More than 250 members of the industry attended the
fourth annual National Sports Forum (NSF), presented by
Seaver Marketing Group. The event, held from Sunday through
Tuesday, took place in Irvine, CA. In his keynote address,
Mandalay Sports Entertainment Chair PETER GUBER discussed
the various multimedia options that fans have in their homes
these days and their effect on the appeal of live sporting
events. Guber, on whether sporting events will eventually
become TV-oriented with no actual fans: "I think not.
Location-based sports entertainment is critical."
TAVARES SOUNDS A WARNING: In addressing the NSF on
Monday night, Anaheim Sports President TONY TAVARES offered
his "own personal views on what's wrong in sports and the
challenges that we face going into the next millennium. ...
We all have got to realize today that we do have problems.
We can't stick our head in the sand and think they're going
to go away. They're very significant and require immediate
attention." While high ticket prices and rising player
salaries continue to be two "significant" issues affecting
the industry, Tavares also stressed the need for increased
revenue sharing in MLB. He noted how many teams feel that
Internet revenues are the "new big hit." Tavares: "Some of
us in sports that have some sense of business would like to
take some of these Internet dollars and at least reduce the
losses that we're experiencing and not give it all to the
players, which is what we've done with all these increased
revenue streams." Tavares: "I can't tell you how excited
and happy I am that Bud Selig has taken steps to gain
control back at the commissioner's office, to give the
powers back that the commissioner's office needs. ...
Baseball as we know it today would not exist five years from
now, I guarantee you, unless somebody intervenes."
NO "I" IN TEAM: Nike Team Sports President MARK HAMPTON
said the company's future partnership strategy will focus on
"value." Hampton: "The need to question and to carefully
evaluate the value of teams, leagues and event partnerships
will become more critical than ever before. ... We will look
harder at those relationships, but more importantly, we know
we need to have those kind of messages go out and we will
always continue to invest there. Where we may not invest is
that $200,000 commitment of club inventory or league
inventory that Nike is forced to buy under its contractual
exposure and advertising rights with Major League Baseball,
for an event which gets zero exposure and has little value
to building our brand. However, it's part of the deal and
that is where I think leagues and teams need to really look
at the quality of the inventory they provide to their
sponsors, the people who participate in supporting the
athletes that they put on the field. We're a little bit
flabbergasted by some of the requests that we get. ...
Unfortunately, [our complaints] fall mostly on deaf ears,
because we, too, feel that leagues and teams are a little
bit myopic in their approach. We truly believe that Nike
brings value to a partner. ... We want to partner with teams
and leagues to continue to build our brands, but they are
making are decisions much more difficult. We will continue
to seek better alternatives" (THE DAILY).
