The American Invasion of Serie A is On

Having thoroughly ingratiated itself into the ownership ranks of the English Premier League, American billionaires are looking for new sports horizons to climb. It appears that the Italian Serie A will be the next target now the new Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has given his blessing. Berlusconi, the billionaire owner of AC Milan has approved the proposed takeover of AS Roma by American billionaire George Soros, had been thought to oppose foreign ownership. However, he made it clear that he has no objection.

"If someone comes in who can make the fans happy by strengthening the squad, he's more than welcome," Berlusconi told a local radio station.

While Roma would not confirm that Soros was the prospective buyer, he has been rumored to be the purchaser for weeks. Soros denied comment, but has not denied interest in the purchase. Italian media has reported the price as being $400 million for the 67% interest owned by a company controlled by the Sensi family.

UPDATE: Trading in shares of AS Roma was halted earlier today on the Milan stock exchange amid reports that George Soros had withdrawn his offer to purchase the club. Shares had dropped over 11% before closing off 9% percent when trading was halted.

Will It Be An All American Champions League Final?

Manchester United defeated Barcelona 1-0 today at Old Trafford securing its place in the Champions League final in Moscow on May 21. With the victory an all England final is assured. Man U's opponent will be determined in tomorrow's semifinal between Chelsea and Liverpool.

A win by Liverpool at Chelsea's home ground at Stamford Bridge will result in the unprecedented event of a Champions League final between two clubs owned by Americans. European soccer's most prestigious club tournament would be contested between clubs owned by Americans. I can't imagine what will do to psyches all across Europe. There were practically riots in Manchester when the Glazers bought Manchester United. Fans picketed Old Trafford and protested the purchase. It has taken winning to bring them around.

Liverpool's ownership is a mess. Tom Hicks and George Gillett bought the club a year ago and the partnership has been dysfunctional practically from the start. Gillett, the owner of the Montreal Canadiens, has attempted to sell his 50% interest to Dubai International, the vehicle of Sheik Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, only to be blocked at every turn by Hicks. However, to date, Hicks has not exercised his right to buy Gillett out. Despite the problems in the owner's suite, the team keeps winning.

Chelsea doesn't have ownership problems - Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is the free spending owner - its problems this year have been around playing time and coaching issues. When Jose Morinho left early in the season and was replaced by Avram Grant, an Israeli unaccustomed to the rigors of the Premier League and the Champions League, the doubters were out in force. Taking the Blues into the semifinals as well as back into the Premiership race has silenced the critics - for now.

As always, the Champions League and English clubs provide a wealth of good storylines. The addition of Americans only makes the stories more upsetting to all the Britons reading the daily tabs.

Profting From the Army All American Game

Ever wonder how the players are chosen for the US Army All American High School All Star football game? Ever wonder where the money goes from all those ticket sales and the television rights that NBC pays to televise the game? Well, wonder no more, for this morning the Wall Street Journal has answered all your questions.

It turns out that game is the brainchild and money making machine of two former New Jersey politicians, Douglas Berman and Richard McGuinness have parlayed the game into quite a profitable empire, consisting of the game, invitation only summer camps for promising young players from the age of 12 and up, and sponsorship. The US Army, for instance, now pays more than $2 million annually for naming rights and exposure throughout the company's programs. There are at least a dozen other sponsors, including Russell Athletic which pays $500,000 to $600,000 annually.

The two are doing fairly well for themselves I would say - just another pair of guys profiting mightily on the dreams of high schoolers for an athletic scholarship to college. This has become a major industry in this country, with summer camps in almost every sport you can imagine. The fees for these camps are high, Berman and McGuinness charge $500 for a three day camp, and the payoff is far from assured. Many kids attend three or four of these camps a year, starting in middle school. The investment by parents in these camps is enormous and the disparity in opportunity between kids with parents able to afford these camps and those who can't is vast.

I can't fault Berman and McGuinness for seeing an opportunity and capitalizing on it. It's the system that disturbs me, but I'm not sure there is a good solution to the problem. Perhaps the NCAA can work with the National High School Federation to set up some ground rules and restrictions to promote equity, but then again, the NCAA is probably the last organization you would want to get involved in rule making.

Tuesday Tidbits

There have been a number of articles and blog posts worthy of your time and attention in the last couple of days so here are a few of them:

Danica Patrick's win at the Japan Indy 300 on Sunday has transformed her from the Anna Kournikova of motor racing - all beauty, no wins - into a champion. Forbes and my friend Darren Rovell weigh in on the impact on her endorsement potential (all good as you might expect) and Darren catches up with Danica for a one on one.

Interesting article in the New York Times about the continuing tension between bloggers and the teams they attempt to cover on a daily basis and the important question of who owns the games being covered.

The Times strikes again with an article about the owner of Kentucky Derby contender Big Brown, a syndicated partnership modeled on a hedge fund which its principal owner hopes will help him raise as much as $100 million to invest in thoroughbreds. The Times article makes it sound as if this has never been tried before. It has. Back in the go-go years of the early 1980s, syndications along this line were all the rage on Wall Street and along shed row - they petered out with the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and I'm not sure that any of them turned out to be a financial success for anyone except perhaps the promoters and their attorneys.

The Wall Street Journal brings us a story about a different sort of syndication entering the sports world. This time it's a public company only the promoters won't say what the money raised will be used to do. It's called a SPAC, a special purpose acquisition company, and there are plenty of them coming public in the last few months. Most have the housing crisis as their reason for existence but this one intends to pursue sports acquisition, specifically teams in major professional leagues and perhaps Nascar. It's an interesting approach and it gives Andrew Murstein, the man behind the company and the owner of a taxi financing empire in New York City, a $216 million warchest to go hunting.

NBA Owners Ignore Lawsuits, Approve Sonics Move to OKC

Capping off a week of revelations and threats, the NBA Board of Governors today approved the move of the Sonics to that noted metropolitan area of Oklahoma City despite the continued existence of a lease with the Key Center in Seattle through 2010, and ongoing litigation with the City of Seattle over the terms of that lease. Ignoring legal niceties, Clay Bennett and his merry band of Raiders convinced the Board of Governors to confirm the plan they hatched when they bought the team from Howard Schultz.

This week saw the revelation of internal emails among the Raiders which would lead a reasonable outsider to believe that the group had no intention of keeping the Sonics in Seattle. That will be a very significant point in both the existing litigation in which the Raiders are attempting to terminate the Key Center lease and truck out early and in the proposed suit by Howard Schultz, first announced this week, for a return of the team as a result of a breach of the purchase agreement by the Raiders. The basis of that suit, if filed, is that Clay Bennett and his merry men failed to make good faith efforts to keep the team in Seattle. Nice of Schultz to try to ride to the rescue of the Sonics at the eleventh and a half hour, much as he was recalled to save Starbucks, but let's not forget that had he been more concerned about the city when the Sonics went on the market, he would have called Steve Ballmer and sold the team to him instead of Bennet and the Raiders. Then, none of this would have happened. Sure, he might have made a little less money, but the Sonics would be in Seattle and he still would have made a fortune on the sale.

Why David Stern is hell bent on seeing the team leave Seattle remains a mystery to me. It is especially mystifying as to why he is so intent on moving to OKC, a market that is, what, the 45th largest media market in the country? Sure, they supported the Hornets for two years while in exile from New Orleans and maybe the Hornets should have stayed there, but to leave Seattle, which has supported the team for 41 years and is the 13th largest media market in the US and will be by far the largest without a NBA team. It doesn't make sense despite the sweetheart lease deal. It doesn't make sense from the standpoint of the league as whole and if allowed to stand should be rectified by putting a team in Seattle in a Cleveland Browns style expansion/relocation (the Hornets come to mind) as quickly as possible.

A NFL Stadium for LA that Works?

Real estate developer, billionaire and partner in the Staples Center, the Lakers and the Kings, Ed Roski today unveiled a proposal for a new stadium in the City of Industry, about 20 miles east of downtown LA. The proposed stadium will have 75,000 seats and will cost upwards of $800 million. Roski already controls the land and, importantly, has already completed an environmental impact statement.

The question is does the NFL care anymore, and do the folks in LA even want a team? It's clear that the owners have far more pressing problems on the agenda at this point than putting a team in Los Angeles, not the least of which is the upcoming battle with the players over the likely re-opening of the collective bargaining agreement, which is likely to happen this fall. Expansion is no longer likely so to put a team in Los Angeles would require the relocation of an existing franchise. There are no shortage of possible candidates. The three that spring to mind are the Saints, the Bills and the Vikings, all of whom have stadium issues to work out.

The league will go out of its way to see the Saints stay in New Orleans and it is far more likely that the Saints will survive there than will the Hornets. The Bills are in the process of working out a new relationship with Toronto that may make their continued presence in Buffalo viable, perhaps as a regional team playing games in both cities. Minnesota still needs to work out a stadium deal and until that is done, the likelihood of relocation is high. Will that be to Los Angeles? That is a stretch at this point as there is a great deal yet to be done to get from this announcement to a team. I should point out that on the day of Roski's press conference, the state legislature blocked the City of Industry's plan to divert $800 million in property taxes to subsidize the project.

Duke's Legal Team Goes 0-2

Duke just can't seem to get out of its own way when it comes to the lacrosse case. It seems to always make the wrong choice each and every time. Today, the mighty Blue Devils legal team went 0-2 in court, losing hearings in cases brought by former lacrosse coach Mike Pressler and the 38 non-indicted players on the lacrosse team.

First, let's talk about the completely misguided attempt by the University and the City of Durham to shut down a blog maintained by the players to discuss the progress of their case against Duke and the City. The lawyers for Duke and the City asked a federal judge to shut down the site, Dukelawsuit.com, and to sanction the lawyers for the players for violating the North Carolina Code of Professional Responsibility. In a hearing held today, Chief District Court Judge James A. Beaty, Jr. rightly declined to do so.

Meanwhile, back in Durham Superior Court, Judge Howard Manning ruled that Mike Pressler could continue his claims against Duke and University spokesman John Burness. He found that the settlement agreement reached between the university and Pressler nullified any obligation that Pressler had to submit to arbitration.

While these were procedural rulings and don't address the merits of the cases, let's just hope that they are a sign of things to come. Maybe this is an indication that Duke's attorneys will fare no better in this morass than their clients performed. In that case, justice may finally be served.

Fantasy Fishing, Yes Fishing, For a $1,000,000

As if the Internet didn't already give you enough reasons to waste time, now comes along FLW Outdoors and fantasy fishing. If you can wildly guess which team of 10 fishermen each week will pull the largest number of bass out of the lake in that week's FLW Outdoors tournament you stand a chance of winning $1,000,000.

Do you think this is just tailor made for the few people who can manage to find Versus on their cable outlets? Apparently not as comScore reports at least 132,000 visited FantasyFishing.com in February. That's likely to be far more people then tune in to the average telecast of a fishing tournament on Versus - in fact it may be more people than actually know where Versus is located on their cable system.

Who would ever have guessed there could be this kind of money in fishing, much less fake fishing? The wonders of the Internet will never cease.

Final Four Coaches: Who Gains the Most?

For Bill Self of Kansas, not only does he shake the extremely large shadow of Roy Williams but he collects a bonus of $200,000. Interestingly, Roy will not collect a bonus for winning his second national title. Of course, since he is already making a base salary of $1.7 million and unusually in this day and age gets to negotiate his own television and radio deals, product endorsements and public appearances, we shouldn't feel too sorry for him. The other two coaches, John Calipari of Memphis and Ben Howland of UCLA would each get $100,000 for winning a title, not to mention an end to frustration. For Howland, it would end the frustration of three straight Final Fours without a title and for Cal, well, it would end all those years of coaching at schools in mid-major conferences, of claiming to never getting the respect he felt he and his teams deserved and finally erasing the stigma of his days with his Nets. Of course, the $400,000 in total bonuses he would have collected throughout the tournament would help ease the sting of being disrespected.

The one who stands to gain the most on the endorsement front is likely Calipari. He is already somewhat known from his stint with the Nets, yet he is just below the radar at Memphis. The school is not in a power conference so he has to work harder at image both for himself and the school. A championship validates everything he is doing there in a way it does not for anyone else. Oh sure, if helps Self enormously in stepping out from under Roy Williams' shadow at Kansas, but that is more with the KU fan base and is a local thing. A win helps Howland get over the hump, but he doesn't really need it in terms of what he is accomplishing at UCLA. For endorsement purposes, it would help him on a national basis, but being coach at UCLA carries with it the opportunity for endorsements in the second largest media market in the country with obvious national breakout opportunity. As to Roy Williams, a second win I don't think adds much more so he probably gains the least here but that is what happens when you're already at the top of your game.

Experts Say Tigers Win the World Series

Since Opening Day was yesterday, notwithstanding that bizarre two day series in Japan a week or so ago and Sunday's night's Nationals Park opener in our nations's capital, I thought I would bring you this chart from Portfolio compiling the so-called experts predictions of the World Series winner this season. As you can see, the Tigers' off season moves are clearly paying off with the experts:



The Tigers are the heavy favorites to win the American League and take on the equally heavy favorite Mets, who are predicted to fall quietly to the Tigers in the World Series. As noted by Portfolio, the wisdom of the experts is contrary to Vegas and the prediction markets, as the current odds establish the Red Sox as 9-2 favorites for the World Series. TradeSports lists the Red Sox at a 14.7% chance of winning and the Mets at a 14.4% chance, with the Yankees at at 12% and the Tigers at 11.5%. Clearly, there is more New York money being put to work at TradeSports than elsewhere.

As for me, I think the Red Sox and Tigers will meet in the AL final to take on the Cubs. Call me an eternal optimist or just a romantic, but it is the 100th anniversary of the Cubs last championship and you just have to believe.