All Articles Tagged "sports business"
NBA Negotiation Still up in the Air
(Wall Street Journal) — The National Basketball Association and its players union left a crucial day of negotiation with no new labor deal and no meetings scheduled, putting regular season games in jeopardy. NBA Commissioner David Stern said Tuesday the league will have no choice but to cancel the first two weeks of the season if a deal isn’t struck by Monday. ”We were not able to make the progress that we hoped we could make and we were not able to continue the negotiations,” Mr. Stern said, emerging from a four-hour meeting with players’ representatives at a Manhattan hotel. If the first two weeks of the regular season—which is supposed to start Nov. 1—are canceled, the league stands to lose “hundreds of millions of dollars,” said NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver. Mr. Stern said the rest of the preseason will be canceled. Last week, the NBA canceled the first wave of preseason games.
NBA and Players Keep After Deal
(AP) — They don’t have a deal yet, and they are just about out of time. After some two years of on-and-off negotiations, that’s about all NBA players and owners agree on. The gaps in their financial proposals have been so great that they sometimes decide it’s best to just talk about something else. Now they have to figure it out quickly. Without at least getting very close to the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement this weekend, hopes of the 2011-12 season starting on time would be all but lost. ”We realize that the calendar, the clock, the watch, whatever you want to say, is running out in terms of starting our regular season on time. So we’re going to try to get some things done this weekend and see what we can do,” said the Lakers’ Derek Fisher, president of the players’ association.
Brooklyn Nets and Jay-Z Will Christen New Arena
(Crain’s) — Kicking off a 12-month countdown to the Barclays Center’s anticipated opening in downtown Brooklyn, the rapper and entrepreneur Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter announced Monday that the borough’s future NBA franchise will call itself the Brooklyn Nets, ending months of speculation about the basketball team’s name. Mr. Carter also said he will headline the first performances at the Atlantic Yards venue, which is now set to open in September 2012. “There’ll definitely be more than one,” Jay-Z said of the concerts during a press conference at Atlantic Terminal, with the steel skeleton of the 18,000-seat arena sprouting behind him. Joining Jay-Z on stage were Forest City Ratner Companies CEO Bruce Ratner, Barclays Center and Nets President Brett Yormark and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
All Talk, No Action on NBA Labor Deal
(AP) — The start of the NBA season was thrown into doubt Tuesday after players and owners made no progress at a key labor meeting, with no further talks scheduled. Union executive director Billy Hunter says players were prepared to make a “significant” financial move, but found owners unwilling to budge off their positions.
What Michael Vick Can Teach You About Money Management
(New York Times) — Michael Vick will take the field on Sunday wearing the uniform of the Philadelphia Eagles, who took him in after his imprisonment for helping to run a dogfighting ring. But thanks to his personal bankruptcyfiling after he went to jail, he will also be playing for BMW Financial Services, Dodson Pest Control, Summertime Pool and the Monticello Woods Homeowners Association. They are not sponsors. Instead, they and many others have a claim on his future earnings. Bankrupt professional athletes are a sad fixture on the sports scene, and Mr. Vick isn’t even alone among quarterbacks who have hit the financially injured reserve list. The former Cleveland Browns star Bernie Kosar and the current New York Jets backup, Mark Brunell, have had their brushes with bankruptcy, too. Sports stars may or may not mess up more often than the average person who earns a lot of money really fast, but their troubles seem outsize because of their fame and the pathetic schemes they fall for. The stakes are high for football players in particular, since their average professional career lasts just four seasons or so and may leave lingering injuries and the health costs or physical limitations that come with them.
In Business, Mayweather Pulls No Punches
(Michigan Live) – Floyd Mayweather participated in the richest fight in history but his broader impact on the business of boxing outstrips the limits of his massive ring revenues. Mayweather returns to the ring Saturday night against Victor Ortiz, in a uniquely cross-marketed fight, as he continues to pave uncommon inroads for a boxer. At age 34, he has defied purported racial limitations, altered the way HBO negotiates contracts, embraced the general public via the Internet like few athletes have, and helped create the most intriguing pre-fight television programming in the sport’s history. Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s adviser, said boxing business acumen “is the one thing Floyd will never get credit for,” although the advancements were far-reaching enough for the Grand Rapids native to appear on “Dancing With the Stars” and as a participant in “WrestleMania XXIV.”
Media Companies No Longer Interested In Investing in Sports Teams
by Evette Brown
With the recent lockouts in two professional sports and other recession-related issues, large media corporations that were once purchasing sports teams for synergy purposes in the past are now opting out.
According to Forbes, the appeal for media corporations such as Comcast, News Corp, and Walt Disney to purchase sports teams to avoid compensating the teams for broadcasting rights is gradually fading. Recently, billionaires with roots in the cities where these teams are located, like Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks, are replacing companies as owners of these franchises.
With Comcast’s purchase of the Philadelphia 76ers; News Corp’s acquisition of the Los Angeles Dodgers; and Walt Disney’s securement of both the Anaheim Ducks and the Anaheim Angels, it appeared as if the media world had a vested interested in owning franchises in all of the professional sports leagues.
However, as quickly as these media companies invested in sports, they have withdrawn their offers by selling all of the above teams to individual owners. What is prompting this sudden decision to forego team ownership in exchange for paying the broadcasting rights that the corporations were avoiding to begin with?
According to Scott Milleisen, a top sports banker for JP Morgan Chase Private Banking, selling these teams is an admittance of financial defeat. “Local ownership is very important in sports,” he told Forbes. “If you just inject a CEO who doesn’t invest in the community, it makes it very hard for them to be successful.” With the News Corp. owned Los Angeles Dodgers filing bankruptcy, Milleisen is directly on target with his presumption. These media corporations are withdrawing their troops from the sports arenas and focusing them on what is most important: media.
NBA Players Free to Take Their Game Abroad
(AP) — If NBA stars are serious about playing overseas, basketball’s governing body says they will be welcomed. Just as long as they promise to leave once the lockout ends. FIBA announced Friday it would clear NBA players under contract to play in its leagues during the work stoppage, provided the deals they sign come with opt-out clauses. In a ruling that paves the way for players to earn a paycheck, FIBA agreed with NBA and players’ association officials that players are free to sign anywhere but do so at their own risk of injury. ”As the world governing body for basketball, we strongly hope that the labor dispute will be resolved as soon as possible, and that the NBA season is able to begin as scheduled,” secretary general Patrick Baumann said in a statement. ”In view of our role to promote basketball worldwide, we support any player wishing to play the game, wherever and whenever. We do so while obviously taking the interests, rights and obligations of all parties into account.”
NFL Lockout is Finally Resolved
by Evette Brown
With Commissioner Roger Goodell’s announcement, “Football’s back!” the NFL lockout officially ended. After four months of tense negotiations that threatened to cancel the 2011 football season, the National Football League and the NFL Players Association signed a ten-year collective-bargaining agreement yesterday afternoon. This official agreement brings an end to the conflict and opens the doors for teams to initiate training and preparation for the forthcoming season.
According to a report from Bloomberg, representative members of the NFL Players Association approved the deal offered by the 32 league owners when they unanimously voted in favor of the offer.
Dividing the $9 billion revenue that the NFL generates annually was the central theme of the conflict. Under the old agreement between owners and their valuable commodities, the owners received $1 billion as soon as that revenue was received. With the new negotiations, players are now receiving 47% of this stream of revenue.
Additionally, a salary cap for team payrolls has been set to $120.4 million per ball club, plus $22 million in benefits for each individual player. Included in this cap is the guarantee for the league to spend no less than 99 percent of it for the next two seasons and no less than 95 percent for the 2013 through 2017 seasons. Teams are also capped as to how much can be spent on rookies while current NFLers are now guaranteed the league’s medical plans for life with between $900 million and $1 billion in retiree benefits.
The NFL Players’ Association is also vying to have their organization recertified as a union within a certain time period and an opt-out clause available to all members of the union after the ten year period has expired. To protect the players and reduce possible injuries, “two-a-day practices were eliminated; teams have agreed to set a maximum of 4.5 hours on-field per day during training camp; and limited full-contact practices to an average of one per week not exceeding three hours.”
The NFL players will also have more days off the field during the preseason.
Since the lockout has officially concluded, tomorrow, all NFL teams are allowed to begin signing drafted and undrafted first-year players and begin trading. On July 29th, teams will be open to signing free agents and training camp is set to resume 15 days before each team’s preseason game.
The most profitable professional sports franchise has returned! Get ready for an explosive season.
NFL Lockout Ends; Football’s Back!
(AP) — After months of public nastiness and private negotiations, of court filings and rulings, of players and owners squabbling over more than $9 billion a year, NFL fans finally saw the handshake and heard the words they awaited: “Football’s back.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith both used that phrase while standing shoulder-to-shoulder Monday, announcing their agreement on a 10-year deal to end the lockout that began in March. Then came what may truly be the lasting image of the dispute’s resolution: Indianapolis Colts offensive lineman Jeff Saturday wrapped one of his burly arms around New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and enveloped him in a hug — a gesture that symbolized the acrimony’s end more than any statement could.
