There appears to be a player collusion problem in the NBA
TUESDAY, 13 JULY 2010 08:42
HTTP://WWW.NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM/PROFESSIONAL/THERE-APPEARS-TO-BE-A-PLAYER-COLLUSION-PROBLEM-IN-THE-NBA
BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
THE POLITICS OF SPORTS BUSINESS
There is a new contender for the dumbest athlete when it comes to the business of sports. The New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul now wants to join Amare Stoudemire in New York with the Knicks and Paul has also suggested that Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony joins James Dolan's crew in Manhattan. Paul, if the comments are correct, has thrown gasoline on a fire started by the Miami Heat's signing of Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James that might have be a product of players' collusion.
On Monday, NBA Commissioner David Stern downplayed the collusion charge after an owners meeting in Las Vegas.
The National Basketball Association is out of control in terms of the normal sports business model and Chris Paul, not LeBron James, may be the final spark that lights a war between the owners and players in July 2011. The athletes may be the show but the owners are the employers and there are some rules that need to be followed both official and unofficial. When you play in New Orleans or Denver, you don't say you are going to New York or elsewhere in a year or two. It kills the local enthusiasm for the customer and fan base. Paul plays for a small market that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina five years ago. In fact Paul played the first two years of his pro career in Oklahoma City because New Orleans could not economically support an NBA after the disaster. Paul has done some great work raising money for New Orleans and the surrounding area but his business acumen is not there.
Paul's remarks were ill conceived for the overall business of the NBA.
That should not be surprising because all he does is play basketball for a living but his advisors would do well to tell him to keep quiet. Paul joins LeBron James as two players who need better public relations advisors.
NBA Commissioner David Stern and his owners (except perhaps the Knicks Jimmy Dolan) have to be upset that Paul allegedly said at Carmelo Anthony's wedding that "we will form our own Big 3." That statement was reported in the New York Post. The New York tabloids and some Wall Street types who buy corporate tickets at Madison Square Garden may be happy, but Stern's league has outlets beyond the Hudson River and the players may cause fans and even corporate backlash in other markets.
The economy breakdown has hurt the NBA but players making comments about going somewhere else is a punch in the gut that Stern and the 30 owners don't need.
Whether Paul did make that toast or not is immaterial. The story is out there and you have to wonder what the very powerful Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke (whose wife is a Wal-Mart heir) or Hornets owner George Shinn who wants to sell the Hornets to an oilman and Hornets minority owner Gary Chouest are going to do. Paul and Anthony are under contract to their respective teams and are the centerpieces of the team's sales push for luxury boxes, club seats and cable TV advertising (Kroenke owns the Nuggets cable TV network, Altitude).
This is a problem.
If Paul and Anthony want to leave, why should local corporates buy luxury boxes, club seats and marketers buy signage in the arena and TV advertising? The players are mercenaries and have no loyalty to the area but sports sells the idea of the "Sixth Man" in basketball, the "12th Man" in football, the home ice advantage in hockey. The home crowd is worth something, so sportswriters say and other sports people contend.
Root, root, root for the home team is the mantra and the players do it for the fans or as one time Nets forward Derrick Coleman said for the "city of New Jersey." That is absolute fiction as players go for the best contract for the most part wherever they can find it and this is just a job for most players who go from team to team either on their own or because some general manager decides that the player isn't good enough and needs to be replaced.
Players come and go. But players should not call the shots, employees don't call shots, Management does.
The national TV packages and international deals and some marketing partners probably don't care about the players calling the shots and building teams.
Did LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade collude to sign with the Miami Heat? There is some evidence that they wanted to play together however collusion is hard to prove. Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry talked openly in 1990 about playing together for the Los Angeles Dodgers and eventually they did. Collusion has been a worry for 44 years going back to the Dodgers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale hold out. The two pitchers decided to negotiate together for a new deal for the 1966 season. The pair held out for 32 days and finally signed the most lucrative contracts for any player in 1966.
By 1968, the Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League owners agreed to an anti-collusion clause in the collective bargaining agreement. Major League Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth in 1985 persuaded owners not to go after free agents. The policy continued in 1986 and 1987. The Major League Baseball Players Association filed a grievance with an arbitrator and won a $280 million award in November 1990.
Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry talked about joining the Dodgers at some point during the 1989-90 time period. Davis was traded to the Dodgers from Cincinnati and Strawberry left the Mets after the 1990 season as a free agent and signed with the Dodgers.
The Wade-Bosh-James trio did nothing illegal. They fulfilled their contracts and went into free agency. Stoudemire finished out his Phoenix Suns contract and was free to negotiate elsewhere as was Joe Johnson. But the manner that LeBron James ended his free agency week and used a league partner — The Walt Disney Company's ESPN like it was another bad "reality" TV show on one of Disney's TV networks like ABC (which televises the NBA Finals) — will rub some people in the league the wrong way.
Here is a partial list of people who might not be very happy right now. The Chicago Bulls Jerry Reinsdorf (see his baseball history and his role in the 1994-95 Major League Baseball strike), the Hornets Shinn and Chouest, the Nuggets Kroenke (his Colorado Avalanche hockey team did not play in 2004-05 as part of the NHL owners lockout), the Cleveland Cavaliers Dan Gilbert, the Milwaukee Bucks Senator Herb Kohl, the Minnesota owner Glenn Taylor and owners in San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Portland, Sacramento, Oklahoma City and maybe Ted Leonsis in Washington who in May at a speech before the National Press Club said that the NHL (Leonsis owns the NHL's Washington Capitals) is in better financial shape than the NBA and pointed out that the NHL's collective bargaining agreement has a hard salary cap "that protects owners from taking stupid pills."
Paul apparently took a "stupid pill" when he suggested that he Stoudemire and Anthony team up with the Knicks in the same way that Wade, Bosh and James signed with the Miami Heat.
The NBA has had one major lockout, that in 1998-99 which took a few months to resolve. The players quickly agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement in 2005 possibly in part because some of the NBA owners had interest in National Hockey League teams (Los Angeles Phil Anschutz who owns the LA arena where the Lakers and Clippers play, the Toronto Raptors, Reinsdorf — a partner in Chicago's arena with the Wirtz family — the Philadelphia 76ers. Leonsis — a minority owner of the Wizards — the Atlanta Thrashers, the Colorado Avalanche and the Dolan-owned New York Rangers along with various TV and arena partnerships) and the players saw what happened with NHL players.
The players are the stars and performers and it is true that no own pays to watch Dolan or Portland's Paul Allen. But the players are also employees and there are some conditions that they need to meet. Announcing publicly that they want to play elsewhere is a major problem on many levels. The "alleged" bond between players, teams and fans that is being broken. Why would advertisers and marketers buy into a basketball team if they know the employees want to leave? Are municipalities who have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into arenas and stadiums that are not working out based on people flocking to the stadiums/arenas and businesses popping up around the building being duped? The NHL's Montreal Canadiens organization pays more in property taxes in Montreal than all 29 US-based NBA teams pay in property taxes.
There is also a question of whether the NBA is a bona fide competition. If Paul really wants to leave New Orleans for New York, is he playing his best before the people spending copious amounts of money in a very poor market or going through the motions until he gets to New York?
Dan Gilbert charged that LeBron James quit on the Cavaliers during the playoffs. Whether LeBron did or not cannot be quantified but it is not good if there is a suspicion that someone quit as a player during a competition.
The battle lines are being drawn. The big time players are flexing their collective muscles and the owners are not going to like that. Before the Miami Heat signings, owners are complaining about how too much basketball related income was going into the pockets of the players and that the owners have lost $400 million.
The summer of 2011 is coming up quickly for NBA owners and players as the collective bargaining agreement is done. Sports is business and the business of sports is about ready to put the economics and power of big name players on a collision course.
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and speaking on "The Politics of Sports Business." He can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
LAST UPDATED ( TUESDAY, 13 JULY 2010 08:42 )
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
No state compares to Arizona’s sports business follies
No state compares to Arizona’s sports business follies
MONDAY, 12 JULY 2010 07:31
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/professional/no-state-compares-to-arizonas-sports-business-follies
BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
THE POLITICS OF SPORTS BUSINESS
With all of the talk around New Jersey about tax cuts, no one has discussed the state's handout of hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure for the New York Giants and New York Jets stadium in East Rutherford. There are also other benefits that were given to the two franchises including a break on property taxes and other tax break incentives such as payment in lieu of taxes on the site.
But don't blame the Mara and Tisch families or Woody Johnson, the guys who have funded the actual construction of the stadium, for working the system. Politicians since 1950 starting in Milwaukee have been reaching into the public's pockets to fund sports facilities.
In 1950, Milwaukee politicians decided that the city needed a Major League Baseball team so that the city could feel like a "Big League City." So they built County Stadium to replace Borchert Field (which kind of looked like the Polo Grounds in Manhattan), and went searching for a team in 1953. The financially starved Green Bay Packers played a game at old and run down Borchert Field in 1933 (the Packers next Milwaukee home was the Wisconsin State Fair Grounds starting in 1934) which was the home of the minor league American Association Milwaukee Brewers. The Milwaukee politicians had a few Packers football games every year but that wasn't enough for them.
On March 13, 1953, Lou Perini moved his Boston Braves franchise to Milwaukee. Milwaukee officials were so desperate to fill the stadium that they gave Perini a contract which required him to pay $1,000 in rent and gave him all the concessions in the place. The Perini move got Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley's attention. All of a sudden Milwaukee was a lucrative baseball town with Perini cashing in as more than 1.8 million people saw the Braves in Milwaukee in 1953 which was 1.5 million more people than saw the Braves in Boston in 1952.
O'Malley's Brooklyn Dodgers franchise was the most valuable team in the National League but he was afraid that the Dodgers would not be able to financially compete with the Braves. O'Malley would move his Dodgers to Los Angeles in September 1957 in a deal that would eventually have people around baseball asking: What is baseball's answer to the Denver mint?
The Dodgers.
Politicians have been tripping all over themselves since 1944 to win over sports owners and get a franchise. Oakland failed in an attempt to build a football stadium in 1944 in a referendum. Two decades later Oakland and Alameda County politicians got a stadium referendum passed to give the American Football League's Raiders a home. In 1967, Oakland convinced Charlie Finley to move his Kansas City A's into the stadium.
You can go virtually to every state in the union, including Alaska and Hawaii and find public dollars invested in sports. But who are the dumbest politicians in the country when it comes to sports spending? That is an easy question to answer.
Arizona.
Had the Phoenix city council been smart, which they were not, they would have approved a multi-purpose arena back in the late 1980s that would have accommodated the NBA's Phoenix Suns and an NHL team. Instead lawmakers approved a $90 million expenditure that was designed to appease Suns owner Jerry Colangelo. The arena was built in such a way that the building was only good for basketball and not hockey or Arena Football or indoor soccer and that severely limited the potential revenues that could be generated in the place. Making sure they further satisfied Colangelo, the terms of the lease between the city and the NBA team required that the franchise pay the bulk of lease payments in years 36-40 of the 40-year lease agreement. The real rent is supposed to kick in around 2028 but given the lifespan of facilities (the Miami Arena was viable for about 11 years, the Charlotte Coliseum for about 13), it is doubtful that the team will even be playing in the arena in 2028 or 2029.
The arena opened in 1992. In 2003, the city kicked in another $17 million to modernize the place when a second Valley of the Sun indoor athletic facility opened in Glendale, which is west of downtown Phoenix.
After taking care of Colangelo, Phoenix planners decided that a new downtown could be built with the arena and a baseball park as anchors so Phoenix politicians went about the task of getting a referendum in front of the public asking for support to build a ballpark for a Major League baseball team.
Over in Tempe, Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill, who came to the Valley of the Sun with his St. Louis Cardinals football team in 1988, wasn't too happy with his stadium in Tempe. Bidwill started to shop around looking for an Arizona community that wanted his team and was willing to build a stadium that the public would fund and put most of the stadium revenues in Bidwill's pocket. It took 12 years for Bidwill to find the right partner — Glendale — as votes in 2000 said yes to putting up $300 million of the estimated $465 million dollars needed to build a stadium. The money would come from a rise in the hotel/motel tax and car rentals (that is a mechanism designed to placate the locals, out of towners will pay, you won't, however most of the money on the car rental side comes from locals who rent cars more than visitors), Bidwill would recoup the $165 million through stadium naming rights and through a loophole in the 1986 Federal Tax Act which limits the money a municipality can take from stadium generator revenues to eight cents on a dollar.
Mesa said no to Bidwill in 1999.
Colangelo spearheaded the baseball stadium drive. He wanted a Major League Baseball team and went back to Phoenix-area politicians to make his pitch. They listened again.
In 1994, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (despite huge budget deficits and cutbacks in the funding of services) said yes to Colangelo and gave the go ahead for a quarter-cent increase in the county sales tax to pay for a part of the stadium's cost. There was a string attached, the approval had to come by March 31, 1995 which meant Major League Baseball had to either relocate a team to Phoenix (unlikely as there was nowhere to play in Phoenix) or expand. MLB awarded Phoenix and St. Petersburg teams beginning in 1998 when the Phoenix stadium would be completed.
The Maricopa sales tax hike was a problem. Maricopa County residents were not allowed to vote on the issue of funding a baseball stadium with general sales tax revenue. In August 1997, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox was shot by Larry Naman after leaving a county board meeting. The shooter testified in court that Wilcox's support for the tax justified the attack. In May 1998, Naman was found guilty of attempted first-degree murder.
Colangelo had his stadium whether Maricopa County residents liked it or not. Colangelo's stadium was supposed to have cost $279 million but the ballpark actually price tag was over $350 million and Colangelo's group had to make up the difference. Colangelo's group paid $130 million for the expansion team, there was the cost overruns and a high payroll and throw in the fact that Major League Baseball didn't give Arizona and Tampa Bay full revenue sharing between 1998 and 2002, and that nearly caused the team to declare bankruptcy by 2004.
While Colangelo was looking for a baseball team, he also wanted a National Hockey League team to take up dates in the city's new arena. In 1994, Colangelo told this reporter that Phoenix was a perfect spot for the NHL. The NHL needed to fill the Mountain Time zone for TV purposes and Phoenix and Denver were in the mix for NHL franchises.
Colangelo, who was not a hockey guy, was spot on. Denver investors bought the Quebec Nordiques in 1995 and moved the team to the Colorado city and Richard Burke put together a group that included Steven Gluckstern and bought the Winnipeg Jets. Burke and Gluckstern moved the team to Colangelo's building in 1996 and that is when trouble started.
The building approved by Phoenix politicians in 1988 had more than 3,000 view-obstructed seats or about 25 percent of the house. No NHL team can survive in a flawed arena even if the building was just four years old. Burke bought out Gluckstern in 1998 after Gluckstern teamed up with Howard Milstein to buy the New York islanders (in a real estate deal).
In 1999, Burke was hoping to move the team to Scottsdale. Bidwill had struck out in his bid to win voter approval for a $1.8 billion football stadium-village on May 18 of that year but Burke had won a preliminary vote on that date for a new arena with the help of Steve Ellman.
Burke got his arena project approved by Scottsdale voters in November 1999 but the arena was never built. Ellman bought the Coyotes in 2001 after the Scottsdale deal fell through. Ellman worked out an arena-land developing deal with Glendale officials in 2001 and moved his Coyotes to a new arena in 2003. Glendale paid $180 million for the building, Ellman did some developing but the real estate deal turned bad and the NHL now owns the team. Glendale could be kicking in as much as $25 million to keep the team going in 2010-11
Glendale is working with a group called Ice Edge Holdings to keep the team in the arena and create a tax district around the building to help stabilize the Coyotes bleak financial picture. The entertainment district might be opposed by Bidwill whose business is across the street from the rink. If the team is not sold by the end of the year to a local group who plans to stay in Glendale, the NHL will allow the franchise to relocate
Meanwhile Glendale has another problem. The Arizona Stadium and Tourism Authority (AZSTA) is broke. That is the group that has raised funds for the Cardinals Glendale stadium and various Major League Spring Training ballparks that ring the Valley of the Sun. Hotel/motel and car rental taxes (which is 3.25 percent) from tourists that fund the authority are flat.
Arizona public officials decided in the 1990s to become a sports destination. Spring Training would be a big money maker for Arizona as baseball fans would flock to see their favorite teams in March of every year. The authority took in $34 million last year and has $37 million in expenses, $16 million of which goes to the Cardinals football stadium. Surprise (Kansas City and Texas), Scottsdale (San Francisco) and Tempe (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) will be getting less money to pay the bills at three spring training facilities. Youth sports will take a million dollar or so hit.
All of this is a product of Proposition 302 that was approved by Maricopa County residents 10 years ago.
The Maricopa County Stadium District and the Arizona Stadium and Tourism Authority are responsible for stadiums around Phoenix. The stadium district was formed in 1991 to make sure Phoenix area-based spring training teams were not lured by Las Vegas.
How expensive is spring training?
The Los Angeles Dodgers now share a new $110 million stadium in Glendale with the Chicago White Sox, who moved from Tucson. Glendale is providing $54 million in financing for the stadium.
Scottsdale and the stadium authorities put together a $23 million package to refurbish Scottsdale Stadium to make the San Francisco Giants ownership happy. About $13.3 million is from the AZSTA funds, $6.67 million from the Maricopa Stadium District, and $3.1 million from the city.
Arizona officials contend that the 2010 spring training slate had an economic impact of $348 million yet there is a deficit.
All of the maneuvering has left an impression. The baseball landscape has changed with all 15 Major League Baseball teams that train in Arizona are located around Phoenix. Tucson has lost three teams (the White Sox, Colorado Rockies and the Diamondbacks). The arena in Phoenix has to fight Glendale for non basketball events. Glendale, not Phoenix or Tempe has the Super Bowl and while Phoenix gets a piece of the event buck, it is Glendale that gets sports spending money from those crown jewel events. The downtown envisioned with the arena and stadium as the pillars of a new downtown Phoenix has not materialized.
The question of whether it was worth spending billions in a state that is broke is never addressed by politicians. Arizona is selling off state buildings to plug a financial gap which in part was caused by poor sports decisions on every level.
They could have said no to Colangelo. They could have said no to Bidwill. They could have said no to the NHL. They could have said no to Major League Baseball. Don't blame the owners for asking for money, they could have asked for whatever they wanted.
There was an awful lot of economic miscalculation when it came to sports planning in Arizona and the battle is far from over. Mesa would like to hold onto the Chicago Cubs, the franchise that allegedly is the economic engine of the Cactus League, and the Milwaukee Brewers ownership could be looking to exit Maryvale. And none of this has anything to do with SB 1070; the immigration law that will soon go into effect and that could impact Arizona sports economics even more.
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and a speaker on "The Politics of Sports Business" and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
MONDAY, 12 JULY 2010 07:31
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/professional/no-state-compares-to-arizonas-sports-business-follies
BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
THE POLITICS OF SPORTS BUSINESS
With all of the talk around New Jersey about tax cuts, no one has discussed the state's handout of hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure for the New York Giants and New York Jets stadium in East Rutherford. There are also other benefits that were given to the two franchises including a break on property taxes and other tax break incentives such as payment in lieu of taxes on the site.
But don't blame the Mara and Tisch families or Woody Johnson, the guys who have funded the actual construction of the stadium, for working the system. Politicians since 1950 starting in Milwaukee have been reaching into the public's pockets to fund sports facilities.
In 1950, Milwaukee politicians decided that the city needed a Major League Baseball team so that the city could feel like a "Big League City." So they built County Stadium to replace Borchert Field (which kind of looked like the Polo Grounds in Manhattan), and went searching for a team in 1953. The financially starved Green Bay Packers played a game at old and run down Borchert Field in 1933 (the Packers next Milwaukee home was the Wisconsin State Fair Grounds starting in 1934) which was the home of the minor league American Association Milwaukee Brewers. The Milwaukee politicians had a few Packers football games every year but that wasn't enough for them.
On March 13, 1953, Lou Perini moved his Boston Braves franchise to Milwaukee. Milwaukee officials were so desperate to fill the stadium that they gave Perini a contract which required him to pay $1,000 in rent and gave him all the concessions in the place. The Perini move got Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley's attention. All of a sudden Milwaukee was a lucrative baseball town with Perini cashing in as more than 1.8 million people saw the Braves in Milwaukee in 1953 which was 1.5 million more people than saw the Braves in Boston in 1952.
O'Malley's Brooklyn Dodgers franchise was the most valuable team in the National League but he was afraid that the Dodgers would not be able to financially compete with the Braves. O'Malley would move his Dodgers to Los Angeles in September 1957 in a deal that would eventually have people around baseball asking: What is baseball's answer to the Denver mint?
The Dodgers.
Politicians have been tripping all over themselves since 1944 to win over sports owners and get a franchise. Oakland failed in an attempt to build a football stadium in 1944 in a referendum. Two decades later Oakland and Alameda County politicians got a stadium referendum passed to give the American Football League's Raiders a home. In 1967, Oakland convinced Charlie Finley to move his Kansas City A's into the stadium.
You can go virtually to every state in the union, including Alaska and Hawaii and find public dollars invested in sports. But who are the dumbest politicians in the country when it comes to sports spending? That is an easy question to answer.
Arizona.
Had the Phoenix city council been smart, which they were not, they would have approved a multi-purpose arena back in the late 1980s that would have accommodated the NBA's Phoenix Suns and an NHL team. Instead lawmakers approved a $90 million expenditure that was designed to appease Suns owner Jerry Colangelo. The arena was built in such a way that the building was only good for basketball and not hockey or Arena Football or indoor soccer and that severely limited the potential revenues that could be generated in the place. Making sure they further satisfied Colangelo, the terms of the lease between the city and the NBA team required that the franchise pay the bulk of lease payments in years 36-40 of the 40-year lease agreement. The real rent is supposed to kick in around 2028 but given the lifespan of facilities (the Miami Arena was viable for about 11 years, the Charlotte Coliseum for about 13), it is doubtful that the team will even be playing in the arena in 2028 or 2029.
The arena opened in 1992. In 2003, the city kicked in another $17 million to modernize the place when a second Valley of the Sun indoor athletic facility opened in Glendale, which is west of downtown Phoenix.
After taking care of Colangelo, Phoenix planners decided that a new downtown could be built with the arena and a baseball park as anchors so Phoenix politicians went about the task of getting a referendum in front of the public asking for support to build a ballpark for a Major League baseball team.
Over in Tempe, Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill, who came to the Valley of the Sun with his St. Louis Cardinals football team in 1988, wasn't too happy with his stadium in Tempe. Bidwill started to shop around looking for an Arizona community that wanted his team and was willing to build a stadium that the public would fund and put most of the stadium revenues in Bidwill's pocket. It took 12 years for Bidwill to find the right partner — Glendale — as votes in 2000 said yes to putting up $300 million of the estimated $465 million dollars needed to build a stadium. The money would come from a rise in the hotel/motel tax and car rentals (that is a mechanism designed to placate the locals, out of towners will pay, you won't, however most of the money on the car rental side comes from locals who rent cars more than visitors), Bidwill would recoup the $165 million through stadium naming rights and through a loophole in the 1986 Federal Tax Act which limits the money a municipality can take from stadium generator revenues to eight cents on a dollar.
Mesa said no to Bidwill in 1999.
Colangelo spearheaded the baseball stadium drive. He wanted a Major League Baseball team and went back to Phoenix-area politicians to make his pitch. They listened again.
In 1994, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (despite huge budget deficits and cutbacks in the funding of services) said yes to Colangelo and gave the go ahead for a quarter-cent increase in the county sales tax to pay for a part of the stadium's cost. There was a string attached, the approval had to come by March 31, 1995 which meant Major League Baseball had to either relocate a team to Phoenix (unlikely as there was nowhere to play in Phoenix) or expand. MLB awarded Phoenix and St. Petersburg teams beginning in 1998 when the Phoenix stadium would be completed.
The Maricopa sales tax hike was a problem. Maricopa County residents were not allowed to vote on the issue of funding a baseball stadium with general sales tax revenue. In August 1997, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox was shot by Larry Naman after leaving a county board meeting. The shooter testified in court that Wilcox's support for the tax justified the attack. In May 1998, Naman was found guilty of attempted first-degree murder.
Colangelo had his stadium whether Maricopa County residents liked it or not. Colangelo's stadium was supposed to have cost $279 million but the ballpark actually price tag was over $350 million and Colangelo's group had to make up the difference. Colangelo's group paid $130 million for the expansion team, there was the cost overruns and a high payroll and throw in the fact that Major League Baseball didn't give Arizona and Tampa Bay full revenue sharing between 1998 and 2002, and that nearly caused the team to declare bankruptcy by 2004.
While Colangelo was looking for a baseball team, he also wanted a National Hockey League team to take up dates in the city's new arena. In 1994, Colangelo told this reporter that Phoenix was a perfect spot for the NHL. The NHL needed to fill the Mountain Time zone for TV purposes and Phoenix and Denver were in the mix for NHL franchises.
Colangelo, who was not a hockey guy, was spot on. Denver investors bought the Quebec Nordiques in 1995 and moved the team to the Colorado city and Richard Burke put together a group that included Steven Gluckstern and bought the Winnipeg Jets. Burke and Gluckstern moved the team to Colangelo's building in 1996 and that is when trouble started.
The building approved by Phoenix politicians in 1988 had more than 3,000 view-obstructed seats or about 25 percent of the house. No NHL team can survive in a flawed arena even if the building was just four years old. Burke bought out Gluckstern in 1998 after Gluckstern teamed up with Howard Milstein to buy the New York islanders (in a real estate deal).
In 1999, Burke was hoping to move the team to Scottsdale. Bidwill had struck out in his bid to win voter approval for a $1.8 billion football stadium-village on May 18 of that year but Burke had won a preliminary vote on that date for a new arena with the help of Steve Ellman.
Burke got his arena project approved by Scottsdale voters in November 1999 but the arena was never built. Ellman bought the Coyotes in 2001 after the Scottsdale deal fell through. Ellman worked out an arena-land developing deal with Glendale officials in 2001 and moved his Coyotes to a new arena in 2003. Glendale paid $180 million for the building, Ellman did some developing but the real estate deal turned bad and the NHL now owns the team. Glendale could be kicking in as much as $25 million to keep the team going in 2010-11
Glendale is working with a group called Ice Edge Holdings to keep the team in the arena and create a tax district around the building to help stabilize the Coyotes bleak financial picture. The entertainment district might be opposed by Bidwill whose business is across the street from the rink. If the team is not sold by the end of the year to a local group who plans to stay in Glendale, the NHL will allow the franchise to relocate
Meanwhile Glendale has another problem. The Arizona Stadium and Tourism Authority (AZSTA) is broke. That is the group that has raised funds for the Cardinals Glendale stadium and various Major League Spring Training ballparks that ring the Valley of the Sun. Hotel/motel and car rental taxes (which is 3.25 percent) from tourists that fund the authority are flat.
Arizona public officials decided in the 1990s to become a sports destination. Spring Training would be a big money maker for Arizona as baseball fans would flock to see their favorite teams in March of every year. The authority took in $34 million last year and has $37 million in expenses, $16 million of which goes to the Cardinals football stadium. Surprise (Kansas City and Texas), Scottsdale (San Francisco) and Tempe (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) will be getting less money to pay the bills at three spring training facilities. Youth sports will take a million dollar or so hit.
All of this is a product of Proposition 302 that was approved by Maricopa County residents 10 years ago.
The Maricopa County Stadium District and the Arizona Stadium and Tourism Authority are responsible for stadiums around Phoenix. The stadium district was formed in 1991 to make sure Phoenix area-based spring training teams were not lured by Las Vegas.
How expensive is spring training?
The Los Angeles Dodgers now share a new $110 million stadium in Glendale with the Chicago White Sox, who moved from Tucson. Glendale is providing $54 million in financing for the stadium.
Scottsdale and the stadium authorities put together a $23 million package to refurbish Scottsdale Stadium to make the San Francisco Giants ownership happy. About $13.3 million is from the AZSTA funds, $6.67 million from the Maricopa Stadium District, and $3.1 million from the city.
Arizona officials contend that the 2010 spring training slate had an economic impact of $348 million yet there is a deficit.
All of the maneuvering has left an impression. The baseball landscape has changed with all 15 Major League Baseball teams that train in Arizona are located around Phoenix. Tucson has lost three teams (the White Sox, Colorado Rockies and the Diamondbacks). The arena in Phoenix has to fight Glendale for non basketball events. Glendale, not Phoenix or Tempe has the Super Bowl and while Phoenix gets a piece of the event buck, it is Glendale that gets sports spending money from those crown jewel events. The downtown envisioned with the arena and stadium as the pillars of a new downtown Phoenix has not materialized.
The question of whether it was worth spending billions in a state that is broke is never addressed by politicians. Arizona is selling off state buildings to plug a financial gap which in part was caused by poor sports decisions on every level.
They could have said no to Colangelo. They could have said no to Bidwill. They could have said no to the NHL. They could have said no to Major League Baseball. Don't blame the owners for asking for money, they could have asked for whatever they wanted.
There was an awful lot of economic miscalculation when it came to sports planning in Arizona and the battle is far from over. Mesa would like to hold onto the Chicago Cubs, the franchise that allegedly is the economic engine of the Cactus League, and the Milwaukee Brewers ownership could be looking to exit Maryvale. And none of this has anything to do with SB 1070; the immigration law that will soon go into effect and that could impact Arizona sports economics even more.
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and a speaker on "The Politics of Sports Business" and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Lebron, Economic Impact and a Cleveland Casino
Lebron, Economic Impact and a Cleveland Casino
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2010m7d10-Lebron-economic-impacts-and-a--Cleveland-casino
By Evan Weiner
July 10, 2010
(New York, NY) -- The entire Lebron James free agency tale should make society reassess the importance of sports but society won't. People who should know better including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the owners of the two tabloid New York newspapers, Mort Zuckerman of the Daily News and Rupert Murdoch of the Post looked like fools throughout the entire process along with a whole host of others. Bloomberg was out in the front waving the city's pom poms begging Lebron James to sign with the New York Knicks and Zuckerman and Murdoch were not very far behind nor were some of the "beautiful people", the actors and others with money to spend on Knicks tickets. Murdoch had a minority share in Madison Square Garden between 1997 and 2005.
All of this was going on while Bloomberg was cutting municipal jobs and the New York State legislature continued being dysfunction with a lame duck governor, David Patterson, cutting state jobs.
Zuckerman and Murdoch's papers reacted like heartbroken teenagers on Friday morning. The love of their life, Lebron to the Knicks, spurned New York City and that was a public slap to the face.
After all, New York is where basketball really matters. It has the world’s most famous arena and the Knicks are the Knicks. The truth is, basketball takes a far seat behind the Yankees in New York, the Garden is an antiquated arena that was poorly designed in the mid-1960s. Basketball in New York on the college level hasn’t mattered in generations, the NCAA College tournaments play on regional stages which are much more important to kids playing basketball than the Garden and the last time the Knicks won a championship was 37 years ago. Patrick Ewing is more of a villain in New York than a basketball hero because he could not deliver a championship.
New York is not a top destination in the NBA for players.
Meanwhile the adulation behavior is obscene. Gushing over a 25-year-old basketball player who is nothing more than an entertainer who puts on a show maybe 100 times a year is ridiculous.
Lebron James’ one hour infomercial with the "family-friendly" Walt Disney Company's ESPN was a total disgrace but it was no different than other disgraceful TV offered by Disney like the bachelor or bachelorette shows on the Disney owned ABC-TV network. It was a new form of "reality" programming that was tightly controlled by Jim Gray and Lebron James' management team.
The Bloomberg’s administration claim that Lebron James’ signing with the New York Knicks would pump $58 million into the city's economy was as fraudulent as the early 1990s contention by then Major League Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent that a new baseball stadium in Cleveland would serve as an economic engine for that city.
If the Gateway Center was built, some 28,000 jobs would be created was the mantra. Cleveland voters said yes to building the ballpark with the $84 million in public financing coming from a "sin tax" or a tax on cigarettes and alcohol in Cuyahoga County.
A good Cleveland Indians team in the mid-1990s in a new baseball park probably gave life to some small businesses around the Gateway center where a new ballpark, a new arena and a football stadium were built along with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but overall Fay Vincent's plea to spend municipal dollars for the Cleveland Indians owners, the Jacobs Brothers, business and it would lead to an humming economic engine has proven very wrong. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gets local, state and federal subsidies to keep it going. Two Gateway Center garages have cost Cleveland millions of dollars because Cleveland officials gave away too many parking spaces to the Indians owners, the Jacobs and the then owners of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Gund Brothers.
The two sets of owners got 250 parking spaces everyday for their private use. Jacobs also got 1,250 parking spaces for each Indians home game or 81 times a year. The Gunds got 1,450 spaces for each of 41 NBA games. The free spaces go to premium and loge ticket holders which meant that the high end ticket buyers went right into the stadium or arena and skipped businesses outside the buildings. Meanwhile Cleveland is paying off the stadium/arena garages by taking money from parking meters and parking garages to pay off the garage debt and that means less money for municipal workers.
Cleveland and Cuyahoga county taxpayers have a contract with the Indians, Cavaliers and National Football League Browns. They keep paying for the facilities whether they use the venues or not. The Cleveland Browns Stadium has cost taxpayers who smoke and drink $64,609,806.86 since August 2005. The "sin tax" also has paid about $266 million to cover some of Gateway’s costs at the baseball and basketball facilities. The "sin tax" is schedule to expire in 2015. But don't bet on that. Speaking of betting, because Cleveland's downtown was in such rotten shape economically, Cleveland politicians gave thought to opening casinos in an effort to create an economic engine. The dying rust belt city's political brain trust cannot find a formula to prime the economic engine pump.
In November 2009, Ohio voters said yes to building casinos in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo. Interestingly enough Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert along with Penn National put up $35 million in campaign financing to support the initiative. There is a promise of 34,000 jobs with the creation of the casinos. Gilbert will own the casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati.
Gilbert's tirade after Lebron James left might be more about his casino than basketball. Without Lebron James in the Cavaliers lineup, there will be thousands of people less in the arena and less people who could go to Gilbert's casino adjacent to the arena and spend money in Gilbert's casino.
Lebron James was not a linchpin of the economic pump and might have done more to harm Gilbert's business than Cleveland or James’ hometown of Akron.
The assertion that Lebron was worth $58 million to New York does need a closer inspection. Madison Square Garden, which sits on some valuable property in midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenue and 31st and 33rd Street does not pay city property taxes. It has been about 28 years since a tax bill was delivered to 4 Penn Plaza in care of Madison Square Garden. A basketball team plays just 41 regularly scheduled games during the season which runs between November and April, there may be a couple of pre-season games in October and maybe a dozen or so playoff games if a team goes far into the playoffs.
The basketball fan does not travel to games. The economic impact of a basketball game is minimal in a city's economy. Here is how this works. Sports teams need customers not fans because customers have more spending money than fans and are willing to dine in venue restaurants and other eatery which takes away from restaurants that surround arenas.
Madison Square Garden hosts about six NBA games a month between November and April. A basketball team has a coach, a number of assistant coaches, equipment and training staff along with the players and possibly a general manager. A total of perhaps 25 in a traveling party. At the upper extreme, if each member of the traveling party spent $1,000 on hotels and meals, the economic impact of a visiting team is $25,000 although some cities do tax visiting players while the perform in that city which might come out to $30,000 a day. The economic impact may be a million dollars a month which is a drop in the bucket.
Maybe.
Businesses are going to take clients somewhere to wine and dine them. If there was no basketball, there would be something else. Corporate ticket buyers also write 50 percent of the cost of a ticket of their taxes as a business expense.
The impact is not much. If business people in Miami are salivating over Lebron James, they are totally misguided. People will go to games because that is the "in thing" to do but what they are really doing is taking dollars that would be spent elsewhere in the area and there will be no uptick in sales at malls and supermarkets except in the immediate area of the arena.
Micky Arison, the owner of the Miami Heat and CEO of Carnival Cruises, will benefit financially. Arison knows how to work the system. The Heat’s arena was the product of the political process. In 1996, voters approved a bond for the construction of a new arena for the Heat. Arison kicked in $50 million to the costs of the building while hotel taxes were increased to pay for the other $163 million. Part of the deal was that Arison’s Carnival ships would use the nearby Miami port as a base. The Carnival Corporation has offices not far from the arena and the port.
Arison and the arena will make money. Money that had not been flowing into Heat games in the past few years will return from other parts of the region. As former New York Jets Vice President Jay Cross once pointed out when he was Jets owner Woody Johnson’s main negotiator for a Manhattan west side stadium accidentally pointed out, a new stadium (or arena) makes more for an owner, the players and maybe parking lot attendants. There is no trickle down for a municipality and in fact many municipalities are paying down large debts for venues and very few, if any, local businesses other than a bar or restaurant make measurable money off of sports teams.
Bloomberg has to know this. Sports makes people feel good or rotten. Too many people are too attached emotionally to their team. The players are not attached; it is a business no matter what they say about the home court, home ice, and home field advantage. The NFL stands for Not For Long for the players. They are feeling good in Miami, sports fans spew out venom in sports talk radio in New York. Lebron was called “The Queen” by callers, sports journalists are playing amateur shrink trying to figure out what makes Lebron James tick.
Lebron should have called his business partner Gilbert and told him that it was over. But is Lebron now a villain like sports people, media and fans, are painting him? The answer should be no. He did something stupid in the infomercial on ESPN and ESPN provided no strategic guidance but then again, ESPN is mostly geared for children anyway and this was a reality show of sorts. “The Decision”. ESPN is owned by Disney although the executives at Disney are hardly children and they too know how to work the political system.
Lebron James is a 25-year-old basketball player, an entertainer, nothing more and nothing less. Too many grownups genuflect in front of 20-something athletes. But then again fan is short for fanatic. Maybe it is time for the grownups (the politicians and the media) to grow up.
Evan Weiner is an author radio-TV commentator and speaking on “The Politics of Sports Business” and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2010m7d10-Lebron-economic-impacts-and-a--Cleveland-casino
By Evan Weiner
July 10, 2010
(New York, NY) -- The entire Lebron James free agency tale should make society reassess the importance of sports but society won't. People who should know better including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the owners of the two tabloid New York newspapers, Mort Zuckerman of the Daily News and Rupert Murdoch of the Post looked like fools throughout the entire process along with a whole host of others. Bloomberg was out in the front waving the city's pom poms begging Lebron James to sign with the New York Knicks and Zuckerman and Murdoch were not very far behind nor were some of the "beautiful people", the actors and others with money to spend on Knicks tickets. Murdoch had a minority share in Madison Square Garden between 1997 and 2005.
All of this was going on while Bloomberg was cutting municipal jobs and the New York State legislature continued being dysfunction with a lame duck governor, David Patterson, cutting state jobs.
Zuckerman and Murdoch's papers reacted like heartbroken teenagers on Friday morning. The love of their life, Lebron to the Knicks, spurned New York City and that was a public slap to the face.
After all, New York is where basketball really matters. It has the world’s most famous arena and the Knicks are the Knicks. The truth is, basketball takes a far seat behind the Yankees in New York, the Garden is an antiquated arena that was poorly designed in the mid-1960s. Basketball in New York on the college level hasn’t mattered in generations, the NCAA College tournaments play on regional stages which are much more important to kids playing basketball than the Garden and the last time the Knicks won a championship was 37 years ago. Patrick Ewing is more of a villain in New York than a basketball hero because he could not deliver a championship.
New York is not a top destination in the NBA for players.
Meanwhile the adulation behavior is obscene. Gushing over a 25-year-old basketball player who is nothing more than an entertainer who puts on a show maybe 100 times a year is ridiculous.
Lebron James’ one hour infomercial with the "family-friendly" Walt Disney Company's ESPN was a total disgrace but it was no different than other disgraceful TV offered by Disney like the bachelor or bachelorette shows on the Disney owned ABC-TV network. It was a new form of "reality" programming that was tightly controlled by Jim Gray and Lebron James' management team.
The Bloomberg’s administration claim that Lebron James’ signing with the New York Knicks would pump $58 million into the city's economy was as fraudulent as the early 1990s contention by then Major League Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent that a new baseball stadium in Cleveland would serve as an economic engine for that city.
If the Gateway Center was built, some 28,000 jobs would be created was the mantra. Cleveland voters said yes to building the ballpark with the $84 million in public financing coming from a "sin tax" or a tax on cigarettes and alcohol in Cuyahoga County.
A good Cleveland Indians team in the mid-1990s in a new baseball park probably gave life to some small businesses around the Gateway center where a new ballpark, a new arena and a football stadium were built along with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but overall Fay Vincent's plea to spend municipal dollars for the Cleveland Indians owners, the Jacobs Brothers, business and it would lead to an humming economic engine has proven very wrong. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gets local, state and federal subsidies to keep it going. Two Gateway Center garages have cost Cleveland millions of dollars because Cleveland officials gave away too many parking spaces to the Indians owners, the Jacobs and the then owners of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Gund Brothers.
The two sets of owners got 250 parking spaces everyday for their private use. Jacobs also got 1,250 parking spaces for each Indians home game or 81 times a year. The Gunds got 1,450 spaces for each of 41 NBA games. The free spaces go to premium and loge ticket holders which meant that the high end ticket buyers went right into the stadium or arena and skipped businesses outside the buildings. Meanwhile Cleveland is paying off the stadium/arena garages by taking money from parking meters and parking garages to pay off the garage debt and that means less money for municipal workers.
Cleveland and Cuyahoga county taxpayers have a contract with the Indians, Cavaliers and National Football League Browns. They keep paying for the facilities whether they use the venues or not. The Cleveland Browns Stadium has cost taxpayers who smoke and drink $64,609,806.86 since August 2005. The "sin tax" also has paid about $266 million to cover some of Gateway’s costs at the baseball and basketball facilities. The "sin tax" is schedule to expire in 2015. But don't bet on that. Speaking of betting, because Cleveland's downtown was in such rotten shape economically, Cleveland politicians gave thought to opening casinos in an effort to create an economic engine. The dying rust belt city's political brain trust cannot find a formula to prime the economic engine pump.
In November 2009, Ohio voters said yes to building casinos in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo. Interestingly enough Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert along with Penn National put up $35 million in campaign financing to support the initiative. There is a promise of 34,000 jobs with the creation of the casinos. Gilbert will own the casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati.
Gilbert's tirade after Lebron James left might be more about his casino than basketball. Without Lebron James in the Cavaliers lineup, there will be thousands of people less in the arena and less people who could go to Gilbert's casino adjacent to the arena and spend money in Gilbert's casino.
Lebron James was not a linchpin of the economic pump and might have done more to harm Gilbert's business than Cleveland or James’ hometown of Akron.
The assertion that Lebron was worth $58 million to New York does need a closer inspection. Madison Square Garden, which sits on some valuable property in midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenue and 31st and 33rd Street does not pay city property taxes. It has been about 28 years since a tax bill was delivered to 4 Penn Plaza in care of Madison Square Garden. A basketball team plays just 41 regularly scheduled games during the season which runs between November and April, there may be a couple of pre-season games in October and maybe a dozen or so playoff games if a team goes far into the playoffs.
The basketball fan does not travel to games. The economic impact of a basketball game is minimal in a city's economy. Here is how this works. Sports teams need customers not fans because customers have more spending money than fans and are willing to dine in venue restaurants and other eatery which takes away from restaurants that surround arenas.
Madison Square Garden hosts about six NBA games a month between November and April. A basketball team has a coach, a number of assistant coaches, equipment and training staff along with the players and possibly a general manager. A total of perhaps 25 in a traveling party. At the upper extreme, if each member of the traveling party spent $1,000 on hotels and meals, the economic impact of a visiting team is $25,000 although some cities do tax visiting players while the perform in that city which might come out to $30,000 a day. The economic impact may be a million dollars a month which is a drop in the bucket.
Maybe.
Businesses are going to take clients somewhere to wine and dine them. If there was no basketball, there would be something else. Corporate ticket buyers also write 50 percent of the cost of a ticket of their taxes as a business expense.
The impact is not much. If business people in Miami are salivating over Lebron James, they are totally misguided. People will go to games because that is the "in thing" to do but what they are really doing is taking dollars that would be spent elsewhere in the area and there will be no uptick in sales at malls and supermarkets except in the immediate area of the arena.
Micky Arison, the owner of the Miami Heat and CEO of Carnival Cruises, will benefit financially. Arison knows how to work the system. The Heat’s arena was the product of the political process. In 1996, voters approved a bond for the construction of a new arena for the Heat. Arison kicked in $50 million to the costs of the building while hotel taxes were increased to pay for the other $163 million. Part of the deal was that Arison’s Carnival ships would use the nearby Miami port as a base. The Carnival Corporation has offices not far from the arena and the port.
Arison and the arena will make money. Money that had not been flowing into Heat games in the past few years will return from other parts of the region. As former New York Jets Vice President Jay Cross once pointed out when he was Jets owner Woody Johnson’s main negotiator for a Manhattan west side stadium accidentally pointed out, a new stadium (or arena) makes more for an owner, the players and maybe parking lot attendants. There is no trickle down for a municipality and in fact many municipalities are paying down large debts for venues and very few, if any, local businesses other than a bar or restaurant make measurable money off of sports teams.
Bloomberg has to know this. Sports makes people feel good or rotten. Too many people are too attached emotionally to their team. The players are not attached; it is a business no matter what they say about the home court, home ice, and home field advantage. The NFL stands for Not For Long for the players. They are feeling good in Miami, sports fans spew out venom in sports talk radio in New York. Lebron was called “The Queen” by callers, sports journalists are playing amateur shrink trying to figure out what makes Lebron James tick.
Lebron should have called his business partner Gilbert and told him that it was over. But is Lebron now a villain like sports people, media and fans, are painting him? The answer should be no. He did something stupid in the infomercial on ESPN and ESPN provided no strategic guidance but then again, ESPN is mostly geared for children anyway and this was a reality show of sorts. “The Decision”. ESPN is owned by Disney although the executives at Disney are hardly children and they too know how to work the political system.
Lebron James is a 25-year-old basketball player, an entertainer, nothing more and nothing less. Too many grownups genuflect in front of 20-something athletes. But then again fan is short for fanatic. Maybe it is time for the grownups (the politicians and the media) to grow up.
Evan Weiner is an author radio-TV commentator and speaking on “The Politics of Sports Business” and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
Thursday, July 8, 2010
King James and Journalism: 2010
King James and Journalism: 2010
By Evan Weiner
July 8, 2010
http://www.examiner.com/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2010m7d8-King-James-and-journalism--2010#
(New York, N. Y.) -- The National Basketball Association is a “players” league. The players are the boss and coaches and general managers don't have that much leverage. After all it is easier to replace a coach or a GM than a player but that could be said of any sport. But now certain NBA players have usurped the media. This isn't going to be a harangue because Lebron James' twitter site or his website. That's business. But working journalists should be appalled that Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh decided to tell the world they signed with the Miami Heat on what amounted to nothing more than an infomercial on ESPN and that ESPN agreed to Lebron James' request to get a prime time slot on a Thursday night in July to announce where he plans to play in 2010 and beyond.
The ESPN-Lebron James co-production of "The Decision" should send a message to journalists and media companies. You are not welcomed at our party anymore or at least Lebron James' party.
Disney's ESPN does reap some benefits being Lebron James' own personal network. They will get more eyeballs than normal for a Thursday night in July and James, Wade and Bosh have to give the network favorite nation status whenever they want their message out on ESPN. The Boys and Girls Club will get exposure and some funding because Lebron's rules apply. It's the Lebron Show except he didn't buy the time. The Walt Disney Company is giving him the time on ESPN.
It is easy to dismiss this as just sports and ESPN does stand for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. But journalists have lost control of their business although it should as no surprise. Ross Perot had a very comfortable spot on Larry King's CNN show when he ran for President in 1992. Politicians have gone on the Tonight Show to announce that they are seeking some form of office. Hillary Clinton sidestepped the media when she announced her candidacy for President in 2007 on her website. Oprah is a major stop for people running for office or for others looking to repair their public image.
Lebron James is bigger than sports, the media "experts" have concluded. Lebron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade are entertainers, nothing more and nothing less. They are relevant now but no more so than other jocks in other eras during their primes except they now control the message and the messenger delivery system and that's not good for entire journalism community.
Nothing against Michael Wilbon, he has a job to do which is playing the role of emcee in the greatest show on earth. Wilbon has ceased being a journalist and is a straight man in a comedy act. Journalists won't complain about the "new normal" for fear of being shut out of the "inner circle" whether it’s Lebron James-Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh or the NBA itself.
There should be more than a bit of anger directed towards Lebron, Wade and Bosh at the headquarters of Time Warner and Turner Sports, one of the NBA's cable TV partners. They were passed over by Wade, Bosh and James and they are NBA rights holders and pay hundreds of millions of dollars for that right and some of that cash goes to Lebron, Wade and Bosh. Time Warner should show backbone and ignore the story on CNN, the company's signature news station, and all other Time Warner platforms. Sean McManus at CBS should tell his boss Sumner Redstone that CBS News and Sports isn't interested in Wade, Bosh and James. Dick Ebersol should inform his boss at NBC, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt that NBC would rather cover Piers Morgan deciding who should move on to the next round on America's Got Talent and tell Lorne Michaels that Lebron James is no longer welcomed on Saturday Night Live. Ruppert Murdoch should not bother putting the story on FOX News Channel, FOX Sports or in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Post. Bill Keller should find some backbone and leave it out of the New York Times and the same should be true at other newspapers and news radio outlets.
The radio sports talk shows, the network news shows have been played for fools by Wade/Bosh and James.
Lebron James not only is getting prime time on ESPN but he or someone in his circle handpicked a reporter, Jim Gray, to be part of what really looks like a circus side show on ESPN. All the rules of journalism have been broken on this.
Welcome to the 21st century where the narrative is controlled tightly by the person under scrutiny.
This is sports and a good many reporters are basically extensions of leagues and teams public relations departments anyway. Whitey Herzog, who is entering the Baseball Hall of Fame later this summer, once said that the sportswriters (around baseball) are real baseball men. Former baseball manager John McNamara felt the same way. Sports reporters have in the past have taken a tape recorder to the head (Kansas City Royals Manager Hal McRae threw a tape recorder in frustration and the writer incredibly took one for the team), a Toronto reporter after being pushed by Toronto Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn refused to press charges against Quinn because he didn't want to do anything to get in the way of the Maple Leafs playoffs run.
(In 1983, Boston manager Ralph Houk, stripped down to his underwear, chased me and yelled at me in the Boston clubhouse at Yankee Stadium after being questioned about the Red Sox thin pitching--years later Houk told me, it was just part of the job, no hard feelings. Reporters are supposed to be yelled at and in some cases physically abused. It is the jock world. I was also banned from the Edmonton Oilers locker room in 1983 by Glen Sather and Bill Tuele during the finals because I asked too many tough questions of Sather as his team was losing in the playoffs. As a peace offering Tuele mailed me an Edmonton Oilers hockey puck.)
So it should be no surprise that no one has suggested to let Wade, Bosh and James do their announcements on their websites or on twitter. Their message will go directly to whoever wants them.
Don't expect to McManus, Ebersol, Murdoch (or FOX's Ed Goren) or the Time Warner gang to turn their collective backs on Wade, Bosh and James. Miami Heat fans could care less about the media's feelings nor should they. But there really needs to be a change in the culture of the media in America. Journalists need to take back their business just like NBA owners might during the next collective bargaining agreement.
The NBA free agent season is a story and will have some repercussions in the next collective bargaining agreement. NBA Commissioner David Stern contends the league's owners might have lost up to $400 million during the past season yet the league has increased the salary cap that teams must commit to salaries to $58 million annually. Stern has also claimed the league owners lost $200 million a year collectively in the first four years of the present bargaining agreement (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009). The players get 57 percent of basketball related income.
The present collective bargaining agreement ends following the 2011 season.
Three years ago, Memphis Grizzlies' majority owner, Michael Heisley, was not a happy camper. Yet despite the economic downturn in 2008 and less than ideal economic conditions in the Memphis market, Hesiley just gave Rudy Gay is huge contract, a five year $80 million contract as part of the free agent class of 2010. Heisley had the cash to pay Gay but is Heisley a happy camper in 2010 or is he still an owner looking for change?
He is probably looking for change.
In 2006, Heisley was unsuccessful in his effort to sell his share of the basketball franchise to investors; his team finished with the NBA's worst record, and his business is not thriving financially — in 2007 the Grizzlies ranked last in attendance among National Basketball Association teams. Moreover, Heisley cannot count on the kind of television revenue that is available to bigger markets such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Four years ago, Heisley became a proponent of adopting revenue sharing practices in the NBA that would mirror those of the National Football League and Major League Baseball. But there has been scant support for any proposals to reconsider the NBA's financial policies, Heisley has been waiting for change for a long time. More likely, he will need the backing of Stern, who could go a long way in helping to convince big market owners such as the Knicks' James Dolan, the Lakers' Jerry Buss, and the Bulls' Jerry Reinsdorf that it is in the league's best interests to devise an equitable revenue-sharing plan. One that would allow small-market teams like the Grizzlies to keep up with those in the larger markets.
Heisley's wait could be over by summer 2011.
During an interview in May 2007 with this columnist, Heisley went on record about the need for an effective revenue-sharing plan in the NBA.
On September 29, 2006, Heisley, and the owners of small market teams in New Orleans, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Portland, Charlotte, Minnesota, and Indianapolis, sent Stern a letter asking for assistance: "If appropriately managed teams can't break even, let alone make a profit, we have an economic system that requires correction. The needed correction is serious revenue sharing not just modest revenue assistance and we urge you to address this issue on an urgent basis this year," the letter read. The correspondence prompted little, if any, league action, according to Heisley.
"Last year, (2006) we had the perfect storm and things just went wrong," said Heisley, who failed to sell his 70% percent stake in the franchise last winter.
"We lost the support of the fans for whatever reason it was. All I am trying to say is that if I knew what it was, I would fix it, but I don't know completely why we lost so much of it. I think we can get it back. If we can get it back to the level we had before, then I think it's a reasonable fan base to be in the middle of the pack [and] in the smallest market in the NBA."
But fan base is not the real problem. With limited resources, Heisley cannot afford the cost of additional assistant coaches, public relations and sales representatives, and other personnel that might bolster the business aspect of the franchise. And the lack of a profitable television market that generates revenue to cover increased operating costs means the business will likely continue to suffer.
Heisley's Grizzlies actually fail on two of three prerequisites for a healthy franchise: Television revenues are slim, and Memphis doesn't offer much in the way of corporate support, since there are not many Fortune 500 companies operating in the city. Federal Express' purchase of naming rights to the city owned arena, and the presence of the founder of AutoZone, J.R. "Pitt" Hyde, who is a partner in the team's ownership, have been sources of revenue for the Grizzlies, but there is not much else.
Heisley remains unapologetic about dashing off that owners' letter to Stern. "I think the NBA is way behind the times in that area," Heisley said. "I think if you look at the NFL and how successful they have been, how they spread the championship around to smaller market teams, big market teams. I have franchise companies in my business and the judge of the franchise is how all the franchises are doing and the strength of a franchise is how the weakest is doing, not the strongest."
"We get 100% of the [national] television revenue [from Disney's ESPN and Turner's TNT, as well as other broadcast properties], I think, but then we don't get a lot of the sales that take place overseas. For example, we get nothing outside of our territories when [Stern] sells our jerseys. (Ex-Memphis now Lakers player) Pau Gasol is extremely popular in Spain, I don't know how much he sells, but I get nothing in Spain. The money goes to the league and they use it for whatever they choose to use it for to run the league."
In 2007, Heisley said, “I would say, a significant percentage of the teams in our league are struggling financially."
So it has come down to this. ESPN and Lebron James are teaming up to make a major announcement. The rules of journalism have gone out the window. The NBA Free Agent Carnie Show will probably lead some NBA owners to close down the factory next year but will it lead journalists and media companies to take back journalism? The answer is probably no. After all, Lebron makes good TV.
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and speaker on "The Politics of Sports Business" and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
By Evan Weiner
July 8, 2010
http://www.examiner.com/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2010m7d8-King-James-and-journalism--2010#
(New York, N. Y.) -- The National Basketball Association is a “players” league. The players are the boss and coaches and general managers don't have that much leverage. After all it is easier to replace a coach or a GM than a player but that could be said of any sport. But now certain NBA players have usurped the media. This isn't going to be a harangue because Lebron James' twitter site or his website. That's business. But working journalists should be appalled that Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh decided to tell the world they signed with the Miami Heat on what amounted to nothing more than an infomercial on ESPN and that ESPN agreed to Lebron James' request to get a prime time slot on a Thursday night in July to announce where he plans to play in 2010 and beyond.
The ESPN-Lebron James co-production of "The Decision" should send a message to journalists and media companies. You are not welcomed at our party anymore or at least Lebron James' party.
Disney's ESPN does reap some benefits being Lebron James' own personal network. They will get more eyeballs than normal for a Thursday night in July and James, Wade and Bosh have to give the network favorite nation status whenever they want their message out on ESPN. The Boys and Girls Club will get exposure and some funding because Lebron's rules apply. It's the Lebron Show except he didn't buy the time. The Walt Disney Company is giving him the time on ESPN.
It is easy to dismiss this as just sports and ESPN does stand for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. But journalists have lost control of their business although it should as no surprise. Ross Perot had a very comfortable spot on Larry King's CNN show when he ran for President in 1992. Politicians have gone on the Tonight Show to announce that they are seeking some form of office. Hillary Clinton sidestepped the media when she announced her candidacy for President in 2007 on her website. Oprah is a major stop for people running for office or for others looking to repair their public image.
Lebron James is bigger than sports, the media "experts" have concluded. Lebron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade are entertainers, nothing more and nothing less. They are relevant now but no more so than other jocks in other eras during their primes except they now control the message and the messenger delivery system and that's not good for entire journalism community.
Nothing against Michael Wilbon, he has a job to do which is playing the role of emcee in the greatest show on earth. Wilbon has ceased being a journalist and is a straight man in a comedy act. Journalists won't complain about the "new normal" for fear of being shut out of the "inner circle" whether it’s Lebron James-Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh or the NBA itself.
There should be more than a bit of anger directed towards Lebron, Wade and Bosh at the headquarters of Time Warner and Turner Sports, one of the NBA's cable TV partners. They were passed over by Wade, Bosh and James and they are NBA rights holders and pay hundreds of millions of dollars for that right and some of that cash goes to Lebron, Wade and Bosh. Time Warner should show backbone and ignore the story on CNN, the company's signature news station, and all other Time Warner platforms. Sean McManus at CBS should tell his boss Sumner Redstone that CBS News and Sports isn't interested in Wade, Bosh and James. Dick Ebersol should inform his boss at NBC, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt that NBC would rather cover Piers Morgan deciding who should move on to the next round on America's Got Talent and tell Lorne Michaels that Lebron James is no longer welcomed on Saturday Night Live. Ruppert Murdoch should not bother putting the story on FOX News Channel, FOX Sports or in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Post. Bill Keller should find some backbone and leave it out of the New York Times and the same should be true at other newspapers and news radio outlets.
The radio sports talk shows, the network news shows have been played for fools by Wade/Bosh and James.
Lebron James not only is getting prime time on ESPN but he or someone in his circle handpicked a reporter, Jim Gray, to be part of what really looks like a circus side show on ESPN. All the rules of journalism have been broken on this.
Welcome to the 21st century where the narrative is controlled tightly by the person under scrutiny.
This is sports and a good many reporters are basically extensions of leagues and teams public relations departments anyway. Whitey Herzog, who is entering the Baseball Hall of Fame later this summer, once said that the sportswriters (around baseball) are real baseball men. Former baseball manager John McNamara felt the same way. Sports reporters have in the past have taken a tape recorder to the head (Kansas City Royals Manager Hal McRae threw a tape recorder in frustration and the writer incredibly took one for the team), a Toronto reporter after being pushed by Toronto Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn refused to press charges against Quinn because he didn't want to do anything to get in the way of the Maple Leafs playoffs run.
(In 1983, Boston manager Ralph Houk, stripped down to his underwear, chased me and yelled at me in the Boston clubhouse at Yankee Stadium after being questioned about the Red Sox thin pitching--years later Houk told me, it was just part of the job, no hard feelings. Reporters are supposed to be yelled at and in some cases physically abused. It is the jock world. I was also banned from the Edmonton Oilers locker room in 1983 by Glen Sather and Bill Tuele during the finals because I asked too many tough questions of Sather as his team was losing in the playoffs. As a peace offering Tuele mailed me an Edmonton Oilers hockey puck.)
So it should be no surprise that no one has suggested to let Wade, Bosh and James do their announcements on their websites or on twitter. Their message will go directly to whoever wants them.
Don't expect to McManus, Ebersol, Murdoch (or FOX's Ed Goren) or the Time Warner gang to turn their collective backs on Wade, Bosh and James. Miami Heat fans could care less about the media's feelings nor should they. But there really needs to be a change in the culture of the media in America. Journalists need to take back their business just like NBA owners might during the next collective bargaining agreement.
The NBA free agent season is a story and will have some repercussions in the next collective bargaining agreement. NBA Commissioner David Stern contends the league's owners might have lost up to $400 million during the past season yet the league has increased the salary cap that teams must commit to salaries to $58 million annually. Stern has also claimed the league owners lost $200 million a year collectively in the first four years of the present bargaining agreement (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009). The players get 57 percent of basketball related income.
The present collective bargaining agreement ends following the 2011 season.
Three years ago, Memphis Grizzlies' majority owner, Michael Heisley, was not a happy camper. Yet despite the economic downturn in 2008 and less than ideal economic conditions in the Memphis market, Hesiley just gave Rudy Gay is huge contract, a five year $80 million contract as part of the free agent class of 2010. Heisley had the cash to pay Gay but is Heisley a happy camper in 2010 or is he still an owner looking for change?
He is probably looking for change.
In 2006, Heisley was unsuccessful in his effort to sell his share of the basketball franchise to investors; his team finished with the NBA's worst record, and his business is not thriving financially — in 2007 the Grizzlies ranked last in attendance among National Basketball Association teams. Moreover, Heisley cannot count on the kind of television revenue that is available to bigger markets such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Four years ago, Heisley became a proponent of adopting revenue sharing practices in the NBA that would mirror those of the National Football League and Major League Baseball. But there has been scant support for any proposals to reconsider the NBA's financial policies, Heisley has been waiting for change for a long time. More likely, he will need the backing of Stern, who could go a long way in helping to convince big market owners such as the Knicks' James Dolan, the Lakers' Jerry Buss, and the Bulls' Jerry Reinsdorf that it is in the league's best interests to devise an equitable revenue-sharing plan. One that would allow small-market teams like the Grizzlies to keep up with those in the larger markets.
Heisley's wait could be over by summer 2011.
During an interview in May 2007 with this columnist, Heisley went on record about the need for an effective revenue-sharing plan in the NBA.
On September 29, 2006, Heisley, and the owners of small market teams in New Orleans, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Portland, Charlotte, Minnesota, and Indianapolis, sent Stern a letter asking for assistance: "If appropriately managed teams can't break even, let alone make a profit, we have an economic system that requires correction. The needed correction is serious revenue sharing not just modest revenue assistance and we urge you to address this issue on an urgent basis this year," the letter read. The correspondence prompted little, if any, league action, according to Heisley.
"Last year, (2006) we had the perfect storm and things just went wrong," said Heisley, who failed to sell his 70% percent stake in the franchise last winter.
"We lost the support of the fans for whatever reason it was. All I am trying to say is that if I knew what it was, I would fix it, but I don't know completely why we lost so much of it. I think we can get it back. If we can get it back to the level we had before, then I think it's a reasonable fan base to be in the middle of the pack [and] in the smallest market in the NBA."
But fan base is not the real problem. With limited resources, Heisley cannot afford the cost of additional assistant coaches, public relations and sales representatives, and other personnel that might bolster the business aspect of the franchise. And the lack of a profitable television market that generates revenue to cover increased operating costs means the business will likely continue to suffer.
Heisley's Grizzlies actually fail on two of three prerequisites for a healthy franchise: Television revenues are slim, and Memphis doesn't offer much in the way of corporate support, since there are not many Fortune 500 companies operating in the city. Federal Express' purchase of naming rights to the city owned arena, and the presence of the founder of AutoZone, J.R. "Pitt" Hyde, who is a partner in the team's ownership, have been sources of revenue for the Grizzlies, but there is not much else.
Heisley remains unapologetic about dashing off that owners' letter to Stern. "I think the NBA is way behind the times in that area," Heisley said. "I think if you look at the NFL and how successful they have been, how they spread the championship around to smaller market teams, big market teams. I have franchise companies in my business and the judge of the franchise is how all the franchises are doing and the strength of a franchise is how the weakest is doing, not the strongest."
"We get 100% of the [national] television revenue [from Disney's ESPN and Turner's TNT, as well as other broadcast properties], I think, but then we don't get a lot of the sales that take place overseas. For example, we get nothing outside of our territories when [Stern] sells our jerseys. (Ex-Memphis now Lakers player) Pau Gasol is extremely popular in Spain, I don't know how much he sells, but I get nothing in Spain. The money goes to the league and they use it for whatever they choose to use it for to run the league."
In 2007, Heisley said, “I would say, a significant percentage of the teams in our league are struggling financially."
So it has come down to this. ESPN and Lebron James are teaming up to make a major announcement. The rules of journalism have gone out the window. The NBA Free Agent Carnie Show will probably lead some NBA owners to close down the factory next year but will it lead journalists and media companies to take back journalism? The answer is probably no. After all, Lebron makes good TV.
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and speaker on "The Politics of Sports Business" and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The football culture needs to be changed
The football culture needs to be changed
TUESDAY, 06 JULY 2010 16:36
HTTP://WWW.NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM/PROFESSIONAL/THE-FOOTBALL-CULTURE-NEEDS-TO-BE-CHANGED#
BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
THE POLITICS OF SPORTS BUSINESS
George Visger thought he had it all when he was drafted by the New York Jets in the sixth round of the National Football League draft in 1980. Visger had it all mapped out. He was going to play for five years and then hunt and fish for the rest of his life.
It would be an ideal life. But to players the initials NFL don't stand for National Football League. They mean "Not For Long" and Visger, like many others, didn't understand that aspect of pro football when he started his journey to make the Jets squad.
The Jets coaching staff seemed to like Visger. But there was a problem; Visger was an undersized defensive lineman at 259 pounds when he arrived at mini-camp. But there was a solution called steroids, which were legal and easily obtainable. When Visger returned for Jets training camp at Hofstra University he was 275 pounds. The supplements which included Dianabol, Anavar helped an awful lot and Visger started one pre-season game against the Pittsburgh Steelers where he lined up against his idol, Steelers center Mike Webster. But Visger wasn't good enough and Jets coach Walt Michaels sent him packing.
It is the beginning of the end for Visger's dream, life and the start of a nightmare that continues to this day. Visger eventually signed with the San Francisco 49ers a number of weeks into the season. He suffered a concussion in his first game on the first play of the day. It wasn't Visger's first concussion in his life; he had many before going back to his days in Pop Warner football. But this one was bad. It took somewhere between 25 and 30 smelling salts to get Visger's head clear enough to play the rest of the game. During the game there were more smelling salts.
The training staff and Visger laughed it off. After all, he was in the NFL, where playing with pain is part of the testing of your manhood, which is very important in the NFL. But this concussion was no laughing matter. Visger developed hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and within a year, he had the first of his eight brain surgeries.
In mini-camp in May 1981, Visger blew out his knee. The 49ers doctors patched it up and he made it to training camp. The knee went again but that was the least of Visger's problems. The 1980 concussion caught up to him.
In August, Visger developed major headaches, projectile vomiting and a loss of vision. "I had a bright ball of light in the middle of my vision like in front of each eye, and the edge of my vision would light up like someone was holding a spot light on the back of my head," he said. "Each time I had the headaches at night. I discovered through my own investigations that these are common symptoms of brain swelling where it puts pressure on the optic nerves. My hearing would come and go with the beat of my heart during the headaches each night (also caused by swelling to the brain). One of them (a 49ers team doctor) said I had high blood pressure and prescribed high blood pressure medication.
"Headaches began a few weeks after the knee surgery and got progressively worse. (I) saw the team doctors a few more times on the headaches, as I was doing rehab on my knee several times a day, and would see them on a regular basis. (The) Headaches culminated in focal point paralysis of left (or right) arm the night of the Chicago game."
By September, Visger had emergency VP shunt brain surgery at Stanford Hospital and spent two weeks in intensive care. The 49ers organization was more concerned about winning football games than the health of a player who was useless to the team. Football teams move on, it is a cold reality of the business.
"No players or coaches visited during this time other than my two roommates Terry Tautolo and Scot Stauch," said Visger. "They cut Terry a day before I was released from the hospital, and Scott was packing his bags as I walked in the door after my hospital stay. He was sent to New Orleans. The doctor stated the surgery would only take a couple hours and I was in for over 4 hours. He had mentioned to my family in the waiting room, before the surgery, that my aqueductal stenosis (blockage of the aqua duct of Silvius, which was causing fluid to build up in my back two ventricles as apparent by the CAT scans), could be caused by a tumor. When I was in surgery for so long the family guessed they found a tumor. (They) Asked the doctor about it after surgery and he said he never stated the surgery would only take a couple hours. They said he got very defensive. To this day (they) don't know what took so long, but I immediately began having brain seizures from alcohol right after the surgery."
Visger was gone from the NFL but the wreckage heaped on his body from playing football remained. Besides the head injuries, there were the knee injuries, broken vertebrae and then anger management issues. He would have seven more brain surgeries and nearly died in 1982 from his brain injuries. He was also arrested. Yet at the age of 51, Visger is still around to talk about life after football and even is suggesting ways of improving the working conditions of football. But Visger is one of those players that both the NFL and the National Football League Players Association would like to forget. Visger's career was short; he didn't qualify for retirement benefits and is begging the league for help with his health and his family's sanity.
Visger is one of the thousands upon thousands of NFL players who fall through the cracks. The National Football League Players Association wanted no part of these players and received no help from Gene Upshaw and Doug Allen when they ran the association. Since going public with his plight, Visger has heard from the new Executive Director DeMaurice Smith but there is no money coming from the NFLPA. Visger is working with NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee co-chair Dr. Richard Ellenbogen in an attempt to change the culture of football.
Visger wants to see changes in medical testing, in training procedures in terms of diagnosing and the treatment of concussions, along with changes in equipment including the elimination of helmets (unlikely) because helmets are used as weapons. Visger would change some rules and hopes that players start speaking up about injuries.
The "culture of football" can best be described by Jim Burt's reaction as he was walking into the New York Giants locker room at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. This was just after the 1987 NFL strike ended when the players caved and went back to work. Burt said, "we are used to being beaten over the head" and went back to work after the owners strategy prevailed.
Visger is not surprised with the findings that one time Cincinnati Bengalis receiver Chris Henry, who died in a traffic accident last year, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a form of degenerative brain damage caused by multiple hits to the head — at the time of his death, according to scientists at the Brain Injury Research Institute, a research center affiliated with West Virginia University. Henry, Visger's idol Mike Webster, Tom McHale, Justin Strzelczyk and Andre Waters also were found to have damaged brains during their autopsies. Visger himself is amazed that he is still alive.
The brain is not designed to stand up to high speed collisions which take place on the field.
Visger is a test case of sorts for doctors. He will be visiting Dr. Daniel G. Amen this week in Newport Beach, California and go through a series of tests on his brain. Visger is hoping that Dr. Amen would provide some help to him and his family. But he also wonders, how many former players there are who are in bad shape and no one really knows it.
Conrad Dobler is very visible talking about his knees and how one of his legs needs to be amputated. The former President of the National Football league Players Association John Mackey, the Hall of Fame tight end, has dementia and lives in a full time assisted adult program. The National Football League Players Association Executive Director a number of years ago, the late Gene Upshaw, refused to help Mackey and pay him disability because Upshaw and the NFLPA claimed there was no direct link between playing football and players who suffered brain injuries. But there is a University of North Carolina study of 2,500 former NFL players that showed they faced a 37 percent higher risk of Alzheimer's disease than other men their age group. Eventually the players and the league came up with the "88 plan" which provides $88,000 for home nursing care and $50,000 for assisted living.
Mike Ditka has a Facebook page called Mike Ditka's Official Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. Ditka has been a tireless worker on behalf of the football playing community to help out players who are like Visger. The page outlined the problem — "the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. Gridiron Greats is a 501(c)(3) humanitarian organization providing financial and medical services to retired NFL players in DIRE need, most, if not all — who contributed greatly to NFL's national past time status, popularity and appeal. Due to inadequate disability, health care and insurance and no established retired player pension program, these men face dire daily challenges to sustain a quality of life and due to the amount of trauma their bodies endured during their careers, are either unable to work or face financial hardships since their careers ended. Gridiron Greats mission is to assist these men financially and provide them with medical assistance through their pro-bono medical program to provide these men with the dignity they so deserve."
"Iron" Mike Webster's bust stands in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Webster might have been the greatest center of all time but his post-career was anything but Hall of Fame grandeur. Webster had brain damage and lived out of truck in both Wisconsin and Pittsburgh, begging for Kentucky Fried Chicken leftovers.
People do ask whatever happen to so and so? In some cases, the stories are far less than storybook endings. A good number of rookies are eagerly awaiting the beginning of training camp and getting on an NFL roster. Would Visger do it all over again if he could?
The answer is quick and to the point.
"No."
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and a speaking on "The Politics of Sports Business" and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
TUESDAY, 06 JULY 2010 16:36
HTTP://WWW.NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM/PROFESSIONAL/THE-FOOTBALL-CULTURE-NEEDS-TO-BE-CHANGED#
BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
THE POLITICS OF SPORTS BUSINESS
George Visger thought he had it all when he was drafted by the New York Jets in the sixth round of the National Football League draft in 1980. Visger had it all mapped out. He was going to play for five years and then hunt and fish for the rest of his life.
It would be an ideal life. But to players the initials NFL don't stand for National Football League. They mean "Not For Long" and Visger, like many others, didn't understand that aspect of pro football when he started his journey to make the Jets squad.
The Jets coaching staff seemed to like Visger. But there was a problem; Visger was an undersized defensive lineman at 259 pounds when he arrived at mini-camp. But there was a solution called steroids, which were legal and easily obtainable. When Visger returned for Jets training camp at Hofstra University he was 275 pounds. The supplements which included Dianabol, Anavar helped an awful lot and Visger started one pre-season game against the Pittsburgh Steelers where he lined up against his idol, Steelers center Mike Webster. But Visger wasn't good enough and Jets coach Walt Michaels sent him packing.
It is the beginning of the end for Visger's dream, life and the start of a nightmare that continues to this day. Visger eventually signed with the San Francisco 49ers a number of weeks into the season. He suffered a concussion in his first game on the first play of the day. It wasn't Visger's first concussion in his life; he had many before going back to his days in Pop Warner football. But this one was bad. It took somewhere between 25 and 30 smelling salts to get Visger's head clear enough to play the rest of the game. During the game there were more smelling salts.
The training staff and Visger laughed it off. After all, he was in the NFL, where playing with pain is part of the testing of your manhood, which is very important in the NFL. But this concussion was no laughing matter. Visger developed hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and within a year, he had the first of his eight brain surgeries.
In mini-camp in May 1981, Visger blew out his knee. The 49ers doctors patched it up and he made it to training camp. The knee went again but that was the least of Visger's problems. The 1980 concussion caught up to him.
In August, Visger developed major headaches, projectile vomiting and a loss of vision. "I had a bright ball of light in the middle of my vision like in front of each eye, and the edge of my vision would light up like someone was holding a spot light on the back of my head," he said. "Each time I had the headaches at night. I discovered through my own investigations that these are common symptoms of brain swelling where it puts pressure on the optic nerves. My hearing would come and go with the beat of my heart during the headaches each night (also caused by swelling to the brain). One of them (a 49ers team doctor) said I had high blood pressure and prescribed high blood pressure medication.
"Headaches began a few weeks after the knee surgery and got progressively worse. (I) saw the team doctors a few more times on the headaches, as I was doing rehab on my knee several times a day, and would see them on a regular basis. (The) Headaches culminated in focal point paralysis of left (or right) arm the night of the Chicago game."
By September, Visger had emergency VP shunt brain surgery at Stanford Hospital and spent two weeks in intensive care. The 49ers organization was more concerned about winning football games than the health of a player who was useless to the team. Football teams move on, it is a cold reality of the business.
"No players or coaches visited during this time other than my two roommates Terry Tautolo and Scot Stauch," said Visger. "They cut Terry a day before I was released from the hospital, and Scott was packing his bags as I walked in the door after my hospital stay. He was sent to New Orleans. The doctor stated the surgery would only take a couple hours and I was in for over 4 hours. He had mentioned to my family in the waiting room, before the surgery, that my aqueductal stenosis (blockage of the aqua duct of Silvius, which was causing fluid to build up in my back two ventricles as apparent by the CAT scans), could be caused by a tumor. When I was in surgery for so long the family guessed they found a tumor. (They) Asked the doctor about it after surgery and he said he never stated the surgery would only take a couple hours. They said he got very defensive. To this day (they) don't know what took so long, but I immediately began having brain seizures from alcohol right after the surgery."
Visger was gone from the NFL but the wreckage heaped on his body from playing football remained. Besides the head injuries, there were the knee injuries, broken vertebrae and then anger management issues. He would have seven more brain surgeries and nearly died in 1982 from his brain injuries. He was also arrested. Yet at the age of 51, Visger is still around to talk about life after football and even is suggesting ways of improving the working conditions of football. But Visger is one of those players that both the NFL and the National Football League Players Association would like to forget. Visger's career was short; he didn't qualify for retirement benefits and is begging the league for help with his health and his family's sanity.
Visger is one of the thousands upon thousands of NFL players who fall through the cracks. The National Football League Players Association wanted no part of these players and received no help from Gene Upshaw and Doug Allen when they ran the association. Since going public with his plight, Visger has heard from the new Executive Director DeMaurice Smith but there is no money coming from the NFLPA. Visger is working with NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee co-chair Dr. Richard Ellenbogen in an attempt to change the culture of football.
Visger wants to see changes in medical testing, in training procedures in terms of diagnosing and the treatment of concussions, along with changes in equipment including the elimination of helmets (unlikely) because helmets are used as weapons. Visger would change some rules and hopes that players start speaking up about injuries.
The "culture of football" can best be described by Jim Burt's reaction as he was walking into the New York Giants locker room at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. This was just after the 1987 NFL strike ended when the players caved and went back to work. Burt said, "we are used to being beaten over the head" and went back to work after the owners strategy prevailed.
Visger is not surprised with the findings that one time Cincinnati Bengalis receiver Chris Henry, who died in a traffic accident last year, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a form of degenerative brain damage caused by multiple hits to the head — at the time of his death, according to scientists at the Brain Injury Research Institute, a research center affiliated with West Virginia University. Henry, Visger's idol Mike Webster, Tom McHale, Justin Strzelczyk and Andre Waters also were found to have damaged brains during their autopsies. Visger himself is amazed that he is still alive.
The brain is not designed to stand up to high speed collisions which take place on the field.
Visger is a test case of sorts for doctors. He will be visiting Dr. Daniel G. Amen this week in Newport Beach, California and go through a series of tests on his brain. Visger is hoping that Dr. Amen would provide some help to him and his family. But he also wonders, how many former players there are who are in bad shape and no one really knows it.
Conrad Dobler is very visible talking about his knees and how one of his legs needs to be amputated. The former President of the National Football league Players Association John Mackey, the Hall of Fame tight end, has dementia and lives in a full time assisted adult program. The National Football League Players Association Executive Director a number of years ago, the late Gene Upshaw, refused to help Mackey and pay him disability because Upshaw and the NFLPA claimed there was no direct link between playing football and players who suffered brain injuries. But there is a University of North Carolina study of 2,500 former NFL players that showed they faced a 37 percent higher risk of Alzheimer's disease than other men their age group. Eventually the players and the league came up with the "88 plan" which provides $88,000 for home nursing care and $50,000 for assisted living.
Mike Ditka has a Facebook page called Mike Ditka's Official Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. Ditka has been a tireless worker on behalf of the football playing community to help out players who are like Visger. The page outlined the problem — "the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. Gridiron Greats is a 501(c)(3) humanitarian organization providing financial and medical services to retired NFL players in DIRE need, most, if not all — who contributed greatly to NFL's national past time status, popularity and appeal. Due to inadequate disability, health care and insurance and no established retired player pension program, these men face dire daily challenges to sustain a quality of life and due to the amount of trauma their bodies endured during their careers, are either unable to work or face financial hardships since their careers ended. Gridiron Greats mission is to assist these men financially and provide them with medical assistance through their pro-bono medical program to provide these men with the dignity they so deserve."
"Iron" Mike Webster's bust stands in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Webster might have been the greatest center of all time but his post-career was anything but Hall of Fame grandeur. Webster had brain damage and lived out of truck in both Wisconsin and Pittsburgh, begging for Kentucky Fried Chicken leftovers.
People do ask whatever happen to so and so? In some cases, the stories are far less than storybook endings. A good number of rookies are eagerly awaiting the beginning of training camp and getting on an NFL roster. Would Visger do it all over again if he could?
The answer is quick and to the point.
"No."
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and a speaking on "The Politics of Sports Business" and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Mark Spitz Remembers the 1972 Olympics
Mark Spitz Remembers the 1972 Olympics
By Evan Weiner
July 3, 2010
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2010m7d3-Mark-Spitz-Remembers-the-1972-Olympics
(New York, N. Y.) -- The news that came Saturday should have reopened old wounds in the inner sanctum of the International Olympic Committee. Mohammed Oudeh who was the strategist behind the attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics died in Damascus, Syria at the age of 72.
The 1972 Olympics should have ended with the attack but it didn't because the International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage said, "The Games Must Go On" after a day of mourning. Brundage just before the 1972 Munich Games spoke glowingly of the 1936 Berlin Games, the Games of Adolf Hitler, as being the finest ever.
Brundage probably wasn't too happy that Mark Spitz, an American Jew, was the star attraction of the 1972 Games. Spitz won seven gold medals and set a new world record in each of the seven events: the 100 meter freestyle, the 200 meter freestyle, the 100 meter butterfly, the 200 meter butterfly, the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay, the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay and the 4 x 100 meter medley relay.
Because Spitz was an American Jew, he could have been a high profile target in the Olympic Village. The attack took place after the swimming events wrapped up on September 5. Eight Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Black September group broke into the Olympic Village and took eleven Israeli athletes, coaches and officials hostage in their residences. Two of the hostages were killed in the first moments after the break-in. The standoff in the Olympic Village lasted for almost 18 hours.
Late in the evening, German authorities were able to get the terrorists to agree to leave the compound with their hostages and transferred by helicopter to the military airport of Fürstenfeldbruck so they could board a plane bound for an undetermined Arab country. The German authorities had a plan to ambush the terrorists at the airport but the rescue attempt failed and all of the Israeli hostages were killed.
In a 1999 interview, Spitz told me that he was initially unaware of what was happening in the Olympic Village.
"The swimming program had stopped," said Spitz. "I swam all of my events and that evening---the last day of competition was on a Monday and this happened Tuesday on a morning. Swimming was through so I didn't have to compete anymore."
Spitz was in the Olympic Village on Tuesday with the other athletes but was holding a news conference to discuss the seven gold medals he had won.
"Yeah, yeah, of course," said Spitz who confirmed that he was in the village when the break-in occurred. "I had a press conference right afterwards on Tuesday and that was when everyone told me about this Israeli tragedy or the thing that was happening at the time, it hadn't turned into a major tragedy at the moment at least at that time, they didn't know much about it.
"Then the next day, I was whisked away."
With that, Mark Spitz was put onto a plane and sent home.
Safe.
He was out of harm's way but Brundage needed to make some quick decisions. On September 6, there was a memorial service attended by 80,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes in the Olympic Stadium. Incredibly, Brundage said little about the murdered athletes in his speech. The President of the Munich Organizing Committee Willi Daume wanted to cancel the remainder of the Games, but Brundage said no and during his stadium speech uttered the now famous Olympic phrase. "The games must go on, and we must... and we must continue our efforts to keep them clean, pure and honest." The Israeli government and Israeli Olympic team chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin tacitly supported Brundage.
The Games did go on and in the 38 years since, the International Olympic Committee has simply ignored the terrorist attack in the Olympic Village which took the lives of 11 Israeli athletes and one West German policeman. Over the years, the IOC has given some vague reasons as to why there has not been a remembrance of the Munich attack. As always the case with the IOC, there seems to be a spineless jellyfish aspect when it comes to the 1972 Munich attack, the 1996 Atlanta bombing and the 2010 death of a luge competitor in Vancouver.
The IOC apparently according to one British Broadcasting Corporation story is "afraid to alienate other members of the Olympic community."
There are markers in Munich at the Olympic Stadium and at the apartments that once served as the home for athletes in the former Munich Olympics Village. There is also a memorial plaque that is attached to one of the light towers at the Olympic Stadium that was used for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
In 1935, Avery Brundage was the President of the United States Olympic Committee. In December 1935, Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, the President of the Amateur Athletic Union, urged Brundage to boycott the 1936 Berlin Games because “Nazi Germany is endeavoring to use the Eleventh Olympiad to serve the necessities and interests of the Nazi regime rather than the Olympic ideals.” Brundage said no and the Americans went to Berlin with 23 Jewish team members and performed in front of Hitler.
Brundage was a member of the America First Committee (as was Charles Lindbergh, Walt Disney and Gerald Ford), a group that did not want America to get involved in the war in Europe which eventually led to World War II. Brundage did not think the Olympics should be used for protests and threw out American runners John Carlos and Tommie Smith from the Olympic Village in Mexico City in 1968 after they gave the Black Power salute on the podium after winning medals. Brundage did not have a problem with German salutes at Olympic events in 1936. Brundage had Carlos and Smith suspended from the American team. Brundage also was against the exclusion of Rhodesia from the Olympic Games because he didn't believe the country should be penalized for its apartheid-like racial policies.
Brundage had a disdain for women athletes as well and wanted to keep women out of the Olympics.
Brundage had a major role in preventing two prominent Jewish athletes, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, from participating in the 4 x 100 meter relay in Berlin. According to Glickman, Brundage came up to him and Stoller in the morning before the race and said that they didn't have to run and that the two would be replaced by Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalf.
Everyone who knew Marty from that day in 1936 until his death in 2001 would be told the same story. "Brudage didn't want the Fuhrer (Hitler) to be embarrassed with us winning the gold medal." Owens and Metcalf were part of the gold medal winning relay.
The Games Must Go On and they did and have since September 1972. Perhaps IOC President Jacques Rogge will use the 40th anniversary of the attack as a milestone to formally recognize what happened on September 4 and 5 in Munich in the Olympics history. Chances are rather slim though because the IOC would rather forget than remember.
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and speaker on "The Business and Politics of Sports." He can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
By Evan Weiner
July 3, 2010
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2010m7d3-Mark-Spitz-Remembers-the-1972-Olympics
(New York, N. Y.) -- The news that came Saturday should have reopened old wounds in the inner sanctum of the International Olympic Committee. Mohammed Oudeh who was the strategist behind the attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics died in Damascus, Syria at the age of 72.
The 1972 Olympics should have ended with the attack but it didn't because the International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage said, "The Games Must Go On" after a day of mourning. Brundage just before the 1972 Munich Games spoke glowingly of the 1936 Berlin Games, the Games of Adolf Hitler, as being the finest ever.
Brundage probably wasn't too happy that Mark Spitz, an American Jew, was the star attraction of the 1972 Games. Spitz won seven gold medals and set a new world record in each of the seven events: the 100 meter freestyle, the 200 meter freestyle, the 100 meter butterfly, the 200 meter butterfly, the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay, the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay and the 4 x 100 meter medley relay.
Because Spitz was an American Jew, he could have been a high profile target in the Olympic Village. The attack took place after the swimming events wrapped up on September 5. Eight Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Black September group broke into the Olympic Village and took eleven Israeli athletes, coaches and officials hostage in their residences. Two of the hostages were killed in the first moments after the break-in. The standoff in the Olympic Village lasted for almost 18 hours.
Late in the evening, German authorities were able to get the terrorists to agree to leave the compound with their hostages and transferred by helicopter to the military airport of Fürstenfeldbruck so they could board a plane bound for an undetermined Arab country. The German authorities had a plan to ambush the terrorists at the airport but the rescue attempt failed and all of the Israeli hostages were killed.
In a 1999 interview, Spitz told me that he was initially unaware of what was happening in the Olympic Village.
"The swimming program had stopped," said Spitz. "I swam all of my events and that evening---the last day of competition was on a Monday and this happened Tuesday on a morning. Swimming was through so I didn't have to compete anymore."
Spitz was in the Olympic Village on Tuesday with the other athletes but was holding a news conference to discuss the seven gold medals he had won.
"Yeah, yeah, of course," said Spitz who confirmed that he was in the village when the break-in occurred. "I had a press conference right afterwards on Tuesday and that was when everyone told me about this Israeli tragedy or the thing that was happening at the time, it hadn't turned into a major tragedy at the moment at least at that time, they didn't know much about it.
"Then the next day, I was whisked away."
With that, Mark Spitz was put onto a plane and sent home.
Safe.
He was out of harm's way but Brundage needed to make some quick decisions. On September 6, there was a memorial service attended by 80,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes in the Olympic Stadium. Incredibly, Brundage said little about the murdered athletes in his speech. The President of the Munich Organizing Committee Willi Daume wanted to cancel the remainder of the Games, but Brundage said no and during his stadium speech uttered the now famous Olympic phrase. "The games must go on, and we must... and we must continue our efforts to keep them clean, pure and honest." The Israeli government and Israeli Olympic team chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin tacitly supported Brundage.
The Games did go on and in the 38 years since, the International Olympic Committee has simply ignored the terrorist attack in the Olympic Village which took the lives of 11 Israeli athletes and one West German policeman. Over the years, the IOC has given some vague reasons as to why there has not been a remembrance of the Munich attack. As always the case with the IOC, there seems to be a spineless jellyfish aspect when it comes to the 1972 Munich attack, the 1996 Atlanta bombing and the 2010 death of a luge competitor in Vancouver.
The IOC apparently according to one British Broadcasting Corporation story is "afraid to alienate other members of the Olympic community."
There are markers in Munich at the Olympic Stadium and at the apartments that once served as the home for athletes in the former Munich Olympics Village. There is also a memorial plaque that is attached to one of the light towers at the Olympic Stadium that was used for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
In 1935, Avery Brundage was the President of the United States Olympic Committee. In December 1935, Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, the President of the Amateur Athletic Union, urged Brundage to boycott the 1936 Berlin Games because “Nazi Germany is endeavoring to use the Eleventh Olympiad to serve the necessities and interests of the Nazi regime rather than the Olympic ideals.” Brundage said no and the Americans went to Berlin with 23 Jewish team members and performed in front of Hitler.
Brundage was a member of the America First Committee (as was Charles Lindbergh, Walt Disney and Gerald Ford), a group that did not want America to get involved in the war in Europe which eventually led to World War II. Brundage did not think the Olympics should be used for protests and threw out American runners John Carlos and Tommie Smith from the Olympic Village in Mexico City in 1968 after they gave the Black Power salute on the podium after winning medals. Brundage did not have a problem with German salutes at Olympic events in 1936. Brundage had Carlos and Smith suspended from the American team. Brundage also was against the exclusion of Rhodesia from the Olympic Games because he didn't believe the country should be penalized for its apartheid-like racial policies.
Brundage had a disdain for women athletes as well and wanted to keep women out of the Olympics.
Brundage had a major role in preventing two prominent Jewish athletes, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, from participating in the 4 x 100 meter relay in Berlin. According to Glickman, Brundage came up to him and Stoller in the morning before the race and said that they didn't have to run and that the two would be replaced by Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalf.
Everyone who knew Marty from that day in 1936 until his death in 2001 would be told the same story. "Brudage didn't want the Fuhrer (Hitler) to be embarrassed with us winning the gold medal." Owens and Metcalf were part of the gold medal winning relay.
The Games Must Go On and they did and have since September 1972. Perhaps IOC President Jacques Rogge will use the 40th anniversary of the attack as a milestone to formally recognize what happened on September 4 and 5 in Munich in the Olympics history. Chances are rather slim though because the IOC would rather forget than remember.
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and speaker on "The Business and Politics of Sports." He can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
Friday, July 2, 2010
Another Former Jailed Politician is on Radio and His Sports Background
Another Former Jailed Politician is on Radio and His Sports Background
By Evan Weiner
July 2, 2010
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2010m7d2-Another-former-jailed-politician-is-on-radio-and-his-sports-background
(New York, N. Y.) --John Rowland, the Connecticut Governor who would not play ball with Hartford Whalers owner Peter Karmanos in 1997 when Karmanos was looking for a new Hartford arena even though Karmanos was going to open up a branch of his Compuware business in the state as part of a deal, is going back to public life guest hosting a radio show on WTIC in Hartford. Rowland is just the latest of disgraced politicians who is remaking an image thanks to the lack of standards in radio and on cable TV by programmers who think confrontation is good radio or good cable TV instead of informing the masses. You see John Rowland did 10-months jail time after resigning as governor for trading political access for vacations and repairs to his lakeside cottage in 2004.
Rowland and former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer are back with Spitzer landing a show on CNN. It should come as no surprise that radio and cable TV news continue to sink to deplorable depths by hiring people who you would not want as a guest in your living room. Former Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci hosts a radio show on WPRO in the town and got his job shortly after being released from jail in 2007. Cianci did more than four years in prison on a federal corruption conviction.
The list of miscreants that takes up space on public airwaves like radio stations and on cable TV is long and rather seedy. Beck and Limbaugh are just two names on that list who have had brushes with drug abuse. But they are merely entertainers along with the rest of them. That is the Don Imus line---Imus is also a recovering drug addict.
But this is about Rowland and his sports decisions. Karmanos bought the team in 1994 and began asking the city and Governor Rowland about the possibility of getting a new building. Hartford was never seen as a great hockey town and the Boston Bruins ownership never relished having the hockey team close to the Boston market. The state would not spend about $150 million on a new place and Karmanos bought a get out of Hartford card for some $20 million. Karmanos was on record that municipalities should not subsidize arenas for team looking for a new building in the mid-1990s, it was all the rage. Mayors could not wait to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars to build a facility and then give the building away to a team owner for next to nothing. The 1986 Tax Act capped the revenues taken in by a facility to pay down the debt at the building at eight cents on a dollar. A good owner with sharp lawyers could come out with 92 cents on the dollar after negotiations. Stadium and arena building took off after 1986. Who could blame a sports team owner? Politicians were genuflecting in front of them with bags of money and sweetheart leases. Rowland let the Whalers go because he had what he thought was another big fish on the line.
The New England Patriots of the National Football League.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft needed a new stadium as his built-on-the-cheap Foxboro stadium was about 25 years old at the time and Kraft was very interested in Hartford. Well, maybe Hartford as a form of leverage so he could get a better deal in Massachusetts. In 1998, Rowland made his bid to Kraft for the Patriots. After he balked at spending $150 million or so on a new arena that would be paid off by Connecticut taxpayers, Rowland had a plan to bring the NFL to Hartford. He proposed building a $375 million stadium which would have been surrounded by a hotel and a convention center.
Kraft accepted the deal on November 19, 1998.
Rowland bought into the notion that was popular in the 1990s that a stadium would spur economic growth and there was no city in Connecticut that needed economic growth more than Hartford, well maybe Hartford was a close second to Bridgeport which was teetering on bankruptcy or New Haven. One of the reasons that the National Hockey League was failing in Hartford was lack of economic growth. Connecticut's insurance companies were laying off workers, the manufacturing base was faltering and there were defense department cuts.
Rowland also trotted out the old and trite axiom that a team would bring community spirit.
By April 30, 1999, all of Rowland’s football dreams were shattered. Kraft got a $70 million subsidy from Massachusetts lawmakers to build a new stadium in Foxboro and pulled out of the Hartford deal. Kraft's people said the Hartford site was a toxic dump and that the stadium would not be opened until 2002 or 2003 and that was too long a wait. The National Football League wanted to stay in the Boston area. Hartford was not Boston and at the end of the day, Kraft got what he wanted in Foxboro and Rowland lost yet another sports franchise.
Rowland did get the Adriaen’s Landing project on the Connecticut River done. Instead of a football stadium for the NFL, there is a convention center and hotel on the grounds. A 40,000 seat football stadium was built in East Hartford on a 75 acre tract that used to serve as an airfield for Pratt and Whitney. The venue is used by the University of Connecticut's football team and the United Football League's Hartford franchise. The stadium will be used next February for outdoor hockey and will feature games that include Whalers and Bruins alumni along with college hockey.
Former Whalers owner Howard Baldwin is attempting to establish a climate that would open the door to the return of the NHL to Connecticut's capital.
Rowland has worked in government since his release from prison and is now on the radio for a few days anyway. Radio and TV used to have real journalists, people who got their start in newspapers, on staff. Cable TV and radio today is filled with carnival barkers, drug addicts, an eight time married guy with a shady background who borrowed money from whoever he could, a guy who rallied against Mexicans and illegal immigrants even though his wife is Mexican, politicians who left office in shame or did jail time, political operatives, one time sports highlight narrators, construction workers, college dropouts, comedians and nobodies who know how to scream and act angry knowing they could cut off someone with a opposite viewpoint. These are the kind of people who would be shown the door at 500-watt radio stations for lack of talent in the 1970s. Rowland, a three time winner, never did finish his term. Instead he went to jail. Maybe he really does fit in with what passes for talent on radio and on cable TV these days.
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and speaker on the "Politics of Sports Business" and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
By Evan Weiner
July 2, 2010
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3926-Business-of-Sports-Examiner~y2010m7d2-Another-former-jailed-politician-is-on-radio-and-his-sports-background
(New York, N. Y.) --John Rowland, the Connecticut Governor who would not play ball with Hartford Whalers owner Peter Karmanos in 1997 when Karmanos was looking for a new Hartford arena even though Karmanos was going to open up a branch of his Compuware business in the state as part of a deal, is going back to public life guest hosting a radio show on WTIC in Hartford. Rowland is just the latest of disgraced politicians who is remaking an image thanks to the lack of standards in radio and on cable TV by programmers who think confrontation is good radio or good cable TV instead of informing the masses. You see John Rowland did 10-months jail time after resigning as governor for trading political access for vacations and repairs to his lakeside cottage in 2004.
Rowland and former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer are back with Spitzer landing a show on CNN. It should come as no surprise that radio and cable TV news continue to sink to deplorable depths by hiring people who you would not want as a guest in your living room. Former Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci hosts a radio show on WPRO in the town and got his job shortly after being released from jail in 2007. Cianci did more than four years in prison on a federal corruption conviction.
The list of miscreants that takes up space on public airwaves like radio stations and on cable TV is long and rather seedy. Beck and Limbaugh are just two names on that list who have had brushes with drug abuse. But they are merely entertainers along with the rest of them. That is the Don Imus line---Imus is also a recovering drug addict.
But this is about Rowland and his sports decisions. Karmanos bought the team in 1994 and began asking the city and Governor Rowland about the possibility of getting a new building. Hartford was never seen as a great hockey town and the Boston Bruins ownership never relished having the hockey team close to the Boston market. The state would not spend about $150 million on a new place and Karmanos bought a get out of Hartford card for some $20 million. Karmanos was on record that municipalities should not subsidize arenas for team looking for a new building in the mid-1990s, it was all the rage. Mayors could not wait to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars to build a facility and then give the building away to a team owner for next to nothing. The 1986 Tax Act capped the revenues taken in by a facility to pay down the debt at the building at eight cents on a dollar. A good owner with sharp lawyers could come out with 92 cents on the dollar after negotiations. Stadium and arena building took off after 1986. Who could blame a sports team owner? Politicians were genuflecting in front of them with bags of money and sweetheart leases. Rowland let the Whalers go because he had what he thought was another big fish on the line.
The New England Patriots of the National Football League.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft needed a new stadium as his built-on-the-cheap Foxboro stadium was about 25 years old at the time and Kraft was very interested in Hartford. Well, maybe Hartford as a form of leverage so he could get a better deal in Massachusetts. In 1998, Rowland made his bid to Kraft for the Patriots. After he balked at spending $150 million or so on a new arena that would be paid off by Connecticut taxpayers, Rowland had a plan to bring the NFL to Hartford. He proposed building a $375 million stadium which would have been surrounded by a hotel and a convention center.
Kraft accepted the deal on November 19, 1998.
Rowland bought into the notion that was popular in the 1990s that a stadium would spur economic growth and there was no city in Connecticut that needed economic growth more than Hartford, well maybe Hartford was a close second to Bridgeport which was teetering on bankruptcy or New Haven. One of the reasons that the National Hockey League was failing in Hartford was lack of economic growth. Connecticut's insurance companies were laying off workers, the manufacturing base was faltering and there were defense department cuts.
Rowland also trotted out the old and trite axiom that a team would bring community spirit.
By April 30, 1999, all of Rowland’s football dreams were shattered. Kraft got a $70 million subsidy from Massachusetts lawmakers to build a new stadium in Foxboro and pulled out of the Hartford deal. Kraft's people said the Hartford site was a toxic dump and that the stadium would not be opened until 2002 or 2003 and that was too long a wait. The National Football League wanted to stay in the Boston area. Hartford was not Boston and at the end of the day, Kraft got what he wanted in Foxboro and Rowland lost yet another sports franchise.
Rowland did get the Adriaen’s Landing project on the Connecticut River done. Instead of a football stadium for the NFL, there is a convention center and hotel on the grounds. A 40,000 seat football stadium was built in East Hartford on a 75 acre tract that used to serve as an airfield for Pratt and Whitney. The venue is used by the University of Connecticut's football team and the United Football League's Hartford franchise. The stadium will be used next February for outdoor hockey and will feature games that include Whalers and Bruins alumni along with college hockey.
Former Whalers owner Howard Baldwin is attempting to establish a climate that would open the door to the return of the NHL to Connecticut's capital.
Rowland has worked in government since his release from prison and is now on the radio for a few days anyway. Radio and TV used to have real journalists, people who got their start in newspapers, on staff. Cable TV and radio today is filled with carnival barkers, drug addicts, an eight time married guy with a shady background who borrowed money from whoever he could, a guy who rallied against Mexicans and illegal immigrants even though his wife is Mexican, politicians who left office in shame or did jail time, political operatives, one time sports highlight narrators, construction workers, college dropouts, comedians and nobodies who know how to scream and act angry knowing they could cut off someone with a opposite viewpoint. These are the kind of people who would be shown the door at 500-watt radio stations for lack of talent in the 1970s. Rowland, a three time winner, never did finish his term. Instead he went to jail. Maybe he really does fit in with what passes for talent on radio and on cable TV these days.
Evan Weiner is an author, radio-TV commentator and speaker on the "Politics of Sports Business" and can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
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