Money Players

Congrats Art Spander!

Or Arty Spander as Tiger calls him.

Sportswriting legend (and my father-in-law) Art Spander will receive the prestigious PGA Lifetime Achievement Award during the Masters week in April.

This latest achievement is yet another tremendous, well-deserved honor Art has earned during his illustrious career. In 1999, he was inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame's "Writer's Wing." In 2007, he received the Masters Major Achievement Award. Be sure to check out Art's website, artspander.com

--Marc Isenberg

Partnership with sports could be newspapers' saving grace

This article originally appeared in Sports Business Journal. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Published January 26, 2009 : Page 20

By Debbie Spander

Newspapers are going the way of analog television. While antiquated TVs get replaced with high def, newspapers don't have anything to keep the wired generation coming back for more.

The advertiser-supported financial model isn't working. Most American newspapers were having a tough time before the bottom fell out of the economy last quarter. Ultimately, newspapers are putting up "going out of business" signs because there are fewer people reading print editions. And newspapers failed to quickly adapt to the Internet. Sites like Craigslist, eBay and Monster revolutionized classifieds by offering free listings and free access to consumers, further siphoning off advertisers and readers.

For those papers fortunate to stay in business, they have responded by reducing pages, reducing coverage and laying off writers, which in turn is leading to a vicious cycle of additional subscriber cancellations.

At the current failure rate, there won't be any more dailies to read in a few years. We need a radical solution. Enter the always mavericky Mark Cuban. He suggests that sports teams and leagues work together and hire a few pool beat writers in each major league city. The journalists would write for the local papers but be paid by the teams. The papers would have complete editorial control over the writers, but would guarantee at least one full page of in-depth coverage of each pro sport during its season. This concept seems like a win-win for all the parties. The papers would each get a few top journalists' salaries funded, fans would get the in-depth and local information they crave, and the teams and leagues would get the local publicity and coverage they need, as well as daily access to middle- and upper-income fans.

Kurt Streeter on Sonny Vaccaro's Crusade Against the NCAA and the NBA's Age Limit

Back in January, L.A. Times reporter Kurt Streeter produced a profile on Sonny Vaccaro and his crusade against the NCAA and the NBA age limit. The article is a little old, but there are a couple of quotes in it that I think need to be highlighted. 

Vaccaro on Watching College Basketball: "I have mixed emotions about watching this game," said Sonny Vaccaro. "I just can't watch without getting mad at the whole ridiculous system." 

Kurt Streeter on the NCAA and the Age Limit: "I can't say I agree with all Vaccaro stands for, but I feel most of his criticisms are on target. I share his dim view of the NCAA, and of the NBA's age limit: It's a farce that wouldn't fly if the kids most affected were not African American. Maybe we should pay more attention to what the pariah has to say."

Read the rest of the article here. 

-Nate Jones

National Signing Day: The Day After

I got a lot of media play on National Signing Day.

First, I wrote a piece on SportsAgentBlog.com

Attorney Dan Fitzgerald weighed in on the NLI and my comments.

Next, Ramona Shelburne from the Daily News quotes me in her article, "National letter of intent not always a two-way agreement."

Isenberg, the Santa Monica-based writer who also runs the influential MoneyPlayers blog, does not advocate a repeal of the program, but thinks it should be collectively bargained with representatives on both sides and that there should be student-athlete representation on the NLI program steering committee...[He] doesn't think that it's wise for anyone but a superstar recruit, like basketball players O.J. Mayo or Derrick Rose, to refuse to sign a letter of intent.

"It can only start at the top," he said. "With the guys who have market power to dictate the terms of their enrollment.

"And then, it only works if it reaches a critical mass. If 10 kids to do it this year, 20 next year, and eventually it puts pressure on the schools to change this.

"I agree that there's got to be something done to stop the recruiting madness. But why do we heap the solution on the athletes?"

Tom Hoffarth blogs on the oxymoronic de-commitment. Or is it decommitment? He even dusts of my first book, The Student Athlete Survival Guide, published back in 2000. BREAKING NEWS: We have broken our commitment with McGraw Hill (Actually, since our agreement was negotiated by two willing and capable parties, our break up was mutually agreed upon). We will announce our intentions in the near future. Stay tuned.

A friend raised the issue of hypothetically what might happen if the NLI was replaced with a non-binding contract. He suggested coaches would respond by "overcomitting" available financial aid as an alternative. The coaches will say:  "we didn't want to do this, but we HAD to, because nobody would give us a firm commitment."

My response...
First, this is a zero sum game...a school may lose a player, but they also may gain a player. In the end, coaches would have less control, but it would eventually work itself out just like it does in college baseball where top prospects go down to the wire deciding between attending college or signing an MLB contract.

In my ideal world I would abolish the NLI. However, I am perfectly fine with rewriting the NLI to reflect reality. If a coach leaves or is fired, the student athlete should have the option to either attend the school or not. No releases. No restrictions. No questions asked.

Once a player signs, the school has complete control of the process. And if the NCAA and its members are genuine when they claim that this whole thing is voluntary (Madoff also wants to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge), then the best solution is for prospects not to sign the NLI and work toward complete anarchy. So...my compromise at least attempts to find some middle ground.

What do you think? Let me know.

--Marc Isenberg