The state of the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB was examined by
Jeff Yastine on "NBR," who said, "as an industry, some are
doing well and some are, in Wall Street lingo, in need of a
turnaround." Yastine: "Analysts say baseball could
certainly use a turnaround. Fan demographics keep getting
older, and unlike other leagues, baseball has little revenue
sharing. ... Analysts say the NBA is far better off. The
league has done a good job of marketing itself and it has
the athletic world's biggest brand name -- Michael Jordan.
That's also part of the leagues short-term problem: what to
do when Jordan retires for good. Lower TV ratings are one
concern, as is fan attendance." Yastine said that while the
NHL "may not yet have the TV ratings, or the high powered
image of other sports ... that can be misleading." Notre
Dame Professor Richard Sheehan: "When you look at the amount
of revenue that hockey actually takes in, hockey and the NBA
are almost identical. The seasons are almost the same
length, the squad sizes are roughly the same, and the amount
of money is, within a million or two on average, about the
same for an NBA team." Yastine: "So which sport is doing
the best? Most experts say it's NFL football. The sport
has been marketed well, and it continues to update its image
among younger generations of fans. And most teams are at
least marginally profitable." Pro Sports Marketing's Nye
Lavelle, noting a possible 70-100% increase in TV rights
fees, said the NFL "is in very solid shape and has great
room for expansion and, by far, is the most solid of all the
four major sports" ("Nightly Business Report," PBS, 11/13).
