes that must be made to hockey, but this is a good place to start building the future of hockey. The game as it is being played today – players are dying, careers are ending prematurely. It’s time for Gary Bettman and the Lords of the Rink to step up and to do what’s right.

For Sports Business News, this is Howard Bloom

The Shame of Penn State Football

2011-12-18T21:35:00.003-05:00

Penn State and Jerry Sandusky, Jerry Sandusky and Penn State, like a bad marriage – inevitably and seemingly linked together forever. Friday, Mike McQueary, then a graduate assistant, testified for more than two hours at the hearing that determined Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz will face perjury charges in the case that centers on the two administrators’ failure to report allegations that Sandusky, Penn State’s former assistant football coach, raped a ten-year old boy in 2002.

"I would have said that Jerry was in there in very close proximity to a boy with his arms wrapped around him. I said I heard slapping sounds. I described it was extremely sexual and that some kind of intercourse was going on," McQueary, now a Penn State football coach on paid administrative leave, testified on Friday, referring to the locker room shower incident.

“I really didn’t know what to do,” McQueary said on the stand.
The heart of the matter remains – Did Penn State University and their Athletic Department participate in covering up the reprehensible allegations McQueary testified took place in Penn State’s football locker room in 2002?

McQueary contacted Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno (now fired) the day after the incident and explained what he saw.

"I said, `Coach, I need to come to your house and talk to you about something,' " McQueary testified. "I went over to his house, sat at his kitchen table and told him I had seen Jerry ... it was extremely sexual in nature."

"I went to Coach Paterno because I knew he would handle it the right way, what I thought was the right way."

What did Paterno have to say (this from Paterno’s grand jury testimony that led to the charges against Sandusky moving forward)?

"He had seen a person, not an older, but a mature person who was fondling or whatever you might call it," Paterno's testimony reads.

Paterno told the grand jury he called Tim Curley, "I said, hey, we've got a problem, and I explained the problem to him. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Mr. Curley, and I thought he would look into it," Paterno continued.

What did Tim Curley have to say? (Here is where, at least in part, why the perjury charges against him are moving forward, as part of his original grand jury testimony.)

Curley said "absolutely not" when asked if Mike McQueary reported having witnessed anal sex in the showers at the Lasch Football Building.

Covering up a child sex abuse scandal is wrong. If in fact, as McQueary testified, he told Penn State administrators in 2002 and Penn State administrators failed to report the Sandusky allegations to the police, what Sandusky did after 2002 might have been prevented if the police knew what Sandusky had done then.

On Wednesday, December 5, one of Penn State’s biggest nightmares came true. Additional charges were filed against Sandusky, indicting him on allegations that he sexually molested a young man, who in 2004 was ten years old, referred to in grand jury testimony as “victim number nine.”

Victim number nine (now 18) claims Sandusky took him to Penn State football games and gave him gifts and money in 2004. Victim number nine claimed Sandusky raped him in the basement of the Sandusky home in 2004, according to the grand jury.

Given that Penn State chose to cover-up the 2002 allegations and assuming victim number nine is telling the truth, he may not have been a victim at all if Penn State had reported what McQueary told school officials he witnessed. There is no forgiveness for anyone at Penn State who played any role in the aftermath of the 2002 incident and failed to report the allegations to local law enforcement.

“As in many of the other cases identified to date, the contact with Sandusky allegedly fit a pattern of `grooming’ victims,” Attorney General Linda Kelly said in a statement. “Beginning with outings to football games and gifts; they later included physical contact that escalated to sexual assaults.”

According to McQueary’s testimony, Curley and Schultz told him they would investigate what McQueary told them.

Soon after McQueary told Paterno, Curley and Schultz what he witnessed, McQueary, a graduate assistant coach at the time of the 2002 incident, was offered a full-time coaching position with Penn State. There has been a great deal of criticism directed at McQueary, suggesting that once McQueary realized Penn State officials hadn’t informed the police of the allegations against Sandusky in 2002, McQueary should have contacted the police on his own.

McQueary spent his entire life in and around the Penn State campus. He played football at Penn State when Sandusky was a member of the coaching staff. It’s impossible to fully understand what McQueary felt when he witnessed what he saw in the Penn State locker room in 2002.

A better question that could be asked -- Would anyone who is questioning what Mike McQueary did or didn’t do, have done themselves, if they had been in his place that fateful day in 2002?

Only Penn State officials and Mike McQueary can answer the question if their cover-up and McQueary’s full-time appointment are in anyway related to each other.

Why then, if Tim Curley and Gary Schultz participated in a cover-up, did Curley and Schulz not contact the police as they were supposed to do?

Penn State’s football program represents more than $50 million annually in revenues for Penn State University. Joe Paterno was the school’s football coach for 46 years. Joe Paterno is Penn State University. The cover-up was wrong, but really not that difficult to understand, if one takes the time to examine the business of Penn State University and what Joe Paterno represented.

Curley and Schultz are going to be held accountable for their actions. Jerry Sandusky is facing a trial that logic suggests will end with Sandusky spending many years in jail. Paterno and now former Penn State President Graham Spanier were fired for their respective roles.

The NCAA has launched an investigation into how Penn State managed (or in this case mismanaged) the allegations of child sex abuse against Sandusky and Penn State’s cover-up. The NCAA has asked Penn State for a report on what was or wasn’t done.
Late last week Penn State General Counsel Cynthia Baldwin sent a letter to the NCAA asking for additional time to prepare their response.

The NCAA has a long list of rules, regulations and penalties covering everything from illegal payments to student-athletes to grade fixing. Given the scope of the Penn State and Syracuse sex/child abuse scandals, it is imperative the NCAA announce a set of regulations dealing with member institutions’ inaction when it relates to the welfare of minors. It remains to be seen if Penn State, as an institution, will be held accountable.

Between legal proceedings moving forward, and firings against those directly involved, Penn State is well on their way to seeing those who are responsible for the cover-up being held accountable for their actions. That remains a good starting place in allowing the victims of this terrible tragedy to begin to move forward with their lives.

For Sports Business News, this is Howard Bloom

Tim Tebow – the Messiah on Mile High

2011-12-15T16:52:00.003-05:00

Tim Tebow has delivered exactly what the sports world needed in a time when the sports industry is experiencing a daily full frontal assault as a result of child sexual abuse scandals at Penn State to the heart of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).

An athlete people can believe in for all the right reasons.

The Broncos began their season with Kyle Orton as quarterback. After the team started 1-4, Broncos coach Jim Fox named Tebow the starting quarterback against the Miami Dolphins.

Since then, Tebow has led the Broncos to a 7–1 record, including game-winning drives in the fourth quarter and/or overtime five times.

Faith has been the cornerstone of Tebow’s life. Religion and sports have always been intertwined with athletes thanking “God” in post-game speeches or accepting awards. Tim Tebow is taking his belief in a higher power to new levels.

“He gets attention the way Doug Flutie got attention,” Jep Streit, dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul told The Boston Herald. “He’s an exciting player, and then you layer on his faith, and it makes an attractive and provocative story. It will be interesting to see what happens on Sunday. Around Boston, Brady is like a god, so we’ve got these two godlike figures. Someone’s got to lose.”

“People wonder, does God get involved in the minor details, the relatively minor details, or does God stick with the larger master plan?” said Grand Rabbi Y.A. Korff, the city of Boston’s chaplain.

God isn’t guiding the Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow’s remarkable two-month run will end, possibly as soon as this Sunday.

The New England Patriots are one of the National Football League’s best teams. Tom Brady is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, owner of three Super Bowls, two league MVPs and an eventual bust in the Hall of Fame.

Brady and Tebow share at least one essential quality. They inspire their teammates to greatness. Tebow doesn’t have Brady’s talent, in fact he doesn’t have the talent of most NFL starting quarterbacks, but Tim Tebow has the ability to inspire the men who play football with them.

“I don’t like to see it so visible and overwhelming, because then it becomes an act for the act’s sake, rather than for the underlying faith and belief,” Rabbi Korff said. “And that, then, becomes a concern, particularly for those that have faiths that are in the minority in this country. I don’t know if he’s crossed over that line.”

Has Tim Tebow crossed over the mythical line that does its best to separate sports and religion? Sandy Koufax didn’t pitch during the World Series on Yom Kippur, and Shawn Green didn’t play on Rosh Hashanah.

Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, two of the biggest athletes of the 20th century, changed their names from Cassius Clay and Lew Alcindor, and embraced their Muslim faith at the peak of their careers.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, was known as Chris Jackson when he played at LSU. He changed his name when he was a member of the Denver Nuggets. He will forever be remembered for refusing to acknowledge the American National Anthem during a 1996 game, effectively ending his NBA career.

Football players seem to embrace their faith in a higher power more than any other athletes. Football is a violent sport, often compared to war.

"I just tell God to watch over me from the toes on my feet to the head of my crown,'' Chicago Bears Devin Hester said in a Chicago Tribune report.

"My mom taught me, No. 1, to have respect for God,'' the Bears returner-receiver said, "and to know that you can do all things through Christ.''

Hester’s Chicago Bears were on the receiving end of Tebow Time last Sunday, losing 13-10 to the Broncos in overtime. God didn’t win the game for the Broncos, Marion Barber’s mistakes in the dying moments of regulation time and overtime were keys. Barber had a bad football game, that’s why the Bears lost to the Broncos.

"I don't have a problem with it," Hester said. "It's just like being a captain on a team: There are guys who are vocal; there are guys who aren't.''

"Tebow is taking a lot of criticism not just because of his faith. He's taking criticism because he's abnormal,'' Deion Sanders, now an analyst for the NFL Network told The Chicago Tribune. "The things he's doing and the success he's having is not normal, and people have a hard time buying into what they haven't seen. Then to top it all off, he exercises his faith.

"To me, a young, successful guy or woman, regardless of their ethnicity, who exercises what they believe in and what they truly stand for, no matter what it is, it shouldn't be a problem.''

"His play is evident of someone who follows God,'' said Bears quarterback Josh McCown, also an ardent Christian. "He plays wholeheartedly, with passion. That's a misnomer about Christian players; that they should be soft or they should be weak. That's not the case at all.''

Why, then, has Tim Tebow become one of the most polarizing figures in American society?

Appearing at a pre-season press conference, former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason offered this gem on how he felt about Tebow’s abilities as an NFL quarterback.

"[Tebow] can't play. He can't throw. I'm not here to insult him. The reality is he was a great college football player, maybe the greatest college football player of his time. But he's not an NFL quarterback right now. Just because he's God-fearing, and a great person off the field, and was a winner with the team that had the best athletes in college football, doesn't mean his game is going to translate to the NFL."

"What (former Broncos coach) Josh McDaniels saw in him God only knows. Maybe God does know — because the rest of us don't,"

NFL draft pundits projected Tebow as a third-round pick in the 2010 NFL draft. Then-Broncos Head Coach Josh McDaniels stunned the football world by selecting Tebow with the 23rd pick in the first round.

Boomer has had a change of heart when it comes to Tim Tebow and his NFL abilities.

"I bought in to Tim Tebow; that's all I can tell you. He's a great guy; he's a great player in the fourth quarter," Esiason said.

Quite the 180 from his assessment in August: "He can't play. He can't throw."
Merril Hoge maintained that Tebow had "massive flaws" on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown. "Why are they able to win? They hide those flaws."

What Hoge seems to be missing is the moment in time Tim Tebow has provided the sports world with, a player who manages to win despite his apparent shortcomings as a football player.

Tim Tebow has delivered at a time when the Denver Broncos needed him. Tim Tebow has delivered at a time when the National Football League needed him. Tim Tebow has delivered at a time when the sports world needed him.

Tim Tebow makes you want to watch more football. Tim Tebow makes you forget about Jerry Sandusky. Tim Tebow makes you remember the good times sports can provide, the time when sports produced heroes, athletes who rose above their “God given abilities” and delivered.

Tebow’s magical time may end this Sunday, but it’s been a wonderful ride.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Jim Boeheim – number one and being sued

2011-12-14T14:53:00.004-05:00

These should be the best of times for the Syracuse basketball program. The Orange are off to a 10-0 start and are ranked number one in both major national polls. The Orange are set to seriously challenge as NCAA men’s basketball champion during March Madness.

Tuesday, Bobby Davis and Mike Lang, who have accused Boeheim’s former assistant coach Bernie Fine of sexual molestation, are suing both Syracuse and Boeheim for defamation of character.

In days immediately following Davis’ and Lang’s accusations, Boeheim stood by Fine, a man he’s known since 1963.

“The Post-Standard and the university talked to those other kids (in 2003). None of them corroborated the story, at all. I know some of those kids. They’ve told me, ‘Hey, Coach. Bernie helped me. He cared about me. He knew I needed help and he helped me.

“You need to go to your people down there at the paper. They investigated this for four months. Do they remember that? And they found … what? They investigated this and found nothing. They talked to Bernie’s neighbors and friends … everybody. They found nothing. Your paper would whitewash nothing. Don’t you agree? They had nothing. They could not write a story. They found zero.

“The Penn State thing came out and the kid behind this is trying to get money. He’s tried before. And now he’s trying again. If he gets this, he’s going to sue the university and Bernie. What do you think is going to happen at Penn State? You know how much money is going to be involved in civil suits? I’d say about $50 million. That’s what this is about. Money.”

A great deal has happened since Boeheim said the above. Davis released a recording he made of a conversation he shared with Bernie Fine’s wife Laurie in 2003.
After ESPN released the tapes Fine was fired, and Boeheim tried to apologize to Davis and Lang.

Davis and Lang have hired attorney Gloria Allred who has represented women in sex scandals involving presidential candidate Herman Cain, golfer Tiger Woods and NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.

“She uses whatever weapons she has, and I think her weapon is the media,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in a Syracuse Post Standard report. “If you’ve got Gloria Allred on the other side, you have two battles to face: one in the courtroom and one outside the courtroom.”

Allred took the Davis and Lang traveling road show to CNN’s Piers Morgan Show Tuesday night, a show which also featured Jerry Sandusky’s defense team co-counsel, Karl Rominger.

“She’s not just an ambulance chaser — she’s thoroughly well-grounded in the law,” said Cynthia Bowman, a law professor at Cornell University School of Law. “She’s obviously committed to various causes involving gender-based violence, and by that I would include gender violence to boys.”

Davis and Lang aren’t suing Bernie Fine, the man they’ve accused of sexual molestation, but rather Jim Boeheim who angrily fought to defend him.

“Coach Boeheim was the coach of -- and is the coach of the Syracuse men's basketball team. And he made these statements. These false and injurious and inflammatory allegations about Mike Lang and about Bobby Davis, calling them liars, saying that they're essentially motivated by money.

“Those statements were completely false. They really have harmed the reputation of both of them. And especially to call Bobby Davis a liar, that's really accusing him of a crime. Because Bobby Davis reported this allegation of child molestation to the police. And to make a false statement to the police is a crime in the state of New York.” Allred said on the CNN.

Allred says Boeheim’s apology matters not to her clients.

“Too little, too late. And the damage has been done. Because what he said has been carried by nationwide media. And it not only has an impact on Mike and on Bobby, but what about other persons who are child victims of sexual abuse? Doesn't it send them a message that if they dare to step up and tell the authorities, the police, their coach or the university or their school, that they have been the victims of child molestation, that they're going to be having their worst fears realized, that they're going to be attacked by adults publicly and called liars.

“We simply cannot allow this. The university needs to be accountable for what the coach said. And we are within the statute of limitations to bring this lawsuit. And we have brought it.”

As expected, Boeheim and the University are not talking about the case.
Esteemed lawyer and ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack discussed the case on ESPN’s Outside the Lines.

"We have the first amendment in this country which protects a lot of free speech, doesn't protect against defamation, but we believe in the idea that people can speak and most of the time speak their mind unless they're defamation. We also have the issue of whether or not people are public figures and if they do they receive less protection under the law. It'd be interesting and difficult to figure out how they were damaged by what Boeheim said, what kind of damages they would be entitled to.
And we can never forget that Boeheim, a couple days later after he had more information apologized for what he said. So I just don't think this is much of a lawsuit that's going to go very far."

Are Bobby Davis and Michael Lang chasing the money?

"Bobby Davis had never heard of Gloria Allred until a few days ago. I don't think he understands the implications of Gloria and what she's known for. So I would say that is not really on his mind or even in his realm of consciousness right now, but it probably soon will be," ESPN’s Mark Schwarz said on "Outside the Lines."

Jim Boeheim might have to pay the price for standing by his friend, and jumping to a conclusion. Cases like this are often settled out of court.

Allred, for her part, seemingly wants to try this in the court of public opinion. That may or may not be a good strategic decision.

It isn’t right that the statute of limitations has expired on Fine and there is little if anything Davis and Lang will ever receive from him. One day there may not be a statute of limitations when it comes to child abuse but that day isn’t today.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick announced that he couldn’t bring charges against Fine last week. He also said both Davis and Lang were believable. Fitzpatrick made heroes out of Davis and Lang; they were and are men of honor, men who are trying to help other victims of sexual abuse come forward. They deserved to be admired and respected.

Davis and Lang are doing what they believe is the right thing.

If their goal was to create greater awareness when child abuse takes place that goal has been accomplished. They were both aware the current legal system wouldn’t allow the prosecution of Bernie Fine. However, Bernie Fine has lost his job, his reputation and will no longer live the life he once led.

Bernie Fine has paid a terrible price for what he is alleged to have done.
From the outside looking in, it does appear Davis and Lang are indeed chasing after the money as Boeheim originally suggested, only it’s not Bernie Fine’s they’re after.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

David Stern – NBA Gatekeeper

2011-12-13T16:14:00.003-05:00

David Stern is in the home stretch as NBA commissioner, a role he has served in since 1984. His association with the NBA dates back to 1966 as an outside counsel, officially joining the NBA in 1978 as General Counsel. He became the league's Executive Vice President in 1980.

The last few months must seem like a roller-coaster ride to Stern. A prolonged NBA lockout cost the NBA the first two months of the 2011-12 season.

The last few days have seen Stern at the center of a firestorm, a crisis many NBA media pundits believe Stern brought upon himself when he vetoed a trade of NBA All-Star Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets to the Lakers. The NBA owns the Hornets.

“Since the NBA purchased the New Orleans Hornets, final responsibility for significant management decisions lies with the Commissioner’s office in consultation with team chairman Jac Sperling. All decisions are made on the basis of what is in the best interests of the Hornets,” Stern said in the statement. “In the case of the trade proposal that was made to the Hornets for Chris Paul, we decided, free from the influence of other NBA owners, that the team was better served with Chris in a Hornets uniform than by the outcome of the terms of that trade.”

Stern’s decision set somewhat of a precedent. The National Hockey League has owned the Phoenix Coyotes for the last three NBA seasons. Gary Bettman’s support for the Coyotes is unwavering but he hasn’t stepped into the day–to-day affairs of the Coyotes.

Major League Baseball owned the Montreal Expos after Jeffrey Loria sold the Expos for $120 million to Major League Baseball. There are more than a few Expos fans who believe MLB commissioner Bud Selig may have run the Expos out of Montreal, but Selig didn’t interfere in the day-to-day management of the team.
Stern’s vetoing the Chris Paul trade appears to have had more to do with comments a number of NBA owners “shared” with Stern.

"The message is we went through this lockout for a reason," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM. "Again, I'm not speaking for Stern. He's not telling me his thought process. I'm just telling you my perspective, having gone through all this. There's a reason that we went through this lockout, and one of the reasons is to give small-market teams the ability to keep their stars and the ability to compete.

"I wouldn't have been happy, but I would have understood because it was a conversation a lot of owners had long before the Laker deal was consummated," Cuban said. "It was like, 'Look, sure, I'd love him. Give [Paul] to me in a heartbeat.' But the whole idea of the lockout was to prevent stuff like that.

"Players will always have the right to choose what they want to do as a free agent, but the players agreed to rules that said, 'You know what? Let's give the home team, the incumbent team, an extra advantage.' And that's how the rules were designed. I think they're going to work."

The Mavericks are the defending NBA champions. Most of the Mavericks championship team are back to defend their title, and in a truncated 66 NBA schedule the Mavericks are one of the NBA’s pre-season favorites. Cuban isn’t exactly an objective observer when it comes to the Lakers becoming a much better basketball team.

But the Coup de grâce belongs to Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert who is still feeling the sting a year after LeBron James “took his talents to South Beach.” Gilbert sent Stern an email that read:

Commissioner,

It would be a travesty to allow the Lakers to acquire Chris Paul in the apparent trade being discussed.

This trade should go to a vote of the 29 owners of the Hornets.

Over the next three seasons this deal would save the Lakers approximately $20 million in salaries and approximately $21 million in luxury taxes. That $21 million goes to non-taxpaying teams and to fund revenue sharing.

I cannot remember ever seeing a trade where a team got by far the best player in the trade and saved over $40 million in the process. And it doesn't appear that they would give up any draft picks, which might allow to later make a trade for Dwight Howard. (They would also get a large trade exception that would help them improve their team and/or eventually trade for Howard.) When the Lakers got Pau Gasol (at the time considered an extremely lopsided trade) they took on tens of millions in additional salary and luxury tax and they gave up a number of prospects (one in Marc Gasol who may become a max-salary player).

I just don't see how we can allow this trade to happen.

I know the vast majority of owners feel the same way that I do.

When will we just change the name of 25 of the 30 teams to the Washington Generals.

Please advise...

Dan G.

The letter is remarkably misguided on Gilbert’s part.

It’s embarrassing the NBA still owns the Hornets; it may or may not be wrong that David Stern believed he had to intercede in the day-to-day operations of the Hornets, but it’s silly to even suggest the 29 NBA owners are going to vote on whether or not the Hornets can make a trade.

Good ownership focuses on hiring the right personnel and putting the right management in place to make the best decisions. Jerry Jones and the late Al Davis more often than not hurt the Dallas Cowboys and Oakland Raiders respectively when they served as their teams’ general managers.

In a report published by ESPN’s Larry Coon, author of the NBA Salary Cap FAQ, he offered this regarding Gilbert’s reference to the $21 million that wouldn’t be heading to the league if Paul was traded to the Lakers.

Coon pointed out “the system is supposed to decrease spending, yet owners like Gilbert rely on teams like the Lakers continuing to spend like they used to -- because the proceeds from the luxury tax go to teams like the Cavs. Gilbert is using his position as part-owner of the Hornets to implore Stern to exercise his power as the fiduciary of the Hornets to make a ruling.

The NBA hired Jac Sperling to be the Hornets team chairman to avoid a conflict of interest on the NBA’s part in the day-to-day management of the Hornets. Paul can become a free agent after the 2011-12 season. He had made it clear he has no interest in signing a contract extension with the Hornets.

The question that begs to asked “if the Hornets are going to lose Paul to free agency at the end of the 2011-12 season is it in the best interest of the Hornets to trade Paul and receive something in return?”

The answer would appear to be simple. Yes it makes sense for the Hornets to make the best possible trade they can for Chris Paul,

Did David Stern overreach his mandate as NBA commissioner in blocking the trade?
During the 1976 season, Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley tried to trade closer Rollie Fingers and outfielder Joe Rudi to the Boston Red Sox and pitcher Vida Blue to the New York Yankees only to have Commissioner Kuhn block both deals because they were "not in the best interests of baseball." Kuhn did the same thing the following year after Finley tried to deal Blue to the Cincinnati Reds.

The dawn of free agency was set to begin for Major League Baseball and Finley tried to sell the players he knew he would lose through free agency.
What the Hornets wanted to do was trade Chris Paul and attempt to make their basketball team better in the long run.

The NBA’s other 29 owners aren’t in the business of owning 1/29 of the New Orleans Hornets. If the management team the NBA put in place to manage the day-to-day affairs of the Hornets believed it was in the best interests of the Hornets to make the trade in order to improve the team, the NBA had no business interfering in the trade.

Clearly Mark Cuban had a conflict of interest. He doesn’t want to see the Lakers become a better basketball team. The Lakers would represent more of a direct threat to the Mavericks if the trade had been made.

Clearly Dan Gilbert was more concerned about the luxury tax the Lakers wouldn’t have to pay if the trade had been made, and that’s another conflict of interest.
David Stern’s vetoing of the trade isn’t his finest hour as NBA commissioner. It’s embarrassing and suggests the NBA doesn’t have a great deal of faith in the people they’ve entrusted to run manage the Hornets.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

The Loss of Sid the Kid – a blow to the National Hockey League

2011-12-12T20:30:00.003-05:00

The Hockey God’s giveth and the Hockey God’s taketh away – such is the tale of Sidney Crosby. Hockey’s prodigal son and the game’s best player returned from a ten and a half month injury timeout Monday, November 21. Crosby scored two goals and had two assists in the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-0 whitewashing of the New York Islanders that fateful night.

On Thursday the Penguins announced Crosby would miss two games over the weekend against the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Islanders. Friday, the Penguins said Crosby could practice but he wouldn’t join the team on their road trip. The same day the Penguins made it clear Crosby wasn’t suffering from any post-concussion symptoms. Monday, that all changed with news that Crosby is going to miss more games, he is suffering from concussion like symptoms and there is no timetable for his return.

"I don't think 'frustrating' even describes it," said Crosby, who has 12 points in eight games since he returned from a concussion that knocked him out of the lineup for 61 games and nearly 11 months.

"It's much different than previously going through that stuff," Crosby said. "I'm way better off than I was dealing with this stuff 10 months ago or whatever it was.

"I just figured it was better to be cautious here and not take any chances. That's kind of where I'm at right now," Crosby said. "I'm not (feeling) bad. And I'm not happy about watching. But I've got to make sure with these sort of things that I'm careful."

What Tim Tebow is to the National Football League, Sidney Crosby can be that and a great deal more to the National Hockey League. Sidney Crosby is every hockey parent’s dream come true. Born and raised in a small Nova Scotia town, his smile lights up any room he walks in.

Even better than Tim Tebow, Sidney Crosby is to the National Hockey League what Peyton Manning represents to the National Football League. An athlete who loves the camera and a camera who loves the athlete. There have been many great athletes whose playing careers never resulted in success in endorsing products. They were athletes whose image didn’t translate well through television commercials. Sidney Crosby and Peyton Manning love the camera and the camera loves them.

"Either you're kind of symptomatic or you're not; I don't know the medical terms," Crosby said. "With this kind of stuff there's so many different things you could call it; it's not always clear-cut. It's not like a break or anything. I'm treating it as being symptomatic, as I've looked at those symptoms before and (have been) treated for those symptoms before. And it's the same way I'm going to treat them now."

There is a long list of National Hockey League players who have had their careers impacted, ended, cut shot by concussions. Hall of Famer member Pat Lafontaine suffered six concussions in his 15 year career, the last in 1998 in 1998 when he collided rather innocently with teammate Mike Keane. Eric Lindros was dubbed the next one early in his career. Eight concussions later (he suffered four concussions during the 1999-2000 season alone) Lindros isn’t headed for the Hall of Fame, unless he buys a ticket. His brother Brett was forced to retire when he turned 20.

Scott Stevens and Keith Primeau had reputations for their toughness and determination. Both former team captains had their careers ended by concussions. Goaltender Mike Richter a key member of the New York Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup champions suffered two concussions within an eight month span and retired in September 2003.

An April study released by the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggested NHL players lost an average of 10 days of playing time in a third of concussion cases from 1997 to 2004.

"Our results suggest that there was a trend toward a gradual increase in post-concussion time loss over the study period," said lead author Dr. Brian Benson, a researcher and physician at the Sport Medicine Centre in the University of Calgary's faculty of kinesiology.

"One trend we saw was that while the number of concussions levelled out over the study period, the amount of time loss appeared to gradually increase over the years, which may be an indication of either greater severity or greater caution in treatment," he added in a release.

There are those who believe it’s time for hockey’s so called “culture” to change. If that is ever going to take place the National Hockey League will have to take a serious look at the Lords of the Rink, the games leaders.

Last week the New York Times published an expose concerning the death of former New York Rangers tough guy Derek Boogaard. Boogaard died in May of an accidental overdose of alcohol and oxycodone. After Boogaard died, two more NHL enforcers — Winnipeg center Rick Rypien and the recently retired Wade Belak — also died suddenly. It was the darkest summer in hockey history. Boogaard, Rypien and Belak all suffered from serious head trauma throughout their NHL careers.

Sidney Crosby isn’t a tough hockey player along the lines of the roles Boogaard, Rypien and Belak served with their teams, but the three players like Crosby all had to deal with the tough nature of hockey.

“Our fans tell us they like the level of physicality in our game,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced to the media when asked about the New York Times Boogarrd investigative journalist piece last week.

While not quite the same, if Gary Bettman is championing the “physicality in our game” Sidney Crosby’s post-concussion symptoms that is now starting to look like a major issue is a direct result of the “physicality in our game”.

Bettman was correct in pointing out the NHL created the Concussion Working Group, a program established with players’ association in 1997, adding: “Since 1997, we’ve been doing lots and lots and we’ll continue to do lots and lots. But there are no easy answers yet, and people use tragedies to jump to conclusions.”

Sidney Crosby is in a unique position to begin to change the hockey culture and send a message to youngsters playing minor league hockey. If you’re hurt playing hockey, if you have a headache you can’t explain do what’s right and don’t play until you’re healthy again.

“Now, I think our children hopefully will change,” Dr. Mark Aubry, the chief medical officer for Hockey Canada told The Ottawa Citizen. “If you see somebody with their head down, hopefully, out of respect, you actually hold up.”

“Yes, the culture of the game has to change,” said Todd Jackson, a senior manager at Hockey Canada. “Are we done? Absolutely not. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Sidney Crosby the face of hockey is 24-years old. He scored the gold medal goal for Canada in the 2010 Winter Olympics. He has already won the NHL’s MVP award. What’s most important – Sidney Crosby has the rest of his life to live, and he has every right to enjoy every moment of his life. In July 2007 Sid the Kid signed a contract extension worth $43.5 million. The money is Crosby’s even if he never plays another NHL game.

As great an example as Sidney Crosby is imagine if you don’t have tens of millions of dollars and you’re a professional hockey player. Imagine if you’re playing professional hockey in the minor leagues. Imagine if you’re a third or fourth line National Hockey League player. The window for a professional athlete is very short, the chance to earn millions is as fleeting for all too many professional hockey players as fleeting as a rainbow.

The Lords of the Rink have tried to put safeguards in place to ensure when a hockey player suffers a concussion they receive all the assistance they need to recover properly. If you’re that hockey player struggling to make it, doing whatever you have to do to play in the National Hockey League would you follow the same example as Sidney Crosby did? Or would you try and play through that injury attempt to mask your injury so you might be able to earn a living playing hockey. Hockey needs Sidney Crosby more than ever, to set the example and lead.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Ryan Braun, Major League Baseball, money and a return of the dark ages

2011-12-11T16:17:00.005-05:00

Major League Baseball fans have long associated Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens as baseball players who “may” have used performance-enhancement-drugs (PED) but were lucky enough to have played before baseball began seriously testing MLB players.

Saturday evening ESPN broke the news that Milwaukee Brewers outfielder and 2011 National League MVP Ryan Braun had tested positive for the use of a banned substance.

Ryan is appealing the positive test. No player who has ever tested positive for the use of a PED has had that ruling overturned. If the ruling is upheld, Ryan will be suspended for the first 50 games of the 2012 MLB season and he will forever be linked too Rafael Palmeiro and Manny Ramirez as the most prominent players who ever tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

Major League Baseball had to be looking at the rest of the sports world with a smug view over the last few months.

The National Football League went through a prolonged off-season labor dispute and while the NFL didn’t miss a game from their 2011 schedule, the league lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the protracted lockout.

The National Basketball Association lost the first two months of their 2011-12 season – labor being the issue of the day.

Not much more needs to be said about the impact of the Jerry Sandusky and Bernie Fine scandals are having on the sports industry and in particular on college sports.

Major League Baseball was picture perfect. The best regular season ever, a World Series for the ages and a new CBA with the MLB Players Association suggested to everyone that baseball had its house in good working order. If Braun’s positive test is upheld baseball’s house will be in total disarray.

MLB began testing for PED’s in 2003, but only became serious about testing a few years later. Say whatever you want about Bonds, McGwire, Sosa and Clemens but they played in an era when baseball didn’t have an effective testing program in place to catch those who were cheating.

Braun was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers with the fifth overall pick in the 2005 major league draft as a third baseman, and he signed for $2.45 million.
A year and a half of minor league baseball, Ryan joined the Milwaukee Brewers on May 24, 2007 and won the 2007 NL Rookie of the Year Award.

In March 2008, the Brewers renewed Braun's contract for $455,000, a $75,000 increase.
Braun then signed an 8-year, $45–$51M contract extension on May 15, 2008. The contract is through the year 2015. That was after Braun had been a major league baseball player for less than a year.

The deal included Braun's $455,000 salary for 2008 and a $2.3 million bonus in 2008. It could increase to $51 million through incentives. Braun also has a no-trade clause for the first four years, and then a limited no-trade clause allowing him to block deals to 12 teams from 2012–13, and 6 teams from 2014–15. The contract would keep Braun locked up through his age-31 season with the Brewers.

It was the largest contract in Brewers' history and the largest contract in baseball history given to a player with less than three years' experience.

On April 19, 2011 the Brewers signed Braun to a contract extension, worth $105 million through 2020 with a $20 mutual option for 2021.

With Prince Fielder set to become a free agent at the end of the 2011 season, and not expected to resign in Milwaukee, the Brewers believed Ryan Braun was their future.

Braun’s 2008 contract would have made him a free agent when he turned 31, the same age as Albert Pujols who signed a ten-year $254 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels Thursday.

Early Sunday morning Brewers owner Mark Attanasio released the following statement on the news relating to Braun’s positive test:

“Ryan Braun has been a model citizen in every sense of the word, both in the Milwaukee community and for the Brewers. Since joining our organization in 2005, he has been a person of character and integrity.

“MLB has put a confidential testing program into place, which I personally support, that has a specific review process that must be followed before determining whether a player is in violation. Ryan has issued a statement that there are highly unusual circumstances surrounding this case that will support his complete innocence and demonstrate that there was absolutely no intentional violation of the program. We are dealing with an incomplete set of facts and speculation. Before there is a rush to judgment, Ryan deserves the right to be heard. We are committed to supporting Ryan to get to the truth of what happened in this unfortunate situation.

“As a father, I take the use of prohibited substances seriously, because I know the effects they can have on the body and on a person’s life. I want the Milwaukee community to know that we support drug testing not only because it is MLB policy but because it is the right thing to do.

“I need to acknowledge that at this point the Milwaukee Brewers have not heard from the Office of the Commissioner or any official entity related to the MLB testing programs. Accordingly we do not have access to any of the facts or knowledge of any of the circumstances that are being circulated in the media with regard to Ryan Braun. The team will release follow-up statements at the appropriate time.”

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is heading into what he said will be his last year as baseball commissioner, owned the Brewers before Attanasio. Selig’s offices are in Milwaukee. While there is no apparent conflict of interest for Selig, the news that Ryan Braun had tested positive for the use of a banned substance had to be a crushing blow to Selig.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have worked hard at erasing the stigma that remains associated with baseball’s steroid era. Mark McGwire had a Hall of Fame career but remains on the outside looking in when it comes to election.

In the coming years Bonds, Sosa, Clemens and Palmeiro will face similar scrutiny.
What makes Braun’s test so hard to deal with, if Braun’s appeal fails, is it will suggest baseball players haven’t learned any lessons when it comes to the use of banned drugs and are prepared to take the risk in order to get the reward.

Ryan Braun will earn more than $158 million in his major league career, and believed ,for whatever reason, he had to use a performance-enhancement-drug to make him the player he is and be paid the money the Brewers are paying him.

Braun according to Wikipedia has endorsement agreements with CytoSport, a supplement maker, Nike, Wilson, Mikita Sports for autographs and memorabilia, Sam Bat, and AirTran Airways, and is working on his own line of aluminum bats. He has appeared in commercials for Muscle Milk, Dick's Sporting Goods, and regional convenience store chain Kwik Trip.

In 2009 Alex Rodriguez admitted that early in his career he had used steroids. It took a great deal of courage for A-Rod to own up to what he did. In a 2009 interview with MLB.com Braun all but spit on A-Rod’s reputation after A-Rod admitted that he was a cheater.

“I don’t know if I would say I was surprised,” Braun said. “I feel like it was so rampant, so prevalent, in baseball during that time period that not much surprises me anymore. If anything, I was surprised he got caught, that it came out this long after he supposedly did it.” Braun said he never sought performance-enhancing drugs, and added that if he took steroids, “I would hit 60 or 70 home runs.”

Braun hit 33 home runs in 2011, not the 60 or 70 home runs he said he would hit if he used steroids.

Does Ryan Braun deserve the chance to be exonerated? Of course he does, as does every athlete who tests positive for the use of a banned substance.

If Ryan’s appeal is successful it will be the first time a MLB player who has tested positive for the use of a performance-enhancement-drug has overturned that result. If the test result is upheld, Braun will have earned the same treatment baseball fans offer other cheaters – ridicule and scorn.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

A great day to be a fan of the Los Angeles Angels (or was it?)

2011-12-08T17:31:00.006-05:00

The Los Angeles Angels spent more than $331.5 million in a matter of hours following the signing of Albert Pujols to a 10-year contract worth a reported $254 million with a five-year $77.5 million contract with C.J. Wilson.

The Pujols contract is the second biggest contract in baseball history topped only by Alex Rodriguez’s ten-year $275 million agreement. Angels’ owner Arte Moreno agreed to the two contracts because he had the money and it was good business.

“I think it's a tribute to the aggressive nature, competitive nature and quality of our ownership with the Angels. We're in a unique position, as it pertains to our market, our location and the attractive nature of our club. I think many players around baseball desire to come to play for the Angels and this was a really good fit for our franchise and I believe it's an excellent fit for the players we're talking about here. We're talking about an iconic offensive player in his generation, to be sure. And we're talking about an ace‑type starting pitcher, who's pitched on back‑to‑back American League championship clubs.

“And we feel like the two of them, in addition to what we have in place with the Angels, gives us a very unique opportunity once we are secured and ready to move forward.” Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto commented.
Earlier this week the Marlins offered Pujols a ten-year contact but refused to offer Pujols a no-trade clause. The St. Louis Cardinals stopped their bidding for Pujols somewhere around ten-years and $210 million. If the Cardinals were really interested in signing Pujols they had ample opportunity before he became a free agent.

Before the start of the Winter Meetings, the Los Angeles Times reported the Angels might have as much as $20 million to spend on free agents, no where near the $331.5 million the Angels spent Thursday morning.

“I think our guys who have been with me on a daily or weekly basis, we have talked about so many different players, so many different opportunities or avenues, projected so many different potential rosters based on the dollars that we were allocating toward payroll in 2012 and beyond. And as you alluded to, I have discussed every one of the options with Arte Moreno, with Mike Scioscia, with our group, our front office group. And once we had the opportunity to move on Albert Pujols it became ‑‑ quite frankly, I won't limit it to Albert Pujols because we had another very large signing today or agreement today. And this is obviously the moment where we have thrown our hat in the ring and said this is the team we wanted to put together.

“I think Arte is particularly excited about where we sit today. And he made his decision, as you said, he's writing the check. But this is something that we provided where a number of different options and now we'll choose the opportunity that we think makes the most sense for the Angels.

“We feel like we're an open window right now. With Weaver and heron and Santana, now having the potential of waking up in 48 hours, 72 hours, with this type of roster is pretty enticing and exciting. We feel like we have a very good nucleus. And as I said before, you have to play 162 games to get beyond that and we feel very confident about what we've accomplished here in Dallas.” Jerry Dipoto said.

The two signings made perfect sense for the Angels for a number of very good reasons:

• The Angels current local television agreement with Fox Sports expires at the end of the 2015 season. The agreement pays the Angels $50 million a year. Comcast is set to launch a Los Angeles regional cable sports network. The Dodgers will end up on one network, the Angels on the other, but both franchises will be very rich with two networks vying for their rights.
• At more than $50 million annually the Angels are playing with other people’s money when it comes to reaching agreements with spending more than $331 million on the last morning of the Baseball Winter Meetings.
• Arte Moreno had to take advantage of the current state of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt has been forced to sell the Dodgers. The sale of the Dodgers will take months to complete. The Dodgers days of turmoil and inaction provided Moreno a window to move his franchise ahead of the Dodgers in brand recognition.

“Arte Moreno is as competitive an owner and as genuine a person as there is in the game. And this is, in large part, a tribute to him. I don't want to under sell the involvement of C.J. Wilson and Albert Puhols and Danny Lozano and Bob Garber, but we all know this happens with this push, this domino effect is kicked into gear by Arte Moreno. And this is a pretty unique opportunity. Arte has made it very clear, he wants to win championships, he wants to win rings. And we think this is a way to move toward that goal. We still have to play 162 of them, but we feel like we're better today than we were yesterday.” Dipoto said.

Ten year no trade contracts can become an albatross for the team reaching the agreement. Pujols will likely be the Angels first baseman for the 2012 season and for at least four or five seasons after the 2012 season.

A great hitter, Pujols could become the Angels designated hitter at the end of the contract. Still at 31 and statistics indicating that his career has begun its inevitable decline, are the Angels concerned Albert Pujols has indeed reached his peak as a baseball player?

“I don't necessarily see it as a clear decline. I see Albert Pujols as the most consistent offensive player of his generation. And if a decline still places you in the top five MVPs in the League, and we understand that players will go through peaks and valleys of sort, Albert has spent many years operating at the peaks. And if we want to call a decline going from superhuman to just great, I don't think we've seen the last great days of Albert Pujols, obviously, or we wouldn't be sitting here today.”

Before the Albert Pujols did or didn’t break Arte Moreno’s bank Thursday morning, there have been four ten-year MLB player contracts:

Alex Rodriguez Yankees 2008 10 years, $275 million
Alex Rodriguez Rangers 2001 10 years, $252 million*
Derek Jeter Yankees 2001 10 years, $189 million
Troy Tulowitzki Rockies 2011 10 years, $157.75 million

There will be a great deal of pressure on Albert Pujols to deliver the ‘ring’ Angels general manager talked about after he signed Pujols. Pujols has been a part of two World Series teams in St. Louis and did hit three homes runs in game three of the 2011 World Series. He is a three time National League MVP and a nine-time All-Star.

In 2008 the 30 MLB managers called Pujols the most feared hitter in baseball, but that was in 2008. The Angels have to win a World Series or two in the next three or four years or it’s reasonable to assume Angels fans, the media and the Angels will be very upset with Albert Pujols.

Alex Rodriguez has begun to feel those pressures in New York; Derek Jeter has delivered what was expected of his talents in New York.

Troy Tulowitzki is in the second year of his ten year contract and his contract isn’t the second biggest contract in baseball history.

The bottom line for Albert Pujols he had better deliver for the Angels and he had better deliver early. Angels owner Arte Moreno is counting on Albert for that and a great deal more.

On the surface Thursday appears to have been a great deal for fans of the Los Angeles Angels. A few years from now, December 8, 2011 may be one of the worst days in franchise history. Only time will tell.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Jerry Sandusky and Bernie Fine– a plague on both their houses

2011-12-07T19:21:00.003-05:00

With the holiday season upon us, it’s good to know alleged child molester and former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky will be spending at least the next day or so in the crowbar motel.

The biggest sports story of 2011, allegations of child molestation linked to two of America’s storied athletic programs, took another twist Wednesday with news that Sandusky was arraigned on two more charges of child molestation.

Earlier Wednesday, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick announced alleged child molester and now fired Syracuse basketball coach Bernie Fine will avoid New York charges because the statute of limitations has passed.
Sandusky is now facing allegations from ten different boys who all claim Sandusky had molested them. Unlike Fine, Sandusky won’t benefit from any statute of limitations.

Sandusky, who continues to claim he isn’t a pedophile, was first arrested on November 5, 2011. A little more than a month ago on the day Sandusky was first arrested, Joe Paterno was in his 46th year as Penn State’s head football coach, Graham Spanier in his 16th year as Penn State President.

Both Paterno and Spanier were fired days after the Sandusky allegations were first reported. Paterno and Spanier were fired in large part because of an alleged cover-up at Penn State that followed after then Penn State’s graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary caught Sandusky raping a ten-year old boy in the Penn State locker room in 2002, and decided to not contact the police department as they were legally (and morally) obligated too.

According to the latest grand jury testimony victim number nine was first assaulted in 2004, and the other, called Victim 10, told the grand jury he was assaulted after being referred to Second Mile in 1997.

Victim number nine (now 18) claims Sandusky took him to Penn State football games and gave him gifts and money. Victim number nine, according to the grand jury, claimed Sandusky raped him in the basement of the Sandusky home in 2004.

Given the Penn State chose to cover-up the 2002 allegations, if victim number nine is to be believed, victim nine might not be a victim. There is no forgiveness for anyone at Penn State who played any role in the aftermath of the 2002 incident and failed to report the allegations to local law officials.

“As in many of the other cases identified to date, the contact with Sandusky allegedly fit a pattern of `grooming’ victims,” Attorney General Linda Kelly said in a statement. “Beginning with outings to football games and gifts; they later included physical contact that escalated to sexual assaults.”

Victims nine and ten both claim they met Sandusky through The Second Mile charity for at-risk children that the ex-coach founded in 1977. The sad truth, the biggest risk young boys who were looking for help faced in reaching out to The Second Mile was Sandusky.

Did Sandusky ever care about the young boys he claimed he was trying to help or was he simply in search of young boys he could take advantage of in his role with The Second Mile?

According to the Grand Jury report Sandusky forced victim nine to perform oral sex on him and attempted, on at least 16 different times, to anally penetrate him.

“The victim testified that on at least one occasion he screamed for help, knowing that Sandusky’s wife was upstairs, but no one ever came to help him,” the grand jury report said.

The 10th accuser told the grand jury he first met Sandusky at The Second Mile in 1997. He was 10 at the time and experiencing problems at home and attended Penn State games.

Victim 10, according to the grand jury, was subject to wrestling Sandusky in the basement of the Sandusky home. The accuser also detailed incidents at a pool on the Penn State campus, and a time when Sandusky allegedly exposed himself in a car and requested oral sex from the boy.

Sandusky had been charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse involving eight young boys over a 15-year span.

In Syracuse, the home of the second major college sports related sexual molestation scandal; Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick’s news didn’t surprise anyone.

When Bobby Davis first went to the Syracuse department in 2002, he was told the statue of limitations had expired on the claims he made against then Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine.

Soon after the Sandusky story broke, Davis and his stepbrother Michael Lang came forward to again try and have the allegations against Fine brought forward. While Fine might still face Federal charges, Fitzpatrick made it clear both Davis and Lang have credibility.

"On almost every single criteria, Bobby Davis came out as a credible person," the district attorney said. "Mike Lang also comes across as a credible person."

The sports industry has been hit hard by the allegations of sexual molestation. The entire industry will feel the pain for many years.

What is important to consider:

• 99.9 percent of coaches are honorable men and women would NEVER harm a child
• 99.9 percent of coaches are men and women cherish the opportunity to mentor young people
• Thousands of young people have grown as people because of the positive mentoring they have received from 99.9 percent of the adults that have been in their lives
• It’s a certainty every college athletic program is doing extensive background checks on every coach, every employee within their athletic department. No stone will go under turned. No one wants to be the next Penn State or Syracuse.
• If Sandusky’s victim number 9 is to be believed, everyone who knew about the incident that took place in the Penn State football locker room in 2002 needs to be held accountable. And for good measure Penn State should demolish their football locker room. How could anyone associated with the Penn State football program ever again feel comfortable if Sandusky’s den of perversion?
• The NCAA is in the midst of investigating Penn State’s athletic program. The NCAA has a long list of rules and regulations when it comes to paying players, fixing grades, gifts, overactive boosters but has no rules in place when it comes to incidents along the lines of what allegedly has taken place at Penn State and Syracuse. If Penn State took an active cover-up of former coach Jerry Sandusky; Penn State must face serious penalties. The same is true for Syracuse.
• It is imperative the NCAA create a far ranging conduct code for anyone working for the NCAA or a member institution. It is a privilege, not a right, to work in college athletics. The NFL has created a conduct code for their employees and the people who work for NFL teams.

99.9 percent of the men and women who work in college sports are good people. The allegations against Jerry Sandusky and Bernie Fine have cast a terrible light on college coaches.

It isn’t fair to the thousands of great men and women who coach and work with young people, but if any good can come from the Sandusky and Fine incidents, it’s that everyone who is working with young people be held up to the increased scrutiny in the coming weeks and months.

That will be for the good of the game.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

The value of an NHL franchise

2011-12-06T18:45:00.003-05:00

Forbes Magazine released their 2011-12 NHL valuation a few days ago and pegged the average value for an NHL franchise at $240 million, a five percent increase over their valuations one year ago.

According to Forbes somewhat subjective data, revenues increased by an average of five percent to $103 million per team.

They did express some concern in their look at the business of the National Hockey League claiming “the 2010-11 season the league posted operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $126 million, 21% lower than the previous year.”

Last year player costs increased, on average, to $59 million per team. Forbes reported that 18 of the NHL’s 30 teams lost money last year, up from 16 during the 2009-10 season.

A look the market value opens the door to a number of questions the NHL and commissioner Gary Bettman will be forced to consider in the next few years.

The Toronto Maple Leafs tops the list of NHL franchises at $521 million. Three years ago RIM CEO Jim Basillie attempted to move the Phoenix Coyotes into the Maple Leafs backyard in Southern Ontario.

Bettman stopped the move cold. The Maple Leafs made it clear they had no interest in another NHL franchise moving into what they believe was their protected territory.

The Buffalo Sabres made it clear in no uncertain terms would they not allow another NHL team to move within the 75 mile radius each NHL franchise has a right to protect.

Bettman may have been able to stop Basillie from moving to Southern Ontario but much sooner rather than later there will be a second NHL franchise in the heart of Maple Leaf Country. It likely won’t be an NHL franchise interested in moving their team, but rather an expansion franchise.

The NHL added the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Bluejackets at the start of the 2000-01 season. If the NHL decides to expand by two teams, a Toronto franchise could generate as much as $350 million in expansion fee with $100 million sent to the Toronto Maple Leafs as compensation.

The NHL could then award a second franchise to Las Vegas for $250 million. Las Vegas wants a ‘major league team’. While the NHL might not be Las Vegas first choice, city leaders want a team and they’ll find a buyer at $250 million.

Divide the $500 million among the 30 NHL teams and each team receives a financial windfall of a little more than $16.8 million. The 18 NHL teams that lost money last year will be better prepared to deal with any losses when the NHL expands.

There are three NHL teams in the Greater New York area and two in Los Angeles. While both New York and Los Angeles have bigger populations than Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area represents hockey’s most fertile market. The GTA can add at least one NHL franchise.

The franchise at the bottom of the Forbes list is the Phoenix Coyotes at $134 million. After Bettman stopped Basillie from buying and moving the Coyotes on the eve of the 2008 season the NHL was forced to take over the franchise.

The NHL’s other 29 teams continue to throw good money after what has become a bad idea. Two years ago, Glendale politicians gave the NHL $25 million to help offset some of the Coyotes losses.

The end of the road is about to arrive for the Coyotes. Gary Bettman knows the league’s Board of Governors want the team sold to anyone who might keep the team in Phoenix. There isn’t any chance Glendale taxpayers are going to invest any additional dollars in the Coyotes.

Former San Jose Sharks president and CEO Greg Jamison and Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf have expressed an interest in buying the Coyotes and keeping the team in Phoenix.

The NHL wants $170 million for the Coyotes; the team isn’t worth more than $135 million in Arizona. It doesn’t make sense to pay $170 million and keep the team in Phoenix.

It does, however, make sense to pay $170 million to move to Quebec City, a city ready to build a $400 million NHL arena. The new arena would be ready in time for the 2015-16 NHL season. An NHL franchise could play in Colisée Pepsi, the former home of the Quebec Nordiques while the new arena is being built.

The Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche after the strike shortened 1994-95 NHL season and until a shovel is in the ground, the NHL won’t be returning to Quebec City.

Forbes believes the value of the New York Rangers is $507 million, the second highest figure among the 30 NHL franchises. 29th on Forbes 2011-12 NHL list are the New York Islanders at $149 million.

Why such a disparity between two franchises based in the Greater New York area?
The Rangers play in Madison Square Garden, one of sports mecca’s, a money making machine. The Islanders play their home games at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Coliseum was built in 1972. The building is outdated and doesn’t offer the Islanders any of the revenue streams most current arenas offer NHL and NBA teams.
Islanders’ owner Charles Wang has four choices, sell the Islanders, move the team and maintain ownership, move the team to the NBA’s Nets new arena in Brooklyn, or find a way to have a new arena built on Long Island.

None of Wang’s choices include keeping the team at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

On August 1, 2011, voters in Nassau County rejected a proposal for a new arena to replace the Nassau Coliseum. The Islanders current lease expires at the end of the 2014-15 season.

Either Wang has his new arena or he will sell the franchise and the team will move. Given that taxpayer haven’t shown must support for a new arena, the Islanders’ future on Long Island is very much in doubt.

All one needs to do is look the Forbes numbers and it becomes easy to predict what the landscape of the NHL will be in the next few years.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Manny Ramirez wants back in baseball (and that may be good for business)

2011-12-05T21:46:00.003-05:00

On the day Ron Santo one of the greatest Chicago Cubs ever was finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Manny Ramirez twice guilty of having tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs announced he wanted to play Major League Baseball again.

Ramirez second positive test was announced early in the 2011 MLB season. A second positive test should have resulted in Ramirez receiving a 100 game suspension.
Ramirez a member of the Tampa Bay Rays when his second positive test was announced decided instead to retire days before the results of the positive test were revealed.

Sunday evening with the Baseball Winter Meetings the industry’s marquee off-season event set to begin in Dallas, MLB released a somewhat surprising statement concerning Ramirez’s and his interest in returning to the Major Leagues.

"The Office of the Commissioner and the Players Association have agreed that Ramirez will receive a 50-game suspension under the Joint Drug Program upon his reinstatement from the voluntary retired list. Such suspension shall begin with the first game that Ramirez is eligible to play after a Club signs him to a contract."

According to FoxSports.com who first broke the news that Manny wanted back in the game Ramriez hired Barry Praver and Scott Shapiro as his agents (replacing Scott Boras) and applied for reinstatement from MLB’s voluntary retired list.

Ramirez appeared in five games for the Rays at the start of the 2011, and then retired. ‘Technically’ Ramirez never served what should have been a 100 game suspension for his second positive test. The Major League Baseball Players Association successfully appealed the 100 game suspension believing Manny had served the 100 games as part of his retirement. Call it an ‘apple and oranges’ successful appeal by the MLBPA.

At 40 will a team be interested in signing Manny? After his so-called retirement Ramirez was arrested in Broward County, Florida, in September and charged with domestic battery.

Manny and positive drug test goes well beyond when MLB began drug testing at the start of the 2004 MLB season.

The New York Times reported Ramirez was among a group of 104 major league players who allegedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during 2003.
In 2009 he was suspended 50 games for violating baseball's drug policy by taking human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a women's fertility drug, while playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. According to steroid dealer Victor Conte, hCG is often used to restart natural testosterone production after a steroid cycle.

Manny’s major league career began in 1993 when he joined the Cleveland Indians. In December 2000, Ramirez signed an eight-year, $160 million deal with the Boston Red Sox, with $20 million options for 2009 and 2010, pushing the total value of the contract to $200 million for 10 years. Ramirez was a key member of the Red Sox 2004 World Series team and was selected as the MVP of the Fall Classic.

The Red Sox traded Ramirez to the Dodgers on July 31, 2008. One official drug suspension later (the 2009 positive test), the Dodgers placed Ramirez on waivers in August 2009. The Chicago White Sox claimed the enigmatic slugger on August 30, 2009. The White Sox paid Manny $3.8 million for the remainder of the 2009 season.

The Rays signed Ramirez (who had been paid $200 million over the previous ten-seasons by the Red Sox, Dodgers and White Sox) $2 million for what was a one-year contract.

In his 19 Major League Baseball seasons the always colorful and somewhat controversial Ramirez hit 555 home runs and has a career batting average of .312. Throughout most of his career Manny was one of the games dominate players. He has 9 straight seasons of at least 30 HRs and 100 RBIs (1998–2006, tied for 3rd-longest in history). Manny has appeared in 12 MLB All-Star Games.

The colorful parts – two examples that took place near the end of his years with the Red Sox.

In 2007, Ramirez requested and received permission from the Red Sox to arrive late to spring training for family reasons. It was later reported that during his absence Ramirez was scheduled to appear at the Atlantic City Classic car auction. It is unclear whether the appearance was scheduled before or after the “family situation”. Ramirez chose not to attend the auction, but was late for spring training.

Ramirez missed the White House reception honoring the Red Sox 2007 World Series championship. President George W. Bush quipped during the festivities: "I'm sorry [Ortiz'] running mate, Manny Ramirez, isn't here. I guess his grandmother died again. Just kidding. Tell Manny I didn't mean it.”

Soon after Manny joined the Dodgers at the 2008 MLB trade deadline, the Dodgers announced the creation of “Mannywood”. For the Dodgers, Ramirez (and Mannywood) represented a marketing dream come true.

Mannywood became the focus of a major 2009 Dodgers marketing campaign, a campaign that included two Mannywood T-shirts and two tickets in Dodger Stadium’s left field pavilion for $99. Manny’s Dodgers uniform number was 99. Manny was the Dodgers leftfielder. The team created a merchandise line that included replica Ramirez dreadlocks.

Days after MLB announced Ramirez’s first official MLB positive drug test in May 2009 the team announced the end of Mannywood.

"For a short period of time, we were definitely hitching our wagon to Manny," Dodgers President Dennis Mannion said in a Los Angeles Times report at the time.
Said David Carter, executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute: "You can't put all your eggs in one basket and let a guy like Ramirez hold the basket."

Two positive drug tests, an arrest for a domestic dispute, at times a questionable attitude – will anyone really be interested in a 40-year old Ramirez with what at times has proven to be a troubling attitude?

"It does not surprise me that he would like to come back and do this," Joe Maddon told the USA Today. "I got to know him a little bit this past year and he really does have a passion for the game. I think that gets overlooked sometimes. There's all the Manny-being-Manny items, but we did well together."

Maddon was the American League Manager of the Year in 2011with Tampa Bay and more importantly was Manny’s last Major League manager (for all of the five games in appeared in for the Rays in 2011).

"I'm OK with this as long as it's in parameters of the rules," said Maddon. "If he's 'served his time,' that's cool. I would wish him well. I don't know how it's all going to shake out, but I think he's misinterpreted sometimes. This guy loves to play baseball."

If Manny does return he’ll be a 40-year old baseball player who missed most of the 2011 season.When all is said and done baseball is a business and Manny Ramirez remains one of the few players who people want to see play baseball. They may not see the Manny Ramirez who has hit 555 home runs in his career but they’ll have an opportunity to see one of the games more colorful characters. You may be rolling the dice did with promoting Manny Ramirez if he’s playing for your team as the Dodgers did, but Manny Ramriez is good for the business of baseball.

There are those who might believe Manny may sign a contract with the Miami Marlins. Manny was never a great left fielder, more of a liability than a good defensive player. The Marlins play in the National League where there is no designated hitter.
If Manny is going to contribute to a team’s on-field success it will be as a D.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifH.
The Marlins are moving into a new stadium, are on a spending spree that might make sense to only the Marlins. Manny in South Florida might make perfect sense for the Marlins 2012 business plans. And it’s worth noting that Manny Ramirez domestic abuse arrest not withstanding lives in the Miami area.

Will Manny play baseball in 2012 after serving his 50-game suspension. Yes, but not because he’s earned that right as a player (at least the Manny Ramirez of the last few years). Manny has a few more home runs in his bat, but what Manny Ramirez offers a MLB is marketing opportunity, a chance to sell their brand and their tickets. That’s why Manny Ramirez will appear in a major league uniform in 2012.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Jeffrey Loria – historically a terrible owner or a smart business man?

2011-12-04T15:15:00.004-05:00

Friday the Miami Herald reported the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has subpoenaed records from Miami-Dade County and Miami over the deal to build a new ballpark for the Marlins.

In a pair of letters delivered to government attorneys on December 1st, the U.S. SEC gave the city and county until January 6, 2012 to deliver everything from minutes of meetings, to records of the Marlins’ finances dating back to 2007.

The SEC also requested documents concerning stadium parking-garages built by Miami. The Herald reported on November 22 that city leaders were upset they were fooled into likely having to pay an annual $2 million tax bill on the garages.

According to the Herald “the 37,000-seat, retractable-roof stadium ended up being a top-heavy deal for the county, put on the hook for $347 million in construction bonds, a $35 million loan to the Marlins, and $12 million for incidentals such as road repairs. The city’s end of the deal is $94 million worth of parking garages, $13 million toward construction, and $12 million for other improvements.

The county will have to dish out more than $2 billion over 40 years to pay back the principal and interest on the bonds, which were sold under poor market conditions.”
P.J. Loyello, the team’s senior vice president for communications and broadcasting, issued a statement Saturday on behalf of the Marlins.

“We are aware of the investigation that the SEC is conducting on the issuance of the county’s and city’s stadium and parking bonds,” Loyello said in the statement.
“Of course, we will fully cooperate with the SEC’s investigation as needed and assist in whatever way possible.”

Major League Baseball awarded Wayne Huzienga an expansion franchise in 1993 at the height of Huzienga’s ownership of Blockbuster Video. With no baseball specific stadium to play their games in, the Marlins played at Dolphins Stadium.

The Marlins won the 1997 and 2003 World Series but Dolphins Stadium was built for football – not baseball. It could be argued that MLB made a mistake in awarding a franchise to the South Florida market when the team was forced to play their games in a football stadium.

Loria knew when he took over the Marlins (leaving MLB with the Montreal Expos in 2002) he had to get a stadium built for his team. He sent his stepson David Samson, who also happened to the Marlins team president, and Loyello to several cities shopping for a stadium deal.

What Loria wanted was an agreement whereby South Florida taxpayers would pay for a stadium and in which the team would receive all of the revenues from the facility!
As crazy as it sounds, when the stadium opens in April Loria will have his stadium and all of the revenues the stadium generates.

“There’s always the issue of pay-to-play. They want to know whether there were unlawful contributions,” said William Nortman, a Fort Lauderdale attorney and former SEC regional administrator. “Don’t forget, there was a lot of controversy over the building of this in Miami. They are examining how this came to be. They want to know whether inappropriate payments were made.”

Time and time again Loria claimed the Marlins had become a money pit. Deadspin.com reported the Marlins received more money from baseball’s revenue-sharing system over 2008 and 2009 than anyone in baseball — and pocketing $92 million in revenue-sharing those two years, making a $33 million profit.

The Marlins new stadium is located where the Orange Bowl was for decades, in Miami’s Little Havana. The Orange Bowl was one of football’s cathedral’s for many years. Little Havana is a rundown, somewhat dilapidated region of downtown Miami, not far from where the Miami Arena was once stood.

The Miami Arena was home to first the Miami Heat and the NHL’s Florida Panthers. The Panthers moved into the National Car Rental Center, now known as BankAtlantic Center, in 1998. The Heat moved from the Miami Arena to The AmericanAirlines Arena on December 31, 1999.

The City of Miami built the Miami Arena in a classic example of urban renewal gone wrong. Build a sport facility in the wrong part of town, and watch as the area is revitalized. Built for a little more than $50 million, cheap by today’s $200 to $400 million arena costs, the Miami Arena should never have been built where it was. When a major sports franchise moves into a new facility five blocks from where their former home was, maybe the old arena was in the wrong place.

Attending football games at the Orange Bowl forced the Dolphins to move to Dolphins Stadium on the Broward/Dade line in South Florida. As challenging as it was to get to the Orange Bowl football fans only had to for Dolphins, U of Miami and the occasional playoff game.

The Orange Bowl game moved to Dolphins Stadium years before the Orange Bowl was demolished to make way for the Marlins stadium. Time will tell, but there is a real possibility the Marlins new stadium will face many of the issues the Heat and the Panthers faced at the Miami Arena, a facility sports fans have no interest in heading to for events.

Any time Jeffrey Loria’s name comes up in terms of sports ownership its worth looking back at his reign of terror when he owned the Montreal Expos.

Loria ended the Expos broadcast agreements alienating the local business community.
In the case of the broadcast agreements with the Expos Loria’s concerns focused on the lack of anyone willing to pay the Expos for their right to broadcast the team in 1999.

His next move that caused concern for Expos fans was that he instilled his stepson David Samson, as Expos president. Samson and Montreal were like oil and water. Samson’s inability to speak French, in a city where 80 percent of the population speaks French, upset the Francophone community.

By the time Loria left Montreal in 2002, he had gutted the Expos roster of any major league talent, cutting the teams’ payroll, making the team nothing more than a glorified Triple-A baseball franchise playing Major League Baseball.

Loria and Samson did win a World Series in 2003. By 2006, the Marlins payroll was reduced to $15 million, even though the franchise was receiving tens of millions of dollars through MLB’s revenue sharing plan.

Simply put Jeffrey Loria was an odd version of Robin Hood – he was taking from the rich and putting the money into his own pockets.

Since 1991, 25 of the game’s 30 teams have built a new stadium or undertaken major renovations of an old one. Only one, the San Francisco Giants AT&T Park which opened in 2000 was built with private dollars.

The optics of an SEC investigation couldn’t come at a worse time for Marlins. The team is in the final stages of a long needed move, selling season tickets and corporate partnership packages, focusing on the new stadium.
,
An SEC investigation at least in the short terms hurts the franchises ability to sell their new stadium.

It’s easy to blame Jeffrey Loria for this mess but that might not be fair. Yes Jeffrey Loria did agree to take over the Marlins from John Henry in 2002 but MLB should have never awarded a franchise to the city before it had a stadium in place for baseball.

Loria did whatever he had to do to get the best stadium deal he could from South Florida lawmakers. If South Florida politicians were “hoodwinked” by Loria is that Jeffrey Loria’s fault for looking for the best deal he could get for a business he owned or South Florida politicians for committing political suicide?

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Jim Boeheim and a sense of entitlement

2011-11-30T11:03:00.005-05:00

Third ranked Syracuse University’s basketball team played a routine pre-season game at the Carrier Dome Tuesday evening. The Orange, now 7-0, pounded Eastern Michigan 84-48 in front of 19,649. The result was never in doubt.

Basketball aside, the game served as a platform for the Orange’s coach Jim Boeheim and the swirling sexual abuse allegations that resulted in the firing of Boeheim’s long-time associate head coach Bernie Fine.

“It’s hard to put everything into words,’’ said Boeheim, glancing occasionally at his notes. “I thought a lot today about different things. I’m saddened in many ways by what’s unfolded. I’m looking forward to a time when we can talk and learn from what has happened. There’s an important investigation going on, which I fully support. I can’t add anything to it by speaking more about that now.’’

When ESPN first broke the Bernie Fine sexual allegations story two weeks ago, Boeheim staunchly defended Fine. Boeheim suggested accusers Bobby Davis and Mike Lang were liars and were chasing a payday.

The Hall of Fame coach was ‘all-in’ standing by his friend of nearly 50 years. The two men first met when Boeheim was the Orange’s student manager in 1963.

“I supported a friend,’’ Boeheim said. “That’s what I thought I did. If you’ve known somebody and worked with them for 36 years and known them for 48 years and went to school with them, I think you owe a debt of allegiance and gratitude for what he did for the program. That’s what my reaction was. So be it.’’

Is it so easy to dismiss what Boeheim said? In the days immediately following the terrible indictment filed against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, the entire Penn State football program, and in particular Joe Paterno, was under the media microscope.

The Penn State story was the lead item on virtually every national newscast for days. It has been suggested Penn State needs to adopt a scorched earth philosophy in dealing with the fall-out, time to fire everyone associated with the current Penn State football program.

When it comes to what’s next at Syracuse, Jim Boeheim took control in Tuesday night’s post-game press conference when it came to talking about his future with Syracuse University.

“What happened on my watch, we will see,’’ Boeheim said. “When the investigation is done, we will find out what happened on my watch. We don’t know what’s happening on my watch, right now. There’s an investigation underway. There are no charges. There are no indictments. There is no grand jury. There is no action being taken. When that is done, then we will see what is happening on my watch.’’

Boeheim is notorious for his smugness. He doesn’t look comfortable, even after 36 years as the head coach for a major college basketball program.

No, Jim Boeheim isn’t above the law and yes, he must be held accountable, as Joe Paterno. However, from the outside looking in, Jim Boeheim looked like he believed no matter what happened to Bernie Fine, his job was safe.

It’s impossible not to read between the lines. Jim Boeheim is saying ‘bring it on; I’m ready for whatever you have to say!’

The Penn State scandal will forever serve as a great example for crisis communications students. So many mistakes were made.

Jim Boeheim is correct in saying there are no charges, no indictments, and no grand jury. He’s standing behind the “facts” that there have been indictments linked to the Penn State football program and there haven’t been indictments associated with the Syracuse basketball program, at least not yet.

“I’ve never worried about my job status in 36 years,’’ Boeheim said. “Many years I didn’t have a contract extension. I didn’t have anything. When I worry about that, I may have to get a job with you guys.’’

Jim Boeheim’s words drip of sarcasm and are about as sincere as the Fox News network supporting President Obama’s health care policies.

Earlier Tuesday Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor offered Boeheim a vote of confidence.

"Coach Boeheim is our coach; he's getting the team ready tonight," Cantor said. "We're very pleased with what he said Sunday night, and we stand by it."

As of this writing Cantor hasn’t talked about Boeheim’s future with Syracuse, but it’s a safe bet Boeheim will be coaching the Orange for the remainder of the 2011-12 Orange basketball season.

“This is the first time I’ve been in the press room where there’s more people here than at the game,” he quipped. “Is there something special going on tonight?”

Jim your team was playing your usual November cupcake schedule. Your long-time associate head coach had been fired 48 hours earlier for alleged sexual molestations against young boys, and you’re wondering why the media is at your post-game press game conference?

When asked if he was responsible for what allegedly took place Boeheim asked the media member who asked the question a question of his own.

We’re talking about the alleged sexual molestation of young boys, allegations that at least three young men were molested by a man who you stood by two weeks ago. You may have been right to stand up for him then and you may want to shift the focus to the boys on the court and the 2011-2012 season, but you’re not helping anyone by being arrogant and almost defiant in dealing with the media.

"That's where he made a mistake," Mike Paul, president of MGP & Associates PR told Yahoo Sports. "That's a fork in the road in the moment. That's the tipping point that could have made people say, 'Wow, they handled things totally different than Penn State,' and instead he did just the opposite. He followed in their footsteps."

"It's pretty difficult for him to say anything that's going to placate the public and correct what he's already said," said University of Arkansas professor Stephen Dittmore, author of the book "Sport public relations: Managing organizational communication according to Yahoo Sports."

"Anytime you get a crisis that involves things society would find morally inappropriate, you need to show empathy and compassion. Even if you don't agree with the allegations, you have to show some compassion to the human element that's involved there. I think coach Boeheim probably did himself a disservice by reacting so strongly initially. He should have taken a very neutral approach."

Guys like Jim Boeheim and Joe Paterno are not above the law not matter how important they are, or were, on their respective campuses.

Penn State University fired Joe Paterno, in large part because they believed there had been irreparable harm to the image of their school. It remains to be seen if Syracuse University’s Board of Trustees will feel the same way about Jim Boeheim.

It takes a lifetime to build a legacy but mere moments to for it to forever tarnished.

I’m sure Joe Paterno wishes he had done things differently. He seems ready to accept that he is, at least in part, responsible for what took place under his watch at Penn State.

Jim Boeheim is only ready to do what he does best, and that’s challenge for an NCAA championship.

He also seems quite prepared to be defiant with the media. It’s time to check your attitude Jim Boeheim. It’s time to start acting like a Hall of Fame coach. You may have done nothing wrong but if the allegations are proven to be true you are guilty of not knowing what took place “under your watch,” and for that you need to be held accountable.

Stop being your own worst enemy and start understanding why this story is as important as it is to so many people.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Is the National Football League once again the No Fun League?

2011-11-29T17:57:00.003-05:00

Once again National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell is having to deal with misbehaving players. Goodell’s off field policy created in 2007 has generated a great deal of discussion, but in light of recent on field incidents, it might be time for Goodell to create a blanket policy when it comes to dealing with player behavior.

On Thanksgiving Day, Detroit Lions Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh stomped on the arm of Green Bay Packers Guard Evan Dietrich-Smith in the third quarter of the Lions' 27-15 loss and was ejected.

Sunday during the Buffalo Bills 28-14 loss to the New York Jets, Stevie Johnson was fined $10,000, and the Bills were penalized 15 yards, after Johnson’s end zone dance mocked Jets receiver Plaxico Burress’s infamous gun incident where he shot himself in leg. Burress spent two years behind bars for his actions.

Suh's suspension will cost him $164,000, or two game checks. For Suh, the 2010 NFL
Defensive Rookie of the Year, it was the fifth time in his two year NFL career his on-field behavior has created ‘issues’.
Suh contacted Goodell Sunday evening to apologize for his what he did – four days after the Lions Thanksgiving game. How sincere can he be if it took hm four days to reach out?

In a statement released Tuesday, the league said Suh has now violated its on-field rules five times since joining the Lions in 2010.
Suh was widely considered to be one of the best prospects available in the 2010 Draft. ESPN.com's draft analyst Mel Kiper, Jr. described Suh as "maybe the most dominating defensive tackle I've seen in 32 years" and projected him to go #1 overall to the St. Louis Rams. The Rams ultimately selected quarterback Sam Bradford.

To prepare for the NFL Draft and the subsequent contract negotiations, Suh signed with Maximum Sports Management, and agent Roosevelt Barnes.

This was concerning for many teams who were hoping to draft him, as this was the same agent who represented Michael Crabtree. Crabtree held out for over six weeks into the NFL season before signing with the San Francisco 49ers in 2009.

For off the field marketing activities, Suh signed with The Agency Sports Management & Marketing, where Russ Spielman serves as lead agent.

His Lions contract guaranteed the defensive tackle a five year $40 million contract.
Suh the second overall 2010 selection in the NFL draft has endorsement contracts with Subway and Chrysler. He's also worked with Omaha Steaks and Battle Sports Science. None of Suh’s sponsors have suggested they’ll drop him.

The Lions are 7-4 and have a real chance of making the playoffs. They are one of the feel good stories of the 2011 NFL season.

His image is of a rough, tough unrelenting NFL player. Is his reputation good for business and the Lions?

Football is a violent game and Suh, in his second NFL season, has to be considered one of the league’s most violent players. For all the wrong reasons Suh appeals to both corporate America and to the football teams for which he plays.

The next time Suh decides to stomp on opponent count on Roger Goodell suspending him for at least five games based on his history.
Stevie Johnson’s on field behavior bordered on moronic. He mocked Plaxico Burress, drew a 15-yard personal foul for excessive celebration and dropped the would-be winning touchdown.

"When we start talking regret, I'm not one to regret much. But in this situation I do regret doing what I did," he said. "I was really expecting Plax to come back at me, making this like a rivalry thing, you know Bills-Jets, they talk, we come back at them, he come back at me. I was expecting him to do something funny in the end zone. ... but he didn't.

"So I was seeing it was probably more serious than what I took it. So I regret doing that, yeah. And I also regret going to the ground, which cost our team at the end of the day a touchdown."

According to the Buffalo News, Johnson was penalized, and subsequently fined $10,000 by the league, for a similar incident during a Week Three game in the 2010 season against the New England Patriots.

That time, he mimicked the Patriots' traditional musket blast after a touchdown, falling to the ground.

While two on-field incidents are being talked about this week, a series of conduct policies Goodell created in April 2007 sent a message to NFL players that if you behave badly and you’ll pay a price.

Goodell implemented a tougher new personal-conduct policy and, under conditions of the previous policy, handed down two of the harshest suspensions in NFL history for off-field misdeeds.

Just days before the start of 2006 season, Roger Goodell was named NFL Commissioner. Goodell’s first major task was to deal with the fallout from a 2006 off-season filled with NFL players behaving badly.

In the months leading up to Goodell's appointment, nine players from the Cincinnati Bengals were arrested. Goodell and the National Football League Players Association announced that teams would become responsible for the conduct of their employees, and will be subject to discipline for any transgressions.

Goodell had consulted with the late Gene Upshaw, former NFLPA executive director, and created a six-man player advisory committee to discuss conduct, discipline and other topics.

The first to feel the wrath of Goodell were Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones and the late Chris Henry, of the Cincinnati Bengals. The two were teammates at West Virginia. The third player suspended was Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson.

On August 24, 2007, Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback, and NFL mega star, Michael Vick plead guilty to in his involvement in illegal dog fighting and was suspended indefinitely without pay.

He was reinstated upon his release from prison in time to play in the 2009-2010 season.

Ben Roethlisberger was next. On July 17, 2009, a civil suit was filed in Washoe County, Nevada District Court accusing Roethlisberger of sexually assaulting Andrea McNulty in June 2008 in his hotel room. He was in Lake Tahoe for a celebrity golf tournament. No charges were filed in the case.

In March 2010 Roethlisberger was, again, accused of sexual assault. While Roethlisberger was once again not charged with a crime following the events at the nightclub, the league still suspended him for six games, which was later reduced to four.

This is the only time in league history a player has been suspended under the personal conduct policy without being charged with a crime.

Off the field Goodell’s power appears to be absolute. He has made it clear if a player breaks the law, or is even arrested, he’s going to pay a stiff price.
NFL owners have been very supportive of Goodell’s off-the-field player behavior policy, as have former NFL players.

Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Warren Sapp stated, "I understand what they're doing. Some of these new-jack kids act like they're walking on water. Sometimes, they need to be slapped in the face to wake up."

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said of the policy, "I hope this sends a message to people in our league for how to conduct themselves. We have to be careful. People in America can't relate to overindulged athletes not acting responsibly."

If Ndamukong Suh had done what he had done in a normal workplace, he would have been arrested and charged with assault. We all know the gridiron isn’t your normal http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifworkplace. If Stevie Johnson had taunted someone at a normal workplace he would have been fired.

Sooner rather than later, for the good of the game, Roger Goodell has to deal with the Ndamukong Suh's and Stevie Johnson's in the same way he dealt with Pacman Jones, Michael Vick, Ben Roethlisberger and company.

It’s not a matter of the NFL becoming the No Fun League, it’s a matter of Roger Goodell sending a message to all NFL players that no longer will bad behavior be acceptable on or off a football field.

For s this is Howard Bloom. Sources used in this Insider Report: Wikipedia

Bernie Fine – a sad ending to a sad life

2011-11-28T21:13:00.002-05:00

It has been a tumultuous year for the NCAA. The full frontal assault includes recruiting scandals, booster issues, questionable grading, and high school players being “purchased”. None of those controversies compare to the alleged child sex abuse scandals that first hit the Penn State football program and have now dunked the Syracuse basketball program.

These are the worst of times for college sports – a black eye on the sports industry.
The life and times of now former Syracuse University Associate Head Basketball Coach Bernie Fine came to an abrupt end Sunday evening when the university fired Fine. The 65-year-old Fine was in his 36th season at his alma mater, the longest active streak of consecutive seasons at one school among assistant coaches in Division I.

Fine joined the Orange basketball program in 1963 as a student manager. That team included basketball Hall of Famers Jim Boeheim and current Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. Fine joined Boeheim with the Orange in 1976 when Boeheim was hired as Head Coach.

When ESPN first broke the story ten days ago, Boeheim staunchly defended Fine, suggesting Mike Davis was lying and in search of a financial payoff. Sunday, ESPN released a tape Davis secretly made of himself and Fine’s wife Laurie talking about the sexual abuses.

Laurie Fine, who admitted to having a sexual affair with Davis at the same time her husband allegedly abused him, confirmed what Davis had said about his relationship with her husband.

"The allegations that have come forth today are disturbing and deeply troubling," Boeheim said in a statement released by the school. "I am personally very shocked because I have never witnessed any of the activities that have been alleged. I believe the university took the appropriate step tonight. What is most important is that this matter be fully investigated and that anyone with information be supported to come forward so that the truth can be found. I deeply regret any statements I made that might have inhibited that from occurring or been insensitive to victims of abuse."

What Jim Boeheim knew or didn’t know remains a mystery, but his unwavering support of Fine ten days ago now appears to be a major mistake for one of America’s most important college basketball coaches.

If Boeheim knew nothing about the allegations, one has to question how close the two men really were. Fine’s firing is a blow to Boeheim personally and professionally and while he may not be painted with the same brush that ruined Joe Paterno’s career, it will be tough for Boeheim, whose Orange are among the best in college basketball this year, not to be hurt by the aftermath.

Syracuse University chancellor Nancy Cantor initially stood by Fine but now says there is no place at Syracuse for anyone like Bernie Fine.

“Tonight, in the wake of troubling new allegations that emerged in the media today, I am writing to let you know that Bernie Fine's employment at the University has been terminated effective immediately.

“Frankly, the events of the past week have shaken us all. The taped phone call that ESPN revealed today was not provided to the university by Mr. Davis during the 2005 investigation by our legal counsel. Like the media review of the case a few years earlier, no other witnesses came forward during the university investigation, and those who felt they knew Bernie best could not imagine what has unfolded.

“Since I last wrote to you, we have been cooperating fully with the authorities. On Friday, November 18th, as the District Attorney has noted, we turned over to his office the results of our 2005 months-long investigation. Also on November 18, our Board of Trustees retained an independent law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, to review our procedures in responding to the initial allegations when they first came to the University's attention. I fully supported that decision and it is vital that we examine our protocols and actions in dealing with such serious allegations. We need to learn all we can from this terrible lesson.

“All of us have the responsibility, individually and collectively, to ensure that Syracuse University remains a safe place for every campus community member and everyone with whom we interact on a daily basis on campus or in the community as part of our learning, scholarship, or work. We do not tolerate abuse. If anything good comes out of this tragedy, it will be that this basic principle is reinforced.”
In the days immediately following ESPN’s initial report, many former Orange players stood by Fine.

“I’m sure this is just the beginning,” said Danny Schayes, who played for the Orangemen in the late’70s and early ’80s, from his home in Arizona Sunday evening.
“I’m afraid, unfortunately, that the ball is just starting to roll down the hill.”

“The whole thing is a mess, no matter how you slice it,” said Schayes, one of Fine’s prized pupils. “For those of us who consider themselves friends of Bernie, the best case is a horrible case. There’s no good case here.

“Whether it comes to charges or no charges, jail or no jail, life is over for him.
That tape was damning testimony. The kid says Bernie was sleeping with him while he was sleeping with the wife. I mean, it couldn’t be more Jerry Springerish.”

The NCAA has rules and regulations when it comes to dealing with illegal payments to players, but doesn’t have a firm set of rules relating to sexual abuse allegations.
The damage to the image of the NCAA and the school’s directly involved is incalculable, but the NCAA needs to react quickly.

The pages of Sports Business News demanded Joe Paterno be held accountable. Penn State did what was right when they fired Joe Paterno. There is direct evidence that the Penn State football program covered-up the Jerry Sandusky child abuse allegations for many years.

If Jim Boeheim knew anything about the Bernie Fine accusations then he must pay the same price as Joe Paterno. Should Boeheim be fired? That is a question well worth asking. Fine was Boeheim’s associate head coach, his right hand for 35 years.

If Boeheim didn’t know then he either wasn’t paying enough attention to what his staff was doing away from the basketball court at Syracuse that bares his namesake.
Penn State was very slow to react to the Sandusky allegations – a classic case of terrible crisis communications. When ESPN first broke the Fine story ten days ago Syracuse suspended Fine immediately, but were quick to point out the university had dismissed the Davis story in 2002 and 2003.

The sense of betrayal Jim Boeheim must feel has to be near debilitating. Ten days ago Boeheim talked about a friendship that had spanned 50 years. The sense of humiliation Jim Boeheim must be feeling has to be terrible.

Faced with two terrible sex abuse scandals, the NCAA needs to enact a set of rules that help member schools deal with the issues of child abuse.

NCAA coaches are powerful figures in their respective communities, leaders who are trusted, respected and all too often revered. To take advantage of that standing in the community to abuse a child is reprehensible and must be handled with the severest of possible sanctions.

The rules can’t be tough enough when it comes to dealing with the allegations that have been leveled against Jerry Sandusky and Bernie Fine. The NCAA has its work cut of for it.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Christmas Comes early for the National Basketball Association

2011-11-27T10:17:00.001-05:00

Christmas came early for the National Basketball Association in the wee hours of Saturday morning in the form of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA).

What seemed next to impossible two weeks ago turned around in a matter of days. At the end of the day NBA Commissioner David Stern and NBPA executive director Billy Hunter came to the realization that the two sides had to reach an agreement for the “good of the game”. The two sides met for more than 15 hours the day after Thanksgiving before reaching their agreement.

“We’ve reached a tentative understanding that is subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations but we are optimistic that will all come to pass and the NBA season will begin December 25th, Christmas Day, with a triple-header. I won’t give you the details to tune in yet. We are very pleased that we have come this far. There is a lot of work to be done in a lot of places, with a lot of committees and player groups and alike but we are optimistic that it will hold and we will have ourselves an NBA season,” a tired but pleased Stern announced at 3:30 AM Saturday.

“I want to announce on behalf of those who are gathered here, Derek (Fisher) and Maurice (Evans), that we are happy that we have been able to resolve and reach a tentative litigation settlement with regards to many issues that are pending for the various courts. We are going to turn it all over to the lawyers here and let them work out the details and we’ll then be able to talk further as that process proceeds,” an equally tired and pleased Hunter countered.

Former ESPN and AP NBA Insider Chris Sheridan offered a few reasons as to why he believed the deal was done.

“On the financial split, the players will receive between 49 and 51 percent of revenues, depending on annual growth. The players had complained prior to Saturday that the owners’ previous offer effectively limited them to 50.2 percent of revenues, but the source said 51 percent was now reasonably achievable with robust growth.

“Owners dropped their insistence on what would have been known as the Carmelo Anthony rule, preventing teams from executing extend-and-trade deals similar to the one that sent Anthony from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks last season. This means that if Dwight Howard, Deron Williams and Chris Paul want to leverage their way out of Orlando, New Jersey and New Orleans, they will still be eligible to sign three-year extensions with their current teams before being immediately traded elsewhere.”

The previous CBA had the basketball related income (BRI) at 57 percent in favor of the players. It’s no surprise the new CBA is basically the same 50/50 BRI split the NBPA said they’d never accept. Both sides had to realize months ago the final agreement would be near a 50/50 split, and should have worked much harder than they did before reaching the agreement Saturday. The NBA season could have started on November 3.

The new CBA is for ten years, but either side has the option of opting out of the agreement after six years. The league is planning on a truncated 66 game schedule that will start on Christmas Day. Training camps will open on December 9.

“Owners came in having suffered substantial loses and feeling that the system wasn’t working fairly across all teams and I certainly know that the players had strong view about expectations in terms of what they should be getting from the system so it required a lot of compromise on both parties part and I think that’s what we saw today. I think we saw a willingness of both sides to compromise yet a little more and to reach this agreement.” NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Stern offered.

One of Stern’s stated goals was the league would be more competitively balanced. Free agency is still very much of part of how the NBA conducts business, but as far as Silver is concerned he has achieved his goal of a more balanced NBA.

“I think it will largely prevent the high spending teams from competing in the free agency market in a way that they have been able to in the past. As I have said, it is a compromise and it is not the system we sought out to get in terms of a harder cap but the luxury tax is harsher than it was in the past deal and we hope it’s effective. You never can be sure with how a new system will work but we feel ultimately it will give fans in every community hope that their team can compete for championships and that their basis for believing in their team will be a function of management of that team rather than, as I have said before, how deep the owners pockets are or how large the market is. Peter, do you want to speak to that point?”

San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, a key in the negotiations, echoed Silver’s sentiments.

“That is a big part of it and I appreciate what Billy and Derek and the players have compromised on because it will allow us as a small market to be competitive and create more parity across all 30 teams. We are really excited. We are excited for the fans. We’re excited to start playing basketball for the players and for everybody involved. This is going to give us an opportunity we think it is, a contract as we work through it over the next many days getting all the details done, that is going to allow all of that. And so it is really exciting. It is going to be exciting whether you are in a small market or a large market. Fans are going to have a lot of hope and a lot of excitement going forward.”

And what does Billy Hunter feel about the dawn of a new competitively balanced NBA?

“The owners are independently wealthy,” he said. “They did not earn their riches from basketball. They can function if the season blows up.

“I did not want to be reckless. This is not like the United Auto Workers and General Motors. They work together: they make automobiles. If something happens, they will all suffer. I don’t like the idea of Armageddon. I was not prepared to play free and loose with my clients.”

The new CBA includes a salary floor. Teams will have to have a minimum payroll of 85 percent of the NBA’s salary cap in the first two years of the CBA and 90 percent each year thereafter.

One important concession the owners made to the NBPA is their new "Carmelo Rule," which would've put an end to extend and trades. Owners wanted to try and end the drama we saw last season with Carmelo Anthony and nip that in the bud with Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Dwight Howard.

Attorney Jeffrey Kessler who had emerged as a key “player” for the NBPA didn’t attend Friday’s decisive negotiations in person. A few weeks ago Kessler suggested Stern was treating NBA players like they were slaves on his plantation, suggesting Stern was a racist.

Kessler, denounced for his comments, participated in Friday's negotiations via conference call.

Gabe Feldman, Director of Tulane University’s Sports Law program, told ESPN the league needs to recognize the reconstructed union.

"That will truly be a formality," he said, adding that the union does not need to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board.

So why then, ten days after David Stern evoked the term “nuclear winter,” did the two warring factions find peace?

At or near the top of any list as to why the two sides managed to work out their differences – David Stern and Billy Hunter are leaders and acted like the leaders they are. They got the deal done because they believed it had to get done.

The players were never going to miss an entire season. The average NBA career is just a shade over four seasons and the average salary, $5.1 million. The players could never afford to miss an entire season.

The owners would have been able to afford the loss of an entire NBA season but they ran the risk of alienating a fan base that seemingly didn’t care if the 2011-12 season was played.

The National Hockey League lost the 2004-05 season, the NHL has far fewer fans than the NBA does, but NHL fans are passionate and care about hockey. It’s possible if the NBA had lost the entire 2011-12 season the backlash would have been apathy.

Christmas came early for NBA fans, and Christmas Day will see the return of the NBA with a tripleheader of hoops.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Major League Baseball – giving Thanks

2011-11-23T11:21:00.001-05:00

There is a new five year Major League Baseball Collective Bargaining Agreement that ensures 21 years and counting of labor peace for the Boys of Summer.

The National Basketball Association is in the midst of a protracted lockout that could, and will likely, result in the cancellation of the 2011-12 NBA season. The National Hockey League became the first major North American professional sports league to lose an entire season to a labor battle in 2004-05. The National Football League reached the edge of their labor abyss before agreeing to a 10-year CBA.

Baseball was never in doubt.

Bud Selig didn’t play much of a role in the negotiations. While David Stern is front and center on behalf of NBA owners, Roger Goodell on behalf of NFL owners and Gary Bettman on behalf of NHL owners, Selig the former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers turns labor negotiations on behalf of ownership to Ron Manfred.

Bud offered this when the labor agreement was announced:

“I believe that this five year agreement will continue the remarkable popularity and surge that baseball has been on. I've said this often, and I'll say it to all of you today, nobody back in the '70s, the '80s, and the early '90s would ever believe that we'd have 21 years of labor peace. It's really remarkable. Clearly it's the longest period of labor peace that this sport has ever had.

“It's interesting to note that baseball's popularity has manifested itself in a myriad of ways. It's been at its greatest in the last 15 or 16 years. I think that one of the primary reasons, if not the primary reason is labor peace.

“I think at least from my standpoint, a lot of us didn't understand how serious the labor confrontations of the '70s, and the '80s were. Usually I (list each lockout year)…because I can still remember, but how much it really had hurt the sport. Now with the great growth of this sport, and this year ended as well as it could have, and this is another step forward.

“So this is really a very proud day for us. By the way, it needs, obviously, clearly ratification from the players as well as from all the owners, and that process will begin today, so we have a lot of work yet to do before this deal is done.”

The 1994 MLB strike hurt the game. The World Series was canceled ultimately killing the Montreal Expos. The Expos had baseball’s best record in 1994. Whatever fan base the Expos had before the 1994 MLB season ended in mid-August was gone when baseball returned in 1995.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) have worked together to ensure what happened 16 years ago never happens again. It remains to be seen if MLB will continue to enjoy labor peace beyond this newest agreement, but it sends the right message to baseball fans.

Michael Weiner, who succeeded Don Fehr as the executive director for the MLBPA, echoed many of Selig’s comments.

“Bud spoke of labor peace, and labor peace is good. It's better than labor war, for sure. But the goal of the collective bargaining is not just to have peace. Not just to reach an agreement. This is a good day for baseball, not just because we reached an agreement, but because of the quality and the nature of the agreement that was reached, an agreement that will benefit all players.

“Bud used the word historic, and there are some historic changes in this agreement, some that the players have sought for a long, long time. There are benefits here that will run to young players to veteran players, to international players, to former players. It's our job, the union's job, to secure the benefits for players and to protect and further players’ rights, and that's exactly what we did in this agreement. It's an agreement that will benefit all clubs, the largest market clubs, the smallest market clubs and everyone in between.

“It’s the Commissioner's job and Rob's job and Dan's job and the staff's job to do that. They bargained hard for their constituents and they bargained successfully. This is also an agreement that will benefit the game and the industry.

“I've been working for the union for 23 years, and this is the first round of bargaining where we're able to really engage on matters that can be of benefit to all involved with the game.

“The first time in my experience that it didn't matter whose idea it was, it didn't matter who brought a particular idea to the table or who didn't, but we engaged on matters that I think are exciting for everybody who loves the game.

“Maybe the best example of that is the realignment. The 15 15 realignment that Bud and the owners announced last week. This was a union idea from over a decade ago. It was the owners' side of the table that brought it into this round of bargaining. None of that mattered. It was a good idea. It was an idea that the parties worked hard with that's allowed us to come up with an exciting new post season format. That kind of bargaining is something that these parties haven't previously been able to achieve.

“There are other examples as well, for example, in the areas of health and safety. The parties jointly brought to the table issues related to drug testing to our joint drug agreement to how we deal with players with alcohol difficulties, with players with concussions, issues of equipment and safety that the parties jointly addressed.

“And there are a number of others in the reserve system and in the draft area, and revenue sharing is just a couple of examples. Of these are exciting changes that will better the game and help grow the industry.

“That's why I say it's not just a good day for baseball, but a good day for collective bargaining. When collective bargaining works, you have creative, determined, even dogged people on both sides of the table, and that's what we had here. The parties are pursuing in good faith the priorities of their constituents. But at the same time, they're looking for areas of common interest, areas of common benefit.

“The process wasn't easy. It's never easy. It's always harder than you think it's going to be. But it was a successful process. It's a good day for collective bargaining and for baseball.” Weiner commented.

There isn’t a great deal to argue about in the new MLB CBA. However one clause being included that is ‘interesting’ is a cap on spending at the annual June entry draft.

Two issues make this clause questionable and worrisome at the very least.

The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Kansas City Royals spent more money on players each organization had drafted after the June 2011 entry draft. The Pirates and the Royals rarely, if ever, spend money in the free agent market.

They’re small market MLB franchises. The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox can’t help but spend money on big name free agents. If the Pirates and Royals are going to be competitive they need to draft the right players and keep them for four to six years before they become arbitration eligible and free agents.

Small market franchises rely on the draft to stay competitive. Just look at the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Kansas City Royals drafted and signed Derek “Bubba” Starling, a center fielder and multi-sport phenom from Gardner Edgerton High School in Missouri to a three year $7.5 million contract.

Startling had a football scholarship waiting for him from Nebraska if his agent Scott Boras didn’t reach an agreement on behalf of his client with the Royals. Starling is key to the Royals future.

And Boras – baseball’s most affluent agent had a great deal to say about how MLB is dealing with their entry draft.

"This will hurt all of baseball," Boras told USA TODAY in a telephone interview. "This was not good for the game at all. There have to be some amendments to it because this dramatically impacts the game. It goes against the revenue sharing concept. This dramatically affects parity. That concept is gone. A team's chance to dramatically improve has been dramatically reduced.

"This will affect (general managers') careers. This will affect scouts' careers. This is restricting their expertise. The value they invest in scouting is no longer worth the payment of the scouting department. Their ability has about been minimized by 30 to 40% because they can't draft a certain way. The intellect of scouting has been reduced. You want to pay for talent, but now it's going to be governed by artificial behavior.

"Try to find a GM who's for this. I know of no GM who's in favor of these changes. Try to find a scouting director. No one is in favor of this but Bud [Selig]. This was a mandate by the commissioner to get the deal done.

"Now, if you're Tampa Bay, and if you win, you get to spend half as much as the Chicago Cubs do in the draft. It makes no sense." Boras told USA Today

He “was” a two sport star who chose a small market MLB team because the Royals could pay him to choose baseball. If the Royals were capped and could not pay him that much money, he would have gone to college, played football and potentially left baseball behind.

Long-term, MLB didn’t run the risk of losing a potential star to the National Football League. Short-term the Kansas City Royals are sending the right message of their fan base.

A real win for Major League Baseball. A win/win for MLB – the new clause included in the new MLB CBA may make this a lose/lose for baseball.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Sidney Crosby – the return of the NHL’s Prodigal Son

2011-11-22T15:11:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving Day came three days early for the National Hockey League and the Lords of the Rink must be thrilled.

Sidney Crosby, the NHL’s marquee and most bankable player, returned after a near year- long absence, following a series of concussions, to score two goals and collect two assists in the Penguins 5-0 trashing of the New York Islanders.

Crosby last played an NHL game January 5, 2011, 320 days ago.

Crosby’s return comes at the perfect time for the NHL. The National Basketball Association is in the midst of a protracted labor dispute – the likelihood of there being a NBA season being more and more remote each passing day. The NBA lockout represents a tremendous opportunity for the NHL.

Crosby’s story is a tale that illustrates why hockey means so much to those who love the frozen sport. Small town Canadian kid becoming the best player in the game, a fact niot lost on Tim Hortons – one of Canada’s iconic brands, Dempsters and the companies who choose to work with the NHL’s best player.

The Hockey Writers (a website) offered this on who Sid the Kid is: “Love him or hate him, Sidney Crosby has been anointed the new face of the NHL since he was by the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted in 2005.”

It was an unusual draft year to say the least. Due to a labor stoppage, the 2004-05 season never happened making the order of the draft a topic of debate.

In order to determine the order of the draft, a weighted lottery was used. The lottery was based primarily on each team’s playoff appearances and lottery victories the previous four seasons. This system led to the draft known as the “Sidney Crosby Lottery.” Pittsburgh Penguins won that lottery and picked Crosby first overall. However, his rise to fame occurred well before he was drafted.

Sidney was born in 1987 in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. His father, Troy, was a goalie drafted by the Montreal Canadiens 240th overall in 1984, however, he would never make it to the NHL.

Sid began playing hockey in his basement shortly after he could walk. In fact, hishe badly damaged washer and dryer as a result of his repeatedly shooting pucks at it is stuff of legend.

By the time he was two and a half years old, he and his father were skating once a week in a parent/child program. The seed had been planted.

From day one it was as if Sidney’s destiny fate had been predetermined. After appearing in the Air Canada Cup, one of hockey’s premier showcase events as a 14-year old, Crosby was being called “The Next One,” an homage to Wayne Gretzky the NHL’s best player throughout the 1980’s and much of the 1990’s.

When he turned 15, Crosby left Nova Scotia for Shattuck-St. Marys, a hockey driven prep school located in Minnesota, with future NHLers Jonathan Toews and Zack Parise.

The Crosbys thought it would be a great experience for Sidney, not only to play hockey outside of the media spotlight of Canada, but also to grow and mature as a person. He would play the 2002-2003 season with Shattuck-St. Marys, leading them to the U.S. National Championship scoring 72 goals and 162 points in 57 games.

The following year, Crosby was selected first overall in the midget draft by the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (“QMJHL”) and would make his debut in the 2003-04 season as a 16-year old.

He wasted no time making his mark scoring eight points in his first exhibition game. Throughout his first season in the QMJHL, Crosby would be named QMJHL Player of the Week six times, Player of the Month three times, and Canadian Hockey League (“CHL”) Player of the Week three times.

At the conclusion of the season, with 54 goals and 139 point in 59 games, Crosby was named Player of the Year, Top Rookie and Top Scorer, the first QMJHL player to earn all three awards. Most youngsters begin playing junior hockey (the NHL’s premier development league) at 17; Crosby was the best junior hockey player in the world – at 16.

The 2004-05 season would see even more success for the young star. This was the year of the NHL labor stoppage. The World Hockey Association (“WHA”) was attempting to become a rival league to the NHL and was offering large contracts to current and future NHLers.

The league offered Crosby $7.5 million over three years, however, Crosby declined saying he wasn’t yet ready to leave juniors. The WHA never played a game.

Crosby returned to Rimouski and dominated the QMJHL, establishing a Canadian Junior Hockey record for the longest undefeated streak of 28 games, and losing only 2 games in the entire playoffs. Unfortunately, the team fell to the London Knights in the Memorial Cup Finals. He would finish the season scoring 66 goals and 168 points in 62 games.

Over this time, Crosby also participated in two World Junior Championship Tournaments. In 2004, Crosby would score two goals and five points in six games helping Canada to the silver medal. The following year, Crosby returned to the Tournament and scored six goals and three assists helping Canada win the gold medal.

The NHL came back in 2005-06, and Crosby was selected first overall in the NHL Entry Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Crosby started off the year playing alongside Mario Lemieux. Crosby, now 18 and with a three year $8.7 million contract, chose to live with Mario Lemieux and his family. You can’t make this stuff up..

Crosby is the youngest player to win the NHL’s Lester B. Pearson Award, and the 2nd youngest to Wayne Gretzky to win the Hart Trophy. He is the youngest scoring champion in North American professional sport history, winning the NHL’s Art Ross Trophy at 19 years old.

Crosby signed a three-year deal with Pepsi and Frito Lay of Canada after his rookie season.

But it was Tim Hortons, who signed Crosby to a major endorsement contract on December 13, 2006, who really understood the brand power of Sidney Crosby.

Tim Hortons, Canada’s biggest quick service restaurant business, first connected to Sidney Crosby in 1993 when the then five year old Crosby played for the Cole Harbour Timbits in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. Standing at 3' 11" Sidney wore jersey # 8 and played centre, clearly a sign of things to come.

"I am proud to represent Timbits Hockey," said Sidney Crosby at the time. "In my early days of playing hockey, my parents and coaches always reinforced the importance of having fun. That is something I take to the ice with me everyday."

"Sidney is an ideal ambassador for Timbits Hockey," said Rob Forbes, Director of Regional Marketing and Hockey Development, Tim Hortons. "As a role model Sidney inspires with his positive attitude and fun approach while still being grounded in family and community. Sidney Crosby embodies the philosophy of Timbits Hockey."

The commercial spot, which continues to promote Tim Hortons commitment to minor league hockey in Canada, showcases Crosby as a child dreaming the dream of making it to the NHL.

The commercial moves from Sidney Crosby infectious smile as a nine-year old to the Sidney Crosby of today, hockey’s best player playing hockey with five and six year olds, current Timbit hockey players.

The legend of Michael Jordan is in part based on Michael Jordan not making his high school basketball team, and returning a year later to begin his journey to becoming basketball’s greatest. Imagine if Nike could recreate Michael Jordan to when he had missed making his high school basketball team.

Sid the Kid and Timbits – the marketing dream team worth millions.

In October, Dempters, a Canadian bread company, showcased Sidney in a commercial for the second time. The spot, according to Marketing Magazine, showcases Crosby’s game-day preparation with the work of Canadian farmers growing wheat and grains used in Dempster’s line of breads. The spot is narrated by both the farmer character and Crosby.

“Our first promotion ran last fall and was extremely successful in the marketplace… We received strong feedback from our consumers and our franchisee partners,” said Bryan McCourt, a marketing director at Canada Bread Company, which is owned by Maple Leaf Foods in a Marketing Magazine report.

Earlier this year the National Hockey League signed a ten-year television contract with NBC and Versus. On January 2, 2012 Versus changes their name to NBC Sports. NBC will be showcasing the NHL Friday in the first Thanksgiving Showdown.

Too bad the game features the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins at home to the Detroit Red Wings. The Penguins, with Crosby will be home Friday night to the Ottawa Senators.

Showcasing Sidney Crosby on Friday would have been a dream come true for the NHL. It wasn’t until Sunday Crosby and the Penguins decided Crosby would play Monday night.

The good news is Sidney Crosby is back. Count on NBC having plenty of opportunities to showcase Sid the Kid when their weekly NHL game begins early in 2012. The NHL needs Sidney Crosby and Sidney Crosby needs the NHL – welcome back Sid the Kid.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Penn State – Earned their 2011 bowl game

2011-11-21T17:22:00.002-05:00

The Penn State Nittany Lions are 9-2 heading into their regular season finale at Wisconsin this Saturday. If the Nittany Lions win Saturday, they are headed for the Big Ten title game.

The winner of the Big Ten championship is heading to the Rose Bowl, the Granddaddy of them all. Regardless of whether or not Penn State wins any of their remaining 2011 games, the Penn State football has earned the right to play in a bowl game.

Most bowl projections don’t have Penn State going to the Rose Bowl but virtually every 2011 bowl projection has Penn State heading to a bowl game. College football teams need to win at least six games to be bowl eligible and with 9 wins heading into Saturday’s game at Wisconsin – the Lions have earned the right to play in a bowl game.

Sunday, the University of Miami decided to declared themselves ineligible for a 2011 bowl game as a punishment for violating NCAA rules.

“The University of Miami has made the decision to withhold the UM football team from bowl consideration following the 2011 regular season in response to the ongoing NCAA inquiry and has informed both the NCAA and the Atlantic Coast Conference of its decision.

“We understand and share the disappointment that our student-athletes, coaches, staff, supporters and fans are feeling but after lengthy discussions among University leaders, athletic administrators and outside counsel, it is a necessary step for our University. The University of Miami has not self-imposed any other penalties.

“The team was informed of the decision earlier today and is in preparations for their final game of the season.

“As we stated in August, the University of Miami maintains the highest standards in our academic and athletic endeavors and we will remain steadfast in our commitment to building winning programs with the utmost of integrity. We will be more vigilant in our compliance efforts and continue to work cooperatively with the NCAA on the joint inquiry to determine the true facts.

“To continue to protect the integrity of the inquiry, the University will not comment further at this time.”

Yahoo Sports first reported University of Miami booster, Nevin Shapiro, provided thousands of impermissible benefits to at least 72 athletes from 2002 through 2010, including current members of the football team.

Even though only a handful of current players broke the rules, Miami made the only decision they could, banning themselves from playing in a bowl game.

The current members of the Penn State football team bear no responsibility for the horrible allegations and scandal that will forever taint college athletics, Penn State football and the University.

Penn State will, one day recover, from the Sandusky Scandal and the massive cover-up, but the current member of the football team have earned the right to play in a bowl game this year.

Will Penn State follow Miami’s lead? Indeed they may.

Penn State president Rod Erickson wasn't definitive, saying, "we’ll wait and see at the appropriate time."

"Yes, I want to make it. The players and the guys on this team didn't have anything to do with this that's surrounding them," said interim Head Coach Tom Bradley.

It is all but certain whoever the next coach of the Nittany Lions is it won’t be Bradley or any member of the current coaching staff. Whatever the current coaching staff knew or didn’t know about the allegations against Jerry Sandusky, Penn State will fire everyone and start over.

Does anyone believe any of the current coaches of the Penn State football program will ever coach again? But Bradley is right, if nothing else, the current football team had nothing to do with the scandal. And if Penn State decides to turn down a bowl game – the message they are sending out to potential recruits about the program’s future is not a good one.

It won’t be easy for the Penn State team to travel to a bowl game.

At the University of Miami a booster corrupted some members of the team, but they did accept gifts and money. Penn State could ask the players to vote on whether or not they want to play in a bowl game.

There will be members of the team who will have had enough of the 2011 season and want it all to end. Bowl teams have to make themselves available at media conferences and various bowl related events.

Most bowl games offer the student athletes gifts. Penn State has to know that when they accept a bowl game bid – the team will be under tremendous scrutiny.

Saturday, the Nittany Lions played at Ohio State before more than 100,000 football fans, winning 20-14. The Nittany Lions were up to the task and proved they had what it takes.

"It's an unprecedented situation for Penn State, the bowls and everyone involved," Fiesta Bowl and Insight Bowl spokesman Andy Bagnato said in a USA Today report. "We can't speculate on how Penn State will finish the year, and everyone needs to remember and keep in mind that this is a sensitive issue."

Bagnato is right in what he’s saying. Again the current football team has earned the right. What message are bowl game sending to young men who have earned the right to play in a bowl game but have that right taken away from them because of the actions of their coaches?

If Penn State wins the Big Ten the Nittany Lions will be heading to the Rose Bowl. Other bowl games are by invitation. Participating schools have to make a commitment to buying thousands of tickets – bowl games are a big business and bowl game organizers may look at Penn State and try and look the other way.

"We absolutely think about it," said Steve Hogan, Executive Officer of Florida Citrus sports, which is affiliated with the Capital One Bowl. "This transcends the game we're playing because it's so much bigger than that.

"There've been distractions over the years," Hogan said to the USA Today. "Coaches retired, or were fired, left the program, athletes were ineligible or lost in the final game that cost them a chance in the National Championship, a variety of things. But nothing of this level."

"I wouldn't be concerned because I saw the support that the university showed at the rallies and there are a lot of Penn State alums in the Dallas area," TicketCity Bowl President and CEO, Tom Starr said in a USA Today report. "If nothing else, they might be more supportive."

Penn State’s football program needs to be held accountable for their inaction when it comes to the Sandusky scandal, but that needs to be addressed after the season.

The NCAA is in the early stages of an investigation of its own. Whatever the NCAA decides to do it shouldn’t be at the expense of the 2011 football team.

Miami is paying a fair price. Penn State deserves better.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

Believing in Bernie Fine

2011-11-20T19:42:00.002-05:00

I was never good enough to make the high school, college or university basketball teams, no where near good enough actually. Realizing I was never meant to play competitively at Montréal’s Wagar High School, Montreal’s Dawson College or Carleton University in Ottawa, I served as the team manager.

Team managers fill an important role on a basketball team, often a key connection between the coaching staff and the players. Through my years as a student manager I stood from afar and imagined what it would be like to be Bernie Fine.

In the early 1960’s Bernie Fine had been the student manager on the Syracuse University basketball team, a team that included Hall of Famers Jim Boehim and David Bing. Boeheim is the current coach of the Orange and Bing the mayor of Detroit.

Fine had first been a high school coach and then Boehim’s assistant at Syracuse. If Bernie could do it, could I do it? Could I make the leap from student manager to coach?

Four years working at Basketball Canada and many years coaching, basketball has and will always be a large part of my day-to-day life, and that is at least in part due to Bernie Fine.

The Penn State “alleged” child sex abuse scandal is rearing its ugly head once again. This time allegations being linked to another major college athletic program nowhere near Happy Valley.

Instead, Central New York and the Syracuse University basketball program are under the microscope. And Bernie Fine – is at the center of a firestorm

The allegations, first reported by ESPN, have raised many questions and offered few, if any, answers. Jerry Sandusky has been indicted by a Grand Jury on 40 different charges involving multiple young boys. The charges have resulted in the firing of Penn State’s head football coach Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier who served as Penn State’s President for 16 years.

The story is very different at Syracuse. Bobby Davis, a former Syracuse team ball boy, reported his claims to the media, Syracuse University and the Syracuse Police Department in 2002. Davis provided the authorities with four people who would corroborate his allegations.

When the multiple investigations were completed and no one backed up what Davis’s claims, the case was closed.

“All of those identified by him denied any knowledge of wrongful conduct by the associate coach,” Nancy Cantor said in a Syracuse Post Standard report. “At the end of the investigation, as we were unable to find any corroboration of the allegations, the case was closed. Had any evidence or corroboration of earlier allegations surfaced — even if the police had declined to pursue the matter — we would have acted.”

The second alleged victim, Mike Lang, now 45, is Davis' stepbrother and was a ball boy at Syracuse for several years. He also has told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that Fine molested him, starting when Lang was in fifth or sixth grade. When the story broke late Thursday the media did their best to not compare the story to Penn State.

Jim Boeheim, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and Fine’s teammate since 1962, has been very vocal in his support.

“The Post-Standard and the university talked to those other kids (in 2003). None of them corroborated the story, at all. I know some of those kids. They’ve told me, ‘Hey, Coach. Bernie helped me. He cared about me. He knew I needed help and he helped me.
“You need to go to your people down there at the paper. They investigated this for four months. Do they remember that? And they found … what? They investigated this and found nothing. They talked to Bernie’s neighbors and friends … everybody. They found nothing. Your paper would whitewash nothing. Don’t you agree? They had nothing. They could not write a story. They found zero.

“The Penn State thing came out and the kid behind this is trying to get money. He’s tried before. And now he’s trying again. If he gets this, he’s going to sue the university and Bernie. What do you think is going to happen at Penn State? You know how much money is going to be involved in civil suits? I’d say about $50 million. That’s what this is about. Money.”

Was it right for Jim Boeheim to stand by Bernie Fine? Depends who you ask.

"He took a big risk in automatically defending his assistant," New York-based crisis consultant Mike Paul said. "He certainly didn't think about this from the university's standpoint or out of respect for the law and potential liability for the university and him."

Paul may be right, but so is Boeheim in why he’s standing so firmly beside Fine. Boeheim points out he and Fine have been friends for 50 years and he’ll stand up for his lifelong friend.

The statute of limitations against Fine has long expired – legally the case has little if any merit.

"The case is likely to face difficulty whether a civil lawsuit or criminal charges are brought because the time for filing a lawsuit or prosecuting a crime appears to have passed," said Suzanne Goldberg, a Columbia University law professor and director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.

"There's no case here," said New York University law professor Martin Guggenheim in a USA Today report.

At the same time it’s impossible to dismiss the allegations against Fine. College sports has changed forever in the aftermath of the Penn State scandal.

That said it’s important to note a Grand Jury conducted a three year investigation of Jerry Sandusky. Bernie Fine has been investigated by the Syracuse Police, Syracuse University, ESPN and The Syracuse Post Standard in 2002 and 2003.

Was ESPN right to report the story in 2011 when they didn’t believe there was a story in 2002 and 2003?

If Fine is exonerated ESPN could face a great deal of criticism.

"Now what's happening is the ripple effect," Paul Mones, a sexual abuse attorney and children's rights advocate in Portland, Ore told ESPN. “Victims around the country are having what is called an anniversary reaction. Victims are feeling more agitated."

What made Lang come forward in 2011 when he was nowhere to be found in 2002 and 2003? Davis says it was “after seeing news coverage of the Sandusky case.”

Support for Bernie Fine and the tough stance Jim Boeheim is taking in his support of Fine is resonating with the Syracuse community.

"From the people I've talked to around here, there is a real sense of being disturbed about this story and also a kind of defensiveness which I think we saw at Penn State as well," Thompson said. "The idea that this surely couldn't be true and all of that kind of thing, especially given what Boeheim has said.

"It certainly sounds sincere," Robert Thompson founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University said when asked about Boeheim's strong denial of the accusations against Fine according to the USA Today. "However this goes, this is a bad story. If it all turns out to be untrue, then a bunch of untrue accusations is a really bad story. If it turns out to have truth to it, that's an even worse story."

There are two ways this story can go. It will be a repeat of the ultimately false rape accusations made against the nationally ranked Duke University lacrosse team in 2006.

Those accused were tried and convicted of a fabricated event. The young men linked to lies had their lives changed forever – and they did nothing wrong. If Bernie Fine is proven to be innocent will he be able to recover his reputation – will his life ever be the same?

If the story is true it will mark a sad end to the life and times of Bernie Fine and will impact the legacy Jim Boeheim has built in his 36 years at Syracuse.

This is a story with no happy endings.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom

David Beckham – was his MLS contract a good business decision

2011-11-17T18:20:00.002-05:00

The David Beckham era in MLS comes to an end Sunday at the Home Dept Center in Los Angeles when the Los Angeles Galaxy meet the Houston Dynamo in the MLS Cup.

The championship marks much more than the end of the 2011 MLS season, it marks the end of a what was billed as the biggest contract in sports history. When Beckham joined the Galaxy in January 2007 he signed a contract estimated to be worth more than $250 million in salary and commercial endorsements. His contract never paid him anywhere near $250 million.

When the contract was signed the BBC reported the breakdown of Beckham’s MLS record contract:

• An annual salary of $10m
• His existing sponsorship contracts with his four sponsors - Motorola, Pepsi, Gillette and Volkswagen - are estimated to be worth $25m
• His merchandising shirt sales will bring in $10m
• His share of the club profits: $10m

That adds up to $55M. Multiply it by five and you get well over $275M. The ‘released’ $250M figure offered by the Los Angeles Galaxy likely didn’t include the endorsement agreements with Motorola, Pepsi, Gillette and Volkswagen that have been extended as a result of Beckham’s decision to continue playing the remaining years of his soccer career in North America.

Was it a good deal? Is Major League Soccer stronger as business and as a brand?

The Los Angeles Times offered some compelling points that suggest Beckham has been good for business. The right to become an MLS member (expansion fee) quadrupled to $40M.

MLS, which once had to pay for its game to be televised, will start the 2012 season with a $10 million a year multi-year agreement with NBC, as well continuing to enjoy broadcast from Univision and ESPN.

Last week Beckham's Galaxy signed a new local broadcast agreement with Los Angeles' Time Warner Cable, which according to The Los Angeles Times, will pay the team $55 million over 10 years .

Expansion fees haven’t decreased in the last five years and at $40M an MLS franchise represents a good investment. The growth of regional sports networks would have seen MLS secure a rights fee regardless of whether Beckham had joined the Galaxy. It’s important to note Time Warner Cable is focused on putting together a Los Angeles based sports channel along the lines of New York’s YES Network and the New England Sports Network.
An MLS franchise with or without Beckham would have been important to what Time Warner is trying to do in the LA market.

The Galaxy are one of, if not the, marquee MLS franchise. The Times estimated the Galaxy’s value in excess of $100 million, a great deal for an MLS franchise. But what impact did David Beckham really have?

This year the MLS regular-season average climbed 7% to 17,872, better than last season's NBA and NHL figures.

"That's all David," said Tim Leiweke, president of AEG, the entertainment group that owns the Galaxy and hockey's LA Kings. "From a financial standpoint … he's been undeniably successful. Show me one measuring post that hasn't increased significantly."

Leiweke, isn’t taking enough credit for what AEG has accomplished. The Home Depot Center, home to the Galaxy, hosts the MLS Cup and has become the premier MLS facility.

On the other hand it would be hard to fault many soccer fans if they were surprised to learn Beckham was still playing in the MLS. Should the Galaxy win Sunday, it will be the first championship the Galaxy have won in the five years Beckham has been a part of the team.

Beckham has started less than half the teams’ games during the contract, and made more appearances on loan for AC Milan than for the Galaxy in 2009 and 2010.

"David coming to MLS, arguably one of the most popular cultural figures in the world today, in or outside the sports business, was a statement to a really broad global audience that MLS was serious, that we were a legitimate business," MLS commissioner Don Garber said. "It also says to a global market of soccer players that 'Hey, if it's good enough for David Beckham it's probably good enough for you.' "

Five years ago this was the right decision for MLS. MLS was formed on December 17, 1993, in fulfillment of Alan Rothenberg and U.S. Soccer's promise to FIFA to establish a "Division One" professional football (soccer) league in exchange for the staging of the FIFA World Cup USA 1994 in the United States.

The league began play in 1996 with ten teams and enjoyed promising attendance numbers in its first season. Numbers declined slightly after the first year, but stabilized in subsequent years.

When the league was started, most teams played in stadiums built specifically for NFL or NCAA football. This was based on the record attendances achieved at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. However this turned out to be a considerable expense to the league because of modest attendance and poor lease deals.
To provide better facilities as well as to control revenue for the stadium, a major goal of MLS management is to build its own stadiums, which are often called soccer-specific stadiums.

Since Beckham joined the Galaxy in 2007 the MLS has expanded to Toronto, Seattle, Philadelphia, Portland, Vancouver and Montreal. The league plans on adding two more franchises in the next few years.

Beckham offered MLS a key block in levering the league and soccer in North America. He may not have played half of the Galaxy’s games, but in 2007 and 2008 MLS was afforded the opportunity to showcase their league with David Beckham.

France's Thierry Henry, Ireland's Robbie Keane and Mexico's Rafael Marquez are now playing for MLS teams. MLS matches are televised in Europe.

The MLS isn’t anywhere close to what England’s Premier League is to European Football fans but at least Euros are aware MLS exists and David Beckham deserves much of the credit for that.

"It's a pretty good experiment," Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena said in a Los Angeles Times report. "He's helped make this team better, he's helped make the league better and there's a great awareness of MLS around the world because of David. It's a much more popular sport now, and at a time when the competition for the sports dollar is greater than ever."

And what about Beckham – does David Beckham believe traveling across the pond to America was a good decision for him?

“It’s turned out exactly the way I wanted it to, especially off the field. We wanted to see the success of the game growing in this country, the league getting bigger and more popular, and I think we’ve done that. Throughout the game around the world, now the MLS is known around the world, which it wasn’t five or six years ago. I think that’s one of the things that I personally wanted to do. I wanted to create a buzz. … I want to win a championship. I came here as a soccer player; I came here to be successful as a soccer player as well as being an ambassador for the game.” Beckham told ESPN Los Angeles.

What about that $50M annual salary Beckham signed in 2007? The $250 overall estimate for the five year contract was based on “what Beckham might earn by combining his Galaxy salary with off-field sponsorship deals.”

Forbes Magazine reported Beckham earned $40M last year making him the world’s richest soccer player.

Was the signing a good investment? Yes and no. The MLS has grown tremendously in the last five years. If you’re going to decide on the value of the contract you have to look the overall picture and base your judgement on that. At the end of the day, it was the right business decision.

For Sports Business News this is Howard Bloom