SBJ Morning Buzzcast

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 20, 2023

Episode Summary

Breaking down the Best Sports Business Cities; Rare peek into NBA revenue sharing; and Charlie Baker works the hallways of Capital Hill

Episode Transcription

Well, the defending champion US baseball team routed Cuba in the World Baseball Classic semi-final, Sunday night, 14 to two, in front of a sellout of more than 35,000 fans at LoanDepot Park in Miami. It was a tense game, interrupted a few times by fans running on the field to display protest sign. Of course, a lot of tension with the US playing Cuba in Miami. The US team now will play the winner of Japan or Mexico in Tuesday nights championship of the World Baseball Classic. And this is your morning Buzzcast for Monday, March 20th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Hope everybody had a great weekend and are ready to start the week. Here's a question. What city is the hottest city in sports business right now? Meaning what city has the confluence of a strong sports business environment with teams and corporate brands and agencies and media companies and vendors, all making plenty of opportunities in a city for young professionals for business to be done.

What city would an entrepreneur really consider setting up shop because of the energy and the ease of doing business? Well, that's what Sports Business Journal set out to do, and our research team led by David Broughton and Derick Moss, conducted more than seven months of research and has named Dallas as the top city in its inaugural ranking of the best sports business city. The list highlights the top 50 cities for businesses operating in and around sports, and I think provides direction for sports business professionals across the US. Scoring for cities was based on three main criteria, opportunity, economic environment, and also insights from industry decision makers with a strong understanding of the sports business ecosystem. Why Dallas? Well, I can't say I was surprised when they showed me the final rankings. Dallas is the home to teams in the NFL, NHL, MLS, NBA, MLB, several college programs, several bowl games.

Dallas is a vibrant market with many businesses related to the sports industry, has a very business-friendly environment. So no surprise, Dallas ranked in the top spot. Rounding out the top five. New York, Charlotte, Minneapolis, and Atlanta. Let's take a look at each one. In New York, in terms of volume, I mean its properties and corporate brands and media companies in that marketplace are unmatched. Number three, Charlotte. I've said before on the Buzzcast, Charlotte is a very good sports business city. It's got a huge motorsports industry, large media footprint, high level of positive sentiment from executives who really believe Charlotte is a standout city. Number four, Minneapolis. Premier facilities, really strong engaged fan base, strong private-public partnerships, and that puts the Twin Cities in a very, very good spot in this survey. And number five, Atlanta, probably not a surprise. Very, very strong corporate base in sports, also known as the capital of college football.

Very state-of-the-art facilities, and I would say a diverse mix of sports properties and events. So Atlanta comes in fifth, so check out the full list of the top 50 on sportsbusinessjournal.com. It's a talker, it's a fun piece. Let us know your thoughts. Really proud of the effort to list the top sports business cities. Let's move on. Ever since I've been in the sports business, the biggest controversy in league and team issues has to do with revenue sharing. Teams that are successful, teams that optimize their business, really do not like sharing revenue with teams that they don't feel work hard in their local market or bring on the right people to drive their business forward. I've seen it for years across leagues. Well, kudos to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, who was able to detail the NBA's revenue sharing program from the 2021-2022 season. Remember, the teams that exceed the luxury tax pay their tax, and that goes into a pool that is shared with low revenue non-tax teams.

So you had 10 teams led by the Warriors, the Lakers, the Celtics, the Bulls, the Knicks and others. They paid into the system and that money was then distributed to 20 other teams who didn't pay a tax and are seen as lower revenue. The Warriors paid $170 million in luxury tax payments, and the Lakers, another $45 million. Remember under the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, the luxury tax payments, a certain percentage are put into this revenue sharing fund, along with other revenue, and then that is distributed to teams. This was distributed to 20 other NBA teams. The top recipient, the Indiana Pacers received more than $42 million in revenue sharing. The Denver Nuggets, more than 35 million. The Trail Blazers, more than 32 million. The Charlotte Hornets, more than 31 million, and the Sacramento Kings, almost $30 million in revenue sharing. So you know, that upsets the teams that are paying into the system.

It's always been an issue. It will continue to be an issue, but this offers a little bit of insight into the NBA's revenue sharing program. Who pays in and who receives? Let's move to college sports. We've talked about the efforts of new NCAA President, Charlie Baker, and how he really needs to work with leaders of Congress to get some national legislation around name, image, and likeness. And Baker is not wasting any time. SI reported that he's already met with nine members of Congress over the past few weeks to introduce himself and talk about the challenges the NCAA is facing. Many of the lawmakers who Baker met with are some of Congress's most influential members on the topic of athlete compensation and name, image and likeness. And early word from Washington is that legislators are impressed with Baker and that doesn't surprise me. We know that there is one committee hearing already on the DACA about name, image, and likeness.

So things are starting to heat up around Congress and its interest in issues relating to the NCAA and I believe Charlie Baker is going to be a real instrument of change in this environment. Moving on from college sports, wouldn't you like just to hear some harmony between player unions and the league office or between players and management? Just once? It seems there always has to be just an acrimonious relationship no matter what the situation is. Major League Baseball has so much good buzz right now. Players, fans, media, even sponsors I'm talking to, all seem to really like the way the new rule changes are impacting the on-field product. It all seems positive. The game seems to be in a really good place, but instead of saying that and really promoting the spirit of the changes and the benefits to the game, I was a little perplexed over the weekend when Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark instead just said the rule changes would've gone more smoothly during spring training if players and their thoughts had been incorporated.

He thought that the players' voices were not incorporated enough into these rule changes. Well, perhaps, but you have a chance to really get people to feel good about the game and really get excited about the start of the season. But Clark kept going back saying any challenges could have been avoided with more player input. I just kept thinking I haven't seen a lot of challenges. Everything I've heard from the players have been supportive of the changes in the pace of play. And Clark also seemed to imply the changes and improvements that we've seen over spring training may not last, saying that the early data shouldn't be overemphasized. And he said spring training is spring training, and he didn't sound too confident that this would be the pace of play once the regular season started. Perhaps, but this seemed like a good opportunity to sound a bit more optimistic about the efforts of the players and management to make the game more appealing and put some real energy behind baseball for the first time in a while.

So count me as among a quizzical observer of Tony Clark's comments over the weekend about the current state of baseball. And finally, I will end on a personal note. On Saturday, I drove about an hour and 20 minutes from Charlotte to Spartanburg to the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium at Wofford College for the memorial service for the late Panthers' owner, Jerry Richardson. It was an emotional service of about 1000 people. You had a number of former players appear, show up and pay tribute to Richardson. The stories from the five eulogies were remarkable. Two grandchildren and former player, Thomas Davis among them, they talked time and again about what Richardson meant to so many people, and the efforts he did that touched so many people throughout his life. Among those who attended the service were Cam Newton and Thomas Davis, Greg Olson, Ron Rivera, Bills' general manager, Brandon Beane, who worked for Richardson and Carolina, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was there.

Bears' chairman, George McCaskey was there. Cardinals' owner, Michael Bidwell, football Hall of Famer, Curtis Martin was there. He as long called Jerry Richardson, a mentor, two league executives from the NFL, Jeff Pash and Pete Abitante. So a number of people showed up in Spartanburg to pay tribute to Richardson. We have talked about this before. Jerry Richardson was certainly complex, complicated, and in the end we know controversial, but it was still good to see so many people who were impacted by Jerry Richardson honor him on Saturday at his memorial service. And that is your Morning Buzzcast for Monday, March 20th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Thanks for spreading the word on the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.