MSNBC's "InterNight," guest-hosted by Mike Lupica,
focused on the business of sports. The panel featured NFL
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, Acting MLB Commissioner Bud
Selig and MSG President & CEO Dave Checketts. Topics
included corporate ownership, labor relations and the state
of professional sports ("InterNight," MSNBC, 7/15).
CORPORATE OWNERSHIP: Checketts: "What is happening here
is that economics is driving all of this, that's what's
driving the corporations in. ... We're all finding ways to
make more money, so we can pay player salaries. And the
days of the small owner, the entrepreneur, are really in
danger." Tagliabue, on the Steelers' Rooney family: "If
they don't get a new stadium in Pittsburgh, as an individual
family, despite the fact that they've been in the league
since 1933, they may not be able to continue in the NFL."
Tagliabue, on corporate ownership: "Our problem in the NFL
with corporate ownership is a different one, it's a conflict
of interest. Are they really coming in because they want to
own a football team, or are they coming in because they want
to be in the cable television business or some other
business that's subsidiary to our primary set of interests?"
Selig: "Frankly, it's the individual owners that over a
period of time have really caused a lot more heartache."
STATE OF THE GAMES: Tagliabue, on legal disputes
between owners and leagues: "The problem is one that has
been forced on us in some ways by the courts. ... The courts
say the teams are competitors. It's a wacky notion. ...
Teams are partners in the league, they have to work as
partners. But once the court set up that type of
competition, then you have a relationship which is very
tough to manage, and you have a relationship that starts to
become destructive with court sanction." Selig, on Wayne
Huizenga selling the Marlins: "What Wayne Huizenga did is
take a huge gamble, that he spent a lot of money to make the
Marlins competitive. ... The problem with the structure is,
that in spending that kind of money, there is no way to
spend what he spent and be profitable. It can't work and it
won't work. ... Huizenga's club will lose a fortune this
year, no matter where they finish." Lupica, to Selig: "Do
you understand why baseball fans wouldn't believe most
owners if they told them water was wet? When we hear Peter
Angelos, who has sellout after sellout after sellout at
Camden Yards, trying to fly this balloon that he lost money
last year on the Baltimore Orioles." Selig: "Well, the
tragedy is, Mike, that he did." Checketts, on the high cost
of ticket prices at MSG: "I'm not particularly proud of
what's happened to ticket prices at the Garden, but my
biggest problem is in keeping scalpers and brokers out of
our tickets" ("InterNight," MSNBC, 7/15).
FINAL THOUGHTS: Lupica asked each participant, "If you
could change one thing in your sport that you believe would
make it better for the fans, what would it be?" Tagliabue:
"The collective bargaining agreement, clearly." Checketts:
"I'd rather have ticket prices that allow everybody to come,
and that will be created by non-guaranteed contracts."
Selig: "Continued labor peace, more internal economics. Our
ticket prices we have dealt with. ... Economic equilibrium
that will keep our sport flourishing" (MSNBC, 7/15).
