Category Archives: sports business

There’s Neither An “F” Nor “U” in Baseball

The Major League Baseball logo.

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One thing caught my eye last week and you might have missed it since there was so much else going on.  The Yankees and Orioles played a baseball game last Tuesday.  That’s not really news.  However, they started play at 11:08pm ET after a four-hour rain delay, and the game did not end until 2:15am. Yep, you read that right.  Guess the kids were late to school after the game?

Apparently, the Commissioner’s Office called the Yankees and told them to get the game played.  The Yankees, in an effort to make sure the folks who had tickets to the game (it was played so no rain-checks, right?) announced that ticket-holders to the game would be given some form of a free ticket offer to “any Yankees game – next season”.  Having worked in a sports league, I know that the postponement and rescheduling of games is a nightmare, especially given travel, labor rules, and fan reaction.  But since it rained throughout the game, maybe the risk of injury should have prevailed in their thinking?  And not just to the players. Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks, sports business

Taking One For The Team

Quarterback Peyton Manning was the MVP of Supe...

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I’m glad the NFL lockout is over and not just as a fan.  I have a number of friends who work for the league and having lived through a missed season during my time with the NHL  I know that those folks were not having a leisurely Summer while things worked themselves out.  There have been more than enough diatribes about billionaires fighting millionaires so that’s not today’s discussion.  Instead, I want to talk about some news I read over the weekend that provides a great business lesson to us all.

The Colts redid Peyton Manning‘s contract.  That’s not huge news but the fact that he insisted on taking less money than the team offered him is.  It’s his thinking that’s the great point for the rest of us. Continue reading

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What Boxing Tells Us About Broadband

Ricardo Dominguez (left) rallied late to win a...

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Growing up, I used to follow boxing.  It was pretty easy to be a fan – there weren’t a lot of weight classes, there was a single sanctioning body that mattered so there was only one champion in each weight class, and it was on free TV (although pay TV didn’t exist yet) every week. In short, it was simple and fan friendly.  A high-quality product was made available each week and promoters and TV networks did everything they could to get me to watch.

What does this have to do with the broadband (and wireless for that matter) business? Continue reading

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