Obama Administration Looking Into the BCS

You may recall that while onthe campaign trail President Barack Obama expressed a strong desire to see a college football playoff.  Most observers, including this one, dismissed it at the time as just another bit of campaign pandering.  Well, apparently there are more votes in Utah, Idaho and Ft. Worth than anyone has ever believed, because the Obama Justice Department has decided to look into the antitrust implications of the BCS.


In a letter to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, obtained by AP, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Welch said the Justice Department is reviewing the antitrust implications of the BCS.


"Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason," Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws."

Welch made not of President Obama's campaign stance to "throw my weight around" to push for a playoff.

"The administration shares your belief that the current lack of a college football national championship playoff with respect to the highest division of college football ... raises important questions affecting millions of fans, colleges and universities, players and other interested parties," Weich wrote.

With all that is now going on in Congress and with the administration's current legislative push, and conscious of the looming fall Congressional elections, I think this is mostly noise.  As I noted earlier, there are not a lot of votes in Utah, Idaho and other non automatic qualifying conference member locations.  If you take a close look at non AQ schools on a map against the Big Six schools, and chart that against Congressional districts, you will begin to see why this letter is the last we'll likely hear of the issue until the November elections are over. 

The MAC covers Ohio and Michigan, for instance, but they are the secondary schools in each state and fan loyalties lie primarily with tOSU in Ohio and UM and MSU in Michigan. Similarly, CUSA schools are secondary schools in terms of fan loyalty in the states in which they are located.  Only in the Mountain West, and to a lesser degree, the WAC, are the schools the primary schools in their respective states.  Unfortunately, those are states with small populations and therefore of little interest to DC politicians.  In addition, those states are traditionally Republican states and of less interest to the Obama administration.

S

Weekend Links

I've been away for a while, hence the lack of posting, so I'll just post a few links for your weekend reading pleasure.  Before I get to the links, I will tell you that I spent last weekend in Evanston and attended the Northwestern - Illinois game.  A great win for the Cats in an absolutely packed and wild Welsh-Ryan; can't remember ever hearing it that loud.  While in Evanston, I picked up a copy of the Tribune.  Didn't know its  turned into a tabloid.  I know the Tribune Co. is bankrupt, but it's sad to witness the long, slow death of a once great newspaper.  The news hole, in both the news and sports sections has diminished to little more than four or five stories total.  Sad, very sad and a great opportunity for the Sun-Times.  Enough, on to the links:

FIFA considering restricting 2018 World Cup bids to Europe, presumably leaving 2022 to US, Australia and China(?) SportsBusiness

As if the Wizards didn't have enough trouble, now the sale of Polin's interest to Leonsis is running into trouble WaPo

No Fun League takes on Who Dat Nation, and so far, is losing - Geaux Saints !! (Times Picayune)

What Mike Leach learned in law school - surely the first law review article authored by a newly fired football coach (Sports Law Blog)

Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets Class A affiliate, to honor (?) Jersey Shore with a Jersey Sure promotion this summer (Ben's Biz Blog)

Surely, a future legal issue: PGA demands SI writer stop twittering live play (TBL)

The Cold War, model for the Winter Classic, comes to the Big House, expecting 100,000 fans (Free Press via Wiz of Odds)

Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad spins wildly out of control as everyone from NOW to Sarah Palin chimes in on whether CBS should run it (CBS News)

Late Night Links

It's a bit late on Monday night.  Big Monday is over following a nice road win for Syracuse and a good win at home for K-State exposing Texas' road difficulties.  To get you ready for the start of a holiday shortened work week, here are a few links for your reading pleasure:

Dolphins finally find a naming rights partner, but only for 5 years at $7.5 million (SBJ)

Arenas hits just keep coming; now dropped by Adidas (The Big Lead)

With the Chargers and Cowboys losing, only one MOT has a shot at the Super Bowl (Kaplan's Korner)

Clubs in the English Premier League are collectively in 3 Billion pounds in debt, including bankrupt Portsmouth, but not including owner's loans since converted to equity and UEFA has new rules coming on operating at a loss or with borrowed money (Guardian)

The Starbury heads to China and to the International Basketball League (NYTimes)

Must read story of Native American collegiate basketball team offering last chance out to reservation born Natives (ESPN)

Rick Pitino to Retire in 2013?

On Rick Pitino's radio show tonight, in a discussion of the opening game opponent for the Cardinal's new downtown arena scheduled to open in the fall, Pitino gave out a possible retirement, one a little bit further out than many Cards' fans had been anticipating.  Pitino said that Louisville is in discussions with Duke to be the opening opponent for the debut of the new Cardinal Arena (the naming rights are still available if you have a spare $10-20 million a year to memorialize yourself).   The discussions are for a three year contract with Duke to play in Louisville in 2010, the game to be in Madison Square Garden in the 2011-2012 season with the final game in the series in Cameron Indoor during the 2012-2013 season.  Pitino said that he thought he would retire then, "the year we go to Cameron."


Louisville hasn't met Duke in basketball since beating the Jay Bilas led Blue Devils in the 1986 national championship game.  What is a bit striking about this discussion is Pitino claimed that Duke initiated the discussion.  This after Louisville was forced to sue Duke in an attempt to gain compliance with a football series contract, which resulted in the laughable judicial conclusion that at the time, there was no football team in the country worse than Duke, so any replacement game obtained by Louisville was sufficient, even if it was a Division I-AA opponent.  Relations between the schools had not been too good since.

Sports and the Great Recession - What Recovery Is That Again?

The Great Recession has battered almost every aspect of the American economy with the exception of bankruptcy lawyers and repo men.  Sports has been no exception.  Auto companies, long a major advertiser with all professional sports TV broadcasts and sponsors of several PGA Tour events have severly cut back if not eliminated those sponsorships completely in the wake of the government bailout - even Ford has cut back.  Television ratings have been dropping and with them advertising dollars.  More troubling, however, may be the thought that this is not just the result of the Great Recession but a dramatic rethinking of the value proposition presented by sports as a sponsorship and marketing medium.


When Buick announced the termination of its relationship with Tiger Woods a year before its contract was up, and before the whole Tiger and his pussies thing, the reason given by Buick was the economy and the GM bailout.  However, it's just as likely that the reason was the diminishing value of a sponsorship seen by the public as unrealistic since few believe Tiger actually drove a Buick.  Tiger is also the poster child for the danger posed to sponsors by having athlete or celebrity endorsers: your CEO is going to wake up to see his prized endorsers splashed across the front page making the kind of news that does not endear him to your shareholders.


Another example of the changed economics of sports sponsorships can be found in the names of the latest two NFL stadiums.  Jerry Jones opened his much talked about palace this season known as Cowboys Stadium.  Why does it not carry a corporate name?  Because Jones couldn't find anyone willing to pay $20 million a year and he was willing to wait it out.  Similarly, the Jets/Giants stadium slated to open next fall is currently referred to as New Meadowlands Stadium because nobody has ponied up the $25 million per year those two teams are asking.  The Nets agreed with Barclays to cut its naming rights obligation in half from $400 million to $200 million for the new arena in Brooklyn now scheduled for a 2011 opening.  The naming rights market has essentially been in freefall since the onset of the credit crisis and has shown no signs of abating.


Advertising on sports broadcasts has also been hurt and nothing is more illustrative of that than the Super Bowl.  For only the second time in Super Bowl history ad rates have dropped from last year, although still the highest rates on TV.  Early returns suggest that 30 second commercials are selling for $2.6 to $2.7 million down from $3 million last year.  Pepsi however decided it was still too expensive and is passing on the game for the first time in 23 years, shifting the dollars to its online ad budget.


Finally, Churchill Downs announced that it is paying NBC $2 million to broadcast a series of Kentucky Derby prep races in an effort to promote horse racing and the Derby.  The series will include at least three one hour "Road to the Kentucky Derby" broadcasts, two on NBC and one on USA.  It says something that the owner of the "Greatest Two Minutes in Sports" feels compelled to purchase network time to build interest in a race that almost always draws the highest ratings, crowd, and handle in the sport and I don't think it is a reflection on just the declining interest in horse racing alone.


It is a new era in sports and sports executives are going to have to adjust quickly to the new reality.  It will require ever more creative thinking to engage sponsors and advertisers in ever newer and more diffuse ways of connecting with their fans.  Simply slapping a logo on the wall or a sign and moving on is not going to cut it anymore, if it ever really did.  Integrating sponsors into digital platforms employed by teams and leagues is an immediate necessity and to the extent that teams don't have active digital platforms that not only employ one way delivery, i.e. podcasts or internet radio or TV, but social media, then they need to put that as a high agenda priority.  The prize should be the careful integration of sponsorships and social media in a way that fans find sponsors not to be intrusive but complementary. 

Baseball in the Holy Land

While idling flipping channels tonight looking for background noise while I caught up on email, I came across a movie showing on the MLB Network titled Holy Land Hardball.  This is a documentary on Larry Baras and the short-lived Israel Baseball League, which I reported on  here and here.  While I have yet to see the film, ( I hate tuning into movies midway into the movie, so I set the DVR to record it tomorrow morning, I think it's intriguing enough to recommend you look into future viewing.


Here's a link to a video preview on the MLB Network site.  I couldn't  figure out how to embed it, so you'll just have to make do with the link.


http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=7148131&topic_id=7417714


If you do watch it, let me know what you think in the comments. 

Texas Stadium Goes Better with Macaroni and Cheese

In what may be a first of a kind naming opportunity, Kraft Foods has reached an agreement with the City of Irving, Texas to sponsor the implosion of the Texas Stadium.  Kraft will play the city $75,000 and donate $75,000 worth of product to charities of the city's choice in order to name the demolition a "Cheddar Explosion." Given the current state of most cities and states' finances, this naming rights agreement may open up a whole new area of revenue generating assets.  Now, each highway construction project may potentially offer up a demolition naming rights opportunity, especially if it cuts through a prominent hill, forest  or old house. Of course, now that cities are getting into the business, there is no reason to rest with demolitions - why name new state or municipal buildings after old politicians?  Let's start naming them after rich campaign contributors who are willing to pay twice: once to the mayor or governor's campaign to earn the right to be asked to bid on the naming rights, and then again to actually purchase the naming rights.  Looks like a win-win proposition all around.

The 10 Most Important Sports Business Stories of 2009

It's New Years Day and here in the River City, dawn is breaking cold and grey but thankfully free of snow.  I'm sitting at my computer trying to while away the hours until kickoff of the Outback Bowl to watch the Cats return to a New Years Day bowl for the first time since the 1997 Citrus Bowl (now known as the Capital One Bowl for who knows how much longer given Capital One's financial condition).  I thought it might be a good time to revisit the 2009 sports business stories that were worth discussing.


Fortunately for us, the folks at Bloombeg's Business Week did that for us, with their list of the ten most important sports business moments of 2009.  We could argue about the order of events all day and over the inclusion of some of them, but I suspect there is little disagreement or doubt about the number one story on Business Week's list: the self-generated implosion of Tiger Woods' public image and with it his endorsement career, at least for the moment.  This is, as we all know, an ongoing story, as was confirmed yet again on Thursday with the announcement by AT&T that it was ending its sponsorship of him which included its name on his golf bag.  That leaves Nike as the only major sponsor which has not indicated that it is either dropping Woods, reevaluating its relationship or putting its Woods ads on hiatus.  But then, Nike has a history with athletes in similar situations and in at least the case of Kobe it has worked out well for Nike to stick around.


There were several events or stories that deserved to be on the list that Business Week omitted.  The inclusion of new Cowboys Stadium was appropriate, if perhaps a bit too high, but it was not the only new stadium that debuted in 2009.  Now, you can treat new Yankees Stadium and CitiField in the story about the Yankees World Series or you can discuss them here but I think both deserve mention as their potential impact will be nearly as great as Cowboys Stadium.  For one, CitiField may be the last major naming rights deal we'll see for quite some time - certainly at the $40 million level.


The fabulous fillies, Zenyatta and my pick for Horse of the Year, Rachel Alexandra, deserve mention as they not only each achieved milestone and unprecedented victories, but brought new interest to a sport in desperate need of new fans.  Let's hope that both will continue racing in 2010.


As we look forward to 2010, there are a few trends we can see developing.  Labor unrest is due in the major professional sports league which could lead to dreaded work stoppages.  The NFL collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of next season and talks to date have been unproductive.  MLB talks between owners and the MLBPA have been similarly non-productive.  The issues in both cases involve revenue sharing and the owners are rebelling against what they deem to be existing CBAs that favor the players.  It will be a long year of hearing about mediation, arbitration and lawyer speak.


2010 is both an Olympic and World Cup year so we will be treated to world sports on a global scale.  The Vancouver Olympics begin on February 12 with the World Cup following in South Africa this summer.  Both will showcase sports that are not in the mainstream of the American sporting consciousness; both will kickstart interest in those sports, including a boost to MLS, which will continue to grow and show the other major professional leagues the way to integrate corporate sponsors onto jerseys, facilities and gear that fans will buy in ways that not only will not offend the fans but may actually encourage them to patronize the sponsor.