Coming off an exciting NBA Draft and Finals, a well viewed NHL Finals, and with the promise of a memorable MLB All-Star game on the horizon, many on the outside looking into the sports world would view the economic impact and excitement that the business brings to fans as quite a bonanza. Yet a glance at today's stories for those in the business have the cold reminder that this is indeed a business, one that is more visible than most in both the best and worst times, and the results for lack of ROI or shortcomings on performance can be not just devastating but very public. NASCAR driver Dario Franchitti's race team is being shut down for lack of sponsorship..?Follow that with Darren Rovell's piece today that former NBA All-Star and US Olympian Vin Baker is the latest in a series of athletes to have their houses foreclosed on. Then there is the report today that the NLL's Arizona Sting has released its players and staff and is up for sale. All three are painful reminders that real world problems…money, foreclosure, unemployment, underperformance and slowing economy…can impact even the most “glamorous” of industries and the resulting fall can be more public than most in the business world.
Two good examples of ownership managing expectations coming out of the NBA Draft were put forward today…the first was in Memphis, where owner Michael Heisley spelled out a long term plan for team resurgence for the Grizzlie., and the other was in New Jersey, where owner Bruce Ratner used the term “rebuilding” at a presser introducing his latest additions. Both owners used the pressers to temper fan expectations and go on the record to show long term committment, and both played the role out very well.
