NCAA Sued Ov er One Year Scholarships

The NCAA just has a knack for finding itself in court.  I think it may because it is an academic organization composed of college presidents who, for the most part, have never been outside of academia and as a result don't always think through the practical ramifications of the policies that they decide to put into place.  A good example of that is the cause of this latest piece of litigation: the one year scholarship rule.  Currently, all athletic scholarships are one year, renewable scholarships, which are renewable solely at the discretion of the university.  The NCAA has in place a provision prohibiting a member school from granting a scholarship for a period that exceeds one year.

Joseph Agnew, a former Rice University football player has filed suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California seeking to overturn the NCAA's rule on one year scholarship limits as well as the NCAA's limits on total number of scholarships that a school may extend in any given sport. In addition, Agnew claims that the limits constitute an unfair price-fixing scheme under federal anti-trust laws.  The plaintiff's attorneys seek certification as a class spo representing all athletes whose scholarships were not renewed. 

This is one more legal action for the embattled NCAA which paid out more than $84 million in legal fees last year. The group is battling Congress over its tax exempt status and it faces a class action suit from former students concerning over the appropriation of the players' likenesses.  On top of litigation, its members face rising costs from the arms race that has been sweeping Division I athletics as well as the costs associated with Title IX compliance and coping with the Great Recession, all of which combined to result in numerous schools having to go the route taken by Cal, Berkeley, which recently announced it was dropping five varsity sports.

The NBA, ESPN, Marvel and You

You didn't think the NBA was going to let the NHL have the entire comics stand to itself did you?  Of course not.  The NBA, in conjunction with broadcast and digital partner ESPN and its corporate parent Disney, which now owns Marvel, has brought to the basketball and comics fans in all of us the Marvel inspired variant covers for each NBA team for its NBA preview edition of ESPN The Magazine.  Check it out here.


It's not exactly the same thing as creating superheroes for each city and building cartoons and comics around them as Marvel will be doing for the NHL, but, hey, everybody has to start somewhere.

It IS the Shoes; NBA Bans New Shoe

The NBA has long banned performance enhancing drugs and now it has, for the first time in league history, banned a performance enhancing shoe.  The new Concept 1 shoe by Athletic Propulsion Labs, a $300 basketball shoe containing a spring-based system said to enhance a wearer's vertical leap by as much as 31/2 inches.  The NBA said in a statement: "Under league rules, players may not wear any shoe during a game that creates an undue competitive advantage."

Can there be a better marketing hook for a basketball shoe than "Banned by the NBA"?  Athletic Propulsion Labs certainly doesn't think so.  A visit to their home page greets you with the image of stamp with that label covering most of the home page.  It's perhaps the ultimate slogan for a basketball shoe and despite the $300 price tag I expect these shoes will fly out of APL's warehouse.

NHL to Roll Out Superheroes In Conjunction with Stan Lee

You have to hand it to Gary Bettman when he comes up with a good marketing idea and this one should be an excellent entree to young boys who may now not be tuned into hockey.  The NHL in conjunction with Stan Lee are going to be rolling out a series of 30 superheroes called the Guardians, one in each NHL city, as part of the Guardian Project. While the Guardians will not be particularly set in hockey, each Guardian will have superpowers that are representative of each team and each city.

The Guardians will be unveiled for the first time at the 2011 NHL All Star Game to be held in Raleigh, North Carolina on January 30, 2011 and televised on Versus.

As Keeneland Opens, the Lack of Casino Gambling's Effect on Kentucky Racing is More Evident Than Ever

Keeneland opens its Fall Meet today in a weekend whirlwind of nine graded stakes featuring five Grade I stakes, with eight of the nine races being "Win and You're In" Breeder's Cup specials.  The strong weekend of stakes masks a continuation of the downturn in Kentucky racing and breeding that has been evident since the Churchill Downs spring meet, continuing through the just concluded Turfway meet and Keeneland's September yearling sale.

For the first time in memory, Keeneland has cut purses. For this three week meet which concludes on October 30, total purse money has been cut by about $1 million and two stake races have been eliminated.  Traditionally, Keeneland has been able to weather downturns in attendance and handle because its sale revenue has served to prop up its racing revenue.  However, in the last couple of years, with sale revenue falling annually and with race revenue down, it has been unable to support its purse structure.

The picture at Turfway, which Keeneland co-owns with Harrah's, has been even bleaker.  Turfway's traditionally smaller purses have been unable to keep pace with racing in neighboring Indiana and West Virginia, both of whose tracks are supplemented by casino revenue.  In a scenario never before contemplated, Kentucky owners and trainers are forsaking the state and setting up shop at Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park, relatively new venues which had traditionally been considered no higher than the A League of racing.  However, this year, Indian even saw a Triple Crown winner run in the state for the first time as Lookin at Lucky won the Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park.

Keeneland is trying something new this weekend.  Tomorrow, for the first time, there will be an Arabian race which will be the first time in memory that Arabian horses will be running in sanctioned competition in Kentucky.  Should be interesting as Arabian were the foundation sires of all thoroughbreds.

Kentucky is even losing stallions to other states that have higher breeding incentives fueled in many cases by casino or slots revenue. While a certain number of stallions leave Kentucky every year, and a portion of those leave for overseas, it appears to many Kentucky breeders that more stallions, and more highly regarded ones, are leaving for other states in response to breeding incentive programs that Kentucky is not able to afford to match.

All of this is empirical evidence to demonstrate the need for Kentucky to act quickly if it expects to keep its place as the primary locale for its signature industry.  The Kentucky General Assembly in its session beginning in January, 2011 must pass some form of casino gaming or slots authorization legislation, everv if its no better than to place a constitutional amendment before the voters.  Since the Republicans in the State Senate refuse to contemplate casino gaming or slots in any form and refuse to allow any amendment to be placed before the voters, I would urge any Kentuckians who read this blog to vote against any Republican state senate candidate in their district who is not firmly committed to approve some form of gaming legislation.  With Senate President David Williams now campaigning for Governor, it will be even more difficult to pass legislation without a Democratic majority in the Senate or the votes of several Republican senators willing to cross their leader.  Please take this into account when you head to the voting booth.

This end your political announcement for the day.  No animals were harmed in the making of this commercial.

Liverpool to Be Sold to the Red Sox; the HIcks Nightmare is Over

The calendar has not been turned back several months and today is not April 1.  The owner of the Boston Red Sox, New England Sports Ventures, has apparently won a bid to purchase Liverpool FC despite opposition from the current owners Tom Hicks and George  Gillett.  Hicks and Gillett are in default on some 200 million pounds to the Royal Bank of Scotland and have been unable to refinance the debt.  

The sale is likely to be the subject of protracted legal wrangling before it's finalized.  The board of the club accepted the offer from NESV only after an attempt by Hicks and Gillett to remove the board members in favor of the sale.  The Chairman of the Liverpool board, who Hicks tried to sack, is confident the sale will be completed next week, however, Hicks and Gillett have promised to take the whole matter to court. The battle over the ultimate ownership of the club should be one of the more entertaining legal battles to follow, if you're not a Liverpool fan, this side of the McCourts divorce proceeding.

Tuesday Tidbits One Day Early

Okay, I can read a calendar but it's a little hectic around here right now (political campaigns we're working on are heading to the wire) so you get some reading links early:

Is Tampa Bay a bad sports town or are all those empty seats just due to the economy (TBO Online)

US Supreme Court let stand ruling granting the interlocking letters "SC" trademark to Southern Cal and not to South Carolina ending a 13 year legal battle (LA Times)

Athletes use of 3D technology (NYTimes)

Grunting and tennis: it's all good (Paul Kedrosky)

Casinos reconsidering opposition to online gambling, at least online poker (NYTimes)

Florida State faces a new problem post-Bowden: shrinking attendance (Chopping Block)

Sales of NBA jerseys by region: Kobe leading seller in China, Europe and US (Sports Business Digest)

India Hoped Commonwealth Games Would Be Its Coming Out Party; Guess Again

International Sporting Spectacles on the scale of the World Cup or the Olympics, and to a lesser extent, the Asian Games, the Pan American Games and the Commonwealth Games have been used for decades to announce a country's entrance to the world of civilized nations.  They have been a sort of debutantes ball if you will as countries from Korea to China to South Africa have been able to tout their economic might and the ability of their country to "work", to deliver on something as complicated and massive as an international sporting spectacle.

India hoped to use the Commonwealth Games starting this weekend to be its calling card to the world, to announce its entrance to the world stage and that it was just as capable as its chief rival China to obtain major power status.  Unfortunately, the fiascos attendant to the construction of the venues and the appalling lack of preparedness has had exactly the opposite effect. It has exposed India's lack of infrastructure and its inability to successful govern itself.  Virtuous as it may be, its democracy paralyzes the country and as a result, nothing gets done.