THE DAILY each Friday offers our take on the performances over the past week of some people and entities in sports business. Here are this week’s newsmakers:
WIN: BRIAN BEDOL/STEVE GREENBERG — Sports television entrepreneurs cash in again on a network they built. Six years after selling Classic Sports to ESPN for $200M, Bedol and Greenberg unload CSTV to CBS for $325M. With Bedol and his team maintaining control of the operation, and the synergy between the businesses, this should make for a successful partnership.
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Henry, Werner, Lucchino Must
Now Regain Trust Of Fans |
LOSE: RED SOX — A mind-blowing week of failure leads to the resignation of one of New England's most popular executives,
THEO EPSTEIN. Owner
JOHN HENRY says the team "blew it," and questions his own ability to lead the franchise. But no one should be spared blame here, as even the departing Epstein turns on the people who discovered him. What recently was seen as a model organization now reeks of back-stabbing, power struggles, attempted coups and overheated media spinning. Now, for all the impressive work they have accomplished in their short tenure, Henry,
TOM WERNER and
LARRY LUCCHINO have a lot of trust to regain.
DRAW: PGA TOUR — Reshaping the Tour’s schedule shows a willingness to learn from the successes of other properties and should also generate end-of-year excitement and deeper fields of marquee players. But not all tournament directors are sold on the idea, and what about the title sponsors now overshadowed by the FedEx Cup? Also, the Tour still has to sell the concept to TV networks, and ED MOORHOUSE acknowledges that the tournaments comprising the Tour Championship Series may end up on different networks, which would kill any hope of continuity.
