The Best Deal in Sports History

It was 1976 and the ABA, the home of the red, white and blue ball and the originator of the three point shot was on its last legs in the middle of merger discussions with the NBA, but the owners needed a unanimous vote of the remaining six teams and only four were going into the NBA. The Kentucky Colonels' owner, John Y Brown, was willing to accept a $3.3 million buyout, but the owners of the Spirits of St. Louis were holding out for more. They finally reached a deal: $3 million and an equal share of the TV revenue for as long as the NBA stays in existence.

So, now, more than 25 years and over $168 million later, the deal continues to pay off handsomely. It has survived several court challenges and several attempts by the NBA to buy the Silna brothers, those fortunate former Spirits owners, out. Regularly, like clockwork, the NBA cuts 31 television revenue sharing checks and the Silnas smile all the way to the bank., and remember, the deal lasts as long as the NBA does.

Blawg Review

This week's edition of the Blawg Review, a weekly carnival of posts of legal issues is now up. It's hosted this week by Jeffrey Blachman at his new blog, which he began following the publication of his new book, Anonymous Lawyer. Both the Blawg Review and the book are well worth checking out. Get on over there.

Retired NFL Players to get Pension Improvements

The NFL Players Association announced yesterday an agreement to increase the pension benefits of retired players followig a meeting with a steering committee of retired players and NFLPA officials. The increase will include: (a) a 25% increase in monthly pension for players who retired before 1982 and a 10% increase for those who retired after 1982, (b) a tripling of benefits for widows and children of players who die before retirement benefits begin, and (c) a health reimbursement account will be created for current players use when their health insurance runs out.

While certainly a major step in the right direction, the one piece missing from this settlement, at least as I can tell from this newspaper account, is health insurance for the retired players. The health reimbursement account is a great step and I'm shocked it wasn't in the collective bargaining agreement in the first place, but that doesn't appear to help the current retired players, at least as the newspaper describes it. Now, the players have established a wonderful program for the treatment of players who have Alzheimer's and deserve much creditfor that. It is a devastating disease and care and treaetment is enormously expensive. The 88Program will be a great comfort to those who are afflicted and there is some data that shows that former football players are at higher risk for Alzheimer's so the need is certainly there. However, the need for health benefits for retirees is important as well and I had hoped that would be addressed.

USOC Cuts 2016 List to 3

Following site visits and an evaluation process, the U S Olympic Committee reduced the list of US hopefuls for the 2016 Summer Games from 5 to 3. Making the cut were Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, while Houston and Philadelphia were eliminated.

USOC emphasized that it is not committed to bid for the Games, still smarting from the defeat suffered by New York after it spend upwards of $50 million in its bid for the 2012 Games. The committee wants to feel confident that it will field a bid that has a reasonable chance to succeed so it will put the remaining three cities through a process that will closely resemble what the bid committee would do. While Los Angeles is the leader in the clubhouse, don't count out Chicago, who I suspect will put together an extremely competitive package behind Mayor Daley who is a strong advocate of this bid. Chicago needs to build some facilities but Daley is known for getting things built and I don't think that will prove to be too troublesome in the long run.

Aston Villa Now in Play

Aston Villa is now officially in play as lifelong fan and local businessman Michael Neville was finally able to put together a group and make a formal offer for the club. Neville had tried to purchase the club earlier in the year with the backing of the Comer brothers, who are Irish real estate developers. That bid never actually came to pass as the Comers dropped out.

Of greater interest to Villa fans is the apparently keen interest in the club shown by billionaire Randy Lerner, the owner of the Cleveland Browns. Lerner is expected to make a bid for the club in the next several days, which would make him the second NFL owner to acquire a team in the English Premier League, following on the heels of the Tampa Bay Bucs Glazer family's acquisition last year of Manchester United. Given the fan animosity that surrounded that takeover, it may be somewhat surprising that the Villa supporters are seeming to embrace Lerner. However, that may be a measure of the both the depths to which Aston Villa has fallen and the bad feeling among the fan base for current principal owner and chairman Doug Ellis. Unlike the situation at ManU, Villa supporters simply can't wait to get rid of Ellis and see Lerner as a savior who might be willing to bring both professionalism to the club and the willingness and ability to spend money to improve the club's performance on and off the pitch.

NFL Retiree Battle for Pensions

When you hear that someone played football in the NFL, you think that he must be worth a lot of money. You think about the salaries that pro football players make today and automatically assume that has always been the way it worked; that pro football players were always paid like they held the keys to oil wells rather than just suiting up to go out and beat each other's brains in on 16 Sundays in the fall. However, the reality is something quite different. The big money in the NFL is a relatively recent phenomenon; a product of free agency coupled with sky high television contracts and escalating gate revenue fueled by new stadiums with their acres of luxury suites. It has been fashioned by two collective bargaining agreements in a row that enabled the league to maintain labor peace for an extended period of time while revenue sharing, free agency and the salary cap combined to create a league with competitive balance that heightened fan interest and escalating salaries for all of the players, not just the stars. All of this has taken place in roughly the last the decade.


Many of the players who played and retired in the era before the advent of free agency in the collective bargaining agreement signed in 1993, are now facing great financial difficulties because there are no adequate pensions and, more significantly no health insurance. A large group of these retired players are battling the NFL Players Association seeking pension increases and health insurance under the recent collective bargaining agreement. NFLPA President Gene Upshaw claims to represent only the active players not the retired ones - surely a first in the annals of unionizing.

According to this post by Todd Christensen, a former NFL All-Pro Tight End at Oakland, last year the average payout to a vested NFL retiree was $14,500. The poverty level, as recognized by the US government is $18,000. By comparison, baseball's average payout last year was a little over $34,000 per player. To give further evidence as to this damning discrepancy, at age 62 a 10-year veteran of Major League Baseball will accrue an annual stipend of $175,000. The same 10-year veteran from the NFL will be looking at $32,000.

For the most successful enterprise in professional sports in the world to treat its retired athletes like this is absolute disgraceful. It's a national shame and I'm shocked that this issue has received so little press coverage. While the owners have to bear their share of the blame, the majority of the blame belongs to Upshaw and his crew from NFLPA who have totally abdicated their responsibility and duties to their constituency. For the athletes who have competed in probably the most dangerous sport to be treated this way by their own union is sinful.

Thanksgiving Classic?

ESPN must be somewhat desperate for Thanksgiving programming. According to this article in the Tampa Tribune, the network has approached Miami about establishing an annual Thanksgiving Day football game to be played each year against the University of South Florida Bulls. Now, I'm not one of those who thinks the Big East should be kicked out of the BCS and I have great respect for the USF program, but I don't really think that a Miami-USF Turkey Day game is a game that going to be a national draw on a consistent basis anytime soon. I also don't see Miami accepting this game as I don't think there is much here for them other than the guaranteed TV game.

Danica Makes Her Switch

IRL's most marketable asset, Danica Patrick, has been toying with the idea of switching to, dare I say it, NASCAR, when her contract with Rahal Letterman Racing expires at the end of this season. Indy Racing fans can rest easy now as she has confirmed that at least for next season she will remain in the open wheeled circuit. However, Danica did announce today a move to Andretti Green Racing. Why? Easy, Andretti Green has won the last two Indy 500s and there is no race that Patrick wants to win more than Indy.

The decision was made easier for her as her car wasn't handling well early in the season. The Andretti Green team knows how to win and especially knows how to win at the Brickyard Now that all the speculation and media attention about what she is going to do next year has been satisfied and she will be able to concentrate on the last four races of the season, maybe she will finally be able to get that elusive first checkered flag.

ESPN Fires Reynolds but Keeps Morgan

In yet another of the personnel moves that have no apparent reason, for which ESPN had become famous, the WWLS has fired Harold Reynolds from his post at Baseball Tonight, according to the New York Post's' Andrew Marchand. Making the move even harder to understand, Joe Morgan remains an ESPN employee and featured baseball analyst. No reason has yet been given for Reynolds departure nor has ESPN even formally announced it.

USOC Makes Plan for TV Channel

Just when you thought you had all the sports channels you needed, comes word that the United States Olympic Committee is making plans to launch the Olympics Channel, featuring all Olympics, all the time. The channel will be a 24 hour channel featuring all the Olympic sports that normally only see television coverage once every four years and will also be able to draw on USOC wealth of taped coverage of past Olympics. Whether the channel can actually find distribution will determine if USOC will be able to launch it.

Carnival of the NBA

The latest edition of the Carnival of the NBA is now up at CelticsBlog. Get over there and check it out.

The New Yankee Stadium

The feature story in today's New York Times Business Section is on the plans for the new Yankee Stadium and ends up being more of a profile of the team. Much is made of the narrow profit margin the team is operating on despite the largest revenue in MLB by far. Of course, having the highest payroll in baseball by a factor will do that for you. While new Yankee Stadium will have several thousand fewer seats, worry not for George. It should be a major contributor to the Yankee money machine in several significant ways, starting with the 60 luxury suites. That is three times the number in the current stadium and may pay the extra $50-$60 million analysts estimate the Yankees need to generate to pay for the stadium, without taking into account any other revenue streams from the new stadium. The article was mostly a rehash of the Steinbrenner years with little new information.

7 Top Poker Players File Antitrust Suit Against WPT

Well, I guess poker has really hit the big time. Seven of the leading poker players have filed an antitrust suit against the WPT Enterprise, the owner of the World Poker Tour (that's the one on the Travel Channel if you have trouble keeping them straight)over the use of their likeness and their access to major tournaments. The players contend that the WPT force them to sign waivers to enter tournaments that hand over the rights to use their likeness to sell videogames, DVDs and online poker for free or face being barred from tournaments. Casinos that stage a WTP event agree not to stage any other high stakes poker tournament. The players allege that the WPT conspires with these casinos to enforce a boycott of players who refuse to forfeit their rights. A copy of the complaint, filed in US District in California, can be found here on a website established by the players.

So, what are the chances the players will prevail? I suspect that their chances are reasonably good, although I have to admit that I am no antitrust expert. At the moment, the WPT is the only playing field in which the elite poker players, like the plaintiffs, have to earn a living. If the WPT is conspiring with casinos to restrain competition by enforcing a boycott, and forcing the players to sing away their intellectual property, I think the players can show a strong case of restraint of trade. There is nowhere else for these players to go. This case is really just about opening the poker game to competition and there is ample case law to support the poker players right to control their own intellectual property. It's true in the team sports, like football and basketball, it's true in golf and tennis. It's just as likely to believe to that the courts will apply the same rules to poker.

Kings Get New Arena Deal

It appears that the Sacramento Kings won't be testing the willingness of David Stern to permit a team to move to Las Vegas after all, as the team and the city and county of Sacramento announced that they have reached a deal to build a new arena for the Kings. The new arena will seat 18,000 and will cost between $570 and $542 million, of which the Kings contribution will be $142 million over 30 years, or between 26-30% of the arena's total cost. The bulk of the facility's cost will be paid from a new quarter-cent sales tax that must be approved by the voters this November, a vote that is by no means assured.

The Kings will operate the arena and will receive the revenue from concessions, events and parking. The team will also be entitled to sell naming rights to the arena. Those rights collectively will go a long way to offsetting the Kings rental obligations, giving the team a major head start towards significant cash flow, although the deal is comparable to recent NBA arena deals in terms of owner contribution. It is good news for Sacramento fans worried about the potential departure of the Kings and removes one more team from the roster of those "in play" for franchise relocation.

MLB Calls DC in Default

Just in time for the Nationals new ownership group to welcome fans to a "grand reopening" of RFK Stadium, MLB lawyers delivered a letter to DC officials declaring the District in default of its agreements with baseball over construction of the team's new stadium. MLB claims the defaults will delay the closing of the sale of the team to the Lerner group.

The Lerner group has had difficulty dealing with District officials since being selected to purchase the Nationals and this move is seen as an effort to position the team and MLB favorably in the event the stadium construction is delayed beyond its scheduled opening of the start of the baseball season in April, 2008. DC officials are confident the stadium will be completed on time and contend this dispute is minor and being blown out of proportion.

Stay tuned for what promises to be two more years of complaints, letters from attorneys, press conferences and public complaints on both sides until the first pitch is actually thrown in the Nationals new stadium. This is public construction in DC, always a messy subject.

Is Paul Allen Seattle's' NBA Savior?

Ever since the announcement of the sale of the Seattle Sonics, different scenarios have been played out all over the net and across latte land that would result in the Sonics or another team, most often the Portland Trailblazers, playing in Seattle for longer than the upcoming season. For any number of reasons, it seems apparent to me that the Sonics will be bound for Oklahoma City after next season and the NBA has probably already blessed the move.

The Blazers are for sale, along with the arena that they play in. What intrigues Sonics fans is that the Blazers current owner, Paul Allen is a Seattle resident, (well, okay, Mercer Island if you want to be technical) and owns the should have been Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks. Many Sonics fans are thinking that Allen should pick the Blazers up and moving them to Seattle. Now, there are any number of reasons why that is not the right idea, starting with the fan support in Portland when the product is worth supporting. However, the best reason that Allen won't do that is that he wants to sell the Blazers not move the team. He wants out. He claims that he will lose $100 million over the next three seasons and has had enough.

That said, there is another way, that Allen may come to Seattle's rescue. An interesting scenario was laid out in Brian Berger's Portland blog suggesting that the likely buyer of the Blazers will be local Hollywood Video founder Mark Wattles. The Sonics will move to OKC and the Hornets will be without a home since they will be leaving OKC and not really wanting to go back to New Orleans. Here is where Allen reappears. He buys the Hornets from George Shinn, (who Stern wouldn't mind seeing out of the league) and moves them to Seattle, after successfully negotiating for a new arena to be built on land he controls next to Qwest Field. Is it likely? I don't know but it is certainly plausible.

Oklahoma group buys Sonics, Storm

So, now the other shoe in Seattle has finally dropped and Howard Shultz and his partners, tired of fighting the city for upgrades to the Key Arena have reached a deal to sell the Seattle Sonics and Storm to a group of Oklahoma City businessmen, led by Clay Bennett. The price is $350 million, which gives the group a tidy profit.

The new owners have pledged to keep the teams in Seattle for one year while they attempt to work out a new deal to renovate the arena. That's so unlikely as to be comical. The year is just the time it will take for the Hornets to vacate the Ford Center so the Sonics can relocate to OKC. I guess this deal will make it easy of David Stern to force the Hornets back to New Orleans.

It does set up a more interesting story with the Hornets, in the event that the Hornets ownership convinces Stern that New Orleans has not recovered sufficiently to support a second pro franchise by the time their stay in OKC is up. Where will they move? Anaheim wants a team as does Kansas City. Louisville wanted the Hornets before they went to New Orleans and is building a new arena, although the University of Louisville will be the prime tenant. Las Vegas is in the market but will Stern allow a team to move there and will the Maloofs allow Las Vegas to be removed from their potential relocation of the Kings?

It's a shame the Sonics are leaving Seattle. When the franchise put a good product on the floor, it received good fan support. The Storm was a great WNBA franchise. The arena issue could have been solved with a greater commitmment from the owners but for whatever reason, that commitment was never forthcoming. As a result, a proud franchise is once again ripped from its moorings and taken away to territory unknown. It's a real shame this hometown group of owners didn't give their hometown a chance to buy the team and keep it there.

Red Bulls Hire Arena

Red Bull New York made it official today and hired Bruce Arena as director of soccer operations and head coach. He will take over in time for the team's friendly against FC Barcelona.
Arena will be in charge of all soccer operations for the club including the MLS team and reserve team as well as youth clubs. This will be his second tour in MLS following his successful stint with DC United prior to taking over as coah of the men's national team. Red Bull can use all the help it can get as the franchise has never performed successfully on the field and has struggled to gain a significant presence in the New York market.

MLS Commish in St. Louis Today

but not to examine it as a location for Real Salt Lake; he's in town to check it out as an expansion site. The fate of Real Salt Lake is still in the hands of Salt Lake area government officials who need to decide who will pay for infrastructure improvements needed around the new stadium proposed for RSL. If the decision is not made soon, RSL owner Dave Checketts is likely to just sell the team, which means it will be moved to a new location, likely Rochester, Cleveland or perhaps St. Louis.

Times Opens New Front in Academic War: Auburn

The NCAA has recently adopted a new measure of academic performance known as the academic progress rate or APR. When the rankings were released last year, there was a major surprise among Division 1-A schools. Sitting in number 4, tops among public universities was the none other than Auburn University, known more for NCAA probation than academic performance. Nevertheless, there it was, nestled tightly behind Stanford, Navy, Boston College and just ahead of Duke. Do you think people were surprised?

It appears that a major contributing factor to Auburn's high APR score may well have been judicious management of football player's academic careers. According to today's New York Times, it seems that there was at least one sociology professor who systematically gave football players and other athletes high grades for courses that required little no work and no attendance. This professor, the interim chairman of the department no less, taught what was known as directed reading courses, resemebled independent study. Normally such courses were not used for basic core subjects, but exceptions were made in the case of athletes.

At one point, in the spring of 2005, Professor Petee, the interim chairman of the sociology department, taught 152 directed reading courses in addition to his regular courses and his administrative duties. A significant number of these were athletes. Other professors at Auburn indicated that significantly less than 10 directed reading courses a semester would be the norm. The content of the courses was also questioned as the workload was considered to be significantly lighter than expected for a comparable course.

Auburn has begun an investigation and promised an open result. Auburn is always under investigation so this is nothing new for them. I'm not terribly surprised by this as athletics has long ruled the roost at Auburn. After all, it was only a couple of years that its accreditation was in jeopardy for trustee involvement in the running of the athletics and administration of the university. Clearly, nothing has been learned from that incident.

Additional articles on the subject can be found here and here.

UPDATE: James Gundlach, the Auburn sociology professor whose complaints to Pete Thamel led to the Times story has decided to quit cooperating with Auburn investigation into his allegations. He made his decision after reading in the Huntsville Times that the administration said he was motivated, in part, by being passed over for department chairman by the man at the center of the controversy. Gundlach denies ever being a candidate for chairman, much less being passed over and says he only told administration officials that he did not support Petee when ran for chairman. Check the Huntsville Times article for more on Gundlach's story.

Carnival of the Capitalists

This week's Carnival of the Captialists is now up at Any Letter. Check it out.

MLB Looks to Sell One More TV Rights Package

It is beginning to look like Major League Baseball is trying to bring as many players to the table for the last remaining television rights package it has to offer as possible. What once seemed to be only the League Championship Series not sold to Fox, may now include regular season games and a nightly news/results show according to this report in Mediaweek.com. That package would seem to be tailor-made for only one player however, OLN, as ESPN, Turner and Fox have already concluded their contracts and none of the other broadcast networks have any interest in a regular season nightly broadcast. The sticking point with OLN will be price as the package may simply be too expensive for the still relatively small network.

It appears that ESPN, Turner and Fox are all still in the running however in the event that MLB decides to award the LCS without the regular season package. Fox would like the right to move some of the games to cable outlet FX, but that is not likely to be too major of a sticking point. The prime consideration among the three will likely be price, once MLB decides to abandon the additional regular season package.

2007 All Star Game Countdown

Major League Baseball has begun the countdown to next year's All Star Game in San Francisco with the unveiling today of the logo for next year's game in AT&T Park (assuming the name doesn't change before the game). It will be the third All Star Game in San Francisco but the first in more than 20 years.

AT&T Park doesn't get the wind of the Giants former home in Candlestick Park, something which I'm sure that pitchers are quite happy about. There is a great story about the last All Star Game in Candlestick in Howard Blooms's article, which I'll repeat below since his article gets removed after a day:

"While game-time temperatures can be quite chilly every now and then at AT&T Park (even during the summer), one thing the new ballpark doesn't get as much of as "The Stick" did is wind. The National League won the 1961 game, but nearly lost when a large and legendary gust of wind caused Giants pitcher Stu Miller to sway ever so slightly on the mound. He was called for a balk, and an American League run scored to tie the game and force extra innings."

Now, I;m a fan of logos and uniforms and I think this one is a particular good log design. It is uniquely the Giants from the colors to ballpark but there is one thing in particular that makes it stand out. Take a good look at the logo and you'll see the ball flying out of AT&T Park into McCovey Cove. That is distinctive and the mark of a good logo and a designer who understands his product.

Arena out as US Soccer coach

Following a lengthy meeting with Sunil Gulati, the President of the US Soccer Federation, Bruce Arena will no longer be the coach of the men's national team following the end of the year. This leaves the field open for US Soccer to head straight to Huntington Beach and sign Juergen Klinsman, who coached Germany to a surprise third place finish in the just concluded World Cup. Get on the plane Sunil.

As for Arena's future, he is increasingly being rumored to be joining Red Bull New York in some capacity, either as the on field coach which is vacant or in management. Perhaps, he will even combine the two positions. The coaching job is being filled on an interim basis by an old Arena discple, Richie Williams, who played for him at UVa and DC United.

From Jubilation to Relegation: The Other Shoe Drops

The verdict is in as the judge in the match fixing trial of the big four Italian football clubs has handed down his verdict and the results, while not granting the prosecutor all that he requested, will still shake Italian football to its core. Juventus, the two time Italian champion will be stripped of those titles, relegated to Serie B and hit with a 30 point penalty. In addition, Lazio and Fiorentina were also relegated. AC Milan escaped demotion, but will receive a 15 point penalty which probably eliminates it from Champions League contention. That is probably not enough however to still the likely charges of undue political influence as a result of its owner, billionaire former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. All of the teams were barred from taking part in European competition for this year through the docking of points from the 2005-06 season.

The results of the trial, if upheld on appeal, may trigger a player exodus that would be a real life fantasy football draft. Thirteen of the 23 members of the winning Italian World Cup team played for the penalized clubs, as did several members of the runner-up French team and several other stars from around the world. Millions of dollars in sponsorship revenues are also at stake as most sponsorship contracts are conditioned on the club remaining in the top division. Television revenue also will be gone, as that is divided among those clubs in the top division. With the additional point penalties assessed to Juventus and Fiorentina, it's unlikely either will be able to win promotion this year so the financial hit will continue for at least another year.

Juventus was Europe's fourth biggest club by revenue last year, with the bulk of it revenue coming from television and sponsorship deals. It has a 12 year sponsorship deal with Nike that guarantees the club 187 million euros but can be renegotiated or terminated in the event of demotion or conviction of match fixing. Clearly, Juve needs to win the appeal it will surely file. Expect a major sale of the bianconeri as they are dispersed to big clubs around Europe. I can almost see the tongues salivating in Madrid and London now.

World Cup 2010: America Bound?

The next scheduled World Cup is planned for South Africa in 2010 and will be the first World Cup contested in Africa. The awarding of that World Cup to Africa has been one of the centerpiece's of FIFA head Sepp Blatter's presidency and garnered him the votes of the continent's representatives on the FIFA Board during his last election campaign.


Rumors now flowing out of Germany following this year's World Cup and associated FIFA meetings is that organization for the WC 2010 is lagging and FIFA officials are very concerned. Contingency planning is underway and the Guardian has gone so far as to speculate that FIFA is almost ready to move the World Cup from South Africa following Blatter's reelection as FIFA President. If the World Cup is moved, the most likely destination is the United States, as FIFA well knows the US can put together a good show on short notice, following the US performance in putting on the Women's World Cup on short notice in 2003, following its move from China. Germany would also be a possibility but I would think that the US would be the more likely alternative.

Is Real Salt Lake On the Move?

The model for financial success in Major League Soccer is dependent on soccer specific stadiums. In fact, no expansion team will be allowed to enter the league without a firm plan in place for such a stadium. Unfortunately, that was not the case when Real Salt Lake was granted a franchise several years ago and on Tuesday, the latest plan for RSL's stadium went down to defeat before the Salt Lake County Council. So now it's open season on Real Salt Lake and the leading contenders appear to be St. Louis and Rochester, in no particular order.

The current owner of the franchise, Dave Checketts, just recently closed on his purchase of the St. Louis Blues and the Savvis Center in which the team plays. The city has long been a hotbed of local soccer support and has an indoor team that has garnered reasonable fan support through the years. It has been on MLS' expansion list for a number of years.

However, Rochester has something that no other city in America has right now. It has a newly opened soccer specific stadium ready and willing to take on a MLS team. Recently opened PAETEC Park is the home of the Rochester Rhinos, the most successful USL team. While the stadium only seats 13,000 in its present configuration, it was built with MLS in mind. Expansion plans call for a upper deck that would raise seating to 18,000. While that would be short of the 20,000 that MLS has set has the minimum necessary for its soccer specific stadium, MLS Commissioner Don Garber has indicated that 18,000 would probably be sufficient for Rochester and would not stand in the way of Rochester getting a team. In fact, Garber confirmed that discussions between Rochester and Real Salt Lake have taken place although they are only preliminary.

Rochester has long been one of the most attractive soccer markets in the country, with the Rhinos attracting fans at a rate most MLS teams envy. It is a market that MLS should strongly consider and should RSL need to move, Rochester is, to my mind, the logical destination. St.Louis can come in the next wave of expansion. Rochester has earned a team the best way a city can earn - by demonstrating fan support through thick and thin. If RSL is going to leave Utah, and it should, western New York ought to be the destination.

UofL's Petrino Inks 10 Year Contract

Bobby Petrino, the University of Louisville football coach who has been mentioned for every major pro and college opening in the last three years, signed a 10 year contract extension today placing him among the ranks of the highest paid college football coaches in the country. Petrino, noted for dallying with other jobs, hopes this contract sends a message, that his days of job hunting are over. Petrino said today at the news conference announcing the contract:

"For me and for my family, Louisville is home...The past three seasons have been a tremendous opportunity for me to grow as a head coach. I have learned many lessons both on and off the field and experienced success thanks to the administration, the University of Louisville and the greater Louisville community."

The contract contains a first for Louisville under Athletic Director Tom Jurich, a $1,000,000 buy-out clause, put in the contract at the request of Petrino, to again show his determination to stay at Louisville for the duration. The contract contains $5,000,000 in retention bonuses spread over the life of the contract. In addition, there are the usual performance bonuses for accomplishments both on the field (winning the Big East, going to bowl games, gong to a BCS game, etc.) and in the classroom.

Jurich is to be commended for securing the future of the Cardinal football program. It does appear that Petrino may finally be sincere in saying he wants to stay at Louisville at least for the foreseeable future. This contract is certainly the equal of most any contract in college and removes the incentive to take any other college job. That means that the only other lure out there is the NFL and there is not much even the Jurich magic can do to protect Lousiville from that. When Petrino decides he is ready to jump to the NFL he'll leave but it looks like he won't be going anywhere until then.

Baseball Keeps Fox

Major League Baseball is expected to announce before tonight's All Star Game that it has reached a television deal with Fox, keeping the Saturday game of the week, the World Series, the All Star Game and one League Series game on the network. Fox, which had earlier said it was losing money on its current baseball deal, will drop the Divisional Series. According to the Post, the deal will be for seven years.

In addition, Turner is expected to sign a deal calling for a Sunday afternoon game and one of the Division Series. ESPN, which is expected to continue its package, will likely take the other Divisional Series. MLB is keeping one LCS open and is likely holding it up for bid between ESPN and Turner. Expect to see it on ESPN as I would think the boys in Bristol will outbid Turner for it.

It was very important to Selig that these contracts be finalized before serious discussions on the collective bargaining agreement could take place. Television revenue is such an important component of baseball's revenue stream that it would have been impossible to reach a new CBA without TV deals settled. Now the MLB knows the numbers for the next seven years the owners and players can finally sit down and divide up the pot. Expect a minimum salary number and a cap to be major issues. The union is pushing hard for teams to have a salary floor as a counterpoint to revenue sharing, which to me is a perfectly reasonable demand and one the fans ought to demand as well. It's one the high revenue teams support as well.

F-1Gets a Jolt as Montoya Joins NASCAR

Motor racing fans around the world received a jolt this morning as seven time Formula One winner Juan Pablo Montoya announced he would become the first F-1 driver to make the leap to NASCAR, as he will be joining the Nextel Cup Series next season to drive for Chip Ganassi. Montoya, who is also a former Indy 500 winner drove for Ganassi when he won at Indy. Now, I don't know about you, but trading traveling the world and making stops in Monte Carlo and San Marino for the ovals of Martinsville and Darlington ahrdly seems like the act of a rational man. Now, that's just me but really, would you give that up?

It doesn't appear that NASCAR's good news is going to stop with Montoya either. Rumor has it that former Indy 500 winner and Formula One champion Jacques Villenueve is considering making the jump and, even more importantly from NASCAR's perspective, Danica Patrick is rumored to be discussing a move to the closed wheel circuit. Now, wouldn't that raise TV ratings? It would certainly make Dan Wheldon happy too.

Carnival of the Capitalists

This week's edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists is now up at Fat Pitch Financials. Check it out, I'm sure you'll find something that interests you.

The Carnival Of The NBA # 32

The Carnival of the NBA Edition #32 is now up at Need4Sheed.com in it most graphically depicted form yet. Get over there.

Hedge Fund Fantasy Football

Last week, the WSJ has an article about a Portuguese hedge fund that invests in soccer player in the hopes of profited on transfer fees as the player improves and his club then sells him to a bigger and wealthier club, such as was done with Christiano Ronaldo in whom the fund had an interst. In commenting on this article, Skip Sauer at The Sports Economist indicated a belief that the fund had no real influence on player movement.

While I tend to concur with Skip at this point. I think the existence of the fund allows some Portuguese teams to participate in player development that might not have the resources otherwise, I do think that this model may be the beginning of a trend that could widely impact European soccer. If this trend develops, or if Mr. Goncalves is successful in raising additional funds and expanding to other countries as he desires, then the impact could grow substantially. What I could foresee happening is two separate developments. First, smaller clubs could gain access to capital that could allow them to participate in the transfer market more often as buyers rather than strictly as sellers. Secondly, larger clubs will have even greater access to capital to compete for players and the transfer prices may climb even further. Chelsea may find that it actually has competition for players.

We have already seen hedge funds enter European football on the team side. Malcolm Glazer financed his purchase of Manchester United with money raised from several hedge funds and it's likely that other team purchases in recent years have been backed by funds as well. It is increasing likely that hedge funds, or their managers will be involved in future team sales as well as the financing of existing team operations. European football at the highest level has simply become too expensive to operate without them

A Big XII Approach to Venture Capital

I stumbled across an interesting article the other day that points to an interesting approach of mixing sports and business on the college level. Two Texas businessmen and avid Longhorn fans are trying to bring the Big XII schools together to host a joint conference on technology transfer in the hopes of perhaps leading to joint efforts in commercialization.

This is a great idea and a model that I think can be replicated by conferences around the country. I can see the Big Ten jumping on this bandwagon fairly quickly as it is the conference that is probably the most advanced in academic cooperation already. The prospects for technology transfer cooperation and joint commercialization efforts among such as Michigan, Norhtwestern, Illinois and Wisconsin is very strong and I'm frankly surprised it hasn't been done before. It just seems so natural.

In this age of conference expansion and raiding, the strengthening of academic ties through business efforts might help stabilize membership. If you have strong and profitable business partnerships with fellow conference members that extend beyond athletics, you are going to think that much harder before you make the leap to a new conference.

For those reasons, I would urge conferences like the Big East to take a good hard look at this proposal and see if they can't set up something similar for their members. The more they can do to strengthen the bonds among the gang of 16, the greater the likelihood they will stick together when the first five years of the new Big East Conference runs out and schools are eligible to leave. Granted, the new television deals are a great incentive for everyone to stay together, but more ties outside athletics would strengthen the conference even more.

Northwestern Names Fitzgerald Coach

Northwestern didn't look far to find a successor to the late (boy that's hard to write) Randy Walker as its football coach. It turned to Walker's' staff naming former Wildcat great Pat Fitzgerald, a two time national Defensive Player of the Year, while playing for the Cats. Fitz served as Coach Walker's linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator and was a five year member of the Wildcat staff. Named by SI.com as one of the nation's best recruiters, Fitzgerald has landed the job of his dreams even if he didn't care for how it came to him.

Although Fitz is only 31, making him not only the youngest head coach in the Big Ten but in Division I, Northwestern Athletic Director Mark Murphy expressed no doubt that Fitzgerald is up to the task:

"He has all the qualities that you look for in a head coach-he's bright, hard-working, a natural leader and a great communicator. Randy had tremendous respect for Pat. On a number of occasions, Randy told me that he would like Pat to replace him as head coach. Of course, neither of us thought it would be this soon."

Fitzgerald is remembered as the anchor of the defense on the Norhwestern team that won back to back Big Ten titles in 1995 and 1996, going to the Rose Bowl and the Citrus Bowl in the process. Fitzgerald won back to back National Defensive Player of the Awards those seasons as well as linebacker of the year.

This is a choice that, while certainly not without risk, is inspired and one that almost all alums and fans are very glad that Murphy and President Bienen made. The players are happy, the fans are happy and the alums are happy. Now Fitz just has to make it work and I feel certain that he will. Oh, he'll have his moments, especially this year. After all, he has an untested quarterback among other issues, but with time and recruiting he will be just fine.

The Mess in Atlanta

Now that my local ISP (thanks Insight) has finally seen fit to allow me to return from my forced vacation from blogging, let's return to one of our favorite soap operas, the continuing saga of the ownership of the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers. Now, for two teams that have such terrible fan bases and not very good on court/ice products to be enveloped in what seems to be a never ending and quite expensive battle between vying owners for rights to control the teams might seem at first glance to be paradoxical. However, I think what is really happening is that it is this ownership struggle that is the real cause of fan apathy and mediocre performance. Once this battle is settled, if it ever is, the teams can finally get a clear direction and boardroom leadership that will translate into renewed attendance at Philips Arena and games in the win column.

Before that happens however, there is the small matter of the lawsuit among the owners that needs to be handled and that will ensure the Hawks continued struggles in the short term. In the latest news, the presiding judge has issued a ruling that ousted owner Steve Belkin is entitled to buy out his former partners, the Spirit Group, at cost, making Belkin the sole owner of the teams. However, he stayed his ruling pending an appeal, but, and this is the real kicker, the Atlanta Spirit, now in control of the teams may:

"not initiate the purchase, sale, trade or negotiation of any NBA or NHL player contract ... excluding contracts involving present or future draft picks and contracts for any other player with a contract duration of one year or less."

Also excluded from the order were deals in which negotiations have begun, so presumably the deal for Speedy Claxton can still proceed, although whether that will truly give the Hawks the point guard they so desperately need is open to question.

So, in the short term, the Hawks will continue as the NBA's worst team with the league's worst fan support. If Belkin is successful in winning this suit, the fans in Atlanta should hope that he sees the opportunity to make a quick buck by parlaying the purchase of the Atlanta Spirit's interest at cost and sells the teams quickly to someone who will pump some money into them and invigorate the fan base with intelligent management and marketing. Two items sorely missing from both franchise for many years.

Bowl Roundup

Yeah, I know it's July but that means it's only about 7 weeks until the first kickoff of the college football season, so an update on the bowl picture seems timely. There is news on two bowls from Texas this week. First, comes word that the bowl formerly known as the Houston Bowl will be played this season. The bowl will be administered by a subsidiary of the Houston Texans and its name is still not determined. It will be televised by the NFL Network on December 28.

The game will feature teams from the Big XII and the Big East this year. In future years, teams from Conference USA and the Mountain West will also play in a rotation of some sort.

The other news comes from San Antonio, where the Alamo has lost its title sponsor. Mastercard has been the title sponsor since 2003 but, despite record television ratings and strong attendance, has decided to part ways with the Alamo Bowl to concentrate its sponsorship dollars on the NFL. The pressure to find a title sponsor is rather high for Alamo Bowl organizers as the Bowl has agreed to raise its payout from $1.65 million per team to $2.25 million per team starting with this season's game. Organizers are entering a market competing with several other bowls seeking title sponsors although none of the competitors are in the class of the Alamo Bowl.