Maury Brown’s Biz of Sports

It’s been some time since I updated this personal blog. That’s been a side effect of running the Business of Sports Network series of sites, writing for Baseball Prospectus (see my latest here), and getting ready for the MLB winter meetings in Las Vegas.

Along the way, I’ve been asked to weigh in on a number of sports business topics, or, the media has quoted me in articles I have run on BizofBaseball.com.

Here’s a smattering of my quotes across a variety of articles.

Do the Rays have a future in the bay area? - St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 16, 2008 - Author, Aaron Sharockman

Sharockman did extensive research on the Tampa/St. Pete market in an article for the St. Petersburg Times to see if the need for a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays is nessecary, and if the fantastic season they enjoyed in 2008 will kick start them, after having a history of abysmal attendance and rankings in the standings.

Will enough fans eventually fall in love with the Rays?

And how long will Sternberg and baseball commissioner Bud Selig wait to find out?

Maury Brown, founder and president of bizofbaseball.com, said it’s too early for answers.

“We’ve got one year to look at. We’ve got one successful season,” said Brown, who worked with Portland community leaders on a plan to relocate the Montreal Expos to Oregon. “It’s very difficult if not impossible to extrapolate how it will work in the long run. Anyone who says they can is lying.”

Cowboys have trouble winning financing - The Deal, Nov. 17, 2008 - Author, Demitri Diakantonis

The economy has dominated the headlines as of late, with many in the media wondering how sports leagues could, and are, being impacted. Demitri Diakantonis of The Deal covers the recent efforts by the Dallas Cowboys to refinance a loan besieged by the auction-rate market crash, citing a report in the SportsBusiness Journal.

One industry analyst wasn’t sure of what to make of the news.

“Everybody is in need these days,” said Maury Brown, the founder of the Business of Sports Network. “It is surprising on one level, and not surprising on another.”

He was referring to the high value of the Cowboys, which makes the news surprising, but the current credit crunch does not.

“It wouldn’t be surprising if it wasn’t the Cowboys,” he added.

Actually, it probably won’t be surprising on all levels.

“It’s tough to be out there right now,” another banker added.

Facility Notes - SportsBusiness Daily (subscription required), Nov. 19, 2008 - Author, the staff

The day that banking giant Citigroup announced that they were laying off 53,000 workers, or 20 percent of their workforce, I contacted the New York Mets for a story on their naming rights deal. The Mets reached the record deal to have their new stadium named Citi Field as part of a 20-year, $400 million agreement with Citigroup in 2006. With the layoffs, it begged the question as to whether the naming rights deal was in jeapordy. Through either blind luck, or good timing, I was the first to report the news that the naming rights deal was not in peril, according to the Mets. The SportsBusiness Daily, the standard for all sports business trade magazines, picked up on the news:

Citigroup Monday said that it will lay off 53,000 workers, but Mets VP/Media Relations Jay Horwitz said that the company’s naming-rights deal for the team’s new Citi Field is “not in peril.” Horwitz in an e-mail said, “Everything is fine with our naming rights deal for Citi Field.” BIZOFBASEBALL.com’s Maury Brown wrote if Horwitz’ comments are “true, it may be that nothing short of a total collapse by Citigroup will derail the record naming rights deal” (BIZOFBASEBALL.com, 11/17).

Caution surrounds baseball during free agency - FOXSports.com, Nov. 24, 2008 - Author, Ken Rosenthal

In late November, Ken Rosenthal reported for FOXSports.com about how the MLB free agency market was flowing slower than molasses at the North Pole. Rosenthal contacted me for info on clubs that were either lowering most of the prices for tickets for the 2009 season, or freezing them at 2008 prices. Rosenthal noted that the Dodgers will have extra revenues from Spring Training this year, after moving from Dodgertown in Florida to the new Camelback Ranch facility that they will be sharing with the White Sox.

Free agents get paid what the market will bear. Major League Baseball generated a record $6.5 billion in revenues last season. Obviously, next season could be worse, but at this point no one knows for sure.

The Yankees are not cutting ticket prices as they move into the new Yankee Stadium. Neither are the Angels, another potential Sabathia bidder, nor the Dodgers, who will charge $90 for many seats in their new spring-training home in Glendale, Ariz., according to research by bizofbaseball.com.

NHL’s future lies in Canada, reports say - National Post, Nov. 29, 2008 - Author, Matthew Coutts

New York has the Yankees and the Mets, Giants and Jets. Los Angeles has the Lakers and Clippers. What if the Toronto area had the Maple Leafs and another NHL franchise? Matthew Coutts of the National Post has been looking into whether Jim Balsillie’s third attempt at getting into the NHL ownership game is the charm, as he has been vocal about attempting to purchase an NHL team and move it to Southern Ontario. With Balsillie on the verge of purchasing a 27 percent stake in the Nashville Predators, Balsillie is taking a more laid-back route, after raising the ire of Gary Bettman in the past (Balsillie had tried to purchase the Predators outright, began an advance ticket sales deal through Ticketmaster in Southern Ontario to show how much support there was for a second NHL franchise in the area, without going through the league). The question being asked by Coutts surrounded the economy, and how Nashville was feeling the hit.

The original owner, Craig Leipold, had to sell the franchise in 2007 after losing US$70-million over the first nine seasons.

He was open about the lack of corporate support for the Predators. According to Maury Brown, the president of the Business of Sports Network, the team remains in a “state of flux.”

“Given the state of the economy, it’s a lot more difficult mostly on the sponsorship side…. Renewal of sponsorships are going to be a problem” for bellwether teams in any league, he said, specifically for the struggling Sun Belt teams in the NHL.

Mr. Brown added that the Predators are also competing for corporate and fan attention with the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, which are having an excellent season. “That makes it difficult to sustain it.”

Slow free agent market worries MLB agents - SportsBusiness Journal, Dec., 8, 2008 - Author, Liz Mullen

Liz Mullen of the SportsBusiness Journal is reporting on how the economy could be influencing the upcoming MLB season, and with the Hot Stove season running cold, Mullen asks me whether it’s just the fact that big name MLB free agents, such as Manny Ramirez, C.C. Sabathia, and Mark Texeria have yet to ink deals.

Maury Brown, who runs the bizofbaseball.com Web site, said several team executives have privately expressed concern about revenue in 2009.

“One executive put it to me that trying to determine what revenues are going to be is like trying to predict the weather,” Brown said. “As he put it, ‘We are hoping for sunshine, but preparing for rain.’”

But Brown also noted that despite the recession, MLB could see boosts in revenue from the launch of the MLB Network in January, as well as the opening of Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium.

Reporting from the Winter Meetings

A reminder that I will be reporting from the MLB winter meetings in Las Vegas starting on Monday, looking at all things sports outside the lines. For those that are interested, they can read BizofBaseball.com for updates.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS) and Yahoo! Inc. have entered a multi-year strategic alliance that will allow the two companies to collaborate on advertising and sports-related content. Turner will exclusively represent online advertising sales for the NBA, golf and NASCAR pages of Yahoo! Sports. Additionally, Yahoo! Sports will gain access to basketball, golf and NASCAR content from NBA.com, PGATOUR.com, PGA.com and NASCAR.com, league sites managed by Turner. The deal was announced today by David Levy, president of Turner Broadcasting Sales, Inc. and Turner Sports and Todd Teresi , senior vice president of Yahoo!’s Publisher Channel. The deal creates an alliance between one of the leading entities in the sports media industry and the #1 online sports destination, representing the new model for media outlets looking to increase and further engage their audiences.

All display, sponsorship and video advertising opportunities within the NBA, golf and NASCAR pages on Yahoo! Sports will be available exclusively through the Turner Network, which combines the digital resources of 19 Turner Sports, News and Entertainment properties. The agreement also provides Turner with access to advanced targeting technologies that will allow Turner to exclusively sell advertisements based on a consumer’s affinity for NASCAR, golf and NBA content, thus creating new advertising opportunities for clients. The agreement underscores Yahoo’s ongoing commitment to differentiating verticals online.

“Our relationship with Yahoo! provides tremendous benefits for our online consumers who will receive enhanced coverage of NBA, PGA TOUR, PGA and NASCAR news and events,” said Levy. “Aligning with Yahoo! Sports adds another dimension to our digital platforms and enables us to extend the distribution of content and advertisers’ marketing messages by leveraging each company’s national audience. We’re confident this arrangement will prove very beneficial to our advertising partners.” He added, “The strength of this league content combined with the extensive reach of Yahoo! Sports will make our respective properties the undisputed leader in market share of NBA, golf and NASCAR content on the Web.”

“By aligning with Turner and enabling them to extend Yahoo! inventory to sell to advertisers, we will engage the most targeted audience of sports enthusiasts available on the Internet,” said Teresi. “This announcement builds on our strategy to be both the starting point for consumers seeking the premier sports content, and to be the choice for leading Internet publishers looking to maximize their revenue potential. With the incomparable sports lineup Yahoo! Sports can now offer, as well as the massive size of our audience, advertisers will be able to deliver the most targeted, relevant marketing messages available at scale on the Web.”

Through this relationship, Turner will provide NASCAR, PGA TOUR, PGA and NBA properties to Yahoo! Sports with live and on-demand video, leaderboards and editorial content featuring some of the biggest names in sports. The content will enrich Yahoo! Sports’ current racing, golf and professional basketball coverage, which includes original reporting from award-winning journalists such as NBA writer Adrian Wojnarowski, auto racing writer Bob Margolis, and NASCAR analyst Ricky Craven. League sites NASCAR.com, PGATOUR.com, PGA.com, and NBA.com will also reap the benefits of successfully partnering with Turner through this Yahoo! agreement with increased exposure to a new audience of sports fans. The league sites will receive fixed placements on the respective NASCAR, golf, and NBA pages of Yahoo! Sports to promote certain league initiatives, further growing their brand exposure.

Opening the marketplace for Turner to sell advertising on Yahoo! Sports is part of a new publisher strategy that Yahoo! began implementing in October, 2007. The company’s goal is to work with publishers that are differentiated in their markets online to build an interdependent reseller network. Through this reseller network, advertisers can reach the audiences they want to communicate with at Yahoo!’s unmatched scale, plus presenting their audiences with relevant messages at the right time.

Source: TBS

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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer.

Brown’s full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

NASCAR on TNT Live

Announcers: Marc Fein, Larry McReynolds and Kyle Petty

Petty on the impact of NASCAR’s Silly Season on the drivers: “It depends on what position you’re in. What I mean by that is Casey Mears was asked to leave the #5 car (at Hendricks Motorsports). That tells him that that team doesn’t have any confidence in him, so that’s a strange position when you have to finish out a season with a team that has no confidence in you as a driver, and they let it be known by saying they want another driver. Now, when you’re the bigwig and you’re making all the calls and saying ‘he’s got to do this or that for me to be able to perform my role or I’m going to greener pastures.’ That’s a different position for the team and that motivates them to say ‘Hey, I’m going to show this guy that we’re better than he thinks’, and the driver is motivated because he knows he is going to greener pastures and can drive the wheels off the thing.”

TNT’s Pride of NASCAR Series profiled Harry Gant, one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers

Gant on appearing in the film ‘The Cannonball Run’ with legendary entertainers Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin and Burt Reynolds and having lunch with them on set: “I was going to sit with the crew and they said ‘come on over and have lunch with us.’ To be able to sit down and eat with them, that was special. They’re just regular people. People talk about wanting to be a movie star and when you get down to it, that’s a hard job, it’s much easier to be a race car driver.”

Allstate Countdown to Green

Hosted by Bill Weber

TNT pit reporter Ralph Sheheen spent some time with Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford, at the track for a private party hosted by Target and Guitar Hero

#40 Dario Franchitti, who is married to actress Ashley Judd, on the allure of the rock star life: “I’d love to spend a week in your (Whitford’s) shoes. Everybody wants to be a rock star.”

Kyle Petty took the TNT pre-race show to break by playing the guitar and singing a live rendition of a children’s song called ‘Belly Button Monster’ which included the line ‘He leaves stinky things way down in your belly button, way down in belly button land, because the belly button monster, he’s a very funny man.’

Lenox Industrial Tools 301 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Announcers: Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach and Kyle Petty

Pit Reporters: Marty Snider, Matt Yocum, Lindsay Czarniak and Ralph Sheheen

Petty using a basketball analogy to describe how #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. was planning to pass #29 Kevin Harvick for the lead: “This is like basketball. If you’re a basketball fan the #88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) is trying to use the #70 (Johnny Sauter) for a pick and roll (past #29 Kevin Harvick). He’s going to pick him on the #70 and roll right past him if he can get him in the right box.”

Dallenbach on racing at New Hampshire: “If you’re going to have your car working, especially here in New Hampshire , you want it to be at the end of your run. That’s when you want to go faster, because it does go green for a long time.”

Petty: “When everybody is on equal tires, everybody is trying run on the same places on the race track. If your car works at the end of the run, and you can control which direction it does in, and turn left and turn right, and step on the gas, then when those guys start to slip and slide you’ll be able to cut around them on the outside, under them on the inside no matter what. Tires are the great equalizer in this sport in a lot of ways.”

Petty on the frustration #29 Kevin Harvick must be feeling after being stuck in traffic between lapped cars: “The first three cars are re-lapped cars and the next few that are side-by-side racing are lapped cars, and then you’re caught behind them and just chewing on your steering wheel trying to get around them.”

Petty using a golf analogy to describe the impressive turnaround by #83 Brian Vickers and his team: “It’s like getting that one or two good shots every round (in golf), it just keeps you coming back, and what they didn’t do last year is get that one or two good races and really gets them pumped up, especially for Vickers.”

McReynolds on Tony Stewart’s decision to take four tires with 36 laps to go, costing him five positions on pit road and dropping him to sixth place: “It’s like he’s restarting in 28th place. I don’t think the #20 can win the race now.”

Dallenbach on #42 Juan Pablo Montoya wrecking points leader #18 Kyle Busch: “This is about as intentional as you can get to turning a car. Montoya completely did that on purpose.”

Petty: “That was intentional, man…These guys are very, very fortunate they didn’t take somebody else out. They are lucky they didn’t end someone else’s day.”

#2 Kurt Busch who was the race leader when the rain stopped the race on getting the win: “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. We might not have been the fastest car, but we got the win.”

#20 Tony Stewart on his disappointing season and race at New Hampshire: “It’s just been the oddest year I’ve ever seen for this team…it’s just frustrating.”

Source: TNT

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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey.

He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer.Brown’s full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

TNT, which is airing six consecutive weeks of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, announced today its full lineup of sponsors for this year’s Wide Open Coverage race telecast, which will air once again during the primetime Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola race from Daytona International Speedway on Sat., July 5th. The ten national sponsors, which matches last year’s sponsorship commitment, featured in this year’s innovative telecast include Coke Zero, Coors Light, HP, Papa John’s, Sprint, Subway, Toyota, US Army, Viagra and Warner Bros.

TNT’s exclusive Wide Open Coverage telecast is a television presentation format that provides continuous race coverage free of national commercial breaks and features 22% more unobstructed race action than that of a standard telecast by using a letterbox widescreen format. In place of the national ads, the telecast features a variety of animated sponsor messages, unique branded content and distinct on-screen graphic elements. Wide Open Coverage debuted on TNT during the 2007 Daytona 400 race and showcased extended non-stop green flag racing, missing only three laps of green flag racing.

“Wide Open Coverage is a truly unique television concept that provides sponsors with the opportunity to reach the audience in a new and different way while giving fans more racing action,” said Trish Frohman, executive vice president of Turner Sports sales. “We’re thrilled to bring back this exciting race presentation and continue to offer our advertising partners innovative concepts that showcase their brand and tell their story with dynamic flair.”

The network’s race coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET with the NASCAR Live pre-race show hosted by Marc Fein with analysts Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds, followed by the Allstate Countdown to Green at 7:30 p.m. ET with Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach and Petty with reports from pit reporters Marty Snider, Matt Yocum, Ralph Sheheen and Lindsay Czarniak. The race will begin at 8 p.m. ET with a brief Wide Open Coverage introduction by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle.

Source: TNT

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The following are comments and interviews from NASCAR on TNT Live crew for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Racing from Sonoma. TheToyota/Save Mart 350 from Infineon Raceway

Announcers: Marc Fein, Larry McReynolds and Kyle Petty

Petty on Jeff Gordon’s early season struggles: “I think last year they caught a lot of breaks, starting with the (rain shortened) first TNT race at Pocono. If he has a connection with the weatherman I can’t race against that. This year they’re not catching any breaks.”

This week’s Pride of NASCAR series featured 94-year old Raymond Parks, who won NASCAR’s first two championships (1948 & 1949) as an owner, in his first national TV interview.

Parks on one of his former drivers, NASCAR founder Bill France: “One time he tore it (Parks’ car) all up, he just about demolished it.”

Fein, pretending to be Kyle Petty to sneak into a winery, asked by the hostess what happened to his ponytail: “That ponytail thing, that was so 80’s.”

Last year’s winner in Sonoma #42 Juan Pablo Montoya, who joined the pre-race set, on the difference between last year’s car and the cars of tomorrow the NASCAR drivers are competing in this year: “I think the good cars are still good cars, but the average cars have gotten a lot better.”

Allstate Countdown to Green

Hosted by Bill Weber

TNT pit reporter Lindsay Czarniak interviewed Dale Earnhardt Jr. at a training camp site in North Carolina for the National Guard

Earnhardt Jr. on how fleeting his win last week in Michigan , his first in 76 Sprint Cup races, is: “I’ve got about four weeks before they ask me when I’m going to win again…then they’ll crank up the championship talk.”

**** **** **** ****
Toyota/Save Mart 350 from Infineon Raceway

Announcers: Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach and Kyle Petty

Pit Reporters: Marty Snider, Matt Yocum, Lindsay Czarniak and Ralph Sheheen

Dallenbach on pole sitter #9 Kasey Kahne’s early struggles: “He’s been driving like a rock here…it looks like he has no grip going around the turns.”

Petty on how the first caution (lap 30) impacts the entire field on a road course: “This is what kills you about this (fuel mileage) game, you come here and these guys had a strategy and they are following it and then you get a caution. Now there are two groups out there; one group that had a strategy and has stayed out there and the other that has already pitted and had gone another way, and it’s not going to be until the end of the race before we see how this all plays out.”

In-car audio from #24 Jeff Gordon, whose car was losing multiple positions per lap, on what problems he is facing: “I don’t know where to begin…It’s like we just wore the front tires completely out and their gone. I can’t go into the breaks without locking the fronts up.”

Dallenbach on the “wheel hop” by #11 Denny Hamlin, whose car jumped in the air costing him 15 spots: “You know how you get out of a wheel hop, and it’s really hard to do when you’re crashing, is you punch the gas. You just punch that gas a little bit and it gets that car to stop hopping and gives you traction again.”

Dallenbach on how a caution on lap 70 does to #99 Carl Edwards: “This kills the #99 car. Carl had a very fast car and it was working for him. This caution came out at the absolute worst time for Carl Edwards.”

Petty on racing at Sonoma after #42 Juan Pablo Montoya got spun by #21 Marcos Ambrose, who was battling for position with #26 Jamie McMurray: “That happens so often here, you concentrate on the car you’re racing and forget about the next car.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr’s in-car audio as he rides the bumper of #42 Juan Pablo Montoya, a road course specialist, with 15 laps to go: “Tell Juan to go, he’s a pro!”

Dallenbach on a multi-car crash caused by #29 Kevin Harvick getting loose that took #20 Tony Stewart and #26 Jamie McMurray out of contention to win he race with five laps to go: “Harvick just got in there way too deep, got it loose and tried spinning it down. He tried avoiding the #26 (McMurray), but there is no way, he’s just sitting there.”

Petty: “It’s like bowling pins, when the ball hits it’s a chain reaction.”

#24 Crew Chief Steve Letarte, interviewed by Marty Snider, on the reason he has been able to get the car of Jeff Gordon back in contention to finish third: “Jeff Gordon. You know he is fabulous out here, we didn’t give him a very good car…He’s smarter than the rest of them, he’s staying on track. He hasn’t made any mistakes. You’re talking about a four-time champion, five-time winner at this track showing how strong he is.”

Source: TNT

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When NASCAR fans across the country gather this summer to watch NASCAR on TNT, they’ll have one more way to watch the drama on the track unfold – with RaceBuddy, NASCAR.COM’s live online companion coverage for TNT’s six-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series telecasts, which begin June 8th with the Pocono 500 presented by EA Sports NASCAR ‘09. RaceBuddy is an animated character (click link below for image) who lives on NASCAR.COM, the official site of NASCAR, and also will make appearances on TNT to remind fans of the unprecedented live coverage available on the site during all six of the TNT races, including live feeds from the Pit Road Cam, In-Car Cameras, Battle Cam, Race Robo and Mosaic View. RaceBuddy will ride shotgun with viewers during the race by showing fans how to interact through online chats, answering poll questions and submitting questions to “Ask the Booth” which will be answered during the pre-race coverage and the race telecast by TNT announcers Bill Weber, Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach. From on air to online, RaceBuddy serves as a multiplatform companion designed to bring fans closer to the race action.

Click here for a link to RaceBuddy: www.nascar.com/tnt

“The integration between TNT and NASCAR.COM allows NASCAR fans to become completely engaged in the race before, during and after the television coverage by providing an opportunity to interact with the telecast and with other NASCAR fans online,” said Lenny Daniels, senior vice president of Turner Sports production and new media. “Turner Sports is a leader in utilizing technology to offer fans innovative ways to consume the sports they love via cutting-edge multiplatform experiences.”

RaceBuddy’s NASCAR.COM companion coverage includes:

• Battle Cam : a camera will stream the most intense competition between drivers on the track throughout the race.
• Pit Road Cam : a camera focused exclusively on pit road to keep viewers up to speed on the adjustments and changes the drivers make at each pit stop.
• In-Car Driver Cam : users vote live to select which driver to watch from inside his car; drivers change every 50 laps.
• Race Robo: video streaming for various camera angles of the racetrack.
• Mosaic View: fans can view all four streams – Battle Cam, Pit Road Cam, In-Car Camera Driver Cam and Race Robo – at one time.
• Ask the Booth: fans can submit questions they want answered on-air by TNT’s Bill Weber, Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach during the pre-race show and during live race coverage.
• Chat: chat live with other race enthusiasts online throughout the race.
• Poll: answer simple questions throughout the race.

TNT will also have an online presence on NASCAR.COM with a page devoted to TNT’s Summer Series of NASCAR racing that offers on-demand features from TNT announcers, bios, TNT’s schedule and replays of pre-race series such as Pride of NASCAR, NASCAR Future Stars, Wally’s World and Lindsay on Location. For more details, click: http://www.nascar.com/promos/tnt/

TNT’s NASCAR announcers include pre-race host Marc Fein, play-by-play announcer Bill Weber and analysts Wally Dallenbach and Kyle Petty. Veteran NASCAR crew chief Larry McReynolds will also join the TNT announcing crew, serving in a specialty role of analyst and reporter. Finally, the network’s announcing crew will be rounded out by veteran pit reporters Marty Snider, Matt Yocum, Ralph Sheheen and Lindsay Czarniak. Beginning on June 8th in Pocono, TNT revs up for six consecutive races of exclusive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series coverage including races in Michigan (June 15), Sonoma (June 22), Loudon (June 29), and primetime Saturday night races in Daytona (July 5) and Chicago (July 12). TNT’s widely touted Wide Open Coverage will return for the network’s marquee primetime race, the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway .

Turner Sports acquired all of NASCAR’s interactive rights in October 2000 and became the exclusive producer of NASCAR.COM in January 2001.

Source: TNT

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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer.

Brown’s full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

The following is a guest column by Jordan I Kobritz, a staff member of the Business of Sports Network. - Maury Brown

When Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 two weeks ago, she accomplished something Dale Earnhardt, Jr. hasn’t been able to do in two years: Win a motorsports race.

But there is one thing Junior does that leaves Patrick in his exhaust. Junior is a veritable marketing machine, ranking third on the list of athlete endorsers with earnings in excess of $25 million last year, according to Forbes. Patrick earned $5 million, which put her fifth on the list of female endorsers, behind Maria Sharapova, Michelle Wie, Serena Williams and Annika Sorenstam.

Why the disparity between men and women endorsers? There are a number of factors. Women are still viewed as sex symbols, rather than athletes. In fact, Patrick leads Junior 1-0 in another, more dubious, category: Appearances in Sports Illustrated’s annual swim suit issue. (Note: There’s no evidence Patrick received a shot of HGH to enhance her profile, ala Debbie Clemens.)

There’s also the fact that most sports fans are men. But that majority – 60-40 in motorsports, for example – does not account for the difference in endorsement earnings between the sexes, a chasm that is deeper and wider than the Grand Canyon.

Another often whispered and seldom acknowledged fear among corporations is the “lesbian factor,” which is more often than not a death knell for the female athlete as endorser. Even in the 21^st century, successful women athletes confront the presumption that their testosterone levels exceed their estrogen levels. That presumption has been perpetuated for decades and is reinforced by the Jan Stephenson’s (golf) and Anna Kornikova’s (tennis) of the world – women athletes who weren’t successful on the field of play, but by exploiting their physical assets, proved to be more successful endorsers than their colleagues.

Tennis star Maria Sharapova has dispelled that belief, at least to some extent. The Russian beauty raked in the most endorsement money last year, $23 million according to Forbes, while also holding down the #1 ranking in her sport early in the year.

Patrick isn’t alone in the paucity of endorsement money earned by female athletes. Lorena Ochoa, the leading money winner on the LPGA Tour last year with $4.4 million in earnings, has accomplished something not even Tiger Woods has done, winning ten tournaments in fifteen starts. But while Tiger leads all athlete endorsers, earning in excess of $100 million per year, Ochoa’s $10 million in off-the-course income comes mainly from endorsements in her native Mexico.

Unlike Patrick, the 26-year-old Ochoa hasn’t posed for SI, doesn’t thirst for the limelight, and allows her brother, Alejandro, who resides in Guadalajara, to negotiate her sponsorship deals, rather than aligning herself with a U.S. marketing firm.

A bigger test for the strength of female endorsers looms on the horizon. Candace Parker, the star of Tennessee’s women’s basketball team, recently signed a professional contract with the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. Parker is talented, having led the Lady Vols to two national championships, well-known even before playing her first professional game, good-looking, and…ahem… presumed to be heterosexual. She’s engaged to former Duke star Sheldon Williams, who currently plays for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. Parker recently signed her first two endorsement deals, multi-million dollar agreements with Gatorade and Adidas. More sponsorship opportunities are sure to follow.

Regardless of whether a female athlete is born in the U.S. or in a foreign country, takes off her clothes or keeps them on, plays golf or drives a race car, she still lags her male counterpart in endorsement revenue by tens of millions of dollars. Perhaps we are merely witnessing the evolution of the perception of women from wives, mothers and homemakers, to athletes, and ultimately, to endorsers.

Or maybe the corporate world is populated by too many male decision makers who aren’t convinced that female athletes can move product. Perhaps Parker will be the first to prove she can sell as much product as her male counterparts. If that happens, she should expect to be compensated as much as a man.

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He sits on the floor, taking pieces of toys that don’t match and placing them inside larger parts. He squeals or moans, jumping up and down when something excites him, oblivious to all around him. Then, without prompting he glances up, makes eye contact, smiles and asks, “Cookie?”

It’s been a while since I released, When Sports Becomes a Small Matter: A Child and Autism, detailing the news that our son, Travis, has been diagnosed as having Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD. Since then, we have gained much more insight, information, and well wishes.

Here’s an update.

First off, we were informed of the “100 Day Kit” available on Autism Speaks, through Travis’ clinical psychologist. The 81 page PDF has been an indispensable walk through everything from the emotions that parents go through when they receive word that their child has ASD, how Autism is diagnosed, the variety of symptoms of Autism, how the extended family and siblings are impacted and much more. As mentioned, this primer has been outstanding in better understanding the road ahead and the key element: get moving.

On the “get moving side”, as I have been advocating awareness of ASD, the earlier a child is diagnosed the sooner therapies suited to the child can begin. We have now gone through having Travis observed in the variety of settings that are required to allow him to be part of Early Childhood Intervention. Travis will receive weekly sessions at the home until he is 3, and move to the next phase, after that.

We will be enrolling him in year-round pre-school for children that have ASD through the public school system. We also will make the investment in a private speech therapist.

On this…

Unfortunately, this situation has not allowed me to run the Business of Sports Network exclusively. Wishing to take advantage of insurance, and the pay that comes with my consulting has pushed me into contracting my services out (yes, if anyone wishes to hire me to write, I’m available. Being able to write from home freelance would be beneficial in assisting in Travis’ development).

While this situation isn’t perfect, the consulting gig is with the State of Oregon, and with that, I have been looking at information on Autism.

Sobering news… A 2006 memo shows that over a twelve-year period beginning in 1992, ASD has been the fastest growing disability in Oregon schools. It increased almost 582% during that time.

Clearly, ASD is growing at a considerable rate. This may be due to better understanding of ASD, or as our clinical psychologist said, those that may not have been diagnosed with ASD in the past are now seen to fall within the spectrum.

Lastly, the number of emails I and my wife have received offering well-wishes have been overwhelming. The support offered and information given is sincerely appreciated and thanks just doesn’t seem to say enough.

Within those emails, many have asked about Travis and our older son Tyler, offered prayers, and wondered about Travis’ level of ASD.

We are hopeful and optimistic. Realistic and not in denial. Proactive and engaged. Travis will need all of this as he is more of the “classic” autistic (spinning, hand flapping, unable to verbally communicate at a level close to where he should be, little to no eye contact, etc.). He is, however, not at the part of the scale where physical contact is unwanted, or tantrums ensue.

As for how he is… Well, he’s a child. He plays. He laughs more often than cries, engages with his brother, and has signs that he through therapy, he will be able to communicate, and hopefully, function on his own in society.

For those that want a face to go with this story, we recently shot this one. It is the best picture ever taken of him in that he’s smiling and looking at the camera – something we always have tried to get but never have been able to pull off. I am unabashedly biased, but he’s one of the cutest kids I’ve ever seen. As anyone that has met me will say, this is a testament to his mother.

Once again, I, and the Business of Sports Network are working to promote Autism awareness (see the The Business of Sports Network’s Sports Challenge for Autism Awareness). If you are involved in the sports industry or media, please help promote awareness.

I hope that if you are already involved in sports and Autism awareness you will contact me to allow me to report on the work you are engaged in.

Thanks,

Maury Brown
Founder and President
Business of Sports Network
Bizball LLC

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There is no category for this topic here. There is baseball, basketball, hockey, football, and auto racing, but there is nothing for topics of far more importance.

This, being