Countdown of 10 Top Sports Business Issues
July 28-August 3, 2008      1.  NFL Training Camps - Far From Wilting in the Heat
It's not by coincidence that I happen to be spending long stretches of time in South Florida right now.  Besides enjoying the summer with my family, I'm spending some of my days at the Miami Dolphins training camp in Davie.  I'm not alone - well over a million eager NFL fans attend training camp each year, taking in the highly-charged environment for free.

 

At Redskins Park in Virginia, over 28,000 fans attended Redskins Fan Appreciation Day last week, shattering the previous one-day training camp record of 25,000 set in 2004.  (Many, of course, turned out to see brand new Redskin Jason Taylor.)  At Patriots training camp at home Gillette Stadium, the team is accustomed to large crowds -- the Patriots provide seating for over 3,000 fans, with overflow seating for another 2,000 on a hillside in the north end zone. When attendance exceeds 5,000 fans, the team opens the uBid pedestrian ramp in Gillette Stadium for up to another 3,000 fans.  And while the Dallas Cowboys' camp in Oxnard, CA is far from the team's Texas home, it's no coincidence that the Hollywood media, top agents, and sideline celebrities are only a short freeway drive away.

Out of the 32 NFL camps, 14 are located at or near the team's home field, with the majority choosing locations strategically situated to raise their national profile and build a broader fan base.  The economic impact of the locales is similar to baseball's spring training games - and what teams lose in gate from the free access, they often make up for in merchandising, brand building, and community goodwill.

 

On Sunday, I'll be in Canton, Ohio for the annual Hall of Fame Game and kickoff of football's "preseason season."  As the Indianapolis Colts play the Redskins on the season's first installment of NBC's "Sunday Night Football," we'll look forward to the reuniting of former ESPN "SportsCenter" anchors Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann on the NBC program, and to the long NFL season stretching out ahead.

 

2.  No Tiger = Train Wreck?
The absence of Tiger Woods from pro golf this summer has definitely had the effect of extending sports' silly season well beyond its welcome.  Instead of Woods' record-breaking, fairway-hitting, and ridiculous 50' putts, we get...mega hype surrounding the train wreck otherwise known as Michelle Wie and her latest attempt to make a PGA TOUR event cut.

 

As this week's SportsBusiness Journal points out, PGATour.com, run by Turner Sports, is giving Wie online coverage on par with media saturation normally reserved for Woods.  A dedicated page on the site "will contain blog-style coverage from a Web site staffer following Wie around the course."  Her rounds - all two of them, if past performance is an indicator - will also be painstakingly documented via photos and video.  Website officials claim the controversy surrounding Wie's Legends Reno-Tahoe Open exemption played into the decision to highlight her on the site.  The same logic clearly applied when tournament representatives decided to invite her in the first place.

 

The male pros will chase large paychecks in the next two weeks.  The Detroit area will host golf's last 2008 Major in two weeks (with an economic impact of over $40 million, or so).  They will be getting ready three hours to the south in Akron, Ohio at Firestone at the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational.  The event will have a major corporate presence.  I will be broadcasting from the Squire, Sanders & Dempsey Hospitality Chalet, as other corporations will also entertain during that event as well.  Interestingly, the NFL Hall of Fame Game kicks off 20 minutes up the road in Canton, only a few hours after the final putt.  Total economic impact:  over $100 million to Northern Ohio!

3. High School Football, Hollywood Style
In the sports world, it is universally acknowledged that having a big name player on your team will help draw a big fan base, media coverage, sponsors, and merchandise sales.  But what if a) the team is located in Hollywood's backyard; b) the big names on the team are routinely amended with "son of," and c) what if the dads of those sons are Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, and Will Smith?

 

That's the high-profile dilemma faced this fall by the coaching staff at Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, CA.  Nick Montana, son of Joe, arguably the greatest quarterback of all time, just transferred to Oaks Christian from perennial Northern California powerhouse De La Salle and is already thought to have the talent to be a major college quarterback recruit.  Soon competing with him for quarterbacking duties will be sophomore Trevor Gretzky, son of Wayne, while sophomore Trey Smith is a receiver on the team. 

 

While the star-studded school, which has won six Southern Section championships since its founding way back in 2000, is considered an early contender for the state championship, a more immediate concern is security.  After "Access Hollywood" did a story on Oaks Christian's football team, with "Entertainment Tonight" right behind, school officials decided to take action to protect the privacy of its student athletes and their families, barring "nontraditional sports media" from summer practices.  A formal game day policy, with the likelihood of hordes of paparazzi in mind, is still being crafted.

 

On a more serious note, three states (New Jersey, Florida, and Texas) have seen interesting results in their steroid testing program.  The stats released by those states show that only four of the 11,217 athletes screened have tested positive.  That's 0.035 percent.  Florida dropped its program, and New Jersey and Texas are revisiting.  Is it working as a deterrent?  Are athletes finding ways around the test?  Is it the economy and budget restrictions?  As usual, no one knows for sure!

4. MLB Trade Deadline Looms.  Etc.
As the MLB 2008 trade deadline of 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday nears, all remaining baseball trades have effectively been overshadowed by the NFL.  Will Boston deal Manny?  Will Teixeira leave the Braves?  Who really cares?  All trade-savvy eyes this week are on the Green Bay Packers and the should-he-stay-or-should-he-go man of the moment, Brett Favre.  From the looks of it, the sticky Favre situation will stretch well beyond Thursday afternoon.

 

In actual baseball news, the Tribune Company, owner of the Chicago Cubs, has reportedly invited at least three potential buyers who submitted $1 billion neighborhood bids to participate in a second phase of proposals.  Apparently included in the second round of bids are the Ricketts family, founders of the brokerage now known as TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.; Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban; and a Sports Acquisition Holding Corp. group comprising Hank Aaron, former U.S. Representative Jack Kemp, and unnamed partner(s).

 

And in Washington D.C., no stranger to clashes between environmentalists and the establishment, the Washington Nationals, despite having the greenest ballpark in baseball (with apologies to Fenway) that has earned recognition from the U.S. Green Building Council, are currently under fire from environmentalists, civic, and religious groups decrying the team's sponsorship relationship with ExxonMobil.  Strike Out Exxon is demanding that the Nats end their advertising relationship with the energy giant, claiming that the arrangement is a thinly-veiled opportunity for ExxonMobil lobbyists to solicit Capitol Hill policy makers who frequent the new stadium.  The company claims it has spent $1.5 billion since 2004 on energy-efficient measures.

5.  Jersey Guys

Despite his supposed "retirement" at the end of last season, Packers legend Brett Favre's Number Four jersey was the top seller on nfl.com through the League's fiscal first quarter ending June 30.  Favre's jersey trumped Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the top position, with those two players sliding to #2 and #3 respectively.  Overall, quarterbacks took the top five positions - with brothers Eli and Peyton Manning rounding out #4 and #5.  The Cowboys took five out of the top 25 spots, the Super Bowl-winning Giants, four.  Minnesota Vikings Rookie of the Year Adrian Peterson came in at #6.  The Raiders' Darren McFadden took the #8 spot without a single NFL carry as of yet, and in a nod to the big yet oft forgotten guys, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis came in at #22.

 

The replica team jerseys on nfl.com average $79.99.  Customizing with your own name on the back will cost you an extra $20.

 

6.  Olympics - The Latest Dope on Dopers
Last week, scientists from the U.S. and Italy announced a breakthrough in developing a urine test that will detect human growth hormone, or HGH.  The finding could prove to be the first accurate non-invasive means of screening for the performance-enhancing drug, banned almost unilaterally among sports entities around the world.

 

At present, the only even quasi-reliable test for HGH is a blood test, which has been questioned by pro sports leagues, players' unions, and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) alike.  (No prominent athlete has ever tested positive for HGH even after being administered the blood test.)  Cere Nanosciences, based in Virginia, and Italy's Istituto Superiore di Sanita, claim they could have a urine test for HGH on the market within six months, subject to widespread review. 

 

Interestingly, the institutions' original aim in their joint HGH research was cancer cures, not performance-enhancing drug detection.  However, the biotech officials emphasize that should their test be adopted by sports leagues, all the revenue would go toward detecting cancer in its earliest stages - clearly, a win-win for everyone involved.

 

Meanwhile in Beijing, the IOC is enforcing a zero-tolerance policy and instituting the most thorough comprehensive drug testing program in Olympic history.  Beginning July 27 through August 24, in cooperation with WADA, the Olympic governing body reserves the right to test any competitor at any time and in any place - whether he or she is in an Olympic venue, the Olympic village, or elsewhere.  Additionally, the total number of athlete tests will increase dramatically - the estimate for tests to be conducted in Beijing is 4,500, 25 percent more than in Athens in 2004 and 90 percent more than in Sydney in 2000.  An athlete caught doping and given a sanction of more than six months will be banned from participating in the next Olympics.  

 

7.  Olympics Stock Up
The Dow Jones 2008 Summer Games Index, which tracks official sponsors of the Beijing Olympics and "measures shares of companies involved" with the Games, is up 6.5 percent over the past 12 months, and up 18.3 percent since Dow Jones launched it on December 31, 2006. The index comprises "37 component stocks," including those for IOC TOP sponsor Coca-Cola and China's Tsingtao Beer.

 

As for the success of sponsorship platforms so far, industry surveys indicate that Coca-Cola and Lenovo are the two firms most clearly associated with the Games. One study shows that "nearly one-third of 2,000 urban residents surveyed" correctly named Coca-Cola as a sponsor, and about 20 percent named Lenovo.

 For IOC TOP sponsor Lenovo, the Beijing Olympics obviously promise a huge opportunity to build brand recognition, as demonstrated by the Dow Jones Index results.  The company's main objective for the Games is to boost brand awareness in Western markets.   Lenovo's marketing strategy also includes providing 30,000 computers, servers and printers for the Games.

8.  Britain Recession Threat to UK Sport
Recession fears in Great Britain have jeopardized efforts to raise