The cover story on World [Congress of] Sports, “Dissecting the Disruption” — Supposedly this gathering of sports industry bigwigs was all about “disruption” all over the sports industry.
The question of the week is … What disruption???
This letter is in response to our April 23 story “Dissecting the Disruption.”
There is no industry on Earth experiencing less real disruption than the sports industry. Let me quote from the SBJ cover article to make my point.
What qualifies as so-called “disruption” on the sports industry? The PGA [Tour] calls disruption “walk up songs on the first tee” at major golf tournaments. WOW! The CEO of the San Francisco 49ers claimed “disruption” as “most live games airing on some kind of digital streaming platform.” WOW.
What many of the speakers all claimed as “disruption” is the possibility of widespread sports gambling in the U.S. some time in the future — rather than honestly speaking of their lust for sports betting to try and hold on to dwindling audiences for their sports, and especially among the young, speakers presented sports gambling as some exciting form of “disruption” rather than creating the most addictive form of gambling ever and turning major sports into the “opioids” of gambling where you will be able to bet on every pitch in baseball or play in football from your smartphone.
But most of all speakers spoke in complete meaningless generalities about all the so-called “disruption” taking place in the sports industry. For example, in the cover story …
■ “Disruption — it’s the word of the moment right now,” said Peter White, partner at the firm DLA Piper.
■ Wendell Brooks, the investment chief at Intel, said more venture capital has been invested into the disruption of sports in the last five years than the 70 years prior, putting the sports industry in the midst of perhaps its greatest period of upheaval.
■ “The pace of disruption is incredible and it’s accelerating,” said Michael Rubin, a co-owner of the NBA Philadelphia 76ers and NHL New Jersey Devils who also founded e-commerce giant Fanatics. “If we’ve had that much disruption in the past five years, we’ll have that much more in the next five.”
Just don’t ask them for details of what they mean by “disruption,” as the SBJ cover story does not.
The fact is there is NO real disruption taking place in the sports industry. It is ruled over by decision makers who worship at the altar of the status quo who do not want to see real change in their sports that are money machines for them even as their fan bases are on a path of permanent decline.
What was an example of real disruption in sports? Let me tell you.
1891, Springfield, Mass. James Naismith invented the sport of basketball! No new sports have reached the marketplace since basketball. So called esports is not a sport, it is computer game playing.
Yes there is a desperate need for real disruption in the sports industry in the 21st century. The good news is lack of disruption is setting the stage for the floodgates to open and an era of exciting, game-changing disruption in sports. The only question is when.
Arthur Piccolo
New York City
