During a discussion at the ’16 CAA World Congress of Sports, the honorees in this year's class of The Champions: Pioneers and Innovators in Sports Business reflected on changes in the industry that have been driven by money, exposure and technology. Penske Corp. Chair Roger Penske said technology has raised the stakes: “The biggest change in our sport is technology -- the connection between car and driver. It’s made a big difference. We have drivers run the race on a simulator before driving the car so we can get it just right, (but) the costs have escalated. It costs north of $100 million to run cars in IndyCar and NASCAR.” Joe Cohen, cable pioneer and President of Sports at The Switch, said, "In 1970 we were concerned about the fan experience from when the game started until it ended. Now it’s a big opportunity from when they wake up until they go to sleep.”
HE SAID, SHE SAID: Basketball HOFer and NBA Cares Ambassador Bob Lanier asked CBS Sports' Lesley Visser, one of the first female reporters coming into pro locker rooms after a game, if she was as uncomfortable as the players were having her there, which elicited laughter from the crowd. Visser responded, “Yes. I’m Jesuit trained, raised Catholic. But it was a place of business. I got my interviews and got out. It was no place I wanted to hang around.”
GOING PUBLIC: Another hot topic for the panel: the pitfalls of social media. Lanier said, “We’re trying to expand the horizons of (NBA) players as they come in about do’s and don’ts, about paying attention when you’re out. Everything is public. There’s no such thing as privacy. Penske agreed, saying, “We worry about comments our drivers make in social media. We need to train our guys. They’re the public faces of the sport and they’re entrepreneurs.”
HERE COMES THE FUTURE: Penske said sports as we know it may have to change in a world of disruptors and disruptions. “Will people have the time to spend looking at sports?” he asked. “Are these games too long? We may need to change the rules because the attention span today is changing.” Cohen added, “Streaming does away with barriers of entry. You don’t pay middlemen to get to the ultimate customer. It’s unlimited capacity, and cable companies aren’t the gatekeepers. There’s a voracious appetite for data. All of those are opportunities.”
WHO’S THE BOSS? Cohen has worked with some difficult bosses over the years and was asked who was tougher to work for -- the Dolans or George Steinbrenner? “Despite the reputations, they all listened, Jim, Chuck and George,” he said. “You just had to know when and how to approach them. The hardest person to convince in that group is Chuck Dolan. Once he makes up his mind, he’s like the Rock of Gibraltar.”
