Sports: The Business and Politics of Sports Series

The Business & Politics of Sports, Second Edition by Evan Weiner. Everybody in America is paying in some way for sports, whether it is through taxes, cable TV bills, tax breaks or incentives. In a selection of his columns spanning from 1998 to the present, award winning journalist Evan Weiner connects the dots and shows how business, politics and sports are so closely interwoven. Daniel A. Rascher, Ph.D., Director of Academic Programs at the University of San Francisco, who has used Mr. Weiner’s columns in his electronic blackboard classroom for the past five years, notes, "Evan Weiner understands the nexus between politics and the sports industry unlike anyone else. Evan is able to stir the pot and get at students' passions and emotions about sports, policy, regulation, and politics. His columns and articles are an invaluable resource for any course or program in sport management." Professor Fred Siegel, author of The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life, is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute where he focuses on urban policy and politics. He believes, "Evan Weiner's columns are essential public policy reading for those trying to make sense of what is happening with American cities." "A bagel, cream cheese and an Evan Weiner column are my breakfast fare," says Sheldon A. Saltman, former president FOX Sports. "Evan’s wit and cynicism give an offbeat perspective to the rigors of each day. For me, he’s a "must read." Thomas P. Rosandich, Ph.D., President & CEO, United States Sports Academy, sums up, "Evan Weiner is a uniquely talented writer with an amazing ability to put everything together for the reader. With his astonishing knowledge of and insight into the sports marketplace, he is able to investigate and simplify complex story lines through his award winning journalism. He is a strong voice and an expert in his field." Evan Weiner wrote a weekly column for the New York Sun and has written for New York Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Metro Philadelphia, Metro New York, the Washington Examiner and msnbc, and was a re-occurring guest on “Politics Live” with Sam Donaldson. His radio commentary “The Business of Sports” aired nationally on a daily basis between June 1999 and June 2006. He is a participant in several Long Distance Learning and electronic blackboard university classes, speaks at colleges across the country, gives talks to civic groups tri-state and, from time to time, on cruises.

For many sports is a form of entertainment. People root for their team, although what they really are cheering is dirty laundry to use the words of the comedian Jerry Seinfeld. But sports is much more than that. Sports is powered by governments that make laws which regulate the business of sports. Most nations have Sports Ministers and sports is a government level position and concern. The e-book takes a look at the global sports industry between August 2010 and January 1, 2014. The topics included in the e-book range from American football players suffering brain damage from head injuries to protecting the Olympics with United States military forces. There are sections on stadiums and arenas, business, the media, television, college sports, women and the Olympics. There are also pieces that don't fit into any category that deal with racism and other topics. The e-book isn't about sports but business, politics and sports. A political policy e-book is some fashion.There is a treasure of topics with one central theme. Sports.

In 2013, Basketball may or may not be the world's second most popular sport behind football (soccer) but the game's growth has exploded since the 1984 Olympics. Dr. James Naismith created the game in 1891 and while it was a popular game, the professional version of the sport did not do well. Leagues came and went. Some of the best teams in the early days didn't play in an organized league and instead barnstormed and played games wherever a promoter put down a floor and offered a few bucks to pay the players. The most successful of all the early basketball leagues, the National Basketball League, began operations in 1937. The NBL was based in the United States with teams that seemingly were aligned with the American auto industry in the Great Lakes region. In 1946, the American east coast-based arena owners began the Basketball Association of America. By 1949, the BAA owners were able to entice NBL franchises to join the new league and in 1949, the National Basketball Association was formed with the amalgamation of the two leagues. Basketball in the United States reflected the post-Civil War America. Negro players proved they could play with their white counterparts but were shut out of the professional leagues. The all-Negro clubs, the New York Rens and the Harlem Globetrotters won the World Professional Tournament in 1939 and 1940 beating established all-white National Basketball League teams. The NBL desegregated in 1942. The NBA would not sign a Negro player until 1950. The Harlem Globetrotters would be scheduled as part of an exhibition-NBA doubleheader in many NBA cities because the Globetrotters will draw a crowd. The 1950s NBA was a sports non-entity. In the 1960s, two leagues challenged the NBA for major league status in the United States. Both failed but changed the basketball industry despite financial problems. In the 1980s, the NBA was still on the brink of failure. This is the story of the professional basketball from the people who were there, their story of old cars, dance halls and chasing TV dollars. The book ends on February 1, 1984, the day David Stern became the fourth Commissioner of the National Basketball Association. Somehow the NBA survived against long odds in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Stern's NBA is sturdy. Franchise values have soared over a half billion dollars. The pioneers of basketball never did think the NBA would become a global entity. They were just happy to play pro basketball and then get on with their lives.

The Business & Politics of Sports contains over 100 of Evan Weiner’s columns written between 1998 and 2005 that describe the power plays, players, media and political (federal, state and local) connections, which rule the 19 billion dollar a year business of sports. At the heart of Evan Weiner’s writing lies his belief that “it’s great to watch a game and report on it, but democracy deserves more than a box score when it comes to scrutinizing the business of sports.” Mr. Weiner’s columns also delve fascinating aspects of urban planning and public policy. He contends that the mindset of newspaper and magazine editors, along with radio and TV programmers, is that sports are merely games, the toy store of life. He disagrees, “More than ever sports is a multi-billion dollar business with global implications. General Electric is spending billions of dollars so that its NBC-TV network can broadcast the 2010 and 2012 Olympics. Communities all over America have created special tax districts, raised hotel, motel rent-a-car, restaurant, cigarette and beer taxes to fund stadiums and arenas. Congress may take up discrimination legislation against men-only member golf courses, change tax exemption laws as they apply to companies that are Olympic sponsors, and legislate the boxing industry. The House Committee on Government Reform has held hearings on sports leagues drug testing, specifically testing for anabolic steroids. Those issues aren’t found in the sandbox or the playground.” “The public,” Mr. Weiner suggests, “needs to be aware of the relationship between politics, government, the media and sports ownership. Americans generally view sports as fans and do not realize how many hundreds of millions of their tax dollars go to big sports.” He calls upon editors and TV programmers to look at sports as more than an entertainment forum and opines that journalists also need to examine the sports industry because, “in the end, just about every American citizen has some money directly or indirectly invested in the sports industry.” In The Business & Politics of Sports Mr. Weiner’s columns are divided into ten thematic chapters entitled Business, Colleges, Endorsement/Sponsorship, Labor, Events, Politics, Media, Stadiums, Olympics, and Fans and the Public. Laid out in an easy to read format, they progress in chronological order from 1998 to the present, showing the fascinating evolution of sports business.

The NFL started in 1920, teams came and went. That history would repeat itself in the 1930s and the 1940s. Stability finally occurred in the 1950s with the arrival of television. Television transformed North American sports. In 1950, Baseball, Boxing and Horse Racing were among the most popular sporting events in the country. Within 10 years, football, the NFL, would begin its ascent and by 1965 become the country's most popular sport. In the old days, you could find Chicago Bears owner and coach George Halas at the Chicago Bears offices in the fall and part of winter, the rest of the year he would be in his Chicago sporting goods store. Andy Robustelli is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his work with the Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants. Robustelli was a star with Los Angeles between 1951 and 1955 but requested a trade to New York because he could not be away from his thriving Stamford, Connecticut businesses and the Rams accommodated him. As Hall of Famer Artie Donovan once told me, his NFL of the 1950s bears absolutely no resemblance to today's NFL. The National Football League was in the right place at the right time. There is no better TV game than football. A viewer can see everything as it develops on the field, the line of scrimmage, the quarterback handing off or passing the ball and the receiver catching it. It’s an easy game to watch and it didn't hurt that the New York Giants won a World's Championship in 1956 and played in the "Greatest Game of All Time" in 1958, losing in the NFL Championship game to Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts. That game started the lasting love affair between Americans and football. The Giants became the darlings of Madison Avenue, led by the handsome Frank Gifford and football gained acceptance. By 1960, the CBS show "20th Century" hosted by Walter Cronkite caught the football bug. The CBS weekly documentary ran a program entitled, "The Violent World of Sam Huff." Huff, the Giants middle linebacker was profiled and miked during a pre-season game to give the viewers an inside look during an NFL game. The move from the mom and pop operations, the old football families, the Maras in New York, the Rooneys in Pittsburgh, Halas in Chicago to today's corporate status did not come overnight. The NFL had to fend off a rival league between 1946-49, taking in three All American Football Conference franchises in 1950, and continued to be plagued by franchise failures until 1952. The NFL enjoyed some franchise success between 1953 and 1956 and started to make plans to expand with the goal of adding teams by 1961. The Giants-Colts 1958 Championship Game changed football. Dallas businessman Lamar Hunt, who struck out in his attempts to move the Chicago Cardinals to his home city talked to Houston businessman Bud Adams in 1959 about starting a rival league after Adams failed to purchase the Cardinals and move them to Houston. The new American Football League was born and all of a sudden, football took off.

Hockey players have stories. All you have to do is ask a question about something that happened and step back and allow them to talk. The stories seem to be neither exaggerated tall tales except the stories are neither exaggerated nor tall tales. The events happened. Gordie Howe did pick up someone by the nostrils. The Indianapolis police did issue an all-points bulletin looking for a missing championship trophy. The Stanley Cup has tales. One Hockey player have performed on a broken ankle and helped his team to a championship, another player used peanut butter to help with a leg injury to play during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The stories you are about to read are true and the names have not been changed to protect either the innocent or guilty.

The long time commissioner of the National Basketball Association David Stern, who ran the NBA between 1984 and 2014, once noted that there are three basic needs for a team owner and a league to be successful. Government support. A large local TV contract. Corporate support. The large TV contract in the United States was a product of the 1984 Cable TV Act and the corporate support comes from government mandated tax breaks. In 2017, all of those building blocks were in play whether it was for Olympic committee hopefuls, leagues or franchise holders looking for a new venue. Surprisingly enough, Donald Trump does not enter the sports stage until the ninth month of his presidency when he criticizes National Football League owners for allowing their employees to stage a silent protest, taking a knee, during the Star Spangled Banner to protest social conditions.

David Stern began his association with the National Basketball Association in 1966. The NBA of 1966 will never be confused with the NBA of February 1, 2014 when Stern retired after a 30 year reign as National Basketball Association commissioner. The NBA of 1966 still featured games played in non NBA city where a promoter threw a bunch of money at two teams and told the team owners come to our city and play. In the Stern NBA, that also happened but games played in on NBA cities where in places like London and Beijing. When Stern became the NBA Commissioner in 1984, the league was trying something new, a salary cap to rein in salaries and drug testing for players. The salary cap wasn't exactly new, it was tried decades earlier, the drug testing was new and was done partially to appease critics who thought the league was too black with too many drug users. By the end of the 1980s, the NBA was "fan-tastic" not because of Stern's brilliance as a marketer but because David Stern was smarter than everyone else in that he was able to use Michael Jordan's marketing team, some federal law changes and Ted Turner opening the door to the Soviet Union to grow his business. It worked and by the time Stern retired, basketball was the second most popular sport in the world.

The 2020 sports calendar was unlike any other calendar in the past century. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down not only athletic competitions but postponed an array of decisions that needed to be made by sports owners and politicians. A proposed baseball-stadium village complex on the Oakland waterfront was still on the table at the end of 2020. Halted by the pandemic. The government of Japan tightened its borders again at the end of 2020 because of a COVID-19 variation which put the rescheduled 2021 Tokyo Olympics in doubt. S[ports globally staggered through 2020.

This is another book of a series that takes a day to day look at the “Politics of Sports Business” in 2019, 365 commentaries and all of them are derived from one central thought. How sports operates with three absolute needs to be successful. Government backing. Money from television. Corporate support. It really does not matter if a sport is headquartered in the United States or in Switzerland. The 365 essays reflect that thinking. The book’s cover photo is the abandoned dock in King’s Wharf, Bermuda where the 2017 America’s Cup was held. Bermuda spent tens of millions of dollars to attract the event and all it has to show is an empty space.

Sports is a big business. It features international products and depends on the public to operate. In the United States, sports owners and organizers need three things. Government, TV money and corporate support. Federal, state and local governments provide owners with tax breaks, tax incentives and in some cases cash hand outs to bring a sports franchise to town with the understanding the business is an economic generator. But the truth is something else. It is an economic generator for an owner, for athletes and maybe a parking lot attendant or two. Non sports fans pick up the tab for what a minority enjoy, watching an expensive sporting event in person in a state of the art facility. In the United States, there is not a sports ministry as there are in other countries, so it is a patchwork of governments that provide the backbone for an owner to build a sports organization. Most sports fans are consumed with a game, sports owners are consumed with a business opportunity and have found politicians to help them.

The year 2022 featured an Olympics and a World Cup that were overshadowed by global events. Major League Baseball had a lockout but lost no regular season games. College sports continued to see conferences expand and college sports looked for a new boss. Professional golf sees a new men's tour begin backed by Saudi money. Major League Baseball could not solve its stadium situations in the Oakland and Tampa Bay markets. with Sports remains all about money. In the US and Canada, legalized sports gambling continued to grow. But money still flows into sports and cities are fighting to keep teams by investing money into stadiums and arenas. Sports is a multiple billion dollar industry.

2021: That was the year that was, it’s over and time to let it go. COVID-19 interfered with sports and Omicron forced sports delays and cancellations. Major League Baseball owners locked out its players over money issues. Television money propped up sports during the pandemic and television is a sports economic driver. The Olympics continued to be a political exercise. In the US and Canada, legalized sports gambling conintued to grow. But money still flows into sports and cities are fighting to keep teams by investing money into stadiums and arenas. Sports is a multiple billion dollar industry.

A look at the most compelling sports business stories from around the world in 2023. From public dollars going to sports venues to the relocation of a Major League Baseball franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas to discussions on how to proceed with the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics with a war going on between Russia amd Ukraine. Also included is the business of college sports, the collapse of Ballys Sports regional cable TV sports networks and the struggle of women's sports in the quest to become part of the mainstream sports culture.