May 24, 2007
Lower On The Totem Pole - NHL or Horseracing?
I’ve mentioned several times here that the sport of horseracing is in severe decline and that the NHL is in danger of falling off the radar screen in terms of a major sport in the US. Yesterday, T.J. Simers summed this entire matter up in two short paragraphs in his column in the LA Times:
“So to show everyone where hockey rates in this country, NBC switched from a playoff hockey overtime to another dying sport – horse racing, and chose to broadcast the Preakness pre-race chatter.
“No such problem Tuesday night. Versus was going to stick with the Ducks and Red Wings no matter what – before switching over to this week’s episode of “The crazy things you can do with strawberries.”
Speaking of sports that aspire to benign indifference among the sporting public – as opposed to outright scorn – did you realize that the WNBA season had begun? It has but maybe we should not spread the word too much because it might annoy many of the sports fans in the US. I surfed through one of the games the other night – Sacramento was playing someone else – and immediately noted the empty seats all over the arena. That would never happen here in the DC area where the Washington Mystics have an immensely successful – if not hugely profitable – promotional strategy in place. The Mystics seem to believe that their “Buy None/Get One Free” strategy for distributing tickets will build them a fan base. I never did complete my studies for an MBA, so I’m not sure I fully comprehend the subtleties of the business model here. What I do know is that it hasn’t worked – in terms of building a fan base – for the past ten years or so, but you have to give these things time…
WNBA teams lose money; that’s virtually axiomatic. And they lose money even with a very tight salary structure. According to an AP story, the first four players in this year’s WNBA draft will earn $43,200 this year; picks five through eight will make $39,950 this year; all the other first round picks will make $35,640 this year. The league minimum salary is $32,000 and the highest salary in the league is set at $93,000. Even at those levels, teams rarely break even in the WNBA. That tells me that even though the product on the court is interesting – if not compelling – there just isn’t a significant audience out there willing to spend money to see the games or time on the couch watching the games.
The NFL owners have indeed awarded the 2011 Super Bowl to Dallas in their new stadium. It took several rounds of voting to arrive at that decision; but after Glendale Arizona was eliminated from consideration, Dallas won out over Indianapolis by a 17-15 vote. Here’s some math for you. The stadium will seat 95,000 folks for the Super Bowl; and by 2011, the projected face value of a ticket will be $900. That comes out to an $85.5M revenue stream just from general admission. On top of that, there will be over 300 luxury suites that can be had for the day. The Dallas presentation to the owners did not specify the prices that could be charged for those puppies, but you can bet it will more than “three easy payments of $39.95”.
As a point of reference, the largest Super Bowl crowd in history was in 1980 at the Rose Bowl; they put almost 104,000 fannies in seats for that game. But tickets then had a face value of $30 so the revenue from ticket sales was only about $3M. In case you didn’t major in economics, let me assure you that the projected ticket revenue for 2011 is significantly higher than the ticket revenue from 1980 even when you adjust for inflation.
The NFL seems to have an interesting formula going for it. If you are a city in a “southern clime” where February weather tends to be gentle, and if you also build a new stadium, then you get a Super Bowl in your city. In northern parts of the country, you have to build a new stadium with a dome to get a Super Bowl. That formula has now worked itself out in Atlanta, Detroit, Glendale (AZ), Houston, Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa. Indianapolis may have lost out in this particular situation but since the Colts will be playing in a new domed stadium starting in 2008, look for Indy to host a Super Bowl sometime soon.
I have to admit that I was unhappy to see that an NFL team did not draft Chris Leak (QB from Florida). I had hoped to see the headline:
Bruisers Surprise Everyone
Take Leak In Third Round
The defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals are struggling this year; they’re not hitting all that well and their pitching has been disastrous. The Cardinals stooped so far as to claim Todd Wellemeyer on waivers from the KC Royals – not a team known for stellar pitching depth. Wellemeyer has appeared in 13 games this season in relief and has an ERA of 9.68. In addition, even though we are not yet through the first third of the season, the Cards have two pitchers who project to 20 losses or more for the year. Kip Wells is 1-8 at the moment with an ERA of 6.75 and Anthony Reyes in 0-7 with an ERA of 5.85. I think the appropriate comment here is “Yowza!”
Last year, the players on the Texas Rangers chafed under the micromanagement of Buck Showalter and the front office eased Showalter out the door. Ron Washington replaced him; Washington had never managed before and that seemed a bit strange given that the GM in Texas is a guy who is very new to the GM position and who had never been a senior baseball exec before. Well, those players who felt put upon last year have responded to all of this by going deep into the tank. The team batting average is about .250 and the team ERA is over 5.0; no matter how you look at those numbers, they just stink! The Rangers are last in the AL West and are already 10 games behind the division leader. Their season is over; the roster needs to be blown up and maybe – just maybe – the owner needs to pay a bit more attention to the folks running his baseball team instead of worrying about the European soccer team he also owns.
Speaking of stinking, the Phillies are closing in on an ignominious mark. Sometime soon, they will lose their 10,000th game in franchise history. Bill Conlin in the Philadelphia Daily News decided to pick the all-time worst Phillies team (since 1943). This is a “must read” column.
Finally, Greg Cote had this comment in the Miami Herald:
“A Brewers fan has formed peeyourpantsforthebrewers.com, and thousands have signed up, pledging to pee their pants if the team finally makes the playoffs. Would I ever do something like that? Depends.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…
