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How to make Indy Cars relevant again (RealClearSports)

Jeremy Lin wins trademark to Linsanity (Bloomberg)

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey aims to pick a fight with the Feds over sports gambling, and its an election year in case you might have forgotten, (Dan Wetzel)

Ten richest sporting events in the world, according to Forbes, and number is not what you think (Forbes)

Why was the SEC in such a hurry to get Texas A&M and Missouri to join last year? To enable the league to reopen TV talks and focus on the launch of a SEC network (FS South via Football Rumor Mill)

Streaking is apparently back, at least in St. Louis where the guy was just celebrating the Loin King. (Deadspin inc.video)

Payrolls count in the NHL, well, unless you're Toronto or LA (Globe and Mail)

FIFA boss wants an alternative to penalty shootouts to decide championships (Guardian)

USOC - IOC agreement should pave the way for an Olympics return to US in 2022 or 2024 (LA Times)

NBA made money on Sale of the Hornets (Forbes)

 I'll Have Another runs down Bodemeister at the finish line again.  See the race replay (Daily Racing Form)

No Affirmed -Alydar replay as Bodemeister is wisely skipping the Belmont (Herald-Leader)

The Warriors are heading back to San Francisco (warriorrsworld)

Old Dominion becomes third school to depart the Colonial Athletic Conference, this time for C-USA: CAA to departing schools: You don't want to play with us, then we don't want to play with you (ESPN)

Babe Ruth 1920 Yankees road jersey sells for $4.4 million (SI)

Congress wants to end all military sponsorship of sports (Darren Rovell)

One of the more obscure contenders for 2020 Olympics: Baku, Azerbaijan (SportsProMagazine)

Enjoy the NHL playoffs, it may be the last you see for awhile (Globe and Mail)

The post Derby honeymoon didn't last too long in either Derby City or at Churchill Downs. By Monday morning, the bloom was already off the roses, except for shareholders of Churchill Downs.

Derby sets attendance, on track and all source wagering records, remarkable for a race with less than normal pre-race buzz (DRF)

TV ratings were also up; third most watched since 1989 (Business First)

$CHDN reports record revenue and net earnings for first quarter (DRF)

Full Preakness field with plenty of newcomers awaits Derby winner who arrived at Pimlico yesterday (WaPo)

Groom found dead in stall at Churchill Downs on morning after Derby in apparent homicide (C-J)

Winning trainer has a somewhat less than illustrious past on the racetrack; winning owner's fortune arose from sub-prime lending and legal loansharking (Eric Crawford)


In news unrelated to the Kentucky Derby:

Stop me if you've heard this before, NHL announces tentative deal to sell Coyotes (ESPN)

Why college football should be banned, and he's not totally wrong (WSJ)

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto is forced to resign (ESPN)

Big XII presidents agree to 13 year, $200 million TV deal with ESPN/Fox (CBSSports)

With TV contract settled, new commissioner and long-term stability, will the Big XII now look at expansion and do we get to play more of the who goes where game? First bet still Louisville; most intriguing new rumor: Clemson and Florida State  (KC Star)

Vancouver Canucks fans celebrated long into the night when the Canucks reached the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 17 years. Fans in Canada also got their first Canadian finalist since 2007, although there are many Maple Leafs and Canadiens fans who just can't bring themselves to root for the west coast upstart.

However the Canadian fans sort out their loyalties, one thing is now clear:the suits at Comcast and NBC are strongly rooting for the Boston Bruins to close out the Lightning in their Eastern Conference finals. A Vancouver-Tampa Bay match-up would likely be a ratings disaster, given one Canadian team and one Sunbelt team with no real fan attraction outside Tampa Bay. After all, half the country hasn't been awake for the Canucks' games, not to mention that several of them have been on Versus which the casual fan is still struggling to locate. Add to that the fact that no Canadian numbers go into the ratings and the boys at Comcast could, with a Lightning win in game 7, be looking at the lowest rated Stanley Cup final perhaps ever. So, Flyers' fans, forgive Comcast I'd just this once, they root for the Bruins.

UPDATE: With the Bruins win, NBC/Comcast can breathe a little easier.

It's TV day here at SportsBiz.  The latest TV news is word of the NHL's new TV agreement.  The current agreement with NBC and Versus expiring this year paid about $70 million a year from Versus and no rights fee from NBC.  The NBC deal was a time share arrangement.  When Comcast, the owner of Versus, took over NBC earlier this year, there was no more interested and concerned observer than NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.  There may have been no luckier person either.

I know I haven't done this in a while but I will try to be a little better about it going forward.  In any event, here is this week's installment, which started on Tuesday but didn't get published until Wednesday:

Jason Bailey, formerly a forward for the Bakersfield Condors, the then ECHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks. has filed suit against the Ducks alleging that he was the victim of anti-Semitic treatment while he was a member of the Condors.  The complaint, filed in Orange County, California, names the Ducks, the Condors, Martin Raymond and Mark Pederson, the then head coach and assistant coach of the Condors as defendants and seeks unspecified damages.

Just in case you have a little time on your hands and want to escape the crush of relatives this weekend, or live in the Midwest or Europe and need a respite from the snow storms, here are a few stories that caught my eye this week that I think you will find interesting:

As the NHL Board of Governors gathers for its winter meetings, the sale of three clubs tops the agenda.  The sale by the league of the Phoenix Coyotes is the most urgent since should a sale not close by the end of this month, the Commissioner Gary Bettman has said that the club is free to leave Arizona.  Florida businessman Matt Hulsizer has been approved as a potential owner but he still needs a lease. There is no deal in place with the City of Glendale on a lease for the use of Jobbing.com Arena, which has been the major sticking point in the sale.  Winnipeg, the 'yotes former home, is standing by with bated breath for New Years Day to arrive without Glendale's approval of a deal.

You didn't think the NBA was going to let the NHL have the entire comics stand to itself did you?  Of course not.  The NBA, in conjunction with broadcast and digital partner ESPN and its corporate parent Disney, which now owns Marvel, has brought to the basketball and comics fans in all of us the Marvel inspired variant covers for each NBA team for its NBA preview edition of ESPN The Magazine.  Check it out here.


It's not exactly the same thing as creating superheroes for each city and building cartoons and comics around them as Marvel will be doing for the NHL, but, hey, everybody has to start somewhere.

You have to hand it to Gary Bettman when he comes up with a good marketing idea and this one should be an excellent entree to young boys who may now not be tuned into hockey.  The NHL in conjunction with Stan Lee are going to be rolling out a series of 30 superheroes called the Guardians, one in each NHL city, as part of the Guardian Project. While the Guardians will not be particularly set in hockey, each Guardian will have superpowers that are representative of each team and each city.

The Guardians will be unveiled for the first time at the 2011 NHL All Star Game to be held in Raleigh, North Carolina on January 30, 2011 and televised on Versus.

Here are a few links for your weekend reading pleasure:

How bad is the economy? Bad enough for even NFL teams to go down in value (Forbes)

Financial Statements of five major league teams were leaked last week:  Pittsburgh Pirates,
Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Seattle Mariners,
Texas Rangers (Deadspin)

It takes cojones; Sosa fumes because Cubs haven't retired his number (Hardball Times)

Here's a first, NBC adjust ad breaks to Notre Dame's no-huddle offense (USA Today)

Is live streaming the wave of the future in youth recreational leagues? (NYT)

Will there be NHL players in the 2014 Olympics: players want it but as usual the owners
led by Bettman are reluctant at best. (NYT)

Sorry for my absence from the blog this week.  I came back to the Bluegrass from a brief visit to Chicago to visit relatives and immediately upon returning to the Ohio Valley Steamroom was felled by some ailment caused no doubt by the thick layer of ozone that has been hanging over the Valley for the last couple of weeks.  I know the Northeast got 100+ days this week, but we've had something like 25 90+ degree days since June 1 with no end in sight. The humidity has been hovering around 90% and it's not safe for man or beast out there.


Enough complaining.  I'm finally returning to some semblance of a normal life so it's back to the blog.  I know you struggled through The Decision without me but I'm sure you managed better than Dan Gilbert did.  Someone must have taken his lithium away.  Good luck to the Heat - if they don't win a championship this year, there will be hell to pay in South Beach.

I haven't been able to keep up with much this week, so here's a few links to carry you through the weekend:

Why not a seventh Canadian team for the NHL, a TSN, Globe and Mail series (TSN, Globe and Mail)

Is there a sinister bias for calling fouls in soccer? (Paul Kedrosky)

ACC lands a new media deal with ESPN for about $1.86 Billion though 2022-23. The deal should double each school's current television revenue.  (News&Observer, ACC)

Fatwa issued in UAE against  vuvuzelas above 100 decibels (The National via Bloomberg)

How different are major league baseball stadiums - at least those without roofs? (Snippets)

It's a good weekend to be a Chicago sports fan.  On Saturday, the five-time defending national champion Northwestern Wildcat lacrosse team booked its ticket to next weekend's Final Four defeating Duke 18-8.  On a rain and windswept Lakeside Field which at times more closely resembled a Scottish links course at dawn than a lacrosse field, the Cats scored the first ten goals to put away the fifth ranked Blue Devils.  The Cats were paced by senior Danielle Spencer's four goals and two assists, while senior Katrina Dowd continued to rewrite record books.  Dowd's hat trick gave her 42 career postseason goals breaking former teammates Hillary Bowen's NCAA tournament record of 40. 

Here's what I've been occupying myself with while I get ready for my assault on the Churchill Downs pari-mutuel pools:


On the marriage between television and sports (Abnormal Returns)

Do the Giants want to buy the Warriors? (SF Chronicle)

Ted Leonsis reaches deal to buy remaining interest in Wizards, so will own Capitals, Wizards and Verizon Center (WaPo)

Promotion to Premier League worth 90 million pounds per year to promoted clubs (Sports Business)

Kobe again top selling player jersey and Lakers top selling team (Business of Sports)

Stan Kroenke, the billionaire by marriage owner of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, not to mention a significant stake in Arsenal of the English Premier League, which we will get to later, has decided to exercise his option to purchase the equity interests in the St. Louis Rams which he did not own.  Kroenke currently owns 40% of the Rams, with the remaining 60% held by Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez.  Kroenke also held a right to match any offer Rosenbloom and Rodriguez received to purchase their interest.  He exercised that right last week, setting up a showdown with the NFL and Commissioner Goodell.


The NFL has cross-ownership rules that prohibit an owner from owning a franchise in another sport in a different city than the owner's NFL city.  Under that rule, Kroenke's Denver franchises would preclude him from owning the Rams - Arsenal would not yet be a problem as Jacksonville has yet to decamp for London.  It would appear that Kroenke is itching for a fight and believes that he either has enough owners on his side already or has found a way around the restriction.  According to espn.com, he has not asked for an exemption nor does he intend to sell the Nugget or Avalanche.  ESPN suggests he may hand over control of the Denver operations to his son, implying that may be enough to satisfy the NFL.  If so, that would be an awfully easy way out of the problem and a fix that would seem to be available to almost any owner; enough so that the rule would be gutted, which wouldn't be a bad thing since it doesn't make any sense in the first place.


Across the pond, it appears that control over Arsenal may finally be put into play.  Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov have been accumulating shares for some time in anticipation of the opportunity to gain control.  That opportunity is at hand.  Nia Bracewell-Smith, the owner of nearly 16% of the club has hired Blackstone to market her interest.  If either Kroenke or Usmanov acquire it, he will cross the 30% ownership line which, under UK law, requires a mandatory takeover bid.  Stay tuned, the buying and selling of Premiership clubs as if they were houses in a game of Monopoly  continues unabated.

The once unbreakable line against legal sports betting in this country continues to show significant cracks.  The latest breach appears in the online version of the Philadelphia Daily News.  The paper is offering an online fantasy gaming outlet called "Instant Fantasy Sports Games" in partnership with FanDuel.com, a British wagering company. Games are currently being offered for the NBA, NHL, and MLB.


"We're trying to serve two goals," said Yoni Greenbaum, vice president of product development at Philly.com. "Those are content differentiation and revenue. If you're looking at the sports sites out there, a lot of them have the same stuff. In this day and age, sports fans have insatiable appetites."

 Right now, the game is free to play and you can win cash.  However, once the paper starts charging people to play, how is this game different from most other forms of sports gaming which the Feds have decided to shut down?  Mind you, I have no objection to the game and hope that the Daily News finds it to be wildly successful, sparking imitators around the country.  Maybe then we'll finally see the popular groundswell needed to get rid of the ridiculous limitations on sports gambling in this country.

HT: Wiz of Odds