Ladies and Gentleman. Boys and Girls. Amateurs and Professionals. It's time for the resurrection of the Sports Business Carnival after a brief hiatus. Here's what's shakin' for the 5th edition:
Joe Favorito of Sports Marketing and PR Roundup presents "Dealing with Tragedy and Putting Things in Perspective...Sean Taylor, Joe Kennedy and Nick Saban." This is a great list principles to work off of when dealing with a crisis.
On Payout: The Business of MMA, Adam Smith presents "Prime Time: Details on MMA's Looming Network TV Deput and What it Says About the State of the Industry." NBC and CBS have reportedly been in talks with the UFC to air some fights, and this article goes into more details about this and some of the challenges UFC may face in 2008.
With A-Rod going around his agent, Scott Boras, to negotiate his contract with the Yankees, many people have wondered what happened. A few people have even gone so far as to suggest that all agents are money-grubbers and are unnecessary in today's world. Darren Heitner from Sports Agent Blog still believes many athletes should have full-time agents and discusses his thoughts for going/not going to an hourly fee system.
Brian Berger of Sports Business Radio gives his thoughts on a tough week for the NFL. From the Sean Taylor shooting, to the abysmal conditions at Heinz field for the Steelers-Dolphins game to the NFL Network's struggles with reaching a deal with cable companies, Berger gives us his thoughts, which are always interesting and insightful.
Brent Hunsberger of Playbooks and Profits gives us the scoop on Nike's efforts around the Davis Cup. Interestingly, while Nike's first paid athlete endorser was a tennis player (Ilie Nastase), tennis shoes now make up only 2% of the sports shoe market, according to one source.
At Biz of Baseball, Maury Brown sheds some light on Chicago Cubs ticket prices, and how they will increase for all types of tickets for 2008.
NFL team websites: they reach more fans than NFL stadiums and people spend a lot of time on them. Pat Coyle of Sports Marketing 2.0 makes his case for why NFL media buys should include team websites.
Paul Sen of Sports Media Watch says the NBA will begin miking players and coaches during nationally televised games. Coaches will also now be interviewed during live games. I'm interested, but will other coaches be...
With ticket scalping being legalized in Missourri, Phil Miller from The Sports Economist discusses some thoughts around legalized scalping and how scalping actually ensures that people who value the tickets the most have access to them.
Emmett Jones of Sports Business Digest presents some reasons given for not changing the current BCS format and his thoughts about them in "The BCS (Bowl Championship Series or Big Cash, Son!)"
Last but not least, Sarah Talalay of The Business of Sports, gives us some details about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' plan for a new ballpark.
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