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| Game Plan President
Randy Vataha |
After catching the decisive touchdown pass from JIM PLUNKETT for the Stanford team that defeated previously unbeaten Ohio State in the '70 Rose Bowl, RANDY VATAHA enjoyed a seven-year career in the NFL, during which he became a leader in the Players Association. He later was co-Owner of the USFL's Boston Breakers, a partner and VP at executive search firm Korn/Ferry Int'l, and CEO of BOB WOOLF Associates Inc. In '94, Vataha and ROBERT CAPORALE formed Game Plan LLC. The company's primary function is to represent professional sports teams or potential owners of pro teams in their acquisition, sale, financing and/or capitalization. Some of Game Plan's transactions include the Celtics purchase in '02, the Senators sale in September '03, and most recently, FRANK MCCOURT's purchase of the Dodgers. Vataha spoke recently with SportsBusiness Journal's Jerry Kavanagh.
Q: Is showtime an inextricable part of sports? Witness the histrionics that go on throughout the game and the celebrations after a score. Does sport have to manufacture excitement?
Vataha: I think it's just a reflection of where society has gone. Sports is part of the entertainment industry, and it's moved more towards that over the last 15 years. Players have gotten a lot of notoriety when they've come up with something that's unique, although some diehard fans think it's silly. At an NBA game 20 years ago, at halftime you went and got a hot dog. Now, there are laser light shows and acrobatic acts and music and dancing girls, and all that stuff, and it's certainly filtered over to the players.
Q: You played seven years in the NFL, and were also a pro football team owner and a player agent.
Vataha: And I was on the executive committee for the union when I was a player. I was involved with collective bargaining negotiations from the players' side. And I was involved in negotiating contracts from the owners' side with my own money, and then negotiating contracts for players when I was CEO of Bob Woolf Associates.
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| Trump Pushed For USFL
To Move To Fall Schedule |
Q: Are you the only guy who has negotiated contracts from at least three sides?
Vataha: I don't know of anybody else. That doesn't mean there isn't anybody. I just don't know of anybody offhand.
Q: So, at one point you were a partner, so to speak, of DONALD TRUMP, as owners of teams in the USFL.
Vataha: That's right, for a brief time. I left after the second season; he had come in for the second season. So we overlapped for about three-quarters of a year.
Q: There must have been some interesing owners meetings.
Vataha: Well, Donald was really the one who felt that the league should move to the fall. He put a lot of time and effort into that. I think some of the original owners felt that it should stay in the spring. We basically sold our team. We felt it should be a spring league. There's no way to tell what would have happened either way because after the third year, the league suspended operations with the idea that it might come back and play in the fall, and then never did. And then they had that famous $1 lawsuit.
Q: Where did the USFL go wrong?
Vataha: In my opinion, the teams started out with reasonable budgets across the board — all their expenses, including player costs. And early on, when some of the owners' teams were not as good as they thought, because we played in the spring, we had the access to go sign any NFL players in their offseason who had contracts that were up. In the first year alone, costs almost tripled on the average. The league really spent itself out of business over those three years. If it would have stayed with its original budgets and increased those as the revenues increased, I think they would have been terrific.
Q: What can the different pro sports leagues learn from each other?
Vataha: It's become clear to me that you have to take the fans more and more into consideration than ever before. In the past, I think teams always felt they were driven by the team side — meaning the football operations, the basketball operation, the baseball operations — and the idea was that as long as we have a winning team, we'll be a successful franchise. If your business definition is winning is success, then you're saying that 50% of your league will fail. So, you really have to take the fan into consideration much more across the board. I think for the first time in a long time, you're seeing certain franchises roll back ticket pricing. I've read a lot about quotes from owners in the NHL saying they've increased their prices too high.
Q: As a wide receiver, you didn't get to call your own plays. Now you get to make the call. What's the best call you have made in your position now?
Vataha: I think the best call we made was starting the company [Game Plan LLC] back in 1994. We really believed that there was a void in the marketplace for people with extensive experience, especially on the business side, to put full time and energy just to the financial issues of professional sports. And it was on that basis that we founded Game Plan. We've been extremely happy with having done that and very pleased with the way the company has grown.
Q: Any calls since then, since you started the company that you would put at the top?
Vataha: Being involved in the Boston Celtics transaction. We worked with WYC GROUSBECK and STEVE PAGLIUCA from the very beginning; worked with them in terms of putting that entire transaction together. It was the largest one in the history for the NBA. It had some creative aspects to it. That's been our 90-yard touchdown.
Q. Should the NFL preseason be shortened?
Vataha: I think I would try to shorten the preseason. I wouldn't purport to know what it should be. The veterans, given the level of offseason training these days, could probably be ready with two weeks of practice and two more weeks of preseason games.
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| Big-Market Angels Were Bought
For Middle-Market Price |
Q: What's the best buy in sports today?
Vataha: Big-market franchises that, for whatever reason, you can buy for the same price as a middle-market team.
Q: Who's the greatest competitor you've seen?
Vataha: I know nothing about the sport, but given everything involved, I'd have to say LANCE ARMSTRONG.
Q: With round-the-clock coverage of sports, is it possible that our appetite for the games is both overstuffed and undernourished?
Vataha: I think if you look at television ratings for most of the major sports, there doesn't seem to be any significant growth. Attendances have been pretty flat on a league-wide basis. Certain teams do better or worse from year to year. So you would tend to think you have maxed out there. On the other hand, as you know, the NFL has launched its own television network. The NBA has NBA TV. Major League Baseball is contemplating it. The NHL is contemplating it. In all of the sports, there are consistently more highlight shows, pregame shows, pre-pregame shows, so I think you're dealing with; what would be a good analogy? You're getting stuffed on the main meal, but there are still a lot of hors d'oeuvres and desserts that are being developed.
Q: Viewers, advertisers and the media seem to focus almost as much attention on the Super Bowl commercials as on the game itself. Has the Super Bowl become a made-for-TV special? Is it ancillary to the game?
Vataha: No, I firmly believe the game is the focus. What brings people to that television set is the game. The interesting part is because there are so many people that are going to watch the game, it creates opportunities for advertisers to really try to shine and to really come across in all that advertising clutter and be the best commercial, or the one that everyone talks about afterward. I don't think that you would get 50 million U.S. households to watch a show with really good commercials, with just commercials.
Q. If everybody's staying put for the commercials, when do they go to the kitchen or bathroom?
Vataha: I've got to tell you, I think that the commercial aspects of the Super Bowl is one of the greatest motivators of all time to buy TiVo.
Q: Who's the shrewdest or most creative business man in sports?
Vataha: There are a number of people, but, to be honest, because I know so much about him, in the last ten years, I'd have to go with BOB KRAFT. He bought a franchise for about $170 million in, I think, 1994. People thought he way overpaid for it. It was a franchise that did not have a very good team and the organization was in disarray. And here you are ten years later, they've been able to build a privately financed — I emphasize privately financed — beautiful new stadium in Foxboro. They've gone to the Super Bowl and won. They've made the thing an enormous financial success. I don't know the value of the Patriots, I've never seen their numbers, but I'm sure it's at the very top end of the NFL, so it's probably worth $800-plus million.
Q: How do you feel about incentive clauses in players' contracts?
Vataha: They are a two-edged sword. I feel much better about incentive clauses that are team-oriented. You know, if the team goes to the playoffs or wins the division championship or the Super Bowl. I don't have as much problem with incentive clauses for things like being named to the all-star team, or being the MVP because those are not things that ever cross a player's mind from play to play. Where I draw the line is when the incentive bonus can come in conflict with the success of the team. A player who needed five more yards to hit 1,000 yards and a bonus, and the team threw the ball on the last three plays of the regular season trying to win the game, and somehow the player feels like he got cheated because he didn't get one more carry in the game when in fact that's irrelevant from the team standpoint.
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| Vataha Says Underclassmen Like Mike
Williams Should Be Allowed In The Draft |
Q: What is your position on the Maurice Clarett situation?
Vataha: I understand and appreciate the pro teams not wanting to have players available too early and too young. And I think to a certain extent they're genuinely trying to protect the college game, whether it be football or basketball. However, in this country, I firmly believe that if a player has the talent — and the league decides if he has the talent if he's drafted — there really should not be a restriction for him.
Q: What are you reading right now?
Vataha: "Angels & Demons." It's the prequel to "The Da Vinci Code."
Q: Any sportswriters you particularly enjoy?
Vataha: My all-time favorite passed away: JIM MURRAY. When we played Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, we had clinched the Pac-8 with three games left to go — which was unheard of — and then we lost all three of those games. The Ohio State team we played was the one with REX KERN at quarterback and JACK TATUM and JOHN BROCKINGTON. They were No. 1 in the country, unbeaten and untied, beat everybody by 30 points a game. Jim Murray wrote an article trying to calculate what the spread should be on the game. And he couldn't get it anywhere under 80 points. Just a classic.
Q: What's a typical day off like?
Vataha: I have two sons that played a lot of sports. The second one just graduated from Stanford in June. I still have a daughter, 15, in high school. So, generally, on a day off we try to do something as a family whenever possible. It could be a trip to the mall. Our family are big movie buffs, so we do that quite a bit. If the time works, we'll go skiing. But when we all get a day off, it's really to wind down and try to catch up with the family. Because in this current position, deals have a life of their own, and they're not 9-to-5, Monday to Friday. We have a saying here that nothing really important in the sports business happens between 9 and 5.
Q: Favorite piece of music?
Vataha: This will show you my age: just about anything written by The Beatles.
Q: Favorite actress?
Vataha: Boy! I have to think about that. I like 'em all (laughing). KATHERINE ROSS. I'm not sure how much it had to do with her acting.
Q: Favorite movie?
Vataha: Dr. Strangelove.
Q: Do you have a favorite quote or words to live by?
Vataha: "The only thing for sure is nothing's for sure." No, let me give you my better one. This was some official's quote who was describing the nature of politics, I think right after World War II. But I believe it governs most of life: "Just about everything is a disproportionate response to a miscalculated challenge." I picked that up in college and I've never forgotten it. And often I used it in negotiations.
