Sunday, May 31, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For May 31st, 2015

By Gregory Crawford----COO of Kiyokawa Sports Management---- on twitter @kesportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

During this past winter, UAB, Univeristiy of Alabama--Birmingham dropped football, bowling and rifle from its athletic programs. Many were outraged and the event took on a life of its own. Now, it appears those three sports will be back at UAB, as the school will easily exceed the fundraising goal of $22.5 million to bring them back. Interesting to say the least.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For May 30th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

At the recent SEC spring meetings, each SEC athletic director was given a check for $31.2 million from the league office. In 2014, that check was $20.9 million. The obvious jump in league revenue can only be attributed to one thing, the SEC TV Network which went on the air August 12th, 2014.  It is a certainty, all SEC teams will be upgrading their facilities in many ways, with the enormous amount of revenue they receive.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For May 26th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops @crawssportsbiz

Interesting stats here. The New York Yankees account for 2.5 percent of all wages paid out in the Bronx. The average wage in the Bronx is $47,000 per year and the famous New York City Borough has 252,000 workers who receive a salary each month. In comparison to Bronx, the average wage in Manhattan is $102,000.


Monday, May 25, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For May 25th, 2014

Good news and thanks for all the comments. As of today, Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds is back, 7 days a week and we offer only one guarantee, you can read it in 59 seconds or less. In addition, after a long hiatus, well not that long, little over a month, Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo, is back, which will be published every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Enjoy please.

The majority owner of the Golden State Warriors, bought the team for $450 million in 2010. Today, the Warriors are worth $810 million, that will go even higher with an NBA title, which just might happen in June.

Gregory Crawford is the editor of Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds and Crawfords Sports Biz and Golf Combo. He is also the COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo

By Gregory Crawford----COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

The Big 9 Influencers----For the last month, @crawssportsbiz has worked to develop the a list of the Top 9  influential people or groups in Oregon sports. Please excuse a little provincialism here, as Oregon is my home state and where I live. The list is powerful and unique. I would love comments, criticism and your own list.

9. Steve Brandon--- Not many people know Steve, but you should. He is the original sports editor of the Portland Tribune, which produced its first edition in February of 2001. I heard many people at the time say this paper would never last, but guess what it has and it has a great sports section which is led by Brandon.

8. Danny Miles----Miles is into his 45th year as the head men's basketball coach at Oregon Tech in Klamath Falls, Oregon. One of three college basketball coaches in the country that has won over 1,000 games. But what you never hear much of, people seek out Miles all the time, not only for advice on basketball, but on life. As one colleague said recently, " A no-brainer to make the Naismith basketball hall of fame very soon.

7. Jon Spoelstra----Jon has had tremendous success running sports franchises, also an accomplished author, with most like his most successful book, "Marketing Outrageously, Redux." Despite working around the world, since the 1980s Jon has never left Portland. His advice to this day on sports biz is sought after by some sports' most powerful people and will continue to be. His latest venture, www.theultimatetoolkit.com

6. Vin Lananna--- The title of associate athletic director at University of Oregon does not do him justice. He has brought so many track and field events to Oregon, it is tough to keep track, including the  Olympic Trials. Without question Lananna is one of the most powerful people in track and field and is not only influential in the state of Oregon, but around the world.

5. Dwight Jaynes----- Even after over 30 years in sports writing, when Jaynes writes something, it moves the needle. He has sustained his ability to stir the emotions of sports fans, while being with the Oregon Journal, the Oregonian and Comcast SportsNet. Jaynes has parlayed his writing talents to TV, where he brings a history of Oregon sports that is unmatched to the picture.

4. Timbers' Army----In my opinion, the Timbers' Army is not only the most powerful sports group ever in this state, but perhaps the most powerful organized group ever. The get things done, they have the ear of people and they give back to the community. All of soccer, that means around the world knows about the Timbers' Army.

3. Paul Allen----The Portland Trail Blazers probably would not be here if were not for Paul Allen. He owns a team that is beloved in the community and say what you want, but he cares about basketball and beyond. The only flaw here, people would love to hear more from him, as he is always a great interview, but he gives them sparingly.

2. Phil Knight----Founding partner of Nike is all you need to say. Nike dominates the world market in the apparel industry and footwear business and will for many years to come. A true Oregonian, whose roots have never left here after he graduated from Cleveland High School in SE Portland.

1. Mike Keiser----You never see Keiser on too many sports lists, but the man who brought us Bandon Dunes is a sports business genius. Bandon Dunes is without question the number one golf resort in the world and it is as such because of the creative genius of Keiser. Bandon Dunes also does so much for the economy of Oregon, as people come from all over the world everyday to play its many and awesome golf courses.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo, For April 18th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

Jordan Spieth---- A little wrap up on one of the most dominating performances in the history of golf, the win by Jordan Spieth at the Masters.

We all know Spieth can putt, but hitting 39 of 56 fairways at Augusta over the four days was pretty terrific. Spieth was the first wire to wire winner of the Masters since Raymond Floyd did it in 1976. When you break it down, 28 birdies over four days is equally special, averaging 7 birdies per round, who does that on any golf course let alone in one of golf's majors.

With the win by Spieth, he moved to number 2 in the world golf rankings, behind Rory and it is the first time ever both 1 and 2 have been under the age of 25.

No one talked about this, but Spieth's win also gave a big shot in the arm to the Masters. Yes, always popular, but not nearly as popular in the past few years with the demise of Tiger, Spieth gave Augusta a  huge boost.

CBS---- Interesting to note that this was the first year in memory, that there virtually were no stories about Gary McCord not being on the CBS coverage at the Masters. Of course McCord was banished from the braodcasts at Augusta when he made the some comments that the powers that be did not think were appropriate. Watch for McCord to be back someday, perhaps in the next 3 years.

Under Armour----In January of this year, Under Armour tore up the contract of Jordan Spieth and gave him a new deal which runs until 2025. Wall Street estimates are that UA's golf business in the next 2 years is expected to double from $200 million to $400 million. At present, Under Armour's golf business only exists in the apparel side, unlike other golf companies in the equipment business.

The other golf big name that represents Under Armour is Hunter Mahan. Biggest Under Armour athlete  endorser at present is Tom Brady and its biggest college team is Notre Dame.

NBA----Speaking of Under Armour, they were in a minor battle with Nike to win the new deal with the NBA for apparel rights. Nike has won and starting in 2017-18 season, they will take over for Adidas who had an 11 year run of being in the position for the owning the apparel rights..

Nike is a natural fit for the NBA, as they dominate the United State athletic shoe business with a 90 perecent market share and the fact 75 percent of NBA players wear Nike shoes.

NFL---- The battle to put a team  or teams in the Los Angeles market is heating up. At present two different proposals have come forward. The Chargers and Raiders want to build a shared $1.7 billion stadium in Carson, if new stadium deals in their respective cities of Oakland and San Diego do not come to fruition.

Stan Kroenke, owner of the St. Louis Rams wants to build an 80,000 seat stadium on a former landfill and move his team to Los Angeles.

While the prospects here are interesting, it is not that easy to relocate a team in the NFL as it might seem. The next time any team can file for relocation is January of 2016 and to relocate, 24 of 32 teams need to approve a move.

The last time the NFL was in Los Angeles was 1994 and obviously the league has done really well over that time period to present, even without a team in the L.A market.

Basketball Courts---The Oregon Ducks started it all in 2010, by creating a basketball court that is not your normal looking court. Now Oakland University is getting into the act with their new asphalt looking court, which is getting rave reviews. Good looking or not, you make the call, but you can't argue with the fact doing something unique with your basketball court does get you plenty of publicity. Most people have never heard of Oakland University, despite the fact they are a D-1 basketball team.

Urban Meyer--- The rewards of winning a national championship are plentiful for a college football coach.

Urban Meyer has a new $6.5 million contract which runs through 2020. His previous deal at Ohio State paid him $4.5 million. The big news here is Meyer's contract gets him into the top 5 of highest paid football coaches, something Gene Smith, Ohio State AD said needed to happen and also more important to many in Ohio, it moves him ahead of Michigan's new coach Jim Harbaugh on the pay scale, as Harbaugh is at $5 million.

All this for a guy who five years past left Florida, hinting he might not coach again and was hinting big time burnout with some health issues.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Crawford's Golf and Sports Biz Combo, For April 12th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

Future Of Golf---- There is no question that Jordan Spieth is a great Masters champion, humble, but golf next big super star. He played great to win and deserved to win.

As Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo went on and on, about how great the future of golf is with Spieth and other young stars, I had to jump out of my chair.

Jordan Spieth, Rory, Patrick Reed, Kevin Na, Billy Horschel and all the young stars are certainly great for golf on TV. But are they really good for the game of golf? Will they bring more players to the game, which is sorely needed.

Quick history tells us as great as Tiger was for TV golf, bringing many viewers who never played the game before and many who only would watch becasue Tiger was playing, he never in reality brought more players to the great game.

If Spieth can bring more players, more power to him, but what it takes is less expensive golf and clubs, more places to learn the game and much better marketing plans for the game.

Masters---- The people at Augusta National Golf Club hold their cards pretty close to the vest. So we watch every year and enjoy, but just how much do we know about the economics of the greatest golf tournament there ever has been and will be.

Some pretty good sources we have tell me a few things about the economics. The revenue for the 2014 tournament, 2015 still to be determined, was right around $115 million. That amounted to a profit of $28 million. Revenue included merchandise $48 million, ticket revenue $34 million, International TV rights $25 million and concessions $ 8 million.

Just think how much the Masters would really make if they sold the United States TV rights, which they do not. This years was the 60th consecutive year of telecasting by CBS, on a one year contract, in which neither they or Augusta National make any money off of. In 2013, Fox Sports signed a 15 year deal with the USGA, which starts this year and gives the USGA $93 million per year, for  Fox's rights to televise 6 USGA events per year.

Baseball--- As new commissioner of baseball, one of the agenda items for Rob Manfred was to hopefully speed up the game. Last year, the average time for a major leage baseball game was 3  hrs 2 minutes. It is way early, but so far this year's average time has been reduced by 10 minutes.

Golf Earnings----Jordan Spieth took home $1.62 million for winning this year's Masters. In 2014 Arnold Palmer never made a dime on any Tour, but his off course dealings brought "The King" $40 million. Same for Jack Nicklaus, no Tour checks, but off course endorsements, $22 million.

Over his 20 year career, Tiger on the course has won $156 mllion in prize money, off course earnings amount over that period add up to $1.2 billion.

One great exception in 2014, was Fed-EX Cup champion Bill Horschel, who won $15.2 miilion in prize money and earned $2.2 million from endorsements.


Saturday, April 4, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo, For April 4th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

Tiger Woods---With the announcement yesterday that Tiger Woods will play in the Masters, it was a big win for everyone, including ESPN. ESPN of course has the rights to televise the first two rounds of the Masters, as well as the annual Par-3 contest on Wednesday.

Even if Tiger Woods shoots 85 on Thursday, the day is expected to be the biggest weekday TV audience for any golf tournament ever and perhaps the biggest audience for any golf even ever period. Woods of course has always moved the needle, the but intrigue as to what will happen is a draw like none other in golf at present.

Masters Tickets--- It has always been one of the toughest tickets to get in all of sports, this year will be no different for people seeking Masters tickets. On the secondary market, tickets for Thursday are going on average of around $1,800.00.

If you want to go to the practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday, you can get in on average on the secondary market for around $520.00. That figure rises on Wednesday to close to $1,100.00

Montreal--- The city of Montreal is making a strong case for baseball to come back to the Canadian city on a permanent basis.

In 2014 for a two game series over 96.000 attended for the Blue Jays/Mets. This year for a two game series which will end today, over 90,000 will attend during the two days to see the Blue Jays/Reds.

It is factual to say Major League Baseball is impressed by those figures for games that actually are meaningless.

NBA Attendance--- It continues to amaze many that Atlanta and Memphis, having wonderful years on the floor, continue to struggle at the gate. Respectively, Memphis and Atlanta rank 17th and 18th in NBA attendance. Memphis (17,309 fans per game, which is 95 percent of capacity) and Atlanta (17,290, which is only 92 percent of capacity.)

The biggest draw on the road in the NBA as might be expected is the Cleveland Cavs at 19,032, followed surprisingly by the Washington Wizards 18,366 and Chicago Bulls at 18,355 per game.

As to who is last in home attendance. The Philadelphia 76ers play before on average 14,049 which is 69.2 percent of capacity.

Final Four---- We do know that sports in general are a boon to any local economy. We should also know there is a cost to hosting major sporting events. The final figures are not in for 2015 in Indianapolis, but in 2014, the cost to taxpayers to host the Final Four in Dallas added up to $10.8 million in local and state tax monies.

Just an example of what some of those costs went for:

Shot Clock Operator----$320.00
Cancellation Insurance---- $29.031.00
Police Overtime---- $76,636.00

Indianapolis Baseball--- Not far from Lucas Oil Stadium site of the Final Four is Victory Field, home of the Triple A Indianapolis Indians, a farm team of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Interesting to note, the Indianapolis Indians have made a profit every year since 1973, showing basketball is not the only sport of interest in Indiana.

Victory Field has 12,200 permanent seats, 2,000 lawn suites and 28 luxury boxes. A family of four can easily attend a game for under $70.00 which includes parking and food.


Sunday, March 29, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo, For March 29th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

NFL Blackout Rules---- Many have been asking this week, "what took so long", when it was announced that the NFL owners voted to do away with all TV blackouts for NFL games. Blackout of games in the NFL on TV, first took place in the 50s with no regulations.

Then in 1973, Congress dictated that the NFL could only blackout games within a 75 mile radius of the home team, if the game was not sold out 72 hours in advance. That rule continued until last week, now we probably will never see any more TV blackouts of games in the NFL, with its tremendous popularity of the game and the huge TV contracts that are involved. Good move on the part of the NFL owners in eliminating the blackout of games.

Texas Golf----There is no state in the United States that has a greater history of golf than Texas. Not only the players that have come out of Texas, but the terrific golf courses that dot the entire state.

It is only fitting that the two best United States golfers, Jimmy Walker and Jordan Spieth, will battle it out today for the Valero Texas Open, the sixth oldest event on the PGA Tour. With Walker leading by four strokes starting the day, he will be almost impossible to beat, as he has proven to be the greatest front runner on the PGA Tour.

Tiger Woods----There will be so much drama in the next few days about whether Tiger Woods will play in the upcoming Masters in two weeks.

My take, Tiger will play in the Masters, no matter what it takes.

Hockey---- In less than two weeks the National Hockey League playoffs will begin the quest for the Stanley Cup.

The Detroit Red Wings last missed the playoffs in 1990 and they will not be missing them this year. Does complacency set in when you are always good? Out of those 24 straight playoff appearances, the Red Wings have won four Stanley Cups during that time. Yet, as of today, the cheapest ticket price for the opening round of the playoffs on the secondary market belongs to the Red Wings at an average of $164.00.

That compares to two teams that hardly ever make the NHL playoffs, but are in this year. Average first round price on the secondary market for Nashville is $249.00 and for Calgary a whopping $586.00.

NCAA Regionals--- Out of the four cities that hosted NCAA regionals this weekend, Los Angeles, Houston, Cleveland and Syracuse, it is interesting to note that Cleveland got the best draw for fans wanting to drive to the games.

The average driving distance for fans from the four regional team in Cleveland from their home base was 286 miles. The average driving distance for the four teams in L.A. from their home base was 1,800 miles.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://crawfordsgolfdaily.blogspot.com

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo, For March 28th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @wchoops @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz

NFL----The NFL continues to march on at a high level from the business side. What might the future bring?

1. The NFL has continually committed to having a  team permanently in London by 2022.

2. Regular season games are on track to be played in both Mexico City and Germany in 2017.

3. The three biggest target markets for the NFL after the United States are Mexico, China and Canada.

For the moment there seems to be no stopping the NFL, the game is popular as ever and the business model seems to be sound.

Mark King----Mark King has been in his position for nearly a year as President of Adidas North America, coming over from Taylor Made after a great career there as CEO.

King has laid out a big and coordinated plan for Adidas to once again become a power in the footwear and apparel market in the Untied States, after Adidas dropped to 3rd in the United State market behind Nike and Under Armour.

Recently Adidas moved 80 employees from Germany to the its North American headquarters in Portland, Oregon. Worldwide, Adidas ranks second in sales, with 2014 figures coming in at $15.8 billion, with Nike leading the way at $22.8 billion.

Adidas plans to work more closely with individual athletes to promote their products, less with leagues, evidenced by their decision recently to end their association with the NBA in 2 years.

Golf Rankings---Golfweek in a terrific publication with a long history of great work. In their recent rankings of America's Top 100 golf courses, it is interesting to see once again the dominance of Bandon Dunes.

The number one overall ranking went to Sand Hills, followed at number 2 Pacific Dunes. Also in the top 25 were three other Bandon Dunes courses. Old Macdonald (6), Bandon Dunes (8) and Bandon Trails (21).

For the record, Chambers Bay, the site of this year's U.S. Open is ranked 29th, down five places from Golfweek's 2014 rankings.

One mistake in my estimation in Golfweek's top 100 is to leave Pumkin Ridge's Ghost Creek course out. Probably the toughest front nine in the Pacific Northwest, Ghost Creek is a real treasure as a golf course.

Outisde of that, Golfweek's rankings are terrific and well worth a look, they obviously put a lot of effort into their work always.

Big Dance Finances----CBS and Turner Sports are expected to exceed $1.1 billon of sponsorship sales for March Madness in 2015.

The cost of a 30 second commercial on championship night is $1.1 million. In 2014, the three biggest sponsors for March Madness were General Motors at $83 million, AT&T at 62 million and Coco Cola $43 million.

Even though many are not official sponsors, worldwide over 1,000 companies tie some type of commercials or promotions related to March Madness.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com


Sunday, March 22, 2015

Crawford's Golf and Sports Biz Combo, For March 22nd, 2015

By Gregory Crawford----COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

Paperless Tickets---- Of the 15 opening round NCCA basketball tournament sites, only 33 percent of the sites do not allow paperless tickets. As technology continues to expand, paperless tickets will be the norm at all arenas.

Interesting as the tournament moves on next week to the Sweet 16, only two host sites will allow paperless tickets. That being Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland and Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Chris Borland---- The biggest news last week in the NFL was obviously star linebacker Chris Borland retiring from the 49ers, to avoid any potential concussion injuries in the future. The economics for Borland was that in 2014 he signed a  four year contract for $2.9 million, in addition signing a $617.000 signing bonus, of which Borland per his contract has now returned 3/4 of that.

Bottom line here: For playing one season in the NFL, Borland will walk away with $575.000. If you factor out how good Borland is as a player and the average wage of an NFL linebacker, he probably walked away from upwards of $20 million, giving much new meaning to "you health is your wealth."

New York City FC--- The newest addition to Major League Soccer, New York City FC is off to a fast start in the MLS, leading the Eastern Conference heading into this week's games.

For now NYCFC will share the $2.5 billon Yankee Stadium with the iconic baseball team. In 2013 the Yankees and Manchester United partnered to own NYCFC, paying a record expansion fee of $100 million to the MLS.

In 2018, NYCFC will move into their own stadium, adjacent to Yankee Stadium. The soccer club has averaged 40,000 so far in their 2 home games.

Oakland--- Last Friday, the Oakland City Council approved a plan by New City Development to build a new football stadium, baseball stadium and new arena for the Golden State Warriors, to be completed by 2018 at best. The total cost would be $1.5 billion and would be located between Oracle Arena and the Oakland Coliseum.

The new complexes would also include alongside, 1,500 residential units and several business development complexes.

The city of San Francisco is also wooing the Warriors to come back to their original home, after moving to SF during the early 60s from Philadelphia.

Stadium issues are always fluid, especially when it comes to the As and Raiders, so standby.

NCAA--- This is a situation to watch in the very near future. We just might be headed to two NCAAs, with schools choosing which one to join. Obviously, one would be much more powerful than the other and the big issue as it always is, how to split up the TV money.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Crawford's Golf and Sports Biz Combo, For March 15th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

NFL--- The facts are the facts. While many people thought that the National Football League would have a down year in 2014, because of so many highly publicized off-field horrible incidents, the league actually had the best year ever financially.

Revenues were up for all teams, the NFL did not lose one single sponsor, 45 of the 50 most watched TV programs in the fall were NFL games and the Super Bowl was the most watch ever in its history.

More good news on the business side came this week for the NFL, when VISA, the highest valued sponsor of the NFL up for renewal, just renewed for 5 more years, with a big increase in payment to the NFL.

Growing Golf---- You are going to hear a lot in here from me about growing the game of golf. If I am the last man standing, I am not going to let the game die. Here are nine, pretty easy things to do to grow the game.

1. Courses need to reward golfers for playing fast.

2. The game needs a whole new marketing plan, not led by the major golf organizations, but by top flight marketing people who know how to think outside the box.

3. The price of clubs, golf balls and rounds of golf, need to be reduced. Volume always wins out.

4. Just one PGA Tour winner or LPGA winner needs to say during the trophy presentation, "Hey I won this cause I just got out and played the game of golf, now you out there in TV land need to do the same."

5. There needs to be more driving ranges, who does not want to just get out and hit some golf balls and it brings them to the course.

6. There needs to be more places to learn the game, short courses, where people can feel free of pressure to learn the game.

7. Politicians need to promote the game much more, the economic value of golf and jobs it creates are really underrated.

8. The game needs to be marketed to women on a much higher level. Women who play the game love it.

9. Anyone teaching the game needs to emphasize to players, just go out and have fun, instead of worrying about your score. Having fun, will lower your score.

Note: For people who own or run golf courses, please feel free to get ahold of us at Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management, on how we can increase your golf revenue stream. email--- kiyokawacrawford@gmail.com

NCAA Tournament---- A great sports business fact is that since 1995, every school that has been to the Final Four has seen a spike in their overall fundraising the following year, not just for athletics, but academics as well. Sports count.

Fred Hoiberg---- Yesterday, Iowa State won the Big 12 championship, allowing them to go to the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight year.

By doing so, per his contract, head coach Fred Hoiberg picked up another $50,000 bonus for making the NCAA Tournament. The average wage each year for Americans is just over $42,000.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo, For March 14th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford, COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

NOTE: My apologies for not writing for a few days, but we had to straighten out some technical difficulties, which are now totally solved and this column will be out everyday from now on except, Thursdays. Once again a combo of sports business and golf.

L.A. Dodgers--- I will never forget in 2012, standing next to sports marketing icon Jon Spoelstra and we heard that the Dodgers had been sold for $2 billion and Jon saying, "they probably got in cheap".

Of course shortly after it was announced that the Dodgers had signed a regional TV deal with Time Warner of $8.4 billion over 25 years.

Now today we have learned that a South Korean investment group is attempting to purchase 20 percent of the team and the present total valuation of the Dodgers is just over $3 billion. Yes, they did "get in cheap".

Golf---- So many people want to write about the demise of golf, put in in the grave, dance on the grave and glad it is gone.

Well, I have news for those people. If it is just me alone, I will never let the great game of golf die. It means too much to me, it has been one of the biggest parts of my life since 8 years old and at least 70 percent of my friends have been formed through golf.

Golf will make a major comeback and in just a few years it will be the popular sports it once was and the decline will stop. More and more brilliant people are getting involved in the marketing of the game, which is great and will pay big dividends in the end.

Speaking of golf, there is not a better month for TV golf than March. with the Florida swing on the PGA Tour. Different type golf courses, great weather and so many talented players competing each week.

WrestleMania----The WWE's biggest event of the year is shaping up to be its greatest business wise. The event will take place at Levi's Stadium, home of the 49ers and a sellout crowd of 75.000 is expected.

Ticket prices on the secondary market are also going for the highest amount ever, at $429.00 average. Professional wrestling is not dead by any means.

Final Four----Tickets prices for the Final Four in Indianapolis, are averaging just under $1,400 and for all the NCAA tournament games across the country the average price on the secondary market is $344.00.

Under Armour--- Under Armour continues to be a player in the college sports market. This week, they signed a five year deal with Old Dominion, to be their attire supplier for all sports teams for $400,000 per year.

Significant part of this deal is that it replaces the old deal, Old Dominion had with Nike at $61.000 per year. The deal can be cancelled immediately if either men's or women's basketball programs go on probation, or if anyone associated with the athletic department is caught making dispariging remarks about Under Armour.

Nike is still the huge leader in this area, but Under Armour has shown strides of growth, with their leading school being Notre Dame and being able to spend some big bucks with other schools.

Big Dance---March Madness is here, even though the name needs to change, cause the Final Four is now played each year in April. One thing that never changes is the interest the public has in March Madness in the United States. It is estimated there will be over 70 million brackets filled out and $9 billion will be bet on the games. Ouch.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

emails---- crawfordssportsbiz@gmail.com and gregcrawfordbasketball@gmail.com

Monday, March 2, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo, For March 2nd, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

NFL Salary Cap---- As expected the NFL raised the salary cap today for each team to $143 million, that is a $10 million increase from 2014 and $20 million from 2013, if anyone is counting. NFL teams can carryover to the next year, any unused salary cap money, which many have been able to do.

Honda Classic--- The Honda Classic which finished today after weather delays has a good winner in Padraig Harrington, nice guy and popular with everyone.

At one point yesterday Ian Poulter for  short time has a four shot lead in the third round, having a 3 shot lead for several holes. Poulter who has won only one time on the PGA Tour, as we know him best for his great Ryder Cup showings, would have been even a better champion than Harrington.

Poulter is a character, but a good character, because he promotes the game as much as he can and he is a fun guy, which for sure golf needs more of at this time and has for a long time.

Brooklyn Nets--- Majority owner of the Nets, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov wants to sell his team and also the Barclays Center, home of the Nets---- along with many other great sporting and entertainment events.

Crawford's Sports Biz thinks that in just a sale for the Nets, a final bid might come in close to $1.8 billion. The Barclays Center, by some estimates is worth $1.2 billion.

The NBA would love to see both the Nets and their home arena sold to same buyer, which might be tough at those prices.

At this time, interest in the Nets has come from Chinese conglomerate Fosun, Qatari's Government Investment Fund and music mogul David Geffen, who wanted to buy the Clippers at one time.

Fosun is also interested in purchasing the Atlanta Hawks, which at present has a value of right around, $850 million.

Orlando City---- The newest edition to Major League Soccer has sold out the Citrus Bowl , for its league opener on March 6th. 60,000 tickets have been sold. The MLS record for league opener of an expanison team was the L.A. Galaxy in 1996, at 69,000.

Warren Buffett--- When LeBron James asked Warren Buffett on national TV today, what he should invest in, Buffett's answer was direct and to the point. "Be conservative, keep plenty in reserve and invest in American companies."

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com (published everyday but Monday.)

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo, For March 1st, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgt @wchoops @crawssportsbiz

Note: Today starts a new chapter for this blog, hopefully one you will see for long time. As great readers, you keep asking me for even more sports business news and more golf. So starting today and produced everyday but Thursday, it will be Crawford's Sports Biz and Golf Combo. Lots of sports business, golf and even a few comments about sports in the media. We will also continue with Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds each day, in a separate post. Thank you readers for pushing this forward and contacting me on what you want to see.

Jack Nicklaus--- Jack Nicklaus likes ice cream, so much he now has his own brand, which will be in selected stores across the country this month. Nicklaus has teamed up with the Schwan Company, to produce the big treat. The suggested retail price for the pint of ice cream will be a $1.99 and in typical Nicklaus fashion part of the proceeds will go to charity.

Rob Manfred---- The new commissioner of baseball is obviously off to a fast start. He wants to speed up the game, with less time between innings and less ways for players to delay the game, when it is going on.

The average major league game last year took 3 hours 2 minutes, which with today's demand for speed in everything we do, does not settle well with most people and sports fans.

Manfred is also speaking out frequently about the fact baseball needs to become a bigger business. At present it is a $9 billion per year business, Manfred wants to move that figure to $15 billion in the next few years. Is it possible, you make the call.

Boxing On TV---- It is has been many years since we have seen prime time boxing on free TV, well I guess TV really is not free these days in most cases----- but boxing in prime time is about to change.

Starting this Saturday night, NBC Sports will show boxing in prime time, starting at 8:30 EST and 5:30 on the west coast. They have lined up a "heavyweight" team of announcers for the show with Al Michaels, Marv Albert, Laila Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.

I think this will be a huge success, but you make the call.

NBC Golf--- Speaking of NBC, golf has returned to NBC this past week, with the Honda Classic and the annual Florida swing on the PGA Tour, of which NBC has traditionally televised.

No one does golf bad, but NBC is leader in golf coverage, both with its announce team and production. It will be real interesting to see how Fox Sports does with golf coverage, starting this year, as the network of record for all USGA TV events. They will open up with the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, a tough place to televise for any network. Even more important, how much will the USGA allow lead analyst Greg Norman, who will team with Jack Buck, to really tell us what he thinks. Norman to his credit can be pretty blunt, I hope he does not get boxed in too much.

Rivals.com---- Rivals.com, is expanding, amongst some controversy. The website who does a great job of tracking high school football players and recruiting of those players, has now gotten involved in telling us about middle school football players, very few I might add, but enough to get people thinking about how young is young.

Daryl Morey----Morey is not only the general manager of the Houston Rockets, but he is also is the founder of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytic Conference, which was just completed.

Morey feels the next big frontier for sports analytics will be in soccer, now that it is used heavily in baseball and basketball.

Yes, we all know, that Morey checks with Charles Barkley on all of this, since Barkley has taken a few jabs at Morey and thinks analytics is a big joke.

You make the call, but for sure analytics in sports is not going away by any means and more teams are using them all the time, effectively or not.

email--- crawfordssportsbiz@gmail.com

more of Gregory blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Greg Crawford Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 25th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssortsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

Remember a few years back when it was thought the entire NHL was in trouble. Fast forward to today and the mayor of Toronto, Rob Tory, says he would strongly be in favor of a second NHL team in Toronto.

I am sure the Maples Leafs would love it, not really, but just the talk of it, is a statement of a strong NHL.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 25th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

When Title 9 was first passed in 1972, just over 90 percent of women's sports teams were coached by women. In 2015, just under 40 percent of women's teams are coached by women. There appears to be no solid reason for the drop.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 5 mins, 59 seconds, For February 24th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

Philadelphia 76ers---- The 76ers are one of the many interesting sports business studies in the NBA. On the floor, the team seems destined to be in a constant rebuilding mode, with constant trades, first round picks that do not work out and some bad hiring decisions.

For billionaire owner Josh Harris, he probably can be a little patient. In 2011, Harris bought Philadelphia for $280 million, peanuts for today's market values, four years later. As we know, the Kings and Bucks in the last 2 years have sold for over $500 million and the Clippers for $2 billion.

Despite getting into the NBA "cheap", Harris is sharp enough to know at some point, especially in Philadelphia, to maximize his investment, the team needs to win.

NFL Combine----Just for having fast times and wearing Adidas cleats, cornerback Trae Waynes and wide receivers Phil Dorsett and Kevin White have picked up $100,000 each from Adidas. Waynes in the 40 yard dash had a time of 4.31 seconds, Dorsett 4.33 and White 4.35.

The fastest time at the combine was run by J.J. Nelson, at 4.28, he was also wearing Adidas cleats, but unlike the other three $100,000 recipients he did not sign an endorsement agreement with Adidas prior to the combine starting.

Last year Adidas started out wanting to give the three fastest players wearing their cleats a Porsche 911, but that was vetoed by the NFL, on the basis of their long time sponsorship with General Motors.

The fastest time last year in the 2014 NFL combine was turned in by Brandin Cooks. who got the $100,000 from Adidas, but shortly after signed an endorsement deal with Nike, thus prompting the pre combine contract deals for all players who wanted money from Adidas.

NAIA--- The NAIA has long been in the shadow of the NCAA. They have always needed to think outside the box to survive, but for me, this is a great idea that has been floated out by some people. All NAIA student/athletes would get five years of eligibility.

It is a good idea, cause less than 50 percent of all college/university students in the United State graduate in four years or less.

Hockey To Vegas--- A drive to bring hockey to Las Vegas by billionaire Bill Foley, is still going on, but has slowed some. The goal is to get commitments for 10,000 season tickets. The drive started on February 10th, in the first two days 5,000 people committed, since then a little over 2,000, so 3,000 more to go, with no real deadline.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com


Monday, February 23, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 23rd, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

Fanstasy Sports and Leagues is a $800 million a year business and in 2014, over 41 million people played fantasy sports in some form. In the United States, the debate rages over whether fantasy sports is gambling, which brings in the government, who would like to take more control. As a person who has never played fantasy sports, let me know your thoughts please.

email----crawfordssportsbiz@gmail.com

more Gregory's blogs----http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 5 mins, 59 seconds, For February 22nd, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

NFL To Los Angeles---- Is it really going to happen? St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke started the ball rolling and boy is it rolling with big dollars to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles. Of course Kroenke has recently come out saying he wants to build an 80,000 seat stadium in Inglewood, on the former site of Hollywood Park Race Track.

Then  last week, the news came out that the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders would like to partner in for a $1.7 billion stadium, off of the 405 freeway in Carson, California.

These all appear to be legitimate ideas, as for the first time since the Rams left L.A. in the early 90s, you have solid teams associated with a stadium idea. In past few years there have been many attempts to move a stadium idea forward, but with no teams being mentioned. Kroenke has the upper hand in all of this, because after the 2015 season, he is free to move the Rams without getting approval from the NFL owners.

The Big Fight--- It certainly appears that this is the closest it has been to see two of the greatest boxers of all time, fight each other.  Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather have signed to meet in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden on May 2nd.

Lower level seats for the fight will have a face value of $3,500, with their price expected to rise on the secondary market to near $5,000 as bell time gets closer. In the sports ticketing market, the only thing comparable to that price was the recent Super Bowl between New England and Seattle, where tickets on the secondary market were going for upwards of $5,000.00.

You Asked---- All you great readers can stop bugging me now. You asked and I delivered. The World Cup of Cricket will be starting soon, with 14 teams making the Finals.

Yes, both Nike and Adidas are involved. Nike sponsors the kits, of India. Adidas, the kits of England and South Africa.

Speaking of kits and uniforms, the highest uniform deal in the world is Adidas deal with soccer power Real Madrid at $41 million per year. This past year, Adidas also signed a deal with Manchester United of 10 years, for $1.3 billion. Comparison wise, Nike has a deal with the NFL of $18 million per year for all NFL uniforms. Yes, soccer is big worldwide, for both fans and sponsors.

Houston----The city that is soon to become the second largest city in the United States, behind New York City, will host the 2017 Super Bowl, the last time Houston hosted was in 2004.

At present, the city is spending $3.5 billion on its infrastructure, of which $1.5 billion is dedicated around the epicenter of the Super Bowl, the Texan's home field.

In my home state of Oregon, it has been years since I have heard one idea about a stadium to host major league baseball and the NFL. Yes, if they build it, they will come. not only for the experience, but with several boosts to the economy. Sports is a huge part of the fabric of every great American city and state.

Sweater And Boxing Gloves---- At a New York City auction, a week from this past Saturday, two sports items caught the attention of everyone.

A sweater worn by the iconic Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi, went for $43,020.00. The sweater was worn by Lombardi when he coached at West Point from 1949-53 and had West Point on the front and Lombardi's name etched in black ink on the inside. Most important, the sweater was bought at a Tennessee Goodwill store for 53 cents, yes 53 cents.

Another highlight of the event, a pair of boxing gloves worn by Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali in their May of 1965 heavyweight championship fight, went for $936,000.00. Do not throw anything away.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com (published everyday, but Monday)

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 21st, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey is the only full D-1 athletic program in the country that is totally independent. No league wants them at present, mainly because their basketball arena is horrible, below high school level. That is changing, as yesterday the school announced a new campus athletic facility, to be finished by 2017, at a cost of $100 million. Of course, NJIT is best known for their huge upset in men's basketball this past December at 17th ranked Michigan. With yesterday's announcement, some conferences might be calling soon.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Friday, February 20, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 20th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management----on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops


The discussion has begun among many NCAA athletic directors about freshman ineligibility. What are your thoughts on the matter? Mine are strong, I think it is a joke to even bring the issue up. One facet of the overall experience of college/universities is athletics, if a student chooses that path. Making freshmen ineligible is a bad idea, an outdated concept and whatever else you wish to call it.

more of Gregory blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 5 mins, 59 seconds, For February 19th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

New York Knicks---- As the NBA starts up again tonight after an extended all-star break,  some teams are talking about making the playoffs, others are drooling over the potential for a future star in the NBA Draft.

As pathetic of a season as the Knicks have had this year, they still have so far sold out every home game. We will see if that continues now that Carmelo Anthony has been shut down for the rest of the year. The Knicks also have held their own with merchandise sales, as they are up 16 % from last season, helped by hosting this year's all-star game.

Many Knick fans as well are starting to think they might really be able to pick up a quality player in the draft, including possibly what appears to be the number one overall pick, Jahlil Okafor from Duke.

The Knicks are 0-13 this season so far playing without Anthony, but it really does not mean that much if they do wind up with the worst record in the entire NBA when it comes to the lottery. Since 1990, only three teams with the worst record in the regular season have won the right to get the number one pick. The last time it happened was 2004, when Orlando picked Dwight Howard.

Ohio State---The Buckeyes always have a strong overall athletic program and they have a really popular athletic director in Gene Smith. The school recently rewarded Smith with a new contract which runs through 2020. It has some unique features to it. Here is a just sampling of what is in the contract.

1. Base pay of $960,000 per year, with an additional $420,000 per year for promotional and media appearances.

2. A $1,200 per month stipend to be used for up to two cars.

3. $5,000 per year for Smith and his wife to attend away athletic events of Ohio State teams.

4. A $50,000 bonus if the football team makes the College Football Playoff.

4. A $50,000 bonus if either the men's or women's basketball team wins the NCAA championship, $25,000 bonus if they make the Final Four.

5. Here is the most unique part of the contract. A $50,000 bonus if 95 % of Buckeye student/athletes are employed in a job that requires a college degree. (It might take two full time employees to gather the information).

Apparel Battle----As mentioned before in Crawford's Sports Biz it is always fun to follow the competition between the apparel and shoe companies, in order the big 3 being Nike, Under Armour and Adidas.

It will also be fun to see if Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank is right when he says the future might be in wearables, as compared to apparel.

The thought being a wearable would have the ability with technology to change the color of your shirt, to turn your shoe into a running shoe from a walking shoe and to send reports directly to your Doctor as the wearable would be able to do on your medical condition.

Yes, we are all thinking the same thing. What would a wearable cost, in order to do the above.

Darts--- We all know our great mother threw out the baseball cards. Did she also throw out the DART board. Darts are making a huge comeback, especially in Europe.

And yes, Darts, like golf is a sport. It takes hand and eye coordination as well as a mental toughness, that all sports require.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 18th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

Tonight will be the 239th men's basketball meeting between Duke and North Carolina, spanning a period of 95 years. This game is easily the best rivalry in college basketball, it can also be very expensive if you want to have any hope of seeing the game in person. On the secondary ticket market, the average cost to see the game is $1,930.00. If you can get it in, an extra bonus is that you get to see what appears to be the number one draft choice in the 2015 NBA Draft, Duke center Jahlil Okafor.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 5 mins, 59 seconds, For February 17th, 2015.

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

Note: As promised Crawford's Sports Biz is changing. Not only will Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds be out each day, now on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, we will be writing in addition Crawford's Sports Biz 5 minutes, 59 seconds, all guaranteed to read in the time listed. We will also be having plenty of golf on this site, starting this week as well. Enjoy and thank you.

NBA On TV--- At the all-star break it is fun to take a look around the league at some of the TV numbers of teams, which for sure have a pattern, of who wins is who gets the viewers. For their regional networks, here is the top five and bottom five compared to last year percentage wise.

Top Five:                                                                      

1. Charlotte up 52 %
2. Chicago up  62 %
3. Atlanta  up   71 %
4. Cleveland up 150 %
5. Milwaukee up 323 %

Bottom Five:

1. Knicks down 28 %
2. Nets  down    29 %
3. Pacers down  34 %
4. Nuggets down 53 %
5. Wolves  down 54 %

All Star Weekend--- Most international events such as the NBA all-star weekend, are highly successful when held in New York City. Last weekend proved a huge success for the NBA and New York City.

1. 166,000 people attended all-star events during the weekend.
2. Turner Sports came in one and two for the week in sports programming for TV ratings nationally.
3. New York City estimated the all-star weekend brought in $200 million to the city.
4. Over 1,800 media were credentialed, 540 of those being international journalists.
5. NBA Cares put on over 100 free basketball clinics in New York City during the weekend.

Maine Black Bears----Maine football plays in the FCS division, but in 2015 they will play two FBS schools, Boston College and Tulane. Those two games will bring in a guarantee to Maine of $750,000.

Just one more example of what it takes to sustain an athletic program at the level that is one below the big guys. Football must drive the bus and in order for that bus to move down the road, you better have at least 2 big paydays, where you are going to get beat, but at the same time cash a big check.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 17th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford----COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

Yes you did hear or read it right. Last night, West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins made himself $25,000 by beating Kansas in the regular season. The last time I checked, you were suppose to win games as a coach. I can see putting in a contract a bonus for winning your league championship, getting to the NCAA tournament or College Football Playoff, but getting a bonus for winning a regular season basketball game on your home court? You make the call.

more of Gregory's blogs: http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Monday, February 16, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 16th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

No one can ever argue the power of LeBron James when it comes to drawing fans. On March 1st,  the Cleveland Cavaliers will visit Houston. The present average price to see that game on the secondary ticket market is $486.00, the highest price for any game in the NBA this year.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com (written every day, except Monday)

email---- crawfordssportsbiz@gmail.com

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 5 mins, 59 seconds, For February 15th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops


Note: Today starts a new chapter in Crawford's Sports Biz, actually a better term might be an expansion. You asked for more and your request is being honored. You will now see Crawford's Sports Biz 5 mins, 59 seconds each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Each day, you will see Crawford's Sports Biz  59 seconds in addition. As well, plenty of separate golf news on this site. Thanks for reading and thanks for the feedback, appreciated.

Sparkling Ice--- I do not drink alcohol, but I love some non-alcohol drinks, my favorite being Sparkling ICE.

That is why I am happy they have a presence at this weekend's NBA all-star game. Sparkling ICE has two major billboards in Time Square, as well as will be giving away 144,000 bottles of their product, at various stations throughout New York.

Even better, the spokesperson for Sparkling ICE this weekend is NBA super stat Kevin Durant, even though the company has said over and over, Sparkling ICE is not a sports drink and do not want it branded that way.

Soccer--- The number one soccer league in the world, the English Premier League just got a little richer. Sky TV was just awarded the contract to televise 126 league games from 2016-19 for $5.1 billion.

If your keeping score, which is easy to do in soccer, the contract with Sky TV is just for regular season matches. BT owns the rights for playoffs.

Flat Seamed Baseball---- In the United States, most every sports fan wants offense. Unlike what they do with basketball rules, NCAA baseball has taken a major step to create more offense using a flat seamed baseball in 2015.

It is early, but the results "seem" to be positive, with the ball going on average flies, 20 yards further, while the speed coming off the bat has remained the same, which is great for protecting pitchers.

The biggest benefit and we love em, more home runs.

Sun Life Stadium----The Miami Dolphins are in the process for of major renovation for their football stadium, which part of that will be unique suites.

They will be called "Living Room Suites", which will seat only four people. Amenities will include plush reclining chairs, all the food you can ever eat and of course an Apple iPad.

There will be 32 sideline seats up for sale on the 35 yard line at $75,000 per year and 14 end zone suites for $65,000.

Those poor people in the end zone will not get car service included in their package, which allows cars to enter and exit in a special lane. That ruined the deal for me, ha ha.

NBA Lockout--- Here is maybe some good news. Hardly anyone thinks there will not be a lockout or labor stoppage in the NBA during the 2017-18 season. Keep in mind when everyone is saying it will happen, it usually does not.

Of course this talk all comes about because in 2017, either management or the player's association can opt out of the present collective bargaining agreement which runs to 2022.

Fueling all of this is the fact that in the 2016-17 season, the new TV deal kicks in which is triple the previous deal and giving the league from its TV partners $24 billion over 9 years.

My thinking is right now, Adam Silver is one guy who might be able single handedly prevent a labor stoppage of some kind.

Technology---- 25 years past, you never would have thought the NBA would be conducting a technology summit at its all-star weekend.

They are indeed however, bringing out many players to talk about their personal use of technology, especially with the expanding social media market. Players are also talking lots about "wearables", which is the great new buzz word for those watches and bracelets an individual can use to give you more than enough data to help monitor your health, no matter where you are, or what you are doing.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

email---- crawfordssportsbiz@gmail.com

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds For February 14th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

Who gets the money on NBA all-star weekend. It breaks down like this.

Winning team members----$50,000
Losing team members-----$25,000
Slam Dunk winner-----$100,000
3 point winner----- $ 50,000

Average American worker now makes $42,715.00 per year.

Big News: We listen to readers. You want more sports biz news, so not only will we continue with Crawford's Sports Biz 59 seconds each day, but now our expaned version of of Crawford's Sports Biz 5 mins, 59 seconds will come out each Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Thanks for the feedback and spread the word please.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 5 minutes, 59 seconds, For February 8th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

Note: Each Sunday, we expand Crawford's Sports Biz to 5 mins, 59 seconds, from our M-F Crawford's Sports Biz 59 seconds. We know you are busy, go we guarantee the times it will take to read.

Sports Teams----- Sports teams and their ownership are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to real estate and especially the real estate that surrounds their arenas and stadiums.

Two good examples among many, the Chicago Cubs have announced they will spend $575 million to not only renovate Wrigley Field, but to almost prop of areas that surround Wrigley.

The Detroit Red Wings are building a new $450 million arena. At the same time, they will spend up to $200 million to prop up areas north of the arena, which in many cases have become blighted neighborhoods.

Good business practices, to say the least.

Quarterbacks----No question the quarterback is the most important position in football. Evidenced once again by the play of both Russell Wilson and Tom Brady in last week's Super Bowl. So here is what a couple of quarterbacks that play for teams that did not make the playoffs were paid in 2014.

Sam Bradford, St. Louis Rams---- $17.6 million
Jay Cutler, Chicago Bears----$18.5 million

You make the call.

San Francisco Giants---- It pays to win in any sport, especially the World Series. Average ticket price on the secondary market for Giants game this year is $84.00, that is up 36 percent from 2014. As for opening day for the Giants on April 13th, on the secondary market the average ticket price is $248.00

Super Bowl---- You hear all the time Roger Goodell should be fired. Rightly or wrongly, it is not going to happen. As a matter of fact, it is pretty apparent very soon Goodell will make over $50 million per year, his present salary is $44 million.

Part of the reason. The recent Super Bowl had the largest audience ever for any American TV program, with an average 114 million people watching and a rating of 49.7 percent. Which means, 49 percent of people in the United States who own a TV, were watching the game.

The owners love Goodell, that is not going to change soon.

College Football----High powered college football programs are expensive to operate, occasionally they save some money. LSU's new defensive coordinator Kevin Steele per the school was given a 2 year, $1 million per year contract.

Steele replaced John Chavis who was making $1.3 million, but wanted $1.7 million to stay. He didn't get it and bolted to Texas A&M.

Easy math, the LSU just saved at least $300k, possibly $700k per year. Of course,  will the savings pay off in continued wins, always the bottom line in big time college football.

Big Announcement----Crawford's Sports Biz will have a big announcement coming out before the end of February. It will be exciting and great for all readers, spread the word about this blog. Suggestions, comments and concerns, always welcome.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

email crawfordssportsbiz@gmail.com

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 5th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

New Balance is entering the international soccer market, which will be tough considering the great revenue of both Adidas and Nike in the soccer market. Over the last five years, New Balance has increased its sales 17 percent, with total sales in 2014 of $3.3 billion.

But this will be there first journey into soccer, where in 2014, Adidas soccer business recorded sales of $2.7 billion and Nike sales of $2.3 billion. New Balance is a private company and is noted most for their running shoes.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For February 3rd, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

82 PGA Tour caddies have filed a Federal Lawsuit, asking they be paid for wearing bibs at tournaments which have a company logo on the bib? Do you agree or disagree?

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

email---- crawfordssportsbiz@gmail.com

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 5 mins, 59 seconds, For February 1st, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @wchoops @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz

Super Bowl Ads--- The debate will rage forever on whether a company will get their value out of a Super Bowl Ad. The year as we all know, NBC is charging $4.5 million for a 30 second spot. It is expected that upwards of 175 million people will watch the game.

Figuring that 100 million viewers will watch each commercial, that means companies are spending a little more than .04 cents on each viewer. You make the call, is it worth it?

There will be a 60 second ad in the first quarter sponsored by the National Football League, on domestic violence, probably the most important ad all day.

Speaking of viewers, I will not be watching the game, but instead listening on the radio. The reason is simple, Kevin Harlan will be calling the game on Westwood One and he has risen to become the best play by play announcer in sports, not just in my opinion, but the opinion of many.

Super Bowl Fans---- Close to $14 billion will be spent by consumers in direct relation to the Super Bowl on food, drinks, apparel and decorations. It also means that each viewer will spend an average of $77.00.

For the first Super Bowl in 1967, the cost of a 30 second spot was $42,000 and each viewer spent an average $1.98 on the game.

College Basketball---- There is a crisis on the business side of college basketball, not sure if anyone is paying attention, but at least I am indeed. Attendance is down, TV ratings are down and students are not attending games in record numbers. Many fans also feel officiating has reached a low level, mainly because many officials work too many games, sometimes in certain cases working 7 nights in a row, in different states and arenas.

We all know there are too many games on TV, you never have to leave the couch to get a great night of college basketball. We also know that in many cases ticket prices are too high, way too high and eliminate the games for many families to attend.

Just as important, I personally do not think that fans want to see games that at halftime have at least one or  both teams scoring under 25 points.

The greatest thing anyone involved with rules changes could do, would be move the shot clock down to 29 seconds from the present 35. In another move, how about bringing back pre-game dunking and and completely change the timeout structure, which kills the flow of games often.

Someone better wake up, or we are going to lose a whole generation of college basketball fans.

Golf---- While it might be good for the sponsors of the Waste Management Phoenix Open and look good for TV, is the 16th hole at the tournament really good for golf?

Of course the 16th hole is most famous for the most fans on any one hole on the PGA Tour and plenty of drinking. Many people think this is good for golf, I do not in least, because it really does not bring more people into playing the game, which is what is needed.

The large crowds at Phoenix surely benefit the tournament's charities, which is great, but for anyone to say the drinking and partying is good for the game of golf, quite frankly does not get it.

Golf needs lower prices, courses that are user friendly and complete marketing makeover. It does not need the 16th hole to promote the game, that is for sure.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 31st, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management----- on twitter @wchoops @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz

How important is sports to the overall importance of the culture and economy of any American city? Well, all of the websites that promote economic development and tourism, have had record traffic this past week in Seattle. I guess it answers the question.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 29th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops @crawssportsbiz

Yesterday, Reebok kicked off their largest marketing campaingn ever, with the slogan, "Be More Human." Aimed at consumers to reach their full potential. Footwear and Apparel companies always are striving for a bigger share of the market through different and out of the box marketing campaigns. We will keep you posted where this goes.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 27th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @wchoops @kcsportsmgmt

NOTE: We will have a question each Tuesday, for you great readers of Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds. Love all your answers.

With all the off field and on field events in the NFL this year, what are your thoughts on Roger Goodell. Along with that, do you really care who is the Commissioner of the National Football League?

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 5 minutes, 59 Seconds, For January 25th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

Note: Every Sunday, we expand Monday-Saturday Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, to Crawford's Sports Biz 5 minutes, 59 seconds, guaranteed to read in those times.

Under Armour---- It was a huge year for Under Armour in United State sales, as they surpassed Adidas as the number two in sales of footwear and apparel in the U.S. market.  Under Armour recorded sales of $2.6 billion, compared to Adidas 1.6 billion for the 11 months ending December 31st of 2014.

Of course, it is a long way to catch number one Nike, with U.S. sales of $11.8 billion, which excludes $2.7 billion of sales from Jordan Brand.

U. C. Board Of Regents---- The U. of California board of regents this past week voted to table their rules that would have required coaches within the system to have their contract bonus money tied to academic performance.

The reason for tabling the vote, of the 120 varsity teams that compete within the system, it would have meant little change, as the rule adoption by the time of the vote had become so watered down, it would have made almost zero difference.

Ernie Banks--- Best idea I have heard since the passing this past week of the iconic Ernie Banks, was that in 2015, all major league baseball teams play a doubleheader to honor Banks, who was always famous for saying, "Let's play 2."

Adidas--- Speaking of Adidas, this past week they renewed their agreement with the U of Louisville, though the 2017-18 sports season, with an option for both parties through the 2018-19 season.

Total amount of the agreement is $39 million. Louisville head men's basketball coach Rick Pitino has often taken some jabs at Nike over the years. sometimes becoming almost angry.

Boston Red Sox---- Boston has probably made the most off-season moves of any baseball team in Major League Baseball. It has helped in tickets sales, as currently the average Red Sox ticket on the secondary market is $154.06, up 49 percent from 2014.

Super Bowl--- Oh yes, what would we do without a Super Bowl segment in Crawford's Sports Biz. Many ex-NFL players will descend of Phoenix this week, not to see the game, but to pick up a little extra cash coming from appearance fees.

The two players that command the biggest fee. Phil Simms and Joe Montana, who both will get $60,000 per appearance.

Quarterbacks always win out, right?

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com (written everyday, except Monday)


Saturday, January 24, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 24th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

This weekend is college basketball's annual, Coaches vs. cancer, where coaches wear sneakers to draw attention to help fight the cause with this dreaded disease.

Two years, past, I started a movement to get everyone to stop capitalizing cancer, it sends message. So to all my friends in sports business, readers and beyond, please never, ever again capitalize cancer. Thank you.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Friday, January 23, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 23rd, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @wchoops @kcsportsmgmt

One major sporting event in town is enough to raise hotel rates in any city, but when you have two going on, you are going to pay heavy duty. Such is the case next week, when not only will the city of Phoenix host the Super Bowl, it will also be host to the Waste Management Phoenix Open, of the PGA Tour, which Tiger Woods will be playing.

Many hotel rates are going for over $1,000 per night, but in some cases to get even that rate you must spend a minimum on food at the same hotel. By the way, on Saturday and Sunday at the Phoenix Open, crowds both days are expected to exceed 200,000 spectators.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 22nd, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

My suggestions on how the NFL should handle deflategate, if it indeed happened as it appears.

Some of the suggestions. 1) If Patriots win the Super Bowl, no trophy, just give them a signed football, Roger Goodell.  2) Takeaway the Patriots first round draft choice for next 3 years. 3) Fine the team, $10 million 4) Make the Patriots play the first half of the Super Bowl with only 9 players on defense 5) Make the Patriots  buy the NFL game balls for the next 25 years 6) Wipe the Patriots first offensive touchdown off the board in the opening 3 games of the 2015 NFL season 7) Make Belichick clean the balls during the Super Bowl 8) No punting in the first half for the Patriots of the Super Bowl, must go for it on fourth down 9) For first time ever in any sporting event controversy, get lawyers involved.

Of course I actually could care less, as the Patriots will win the Super Bowl by at least 2 touchdowns.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 21st, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

Without question this year, the NBA's most consistent team has been the Golden State Warriors. So how are they doing on the business side. Crawford's Sports Biz puts the current value of the Warriors at $1.2 billion. It should also be noted, that in the Bay Area, the Warriors in 2013-14 held fifth place overall for all TV viewers, a great coup for any sports team. At present, the Warriors plan to open a new arena, very close to the San Francisco Giants stadium, in 2018.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 20th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

As of today, on the secondary market, Super Bowl tickets for the match up between Seattle and New England are going for just over $4,000.00. That price is expected to increase dramatically, as U of Phoenix stadium, site of this year's event is the lowest capacity stadium for a Super Bowl in six years and 10,000 seats less than last year's game.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com


Sunday, January 18, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 5 minutes, 59 seconds, for January 18th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

Note: Today marks the debut of Crawford's Sports Biz 5 minutes, 59 seconds, which will come out each Sunday and is guaranteed to read for everyone under 6 minutes. Of course Monday-Saturday, you can read Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, guaranteed to read in 59 seconds or less. We also each day will write a separate golf blog right here, so thanks for reading, it is greatly appreciated.

Football Playoff Championship----It took a long time, but no doubt the Playoff Football Championship game was a huge success and great for college football.  Not only was the game the most watched program ever on ESPN with 33 million viewers, but the game's TV audience was up 33 percent from the BCS championship game of last year.

So why not, why not go to 8 teams right now and stop with that for several years to come. The NCAA basketball tournament has been watered down considerably by going to 68 teams, as live audience and TV ratings show, but football obviously would succeed greatly with 8 teams and move it right now, no one is getting younger.

Even more important, under the BCS system, both Ohio State and Oregon would not have played for the championship.

Rice---- When you think of collegiate athletics, respectfully Rice's name does not enter your brain. But just to show how much their is a facilities race in college sports, Rice announced last week plans to build immediately a $31.5 million, 60,000 square foot athletic performance center, right next to their football stadium. It will house medical care, meeting rooms and weight rooms for all student/athletes.

Portland State---- Tomorrow, Monday, January 20th a new beginning will take place at Portland State University in my hometown of Portland, Oregon as Mark Rountree begins his tenure as the Vikings new athletic director.

Although nothing official has been announced, it would appear that the David Hersh experiment at Portland State is over. Hersh and part of his staff have not been seen at any Portland State basketball games in the last two weeks, important since he was very prominent in the Stott Center for a year plus.

There will be for sure some piling on, but credit does need to go to Hersh for trying to move the needle at Portland State with his zany, but sometimes entertaining promotions and his free food for all in attendance in the Stott Center.

In fairness, he did not put more butts in the seats, which really needs to happen at Portland State for all their paid athletic events.

Personally, I have been around the basketball side for  a long time at Portland State. I have met Mr. Rountree once, a brief conversation, but he is an impressive guy, who no question cares about moving the needle forward at Portland State and will work his tail off to do that.

What I do not want him to do is totally take a look at wins/losses at Portland State, but instead hire good people and manage to keep the good people who are there in place, of which Portland State has many. It was my pleasure last night to meet the new football coach Bruce Barnum, who is beloved on campus by everyone and you can see why.

It is not an easy fix at Portland State for any sport, but a good start would be average 10,000 fans for every football game and to sellout the Stott Center each night for both men's and women's basketball (a 1,500 seat arena should be sold out every single game, end of story.)

I might also add, the Vikings need to take a look at ticket prices and their marketing budget. Some ticket prices are way too high, I never advocate giving the tickets away, but having a solid price point will do wonders. As well, marketing budgets in general are woefully under funded in collegiate sports.

Cuts--- Speaking of cuts or non-cuts, it certainly appears there is a growing trend in college sports to cut out the sports that do not make money, or fail to have a revenue stream.

Best example lately was Alambama-Birmingham cutting out football, the first upper tier football program to be eliminated in college athletics in 20 years. Other schools are cutting cross country, golf, tennis and some like North Carolina-Wilmington cutting ttack and field for both men and women.

This trend is bound to continue, but on the bright side it probably will help D-3 and NAIA sports programs, which many schools seem to be adding sports, rather than detracting.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 17th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

The powerful appeal of Peyton Manning still exists. Per figures just released, Manning ranked number one in NFL merchandise sales, for the period of September 1st to November 30th. Manning finished first just ahead of Russell Wilson.

NOTE---- Starting January 18th, every Sunday, Crawford's Sports Biz 59 seconds, will expand to Crawford's Sports Biz 5 minutes 59 seconds, guaranteed to read in that time, but an expanded edition of the daily blog, with short sports business stories.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Friday, January 16, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 16th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

It is an interesting dynamic as to what is going on with the St, Louis Rams. Per several sources I have talked with, the NFL has made it clear to the Rams', get a new stadium or we can't support you staying in St. Louis.

Of course ownership is threatening, or actually wanting to move to Los Angeles, but many NFL owners really do want a team in Los Angeles, as per past histories and lack of support.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 15th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

Adidas North American president Richard King recently stated publicly, his company wants to sign close to 250 athletes as endorsers from Major League Baseball and the National Football League in the next 3 years. Presently Adidas last less than 40 athletes in these two sports signed as endorsers.

It will be fun to watch, as for sure these athletes will either have to leave other companies or be up and comers, not super stars in the present.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://crawfordsgolfdaily.blogspot.com (sports biz and golf)

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 11th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

Final 2 coaches compensation in just completed 2014 regular season.

Urban Meyer, guaranteed money, $4.588 million, plus already a $250,000 bonus for getting in the championship game.

Mark Helfrich, guaranteed money $1.8 million, plus already a $100,000 bonus for winning the Pac-12 title and if he wins national title, $250,000 bonus.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 10th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

One of the arguments used by the side that thinks student-athletes should be compensated is that the average D-1 football player spends 43.3 hours a week on participating and/or practicing the sport. The average worker in the United States spends 43.1 hours per week, working their job. You make the call.

more Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Friday, January 9, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 9th, 2014

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

The figures still seem mind boggling, even for sports, but since 2004, networks have collected just over  $ 2 billion from advertisers on Super Bowl telecasts, which include 134 companies.

more of Gregory's blogs--- gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 8th, 2014

By Gregory Crawford---- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @wchoops @kcsportsmgmt

The NBA's Atlanta Hawks are for sale, what should they sell for and should the team move out of Atlanta. You can make the call on the latter, the as for their price, it probably will be around $800 million.

At present the Hawks have the best record in the Eastern Conference, but still rank 24th in NBA attendance. Since moving to Atlanta in 1968 from St. Louis, NBA basketball never has been that popular in Atlanta, as the team frequently ranks toward the bottom of NBA attendance.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 7th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

Could the Rams return to Los Angeles, as it is been 19 years since they have been gone. Better question, do people in LA want the NFL. In the Ram's final season, 1994, the teams averaged only 50,000 fans per game, in the 91,000 seat Memorial Coliseum. Even after the Rams played in the 1984 Super Bowl, the following season they averaged only 61,000 fans per game.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 6th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops

Urban Meyer and many people in the Ohio State athletic administration, want an NCAA rule changed. He would like to see the NCAA and/or schools be able to help pay for the costs of families of players who are playing in the College Football Playoff to attend the game. At present the rules prevent schools from assisting families.

As the NCAA always moves slowly and this would be a major rule change for them, it might take awhile, as the first order of business might be what constitutes family?

more Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 4th, 2014

By Gregory Crawford----COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops @crawssportsbiz

At Michigan, the Jim Harbaugh excitement is even carrying over to basketball. On Tuesday night, Big Ten play starts for the Wolverines against Illinois. Ticket prices are skyrocketing, with the average price on the secondary market now at $275.00. The reason? Harbaugh is expected to attend the game and every Michigan football fan wants to be there for his first public appearance on campus after his press conference.

In yesterday's post, we documented the bonus money Harbaugh can receive at Michigan.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 3rd, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

Here are the bonuses in Jim Harbaugh's new contract with Michigan.

$125,000 for reaching the Big Ten Championship Game
$250,000 for winning the Big Ten Championship Game
$300,000 for getting to the College Football Playoff
$500,000 for winning the National Championship

Jim Harbaugh is going to make lots of money at Michigan, perhaps much more than he ever could have made as a coach in the NFL.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

Friday, January 2, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 2nd, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

After the completion of the national championship game on January 12th, it will end a run of 39 bowl games. Those 39 games, have brought in $8 billion combined to the locales in which the game have been played. As well, the 39 bowl games create just over 64,000 full time jobs.

Who says sports are not an important part to any area's economy.

more Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

email Gregory at crawssportsbiz@gmail.com

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Crawford's Sports Biz 59 Seconds, For January 1st, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management---- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @wchoops @crawssportsbiz

The Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl will bring an estimated $350 million economic impact into Los Angeles County in 14-15. At the same time, the two events are estimated to have created 3,200 full time jobs.

While many times the economic impact of sports to a local economy can be inflated there also at the same time is no disputing the fact that sports have a large positive impact on the economy of any area they are located.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com

email Gregory at crawfordssportsbiz@gmail.com