Braves Trade Is a Steal for Both Sides

If, like some people, you wondered why Time Warner seemed intent on doing a deal with Liberty Media for the Atlanta Braves when other local bidders for the team seemingly offered higher prices, wonder no more. In an article in yesterday's Washington Post, Allan Sloan explains the rather complicated and unique tax-free cash rich split-off that the two companies are putting together.

When you cut through the transaction, the companies are bringing home total tax savings that Sloan estimates at $700 million, roughly double the value of the Braves. That is the kind of math any of us understand. On top of that, Liberty is said to be discussing doing another one of these deals with Fox, who recently acquired Turner Sports South and now owns two regional sports networks based in Atlanta. Could Liberty end up with the Braves and a regional sports network to go with them? It would only make sense for a deal like that to go down. It fits the profile of John Malone, Liberty's CEO and certainly makes the Braves a more valuable property to Liberty.

Anaheim to Appeal Angels Loss

In a not unexpected decision, the City Council of Anaheim decided to appeal the verdict in favor of the Angels in the trial of the city's lawsuit against the baseball team over the team's stadium lease. Anaheim contends the trial judge made numerous errors, the most damaging of which include not allowing several city witnesses to testify, not mandating jurors to consider the intent of the parties negotiating the lease and not rejecting the testimony of a former Disney executive who said he envisioned the addition of a second city to the team name but could not recall telling that to city negotiators. In addition, the judge has allowed the Angels, in a post-trial ruling, to market themselves as the Los Angeles Angels with no mention of Anaheim, something the city contends is far beyond what the jury allowed.

Anaheim may have a shot on appeal of at least getting an appellate court to narrow the scope of the trial court's rulings. I think the post-trial ruling dropping Anaheim completely from marketing materials seems far in excess of what is permitted under the lease. The city may well have demonstrated at trial sufficient ambiguity to warrant the jury considering the intent of the parties. If the appellate court is convinced that the trial court abused its discretion with respect to that issue, the city may get a new trial out of it. That would be the most it could hope for and that type of home run doesn't happen very often.

Back to Back Champs

National Champs Again!! Congratulations to the Northwestern University Wildcats women's Lacrosse teams for defending their national championship by defeating Dartmouth in the final 7-4. The Cats, seeded fourth despite having only one loss on the season, away to Duke, whom they defeated in overtime in the semifinal game, came from behind to defeat Dartmouth despite being held to their lowest offensive output of the year. The Cats were led by junior Aly Josephs 4 goals and the leadership and all-around play of fifth year senior and Final Four Most Valuable Player Sarah Albrecht. Kristin Kjellman, the Cats Teerwarton Award (the Lacrosse Heisman) finalist injured her ankle late in the first half and was scoreless for only the second time all season.

Northwestern has a dynasty in the making in only the fifth year of a resurrected program under coach and former two-time National Player of the Year Kelly Amonte-Hiller. The Wildcats have now finished a combined 21-1 over the last two championship seasons. This year's team loses four seniors and a total of four freshmen started for this year's team. There is no reason not to expect the Cats success to continue.



This afternoon, the Wildcats women's tennis team brought home its own national championship as the doubles team of Cristelle Grier and Alexis Prousis won the NCAA doubles championship. They entered the tournament unseeded, upset the top seed Stanford in the semi-finals and defeated Fresno State in the championship match.

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Last, but certainly not least, we have the one Northwestern spring sport that is still active - the women's softball team. After making it to the Super Regional, held at Drysdale Field at home in Evanston, the Cats dropped the first game to UMass in the best of three series. They then came back to win game 2 by 4-2 and then the all important game 3 was held later that afternoon . The Cats made sure there was no question about who would win this one, as they quickly got out to a lead and won convincingly in a game in which the mercy rule had to be applied, a 9-0, five inning win. Northwestern,seeded fourth, will begin play in the College World Series in Oklahoma City on Thursday at 6:00 PM Eastern against the fifth seeded Alabama Crimson Tide. The World Series is played in a double elimination format.

By the way, if you've read this far and are wondering why I wrote all this about Northwestern sports with no real business connection, just remember that my listed affiliation for the college football blogpoll is Northwestern.

Ricky is a Boater

So, now the Big Fish is an Argo and what have we learned? Well, for starters, we have discovered that despite the fact that the NFL and the CFL have a contract, they don't recognize each other's suspensions. Interesting concept that; the leagues have a contract that governs their relationship and the movement of players but they don't want to recognize each other's suspension because of situations exactly like this one.

You see, the NFL wants to keep the CFL as an outlet for dopers who they have banned so their players have a place to go to keep in shape until the lords of the NFL deign to allow the dopers back into the league. Is that a bad thing? To me it depends on why the suspension was handed down in the first place. If the suspension was for a performance enhancing drug, then the CFL ought not to let the player into its league either. However, if, as in Ricky's case, the suspension is due to a recreational drug, that is a different matter. The CFL can and does have different rules, just as Canada does have different laws. That is entirely proper and if the teams involved - Miami and Toronto - can agree on contractual issues, then what's the real harm? Ricky is obligated by his Argos' contract to do public appearances on the effects of drug use. He sees himself as a role model by showing how to turn something negative into a positive. The Argonauts are betting a lot on his ability to do just that.

Carnival of Capitalists

This week's Carnival of Capitalist is now up at Working Solo. It's a special edition brought to you from Down Under.

NCAA: The Arms Race Continues

An interesting article from the Texas A&M official sports website, which is reprinted from the local newspaper, points out the continued high rate of expenditures on facilities in the Big XII, fueled in part by that conference's flowing football revenues and the difficulty in keeping up with Texas. Having the national leader in football revenue in your conference puts unusual pressure on your fundraisers. The Longhorns grossed $53.2 million in 2004, clearing $38.7 million in net profit. That net profit is greater than the entire budget of all but a handful of athletic programs in the country. Just by way of example, one of the Longhorns' chief Big XII rivals, Texas A&M had a budget of almost $44 million in 2004. That is for the entire department, not just football.

To make matters worse for its rivals, Texas is not only selling out football games, but with the basketball program now operating at a high level, it is selling out basketball games as well. In football, there is a waiting list more than 50 strong just for luxury suites. I'm quite sure that a way will be found to create linkages to any other program that needs money on the Austin campus.

If competing with Texas wasn't daunting enough for Big XII members, Oklahoma State just received the largest gift ever received by an athletic program - $125 million from oilman T. Boone Pickens. I don't think the Cowpokes will have to worry about facilities again.

Is there a solution to the arms race? NCAA President Myles Brand offers his take over on the NCAA blog. For the most part, his solutions are to leave it up to the college presidents. It's not unexpected considering that (a) he used to be one, and (b) basically, they are his bosses. I'm not sure there is a better solution but it seems almost reflexive to say leave it up to the presidents. So far, there is no evidence that they are willing or able to stand up to their athletic departments and boosters to call a halt to the arms race. Instead, we see the proliferation of bowl games and the addition of a twelfth game to the football schedule for no other reason than money. Until we see actual movement towards a saner policy towards the balance between academics and athletics, consider me more than skeptical that Brand believes any of the line he's peddling.

Seattle Keeps 12th Man

This is old news and most of you have probably already seen it, but in cleaning up some things I realized that I never posted the follow-up to an earlier story. The should have been Super Bowl Seattle Seahawks have reached a settlement with Texas A&M to allow the Hawks to continue to use the 12th man, which the Aggies had trademarked. If you attend games at Qwest Stadium, you are not likely to notice any difference.

NFL Costs Itself, Reggie and New Orleans Money

In another sterling example of why it is still called the No Fun League, the NFL Competition Committeedecided that Reggie Bush will have to give up his treasured number 5 jersey when he makes his debut as a New Orleans Saint this fall. In what can only be characterized as an idiotic and senseless decision, the Committee, for reasons known only to them, decided on maintaining the ridiculous rule that running backs must wear jersey numbers between 20-49. Who are they kidding? What difference does it really make?

Here is a kid who has a great deal of equity already built up in his jersey number and the NFL comes along and for no good reason, wants to throw it all away. It makes no sense. This is about as smart as restricting Chad Johnson's touchdown celebrations, easily the most entertaining part of any NFL game last year. I just don't think these guys get it. Who is on this committee anyway?

Bush was smart enough to offer 25% of his jersey earnings to Katrina relief if the league had allowed him to wear number 5. Granted, that was primarily a public relations ploy but since stars can earn about $1 million a year from jersey sales, we're talking about real money. The NFL didn't even care about that - all for some stupid rule that doesn't make sense in the first place. Well, good luck number 25 or whatever you end up with - welcome to the NFL rook.

The Wages of Wins

How do you really know what contribution a player makes to a winning team? Do you know for sure that without Kobe Bryant the Lakers don't make the playoffs? Did Kobe mean more to the Lakers than Elton Brand meant to the Clippers? These questions may seem like the stuff of bar bets or living room discussions, but they have real meaning to NBA general managers if they can be well and truly answered.

In the age of Moneyball, Michael Lewis' 2003 best seller about Billy Bean and the Oakland A's, everybody started searching for a way to quantify the feats of ball players of all types. From the looks of a review by Malcolm Gladwell, he of The Tipping Point fame, it seems that a new entrant in the field may have just found the answer. In The Wages of Wins, economists David J. Berri, Martin B. Schmidt, and Stacey L. Brook create an algorithim that measures an individual's contribution to his basketball team while he is on the floor and create what they call a Win Score. This yields, they argue, the closest representation of a player's statistical measure of wins produced by his contribution to the team. If you accept the authors' premise and can accept the value of the Win Score, then the data leads to some surprising results. To cite just two examples from Gladwell's review (why I'm using the review will be obvious below), Ray Allen's Win Score suggests that he has had a career every bit as good as Kobe Bryant. Last year's Sixth Man of the Year award winner, and runner-up for Rookie of the Year, Ben Gordon, finished last among rookies in Win Score, because he turns the ball over too much and makes a low percentage of his shots.

I must confess that I have not yet read the book. So, here is a shameless plug for a review copy. I have been reading the authors' blog for some time and based on what I have read there and Gladwell's review, I can wholeheartedly recommend the book. It will certainly open your eyes to a new way of looking at basketball.

MLS Expansion on Track

It appears that MLS will continue to expand at regular intervals. With Toronto FC scheuled to join the league next year, MLS has scheduled a news conference for tomorrow to discuss expansion. While the next franchise is slated to be in either St.Louis or Cleveland, it's likely that will not be the topic of tomorrow's press conference.

It now appears that the return of MLS to the Bay Area may be more than just the promise of the league when it moved the Earthquakes to Houston. Tomorrow, the planned announced is that an option has been granted to the Oakland A's to purchase an expansion at any time in the next three years for location somewhere in the Bay Area. When the team will make its debut is up for discussion as the league would prefer that its soccer-specific stadium be in place and ready for play before the team enters the league. The addition of Lew Wolff, the owner of the A's, to the ownership ranks of MLS is a very positive development for the league. Further diversification of the ownership and local ownership are both goals of the league and this helps achieve both of those. The momentum the league is building is impressive and should continue after the World Cup, especially if the US does well.

Summitt Reaches New Heights

Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball coach Pat Summitt has spent an entire career setting firsts and now she is doing it again. This time, she is the first women's basketball coach to earn over a $1 million, as Tennessee raised her salary for next season to $1.15 million and extended her contract through the 2012-13 season. In what I'm sure is delicious timing for Summitt, she breaks the $1 million mark one season before arch rival Geno Auriemma, head coach of the UConn Huskies who is scheduled to receive $975,000 for the upcoming season. He will get $1.05 million in 2007-08. Congratulations Pat, you deserve it.

Premier League Scores Big in Rights Fees

The owners of the 20 clubs playing next season in the English Premier League ought to send a thank you note to the European Commission. Last summer, the European Commission demanded that no more than 50% of its televised games go to one broadcaster. In its then expiring contracts, BSkyB, the British satellite arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., had a contract to televise all of the PL's televised games. After a lengthy fight, the Premier League agreed to a rule that no one broadcaster would televise more than 115 out of 138 games or a little over 80%. In the absence of the new rule, BSkyB would have been granted the entire contract again.

So, the contracts get awarded to BSkyB and Setanta, with Setanta getting 46 games, for a total of approximately $1.05 billion a season, a 70% increase over the previous contract. What makes this all the more impressive is that the owners have not tailored their game for television in any way. Unlike their counterparts in the NFL, the Premier League owners have not changed the rules to make the league more competitive nor have they altered the game for the insertion of more commercials. In fact, there are no stoppages of play except for halftime. Commercials run along the bottom of the screen or in the corners as play continues.

The Premier League is one of the least competitive leagues this side of the Israeli national basketball league (which has been won something like 28 out of 29 years by Maccabi Tel Aviv). For instance, Manchester United won 8 out of the first 11 years and Chelski has won the last 2 and is spending money like oil prices are still $75 per barrel, having just signed Michael Ballack to a new contract for about $200,000 per week. Proof positive that you can still make a fortune without tailoring your product to television's exact specifications.

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Carnival of the Capitalists

This week's Carnival of the Capitalists is now up at The Integrative Stream. Get over there and check it out.

A New Dawn For Minnesota Stadiums

As dawn rose over the state capital, Minnesota legislators approved a new downtown open-air stadium for the Twins and a new on campus football stadium for the University of Minnesota. The Twins get their new $522 million stadium in downtown Minneapolis to be paid for by largely by a sales tax increase in Hennepin (Minneapolis) County, likely to open in 2010. The sales tax increase will be put in place without having to go before the voters, a key measure for the Twins as most polls showed that the voters were likely to reject it, thereby dooming the project. The ballpark will seat 42,000 and be funded with a .15 sales tax increase and a $150 million contribution from owner Carl Pohlad. It will be built a few blocks from the Target Center, home of the Timberwolves.

The Gophers new stadium will be a 50,000 seat horseshoe and will mark a return to campus after a 25 year absence. It will be paid for by $10.25 million in state general fund money for 25 years and $35 million obtained through a naming rights deal with TCF Financial Corp., a land swap, and a maximum per student fee of $25 per year. It does not include a much discussed memorabilia tax that would have been imposed on sports apparel and gear. The stadium stirred up much discussion about the relative place of athletics in the academic mission of the university, but in the end, the U's officials were able to convince the legislature of their need for the stadium and the wisdom of taxing the students to pay for it. It should open in the fall of 2009.

Not to be left out, the Vikings were teed up for next year's session outlining the financing proposal for the Vikes new stadium in suburban Blaine. It will need to pass the legislature next year to be effective and that promises to be a somewhat less contentious fight than the Twins faced.

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With the financing plan in place and no voter approval needed, the future of the Twins in Minnesota is now secured. The days of worrying about the Twins being contracted are now a distant memory and soon so will the be Hanky Dome. Carl Pohlad had made it clear that if the Twins had not gotten a stadium in this legislative session, he would have sold the team and more than likely, it would have moved. So, now that threat is gone as well. Congratulations to the Twins - the renderings I have seen of the stadium look like it will be a fine facility and I don't think anyone will really miss the Dome. Congratulations too go to the Gophers. On campus is definitely where college football should be played and there is nothing like Big Ten games outdoors in November. You just regained home field advantage.

Two-way Pro Get New Deal

A little known provision of the new collective bargaining agreement in the NHL required a minor league hockey player who makes at least $75,000 to clear waivers before being recalled to the NHL. Under a new deal, the threshold has been raised to $95,0000.

At first blush, you wouldn't think that this would be a major concern, but there were as many as 150 players who made $75,000 last season in the AHL. There are a number of players who are on two-way contracts, which will pay them at least the NHL minimum while they are in the NHL but still pay at least $100,000 or better while in the minors. In each case, the new contract provision will mean that these players will not have to take artificial salary decreases to insure their ability to get call ups. It's only fair to the players and it's good to see the league and the NHLPA take the concerns of the minor league players to heart and actually do something about it.

William & Mary to Appeal NCAA Rejection of Nickname

In recognition of yet another puzzling and inconsistent decision by the NCAA on the nickname issue, the College of William and Mary intends to appeal the rejection of the school's use of its Tribe nickname whose only connection with Native American imagery is two feathers. The associate vice president for public affairs at William and Mary, the second oldest school in the country and one originally founded to teach the "natives", said it best:

"It's hard for us to understand how the NCAA could approve Florida State's wild representation of an Indian on horseback with the flaming spear and be perturbed about feathers,"

This is after the NCAA staff review committee conceded that the feather imagery is not inherently hostile and abusive, which, in case you and the NCAA forgot, is the standard they are supposed to be applying. The committee is concerned that in conjunction with the Tribe nickname it will create connotations and an environment over which the university will not have full control. Fans, opponents and others can and will exhibit behaviors that indeed are hostile or abusive to Native Americans, according to the NCAA. So, now you're responsible for what your opponents say about you.

This whole nickname idiocy just gets more surreal with every NCAA decision. This appeal couldn't be more deserving. Good luck Tribe. You're going to need it.

On Preakness Day, Triple Crown Faces Issues

When Barbaro steps on the track at Pimlico this afternoon, the eyes of the racing world will be on him. Is the truly a super horse and will he be the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to win racing's Triple Crown? If he does, while his owners and trainer will certainly be celebrating and the racing world will be hailing him as a the greatest horse since, well, maybe even the great Secretariat, one thing he will not receive is the old Triple Crown bonus of $5,000,000. This year, for the first time in almost twenty years there is no Triple Crown sponsor and therefore no Triple Crown bonus.

That is only one of the problems facing racing's Triple Crown - consisting of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. The races are held over the course of five weeks and three tracks and are the ultimate test of three year old thoroughbreds. For the first time in twenty years, broadcast of the three races will be split between networks diminishing the promotional power of having it on one network. NBC broadcast the Derby and carry the Preakness today, while ABC will broadcast the Belmont.

Also of concern is the absolutely deplorable state of Pimlico, the home of the Preakness. Magna Entertainment, owner of Pimlico has stated it will not put any money into Pimlico unless it gets rights to slots or other gaming. Since that doesn't appear likely in the short term, there is concern about where the Preakness will be run in the future.

In New York, the concern is over who will control Belmont Park as NYRA's contract to operate Belmont Park expires at the end of 2007. Both Magna and Churchill Downs are interested in the contract as is NYRA. What happens in the award process next year will help determine the viability of Belmont Park and the continued vitality of both the track and the namesake race.

It is imperative for the good of the sport that the owners of the three races get together again and find a sponsor for the Triple Crown. It needs a prize attached for public interest, not necessarily for the value to the owners. The phenomenal increase in breeding value of any Triple Crown will far outweigh the value of any bonus money but the public's interest will be heightened by the idea of a $5,000,000 or better bonus. What the racing industry needs is public interest and the Triple Crown is the best opportunity to generate that interest. It is absolutely imperative that the three tracks put aside their parochial interests for the greater benefit to accrue from joint marketing. The industry needs it and so do the three tracks.

WNBA Has Psychic Income Appeal

The WNBA kicks off its tenth season this weekend, which is an accomplishment that many observers didn't believe would occur. The structure of the league, as a subsidiary of the NBA which is just now beginning to take on outside owners, has obviously been a key factor in its success. However, two highly and inter-related strategic decisions may have played equally great roles in that success.

The WNBA has a very structured and limited salary scale. The league average salary is $47,000 and the maximum is $91,000 for veterans. Half the players make $42,000 or less. Rookies are obligated to sign three year contract with a club option for a fourth year. The first four picks of 2006 will make $42,200 this season and their salaries will rise to only $46,300 in their fourth season.

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The other major strategic decision was to play the WNBA season from May-August. Now, this may have been driven entirely by the thought of not competing with the NBA for arena time, but it has allowed the WNBA to gain its own separate television time and a season free of basketball competition. Importantly, the WNBA is the only basketball league competing in the world in the summer. That means in the WNBA off-season, its players are free to play overseas professionally to supplement the rather meager wages they earn in the WNBA, which something like 90% of them do.

The WNBA affords women basketball players access to the world's greatest media markets and marketing companies. The NBA partners, who by extension are WNBA partners, are some of the globe's great marketers. These companies can and do use the stars created in the WNBA in their marketing campaigns around the world. It is the reason the best women basketball players come to the WNBA to play despite the significantly higher salaries they command elsewhere. It is the psychic income, which can translate into real income, of playing in NBA arenas, on television and before potential sponsors that draws women to the WNBA. The crowds unfortunately seem to be shrinking as the basketball improves. Nevertheless, so long as the WNBA maintains the marketing glow of its NBA big brother, the best players in the world will continue to come.

The End of Basketball in the Northwest?

Earlier in the week, Mike Lewis and Phuong Cat Le of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote an excellent article detailing the Sonics woes with Key Arena. In short summary, the Sonics have a bad lease, the arena is poorly configured for profit making even if the lease were beneficial and the Sonics poor play makes attendance sparse in any event. In combination, a recipe for disaster. The Sonics have been demanding a new arena and have received support from the Governor and the state legislature but little support from the city. They are now talking about moving to suburban Bellevue or Renton or perhaps leaving the area entirely.

Down the road in Portland, the Blazers, who were once the NBA's model small market franchise have imploded. The team is the NBA's worst. The arena went through bankruptcy and is now owned by its creditors. The Blazers owner, Paul Allen is claiming enormous losses that are causing him to put the team up for sale. It's tenure in Portland is in doubt.

So, why the sudden demise of what were once two of the NBA's best franchises and what does this tell us of the state of the league today? I think there are several lessons here. The first and foremost is ownership and management does matter. Both of these clubs made numerous bad personnel decisions both on and off the court that alienated fans and harmed the on court product. The blowback was swift. Fans quit coming to games; luxury boxes didn't get renewed and club seats didn't get sold.

Since both arenas were financed based on the the revenue streams from luxury boxes and club seats as the principal sources of repayment, the effect was immediate. Red ink began to flow and flow quickly. In Seattle's case, it was aggravated by a very bad lease that gave the team a small percentage of the suite revenue as well as a small percentage of the revenue from other events at Key Arena. That is money that other teams count on to offset basketball expenses. In Seattle's case, not only was the team not receiving it, but the arena was losing money.

The other lesson here is to control your own destiny. Build your own arena and gain complete control over all revenue streams. Exhibit A and A-1 are the Detroit Pistons and the Utah Jazz; two teams that have learned to maximize their income flow from franchise owned arenas and use good years to bridge bad years. The Pistons have become particularly innovative at getting well-heeled corporate fans to pay ever increasing amounts for new corporate suites. It is control over the arena that allows them to do that.

Nevertheless, there is still a problem. The NBA does not command the television revenue that the NFL does. While it has decent television contracts, it needs to put fans in the seats to make money. When franchises that were once as popular as Seattle and Portland are no longer capable of doing that, it is time for David Stern to stop running around the country threatening to move teams here and there. The answer may not lie around the corner. The league needs to take a good, hard look at the product it is putting on the floor. The Blazers and Sonics were not very good this year and that certainly didn't help, but in the past, that wouldn't have mattered nearly as much. Something has gone out of the league that I'm not sure the playoffs, as exciting as they have been, will restore. I hope that Stern will sit down with the basketball folks this offseason and figure it out. It's not just marketing this time.


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Spurs Get Jersey Sponsor

Spurned gambling concern Mansion (Gibraltar) Ltd., an online betting company has reached an agreement with Tottenham Hotspur to become the the north London club's jersey sponsor for the next four seasons. The cost to Mansion will be at least $64.4 million, making it the seventh largest uniform deal in world soccer and four times more than the club got from its previous sponsor. This deal comes on the heels of a rejection of a deal between Mansion and Manchester United, when talks broke down last month. ManU went on to sign a new deal with American insurer AIG.

The Spurs just completed one of their more successful seasons in a long while, just missing out on a place in the Champions League on the final day of the season in a controversial match. The club and Mansion are both looking to expand their markets in Asia and there is a great deal of incentive upside in the deal for Tottenham if that proves true. The Spurs will be playing in the UEFA Cup this year after missing out on the Champions League, but with the added income from this deal and a new deal with Puma for equipment, it is likely that the team will be looking to add players in the transfer window to make another run at a Champions League slot next season. This is a very positive ending to a disappointing last two weeks for the Spurs.

Traveling

I'll be on the road for the next few days and through the weekend so posting will be light to non-existent. I'll be back in the saddle on Tuesday so don't expect much before then. I'm sure you can handle the NBA and NHL playoffs just fine without me.

Crystal Palace Comes to the US

In a very positive development for U.S. soccer, English club Crystal Palace is establishing a developmental club in Baltimore which will play in the Premier Development League of the USL, America's third division. Crystal Palace is currently in a playoff to win promotion back into the Premier League. Unlike most of the other affiliations that currently exist with foreign clubs in the US, this club will be entirely owned and operated by Crystal Palace.

Spurs Sickened at Loss of Champions League Spot

The Spurs undoing?

Tottenham Hotspur headed into yesterday's last match day firmly ensconced in fourth place in the Premier League and looking to gain entry into the Champions League for the first time ever. A tie against West Ham United would likely give it the points needed to stay clear of Arsenal, forcing Arsenal to beat Barcelona in their upcoming Champions League title game to gain a spot in next year's competition as defending champion. However, the fates and bad lasagna conspired to send the Spurs home defeated, dejected and sick to their stomachs and much the poorer.

You see, in what may turn out to one of the more expensive meals of lasagna ever served, it appears that the Spurs suffered from a case of food poisoning caught at the team's hotel the night before the tie with West Ham, resulting in desultory play and a 2-1 loss. Coupled with Arsenal's 4-2 win over Wigan in their farewell to Highbury, the Spurs were dropped to fifth place and out of the Champions League.

Since the club currently believes the players were felled by food poisoning, it is looking into the possibility of a lawsuit against the hotel. Its damages are considerable, starting with the 500,000 pounds in prize money differential between fifth place and fourth, but the real money is in the Champions League. The club stood to make 10-12 million pounds had they qualified for the group stage of the Champions League but now that is once again a dream deferred. No decision on the suit has yet been made but should the toxicology tests come back showing the players contracted food poisoning at the hotel, I would be shocked if the Spurs don't look to the Marriott to pay them back.

Carnival of the Capitalists

This week's Carnival of the Capitalists is now up. For an extra treat, when you visit you get to visit the originating home of the blogoshpere's first Carnival- the venerable Carnival of the Vanities. Check it out.

It's Barbaro and More for the Jacksons

Derby 132 is in the books and a commanding performance by Barbaro left no doubts as to who the best three year old in America was on that day. His run yesterday was one of the best stretch drives I have seen in many years of watching Derbys and I congratulate Edgar Prado for finally winning after all these years. Congratulations also to trainer Michael Matz not just for the superb job he did in conditioning the horse but in having the strength of his convictions and sticking with the rather unconventional route he took to the winner"s circle. Barbaro was the first Derby winner since 1948 to come to Churchill Downs and win the Derby after a five week layoff, no mean feat.

Yesterday was more than dream come true for owners Gretchen and Roy Jackson. Not only did home bred Barbaro win the first leg of the Triple Crown, but earlier that morning, across the pond, another horse bred by the Jacksons, George Washington, had sped down the Newmarket racecourse to victory in the 2000 Guineas the opening leg in the English Triple Crown. A victory in either one of these fabled races is a lifetime dream for any horse breeder, but to win both on the same day, well, people don't even allow themselves those dreams.

So, it's now off to Baltimore for Barbaro and either the Irish 2000 Guineas or the St. James Stakes at Royal Ascot for George Washington.

Bayern Munich Call for a Salary Cap

The fear of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich knows no territorial boundary. In testimony this week before the European Parliament, Bayern Munich President Karl-Heinz Rummenigge attacked Chelsea for its lack of budgetary controls and claimed it distorted the values of European sporting competition. Of course, the fact that Chelsea has targeted Bayern Munich star Michael Ballack as its number one acquisition target for this summer probably had little to do with Rummenigge's remarks.

More important than his direct attack on Chelsea, however, was Rummenigge's call for a European wide salary cap. In his remarks to the European Parliament, he said: "We should have an overall salary budget capped at, say, 50% of turnover. Across Europe there should be harmonization. 80 to 85% of professional clubs in Europe are losing money. The pressure of competition leads to misinterpretation."

Rummenigge was not representing just Bayern Munich but also the G14, the group of large, rich European clubs (of which Chelsea is not a member) that are battling UEFA over the composition and structure of the Champions League and other matters relating to the control of European club football. He didn't come right out and call for the guaranteed participation of the G14 clubs in the Champions League, which seems to be one of their agenda items, but he strongly implied it.

With both of these items now laid before the European Parliament, we can only expect the battle for control of European club football to get even more intense than it already is. UEFA, and by extension FIFA, will do everything in its power to continue control of the Champions League as it needs the revenue stream it provides. The elite clubs have the ultimate leverage in that they have control of the players and could always walk away and form the Superleague that they have been threatening for years. The Parliament may yet stick their noses in by regulating salaries or mediating the Champions League dispute. It is shaping up as one of the most interesting off seasons ever for European football, and that doesn't even count the World Cup.

Real Salt Lake Plays the Travel Card

As the deal for a new soccer stadium in a Salt Lake suburb fell apart, Real Salt Lake is playing a time honored game in American sporting circles: threaten to move. While not being upfront about it yet, the team is letting it be known that it could relocate to a number of cities, including Philadelphia, where Major League Soccer intends to place a team in the next three years or St. Louis, where RSL owner Dave Checketts just purchased the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League and the city has long been a hotbed of soccer enthusiasm. How much of this is the usual noise to get a stadium deal done and how much is serious is, of course, hard to say at this point, but it is certainly reasonable to expect Checketts not to wait around forever to get a deal done when he has so many other options.

Really Limited Partners

When you think of the owners of professional sports teams in this country, if you ever do, you tend to think of a single person, a successful business executive who has purchase a sports franchise as a sideline or an investment. The images that come to mind most often are those of George Steinbrenner or Jerry Jones or Bob Kraft, or maybe even Al Davis. What you generally don't think about is a whole group of people in a limited partnership or limited liability company who own the team collectively. Hell, even Steinbrenner has limited partners, as former Yankee minority owner John McMullen once famously noted in the 1970s, "there's nothing as limited as being a limited partner of the Yankees," in reference of course to Mr. Steinbrenner.

The soaring price of professional franchises these days has made the ownership of them all but impossible for a single individual, and with groups comes the opportunity for conflict. In the Wall Street Journal article noted above (free this weekend) several of the more recent intra-group conflicts are recounted. What often suffers when an ownership group engages in internecine warfare is performance on the field or the court. Witness number one is the Atlanta Hawks. The ownership group has been battling in court for the better part of a year and the Hawks have been a disaster for much longer than that, due in no small part to the problems of ownership. Management has been caught up in the fight among the owners, decisions either don't get made or get reversed and no one knows from one day to the next who is in charge. It's tough to be a fan when the owners are in the paper more than the players.

Unfortunately, as prices of teams continue to escalate, it is a trend that we all may have to learn to live with. We can only hope that more ownership groups will take the proper steps on the front end to set out the necessary procedures to prevent these problems before they happen.

Congratulations to the Wolfpack

It appears that Raleigh's long nightmare is finally over. North Carolina State has, at long last, found a basketball coach who wants to take the job. Former Wolfpack star Sidney Lowe is the man tapped to lead the Pack; the only problem is he doesn't fit any of criteria set out by athletic director Lee Fowler in his numerous descriptions of what he sought in a coach. Of course, all the people he offered the job that me those criteria turned him down. The one question this disinterested observer has is, why not interview Lowe's old teammate Dereck Whittenberg. Whittenberg, who, unlike Lowe, has a college degree, head coaching experience, and is currently the head coach at Fordham was apparently never even contacted despite expressing great interest in the job.

The failure to even interview Whittenberg is just the latest example of what is perhaps the most bungled search for a head coaching job in a major college sport since the University of Kentucky last hired a football coach. I wish Sidney Lowe well and the purpose of this post is in no way directed at him. He's going to need all the help he can get and I hope that all the good will he has built up with the Pack fans from the miracle NCAA championship of 1983 will carry him through all of the rough patches ahead, because there will be many. Maybe he will vindicate Lee Fowler, but I can't shake the feeling that he was the wrong guard to pick from that team for this job at this time.

Carnival of the NBA

The latest and tooniest Carnival of the NBA is now up and you simply must get over and check it out.

Lerners, MLB Finish Details

As the Lerner family and Major League Baseball finish the details of the deal to allow the Lerner to purchase the Wahington Nationals, the DC City Council does what policiticians do best, make fools of themselves by inserting themselves where they don't belong. Council members railed in public yesterday against the Lerners and MLB for committing the major crime of doing a deal without consulting them. The Lerners biggest crime seems to be following Commissioner Bud's instructions discussions about the ownership of the Nats was not to take with the Council and no lobbying efforts with the Council were allowed. Since the Lerners were the only group that appears to have followed this directive, naturally, they are the only group which Council members oppose. Ah yes, th eprice of doing things correctly in America. It's a wonderful system we run here isn't it.

NHL Tries to Woo Celebs

The NHL has done a whole lot of things right since the lockout as evident by the increased attendance around the league. However, with television ratings sagging and with the battle against the NBA Playoffs now in full gear, the marketing mavens in the league office are trying to find new ways to make the league look like the next hot thing. Unfortunately for them, they are still dealing with a product that doesn't have a great "wow" factor among the Hollywood glitterati.

Apparently, that hasn't stopped the NHL publicists from pulling out the freebies and giving it their all. According to the Wall Street Journal (online free for a limited time) the NHL has been sending VIP cards to Hollywood celebs that it thinks might use them so that it can, in turn, use their appearances at games to play up the "cool" factor of the NHL. All teams are required to inform the league office whenever they know of celebrities expected to attend games, so that proper publicity use can be made of their attendance. Those celebrities who actually are hockey fans have been asked to make commercials with the Stanley Cup and other promotional spots to help out the NHL's marketing efforts.

It will be interesting to see if any of this works. Hard to tell how to measure the effects of all this effort, but if you start seeing A list celebrities all of sudden at Kings and Ducks games in the fall, then you will know either this campaign worked or the NHL went the next logical step and started paying them

What it Takes to Win

I usually talk about the dollars and cents of sports but every so often you just have to talk about the game itself. Last night, the Los Angeles Clippers did something that the Clippers had never done before in the history of the franchise in California: win a playoff series. That's right, the last time the franchise won a playoff series, it was located in Buffalo and was nicknamed the Braves. If you want to know why the Clippers finally broke through and won, read this blog post from LA Times writer extraordinaire J A Adande on Sam Cassell. A better description of a winner would be hard to find. Congratulations to Sam and the Clips and here's hoping you take down the Lakers.

Lerner Expected To Get Nationals

Published reports now point to the group headed by the Lerner family as the likely winner in the bidding for ownership of the Washington Nationals. While the Lerners had looked like front-runners for several weeks, especially after adding baseball insider Stan Kasten to their bid, recent public criticism of the bid for "renting minorities" made by several DC politicians is likely to only strengthen Commissioner Bud's resolve to award the team to the group. The Lerners also recently added several minority investors to their group, at the urging of Major League Baseball.

Carnival of the Capitalists

Carnival Monday rolls on with Carnival of the Capitalists up here. Check it out.

Carnival of Business

The second ever Carnival of Business is now up . It's started small but I'm sure it will grow. Go check it out - there are several interesting posts there.