The world’s most telling economic indicator: Sports

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.