Move Over Saban, There's a $6 Million Man in Okie Land

When Nick Saban was lured away from Miami to resurrect Crimson Tide football, he was lured by a contract that was said to be the richest ever offered to a NCAA football coach. Whether that remained true before this season, I'm not sure, but Saban's guaranteed base salary, before bonuses, of $3,750,000 puts him ahead of Mack Brown, who is the Big XII highest paid coach, when bonuses are not included. Brown's base salary is $2,900,000.

It's the bonuses, however, that separate the truly well paid from just the run of the mill high paid and when it comes to including one year pay from all sources, it's going to be hard to beat Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. Stoops' base salary is $2, 775,000 and he has earned an additional $350,000 in performance bonuses so far this year with, of course, one big game left to play. A win in the BCS Championship Game is worth an additional $250,000. In addition, Stoops will earn tonight a bonus of $3,000,000 for having served as coach at Oklahoma for 10 years. That brings Stoops total pay for 2008 (without the bonus for the BCS win) to $6,110,000. Bob Stoops, college football's first $6 million man.

Top 10 Sports Business Stories of 2008

It's the end of the year, and although I'm still trying to recover from the pain of last night's Valero Alamo Bowl loss to Missouri (why oh why did you ever punt to Maclin at the end of the first half????), I thought it would an interesting exercise and somewhat obligatory blog post, to come up with a list of the top ten sports business stories of 2008. Of course, this list is totally arbitrary, so feel free to add your own in the comments. Without further adieu, on to the top stories:

10. ESPN Buys the World. This is really part of an ongoing trend, as were several of the top stories, which in this case, saw ESPN gain rights to properties it had been dreaming of for years, including the British Open and, together with its corporate sibling, ABC, all of the BCS bowls.

9. Flight of the Sonics to Oklahoma City. After 40 years in Seattle, the Sonics left for greener pastures in the midlands of OKC. Let's see how well the small market experiment works in five to ten years.

8. Merger of Champ Car and IRL. After 13 years of disastrous competition that nearly destroyed open wheeled racing in this country, and with it the Indy 500, Champ Car and IRL finally merged. Let's hope it's not too late, especially given the perilous state of the auto industry.

7. Horse Racings Season of Tragedy and Questions. With the breakdown of Eight Belles in the Derby and the question of performance enhancing drugs dogging Derby winner Big Brown, horse racing found itself in the public's eye for all the wrong reasons.

6. Tiger Wins Open then Disappears. Tiger Woods demonstrates once again that he is in a class all his own both on the course and as a draw, first for gutting out an amazing US Open win and then leaving the Tour for the rest of the year to recuperate from injury. The Tour survived his absence but it was clearly felt.

5. Increasing Globalization of Professional Sports. From Americans purchasing English Premier League Clubs, to the NFL playing regular season games in London and Toronto, 2008 saw professional sports become more and more a global enterprise, a trend which promises to accelerate rapidly in 2009 and beyond.

4. Anheuser-Busch Is Sold. Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewing company in America and, by far, the largest sports advertiser in the US and perhaps the world, to the tune of some $500 million, is sold to InBev, a Belgian/Brazilian beer conglomerate. InBev has a very different marketing philosophy and it remains to be seen how A-B's relationship to the sports world will evolve.

3. Michael Phelps Wins Eight Gold Medals. Michael Phelps wins eight gold medals, live in most of the US and in truly dramatic television enthralling most of the country. Phelps returns from Beijing a hero and probably swimming's first $100 million man.

2. The Beijing Olympics. The Games prove to be an artistic, sports and business success as first swimming, then beach volleyball and gymnastics produce huge audiences for NBC. In addition, NBC's strategy of pushing out coverage of the Games through its website also proves highly successful and likely sets the pattern for future coverage, most certainly for Vancouver 2010.

1. Impact of the Global Recession. Sports is far from immune to the effects of the global recession/depression that we are now experiencing, as everything from naming rights and sponsorships to ticket prices, concessions and attendance is adversely affected, in some cases (Arena Football League) threatening the very viability of the sport. The impact on sports is heightened this time due to the concentration of financial firms in sports sponsorship and the steady disappearance or severe contraction of those firms in this recession/depression. This trend will definitely continue through much of 2009 as the recession/depression is likely to continue through at least the third quarter of 2009.

Another Baseball Owner in Favor of Salary Cap

The response of baseball owners to the Yankees unprecedented free agent spending spree continues as another owner has joined the call for a salary cap. The difference this time is that the owner does not represent a small market club as did most of those who pushed for a cap in the past and as does Mark Anastasio of the Milwaukee Brewers who was the first to call for one this time around. Count Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane in the salary cap camp. In fact, he believes one would already be in place were it not for the opposition of the players union. “We would love to have a salary cap, but the (players’) union has been very resistant to that,” McLane said this past week.

Of course, opposition by the players union is a formidable obstacle to the imposition of a cap since it can't be imposed unilaterally but must be a part of a collective bargaining agreement. The Players Association believes that the Yankees free spending drives up salaries throughout baseball, although I'm not convinced that is really the case. I'll concede that the salaries of the stars have risen out of all proportion to any reality, but what about those on the middle rungs? When all the money is being doled out at the top, is there enough left to spread around the middle?

Opposition to a cap generally also takes the form of: "baseball has competitive balance, so who needs a cap? Just look at the number of different World Series participants, the number of small market/small payroll participants and how long has it been since the Yankees won it." All of these points are valid but they miss the fundamental point. It is bad for the game when the Yankees, and to a somewhat lesser extent the Red Sox and the Mets, are essentially guaranteed right of first refusal to any free agent that hits the market. Sure, the Rays can happen in any given year, but no team can build consistent and long-term success when its best players can leave for pinstriped shores in three years or so, just when they are hitting their prime.

The reason there have been so many different World Series competitors is that no team is able to build consistency and maintain a roster over an extended period. The Rays may actually be an exception to this as they have aggressively attempted to sign their young players to long-term deals, but unless Tampa Bay gets a new stadium built, and soon, even those attempts will fall apart in a couple of years. Without a cap to rein in big spending teams, there is no hope for small market teams to keep their best players beyond free agency, or at least more than a couple of them. That cannot be good for the long term competitive health of the game no matter how many ways New Yorkers try to spin it.

Pro Bowl Says Aloha to Hawai'i

I guess you really can have too much of paradise. The NFL is moving the Pro Bowl to Miami after holding the game in Hawai'i every year since 1980. The game has traditionally been held the week following the Super Bowl but will be moved up to the week before, falling on the Sunday between the Conference Championship games and the Super Bowl. In 2010, both games will be held in Dolphins Stadium and the Pro Bowl will likely rotate in the future, with a strong possibility that it will return to Hawai'i in alternate years.

This will likely turn out to be a good move as the game is now an afterthought for everyone but the players that play in it. For them, it is a nice end of season trip to Hawai'i for their families and playing in a game that no one cares about or many watch. By moving it into the dead week before the Super Bowl, the NFL fills in that week, helps create more excitement in the host city about the Super Bowl, if that's possible, and create more of a week-plus long celebration of the league as it counts down to the Big Game (oops, sorry Cal & Stanford, I forgot your copyright). "Moving the Pro Bowl to the Sunday prior to the Super Bowl can add even more excitement to Super Bowl week, one of the most anticipated weeks of the year," said Frank Supovitz, the NFL’s senior vice president of events.

I have never really understood the reason for the extra week off anyway. I guess the downside is for those players on the Super Bowl teams elected to the Pro Bowl, they won't be able to participate but most of them don't go anyway. They're generally too exhausted or banged up after the Super Bowl to play in the Pro Bowl as it is.

NBC Sues Arena Football League

As if the Arena Football League didn't have enough problems, what with suspending its season next year, now one of its television broadcast partners has filed suit against it alleging the league owes over $1 million dollars in advertising costs. NBC filed suit in New York State Supreme Court claiming that the AFL owes it $$1,597,320 in revenue sharing from advertising from the 2006 season. It's probably a pretty fair bet that the league doesn't have the money to pay if it truly is owed.

Yankee Madness Cont'd.

For another perspective on the madness inherent in allowing the Yankees to buy up baseball while still going to the City of New York on bended knee for subsidies for New Yankee Stadium, please see this commentary.

Want to Own a Piece of the Red Sox?

The newspaper business has had more than its fair share of problems the last few years and they have only been exacerbated by the recession. No paper has been immune from the falloff in print readership and accompanying decline in advertising, including the venerable New York Times. In an effort to salvage the flagship Times, executives of the parent company have been examining all assets of the company and targeting any "nonessential" assets for the sale block.

Among the company's nonessential assets apparently is a 17.5% in New England Sports Ventures, the partnership put together by John Henry that purchased the Red Sox in 2002, along with Fenway Park and an 80% interest in NESN, the regional sports network. The Times is now shopping that partnership interest Barclay's Capital has pegged the value of the interest at $166 million, although in a better market it could easily be worth much more. The Company is said to be seeking $300 million, which seems a bit on the high side, particularly in this business climate. The Sox are however, a unique asset even for baseball.

The Times might package the interest with the Boston Globe in an attempt at a better price. The Times rebuffed inquiries from Jack Welch two years ago valuing the Globe at $550 to $600 million, a decision I'm sure is much regretted now. Barcaly's values the Globe today at only $20 million, after incurring steep losses.

Coyotes Seek NHL Bailout

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's grand Sun Belt expansion strategy has been troubled for several years now, as attendance at the Southern US franchises has been, well, less than one would hope in a league where a team's financial success is driven by ticket sales. Nowhere has that been more evident than in Phoenix.

The Coyotes financial problems have gotten so bad, the team has turned to the NHL for help in meeting its payroll. According to a story in the Toronto Globe and Mail, the NHL is advancing the Coyotes' share of shared revenue to ensure that the team is able to meet its payroll and other obligations timely. The Coyotes have no other lending source as the team's entire assets and all revenue have been pledged to secure a loan from a hedge fund controlled by Dell Computer founder Michael Dell. The team is expected to lose $30 million this year following losses totalling as much as $200 million since the current owners bought the team in 2001.

The principal owner, Jerry Moyes, is actively seeking a buyer for the club. One difficulty is the team's lease of its current home in Glendale. The arena is new and the club has a 30 year lease which is only breakable in bankruptcy. The team and the city are currently renegotiating the terms of the lease, but most revenue streams from the arena now go to the club, so there is precious little room for improvement. That also means, short of pitching the team into bankruptcy and the new owners then buying the club out of bankruptcy in order to move it, there is little chance the club can move.

Without relocation, there is little likelihood the club will survive. Phoenix is not a particularly good hockey town town - who thought sticking a team in the desert was a good idea anyway - and the location of the arena in Glendale away from everything makes success more difficult. The club should be moved back to either its former home in Calgary or to Hamilton, Ontario which desperately wants a club and would be able to support one in the manner in which a NHL club is deserving. Maybe then, The Great One will be able to get a club with players and fan support worthy of his nickname and we'll all learn whether he can really coach.

Yankees Now Own Baseball: Salary Cap to Follow

With the wholly expected signing of Mark Teixeira to an eight year, $180 million deal today, the Yankees now own the four highest active major league contracts. This is only the third big free agent contract the Yanks have signed this off-season, in response to not making the playoffs this past year. The Bombers signed pitcher C. C. Sabathia to a seven year, $161 million deal and A.J. Burnett to five years for $82.5 million. That's three players for a combined $424 million. Granted, the Yanks move into the new $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium this spring, but that's a big number even for them.

Clearly, the luxury tax hasn't fazed the Steinbrenner boys anymore than it fazed their father. The Yankees have been over the cap every year that the tax has been levied and have been responsible for 90% of the money (a total of $148.5 million, counting this year) paid in as a result of the rule. This year, the Yankees owe $26.9 million, up from last year's $23.9 million and that was for a team which failed to make the playoffs. Despite that, the Yankees' payroll keeps expanding and the disparity between it and the rest of Major League Baseball keeps growing. As it is, only the Mets and the Red Sox can even pretend to keep pace, and even they have their limits.

Baseball is the only major sport without a salary cap and the results of this year's free agent market make the case for a cap more clearly than any argument concocted by any sports writer or any owner of a small market team ever could. Try these numbers on for size. Take the salaries of just the Yankees top four in A-Rod, Jeter, Sabathia and Teixeira and you get $91.9 million next year. That is higher than the entire payrolls of 17 teams in Major League Baseball. How in the world can than possibly be good for the game, even if through injuries, bad luck , mismanagement or bad play, the Yankees fail to perform. At the end of the day, success in the World Series is not usually the determining factor in fan attendance or support of a local team. Winning helps immensely, but that means contending for a division title or playoff spot.

If baseball doesn't take measures more concrete than the luxury tax currently in force, the small market teams will not be in a position to keep talent on their rosters once those players attain eligibility for free agency. The drumbeat is starting. Brewers owner, Mark Anastasio, is advocating a salary cap. He told Bloomberg: “They are on a completely different economic playing field. I paid $220 million for my team; now they get three players for $420 million.
At some point it gets to be absurd when a team has a $200 million payroll.” He also said that the Brewers would not be raising their $81 million payroll next season due to the recession.

College Football Still a Ratings Boananza

ABC enjoyed record ratings for college football this fall, more than making up for a very slight dip in ratings from its cable overlords at ESPN. Over the course of the season, ABC was up over 7% from last year, averaging 6.25 million viewers. It's largest audience came for the thriller between Texas and Texas Tech, a game that Longhorns fans will be trying to forget decades from now.

ESPN saw a slight decrease in viewers, down 3% from last year, while sibling ESPN2 was up slightly with just a .5% increase. Given the glut of games across the WWLS and its corporate family, I have to believe the suits in Bristol are happy with these numbers, as they show the continuing ability of college football to deliver solid audience numbers in an era when few TV properties can claim to do that.

CBS numbers for its SEC broadcasts were down 4.7 percent, averaging 5.1 million viewers, led by the nation's most watched game, with 15.1 viewers, the SEC Championship Game. CBS should be a bit concerned since slippage of this magnitude in a highly competitive SEC season may show that some of the bloom is coming off the SEC magnolia.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, the same cannot be said of Notre Dame. No matter how poor a product that Crewcut puts on the field, golden domers around the country tune in by the millions. NBC's ratings for ND games were up a spectacular 21.3% this season. No wonder NBC reupped its contract. That also explains the otherwise unjustifiable bid to the Hawai'i Bowl.

NASCAR and the Recession - Is This the Beginning of the End for Racing?

We all know that the Recession is taking its toll on sports worldwide. Perhaps no sport is being hit as hard as motorsports around the globe. Honda is quitting Formula One, not only discontinuing its sponsorship but folding its team, saving Honda $987 million per year. Yes, Honda spends nearly a Bilion dollars a year on F-1 racing. Other car manufacturers are cutting back on their sponsorships to F-1 racing.

However, no sport is being hit as hard as Nascar because there is no sport that is, at its core, as tied to the American auto industry. In addition to the very visible sponsorships of teams and races, there is significant support provided throughout the Nascar structure. The Big Three provide engineering and technical support to the racing teams, as well as funding for the parts and pieces that make the cars go. It is estimated that the Big Three spend at least $500 million a year involving Nascar sponsorship and support.

With sponsors pulling back, teams are having a hard time finding car sponsors. Cost cutting is everywhere and formerly competitive teams are now talking about merging. Dale Earnhardt and Chip Ganassi have merged and Gillett Evenham, which recently announced a cutback in its second tier Nationwide Series program, is discussing a merger with Petty Enterprises. Layoffs abound. It is estimated that 500-600 people throughout Nascar have lost their jobs since the conclusion of the 2008 season.

If the Big Three don't get a bailout from Washington and one or more go into bankruptcy, the effects are likely to be devastating. I think it may well mean the end of Nascar. The absence of any one of the Big Three from the track is probably too big of a hole to fill. The loss of the fans of that company's cars, not to mention that company's employees who are now out of a job and unable to afford tickets to racing, will simply be too much for Nascar to overcome.

Nascar has just as much riding on the White House bailout discussions as does GM and if I were Brian France, the Nascar CEO, I would be very, very worried right now. The prospects for that bailout don't look promising and from Nascar's perspective, it's somewhat ironic. The Senate Republicans from Nascar's Southern heartland are the ones that killed the bailout in the first place. I guess Nascar didn't do a very good job in activating and motivating its fan base to reach out to their senators.

AIG Has a Duke Lacrosse Problem

As if AIG didn't have enough problems, what with running through, and now owing 23 Billion of tax dollars, as part of the $150 billion bailout the Fed has arranged, it now has gotten itself ensared in the ugly morass that is the Duke lacrosse case. How can a global giant insurance and financial services company get caught up in a case involving a local lying Durham North Carolina stripper and a bunch of college lacrosee players? Easy, don't pay insurance claims.

Duke has field suit against AIG subsidiary National Union Fire Insurance Company for failure to pay claims arising out of the university's settlements with the lacrosse players and coach. Duke lacrosse - truly the case that refuses to die.

Madoff Scandal Hits Sports

At least two sports figures lost considerable sums in the Bernie Madoff scandal sweeping Wall Street yesterday. As Darren Rovell reported yesterday, Mets owner Fred Wilpon may have lost as much as $300 million, although the organization released a statement that the Madoff matter would have no effect on the operation of the team or "the long term plans of the Mets organization or the CitiField project."

The other sports figure affected by the scandal is former Eagles owner Norman Braman, a wealthy Miami car dealer. Braman's lawyer acknowledged to the New York Times that he had an undisclosed amount of money locked up with and probably lost in the Madoff mess.

Arena League Calling Off 2009 Season

The effects of the worldwide recession continue to be felt throughout sports and probably hit minor sports the hardest. The latest evidence of that: the Arena Football League is expected to call off its 2009 season. This decision, which should be made formally in a conference call of the owners sometime later this week, reflects a need for the league to obtain new capital, seek a new business model and develop a new relationship with its players.

The decision to suspend play makes the departure of longtime commissioner David Baker, who abruptly resigned right before this year's ArenaBowl more understandable. It may also explain the decision of New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson to shutter the popular and successful New Orleans VooDoo in October.

UPDATE: The league's Board of Governors held a conference call last night but did not reach a decision to suspend the 2009 season, so, at least for now, it is still on. However, the dispersal draft of the VooDoo has not been scheduled nor has the free agent signing period. If you are an Arena fan, don't get your hopes up just yet. Oh, and the af2 season, the AFL's minor league (that would be Class A, if you're scoring at home) is still scheduled to compete in 2009.

Impact of the Recession Cont'd - NFL

The NFL is almost universally recognized as the world's best and most well run professional sports league. Only the English Premier League is even close to the NFL in terms of revenue and all around professionalism and maximization of revenue. Yet, even the best are not spared in this economy. Yesterday, the NFL announced plans to layoff more than 10% of its staff in response to anticipated downturns in ticket revenue and team sponsorship and marketing. The layoffs amount to about 150 people out of the current staff of 1,100. The NFL becomes the last of the four major professional sports leagues in the US to announce layoffs, proving that sports is no longer immune to the business cycle.

Maybe This Conference Title Game Wasn't Such A Good Idea After All

When the ACC raided the Big East back in 2003, poaching away Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College, ACC Commissioner John Swofford, college sports' version of Atilla the Hun, proffered as the main rationale the development of the ACC as a football conference. He insisted that one of the main drivers of the raid was the ability of a 12 school conference to divide into two 6 school divisions and stage a lucrative championship game. Certainly, the SEC which is the model upon which the ACC based its raid, has demonstrated the wisdom of this approach, annually selling out the Georgia Dome and generating and additional $10-12 million for the league through the gate and a boost to its CBS contract.

Well, reality is setting in for the ACC; once a basketball conference, always a basketball conference. The first objective of the raid has been achieved as the league did score much increased television contracts following expansion. However, the championship game thing has just not worked out as planned. After being staged in Jacksonville for a couple of years, the game was moved to Tampa this year. The result has to be very disappointing to the BCS Chairman Swofford. A total attendance of 27,360 made their way to Raymond James Stadium for the titanic battle between ACC newcomers Boston College and Virginia Tech. At least, the loser won't have to return in a month for a bowl game as was the case when it was held in Jax. Unfortunately for the ACC, it signed a contract with Tampa to host the game again in 2009. After that it moves to Charlotte, where it should have been all along. At least Charlotte is reasonably close to most of the real ACC fans.

Illinois Gov. Arrested by Feds; Blackmailed Tribune Co.

The latest installment of the soap opera As Wrigley Turns, finds Governor Rod being asked by Chairman Zell for help in keeping the Cubs in Wrigley Field. Chairman wants to ease the tax burden on poor, overburdened and debt ridden Tribune Company, so he asks his good friend Rod for help. Rod agrees to help but only if Chairman removes certain members of the editorial board of Sam's newspaper who haven't been very nice to Rod. Sam, in a burst of journalistic integrity refused and told prosecutor Fitz, who then charges Rod with blackmail.

Fitz, who was already looking into Rod's activities added blackmail to the list of Rod's other no-nos and today sent federal marshalls to Rod's house, picked him up and placed him in federal custody. Among those other activities Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had been looking into and today charged Rod with were selling the appointment to President-elect Obama's senate seat. That probably was going for a pretty piece of change and if you hadn't already put in your bid, I'm guessing it's too late now. He also sought appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Service in connection with the appointment. Since that went to former Senator Tom Daschle, I'm guessing he wasn't too successful in soliciting on that score either.

Cubs Sale Cont.:Tribune Weighs Bankruptcy

The Tribune Company, owner of the Cubs, the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and other media properties is weighing the possibility of filing bankruptcy as early as this week. The company has hired Lazard as an investment advisor and the law firm Sidley Austin to advise it on bankruptcy. The company is experiencing cash flow problems and is likely to be in violation of some its debt covenants by the end of the year.

What does this mean for the sale of the Cubs? It makes selling the team as quickly as possible even more important. Clearly now the Tribune Company does not have the luxury of waiting until next spring. It also may mean that any sale may wind up as a bankruptcy auction which may mean different rules for the auction, giving more weight to the highest cash bidder. While a bankruptcy auction buyer will still need the approval of the Lords of Baseball, the bankruptcy judge will also be a vetoing power. The buyer will need to be approved by both and that may give a buyer who is a baseball outsider a better shot at winning the team. It will also likely open the bidding anew to potential buyers, if there any, who did not participate in the Tribune's sealed bid auction.

UPDATE: The Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday so I guess events moved more quickly than we thought, or maybe the price for Jake Peavy is even higher than has been estimated. The Cubs and Wrigley Field were noticeably missing from the bankruptcy petition, leaving their sale in the hands of Tribune owner Sam Zell and not the bankruptcy court. Any sale will have to be approved by the bankruptcy judge and the proceeds will become part of the bankruptcy estate, but this structure will make negotiating the sale much, much simpler. The timetable should now progress in much the same time frame as before, although with the filing having already taken place, the pressure on the Trib to get a deal done to avoid bacnkruptch is now over.

Congrats to the University at Buffalo

Congratulations to the University at Buffalo for beating Ball State, winning the MAC championship and securing their first ever trip to a bowl. The Bulls received and accepted a bid to the International Bowl in Toronto immediately following their 42-24 victory last night.

This win came on the 50th anniversary of 1958 Buffalo team that turned down a bid to the Tangerine Bowl because two African-American players on the team would not be allowed to participate in the game. For an excellent read on the 1958 team and tat ill-fated Tangerine Bowl, see this article on espn.com.

WNBA Folds Comets; A Victim of Recession or the League?

The Houston Comets were once the face of the WNBA, the league's first dynasty. Winners of not just the first WNBA championship, the Comets went on to win the next three. They were the sport's first dynasty, the WNBA's Boston Celtics. Not just champions but fun to watch and inspirational to boot. The Comets won a city's heart and filled up the arena, well, at least by that league's standards. During the team's glory days, the Comets were one of the league's leaders in attendance, drawing 9,700 in the inaugural season of 1997, peaking at 12,602 the next year, falling to 11,906 the following and rising back to 12,255 for the fourth and final championship in 2000.

After the team started winning less, some of the fans stopped coming, although the team still nearly 11,000 a game in 2002. However, last season, the Comets were down to 13th or 14th in the league in attendance drawing just 6,585 per game. That was just about half the crowds the team was drawing at the peak.

The Comets were originally owned by Les Alexander, the owner of the Houston Rockets, as were all the WNBA teams in the beginning. Alexander sold the Comets to furniture retailer Hilton Koch in October, 2007 for $10 million. It soon became apparent that Koch was woefully underfinanced. With attendance down, the Comets were bleeding money. He moved the team out of the Rockets home arena to save money, but this probably didn't do much for the team's image in town. He tried selling the team without success and when all else failed, turned the team over to the league.

The league tried selling the team also without success. Not wishing to operate the team indefinitely, and not finding any buyers, the league made the decision to close the team. It will conduct a dispersal draft on December 8 of the players still under contract.

Was this just a case of an underfinanced owner incapable of properly running a team in a market falling out of love with a franchise no longer winning championships? Was this symptomatic of deeper problems within the WNBA as the country sinks deeper and deeper into a recession that shows no sign of abating and which is starting to hit sports harder and harder? While the WNBA rushes to put the best possible face of this pig, it can't totally escape blame for the problems in Houston. First, it approved the sale to Koch, apparently without fully vetting his financial wherewithal because due diligence should have turned up his inability to properly finance operations. In addition, I think the WNBA has more than its fair share of financial issues ahead of it. While attendance showed a modest increase last season, as did the TV ratings, those numbers are certainly nothing to jump up and down about and as the league transforms its ownership from a mirror of the NBA to independent ownership, the relationship of the league with the NBA is bound to change. That can't be favorable. The NBA and its clout is responsible for much of the league's so far limited success, at least on a national scale. It is the NBA which has been able to secure the national TV contract and you have to wonder if one will be available if the NBA no longer insists on the inclusion of the WNBA in its television contracts.

How to Steal a Hockey Team: Boots and the Preds, a Match Made in Court

William Del Biaggio III was a man with a lavish lifestyle, a fixture at NHL events around the country and someone who for years had tried to buy a hockey team. He negotiated a deal to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins with his "friend" Mario Lemiuex back in 2005, but that deal never materialized. Later, he tried to bring the team to Kansas City, but again the deal fell apart. Most recently, he bought a 25% interest in the Nashville Predators as part of a group of mostly local Nashville businessmen who bought the Predators last year from then owner Craig Leipold.

This is where the story really starts to get interesting. You see, Biaggio needed $25 million to buy that 25% share. The only problem was he didn't have it. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, since 2003, he has defrauded investors of $19 million to finance his lavish lifestyle and pay his gambling debts. Since August, 2007, he forged documents to obtain $45 million to purchase his interest in the Preds and pay off gambling and other debts.

Biaggio's 25% interest in the Predators is tied up in bankruptcy proceedings in California and will eventually be auctioned by the bankruptcy court. The current ownership group is interested in purchasing the interest as is RIMM co-founder (maker of the Blackberry) Jim Balsillie.

The whole sordid affair kind of makes you wonder just what kind of screening do these owners really do before they approve a sale?

Update 101 on the Cubs Auction

So numbered for the nmber of years now and counting since the cubs won the World Series, comes news from the Deal Journal of the bids received by the Tribune Company for the Cubs. Confirmed bids were received from Tom Ricketts, the son of the founder of TD Ameritrade; Hersch Klaff, a Chicago real estate investor; and a partnership of two New York private equity moguls, Marc Utay and Leo Hindery. Mark Cuban did not return a call or email seeking confirmation as to whether he submitted a bid. Notably missing was the presumed frontrunner, Commissioner Bud's BFF, John Canning, Jr., a Chicago private equity investor and minority investor in the Milwaukee Brewers. This should continue to be a fascinating soap opera.

Hope for Online Gambling's Future?

As many of you no doubt are aware, the US Justice Department has been on a multi-year campaign to demonize and criminalize online gaming by targeting the owners of gaming sites and the owners of the financial intermediaries that handle the money transferred between the bettors and the gambling sites. First the Department convinced Visa and Mastercard not to handle transactions, but other services, such as Paypal popped up. Paypal has since refused to handle such transaction on pain of prosecution from the Feds.

With the successful prosecution of Neteller PLC and its two founders, who owned beachfront houses in Malibu forfeited to the government to settle the case, it appeared that bettors might have difficulty transferring money. Other services sprang up and the industry moves on unabated by the hypocritical stance taken by the Department of Justice and Congress. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth of Kentucky got into the act, in a misguided attempt to "protect" its horse industry.

The best hope in years to legalize online gaming and end the hypocrisy that favors horse racing and punishes poker and betting on professional sports, has presented itself with the election of a new and more significant Democratic majority in Congress. Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, sponsored a bill in the last session which would license online gaming sites. The bill was referred to his committee which would augur well for it success in at least the House in the upcoming new Congress. The difficulty in the past has been, in part, opposition from conservative Republican legislators opposed to all forms of gambling. The professional sports leagues are all opposed to legalizing gambling; the NFL in particular, which of course owes much of its popularity to gambling.

The debate over online gaming should only intensify in the days and weeks ahead. Expect millions of dollars to be spent lobbying both sides of this issue before Congress. In the past, the prevention of the legalization of online gaming was one of the issues on which the infamous Jack Abramoff showered key Congressional figures with goodies, all on behalf of casino owning Native American tribes. The NFL also spent millions in opposition. The online casinos have plenty of money of their own and will spend freely if the bill surfaces with a chance at passage. If you use one of the thousands of online casinos, such as our friends as Spin32 Poker, call or write your Congressman and Senator. Make your voice heard - it's important. Let's end the hypocrisy that allows for land based casinos and online horse race betting but not online casinos and sports books.

Blog Display Fixed (I Hope)

After many months of semi-serious attempts at fixing the way the blog displayed, I sat down this morning for some heavy duty coding time.  It now appears that it displays properly in both Firefox and Safari, so I presume it also works in Explorer, for you poor folks who still use it.  If anyone is still having problems with the display, please let me know and thanks for your patience while I struggled to get this problem fixed.