Sports has been a constant through times of tragedy and war. So it’s fascinating to come to a point in the road where Sports’ winning streak as the undisputed outlet for folks to turn to in tough times hitting a pretty significant bump.
In last Tuesday’s WSJ, Matthew Futterman reported that Sports is taking a hit in this terrible economy. “As Economy Weakens, Sports Feel a Chill” is the headline.
The most telling quote came from Brett Yormark, the chief executive of the New Jersey Nets. “We’re not just competing for people’s entertainment dollars anymore. We’re going up against milk and orange juice.”
And he doesn’t mean OJ Simpson.
I’ve never been hugely tapped in to the world of economics. Most of my experience with numbers comes from reading box scores and doing the stats for Michigan football broadcasts in the early 1980’s. So as this economic crisis has unfolded, I’ve shared the horror of losing a lot of money, but mostly from the sidelines; no less horrified, but certainly not massively informed.
It’s a story like this that hits home for me. And I’d bet that’s true for millions of others.
What to do? Well, in a time when business sucks all over, uncertainty reigns, and folks have a moment of painful hesitation when they pull out their wallets, you could turn to sports as the ultimate escape. As the eminently quotable Mr. Yomark says, “We’ve never sold wins and losses. We sell hope and fun.”
Unfortunately, those tickets costs as much as a few meals at a decent restaurant for my family of four. It’s a conundrum and for us hard core sports fans, a true indication of the current economic malaise.
For now, I’m thankful for HD.
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2 comments:
The interesting thing to me is corporate sponsorships will likely start to dry up simply because the companies don't exist anymore. Not to mention the fact shareholders will want to make sure a true return on investment is taking place in participating in sponsoring athletics. I have no doubt crowds will be down a touch in both the cheap seats and the skyboxes alike in the days ahead, but since sports is an escape for most I suspect in the end people and businesses alike with find a way to rationalize attending and sponsoring sports because without it we're left to more hand-wringing and worry. Sports is a pleasant diversion from the parts of our daily existence we'd rather not obsess over. And we'll find a way to afford it somehow, someway.
Fascinating. Who would ever have thought that sponsorships could go away for the simple reason that the company goes away? But you're right about sports being the ultimate escape. There's never a guarantee that your team will win or even that the game will live up to your expectations, but other than the occasional rainout in baseball, there's a near certainty that the game will go on. And we can just smile contentedly and watch the action and be there, not at home or at work but there, in that place where the only worries are around making first downs and beating shot clocks, and watching heroes rise and fall. And just enjoying it. Business may dry up, but sports is the stuff of childhood dreams imagined and fulfilled, and parents will never stop taking children to see it through. You can't put a price tag on that.
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