Bloomberg Business of Sports

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including Tiger Woods's decision to turn down a massive appearance fee to play a tournament in Saudi Arabia. Woods also turned down an invitation to last year's event, which offers an appearance fee of about $3 million. Phil Michelson and Dustin Johnson have said they would attend the Sa...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including the return of football coach Greg Schiano to Rutgers University, whose athletic program is one of the most subsidized in the nation. The Big Ten Conference school's most successful football coach is returning to New Jersey in an attempt to resurrect the program he took to six b...

American Athletic Association Commissioner Mike Aresco joins Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr to discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including his take on how college football teams in his conference are treated by those who determine national rankings and, by extension, postseason invitations and matchups. Aresco, a former executive at CBS and ESPN, says...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including what Duke basketball’s home-court loss to Stephen F. Austin says about the business of college basketball. Duke generates about $36 million in revenue from hoops, while Stephen F. Austin brings in less than $2 million. The loss snapped the Blue Devils’ 150-game non-conference h...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including this past weekend's protest that temporarily shut down the Harvard-Yale football game. Spectators rushed the field to stage a climate change protest at halftime, delaying the start of the second half by almost an hour and causing the game to finish in near darkness because the...

Ticketmaster President Jared Smith joins Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr to discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports. Ticketmaster handles about $30 billion in transaction value each year for over 425,000 events, with sports and concerts each accounting for about 40 percent of that business. Smith discusses pricing strategy for events, the role of the resale m...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including an economist's examination into what certain student-athletes should have been paid while still in school. It was estimated that New Orleans Pelicans standout and former Duke basketball player Zion Williamson, for instance, would've made more than $5 million while with the Blue...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including a conversation with Ahmad Nassar, the chief executive officer of a newly created company aimed at helping athletes maximize the value of their name, image and likeness rights. Backed by private equity firm RedBird Capital, the NFL Players Association and the Major League Baseba...

Heidi O'Neill, President of Nike Direct, joins Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr to discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including how Nike views the future of selling sneakers and sports apparel. Nike did almost $40 billion in sales last year and O'Neill runs the company's retail strategy. She discusses the company's recent decision to stop selling goods d...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including a recent New Jersey lawsuit in which a high school baseball coach was sued after one of his players was injured sliding into third base. The lawsuit, which took over seven years to resolve, has led to a wider discussion about youth sports and culpability of coaches when kids ge...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including Stephen A. Smith's new contract with ESPN that reportedly pays the sportscaster $8 million a year. It would make Smith, who is known for his bombastic deliveries on all sports topics, the highest-paid personality at the Walt Disney Co.-owned network. Also discussed is CBS Corp....

Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment President Hugh Weber joins Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr to discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including how the company approaches ownership of so many sports-related assets, including the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils and Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Weber also discusses the company’s phi...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr are joined by National Lacrosse League Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz to discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including this weekend's college football showdown between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama. It's being billed as the biggest game of the season, but CBS chose earlier in the year not to air it in primetime, a decision that...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including Silver Lake Partners' interest in acquiring a stake in the New York Knicks and Rangers before the professional sports teams are spun off into a publicly traded company. Silver Lake, which has investments in Tesla and Alibaba, owns almost 10% of Madison Square Garden, parent of...

New York Road Runners President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Capiraso joins Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr to discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including the economics behind this weekend's New York City Marathon. Capiraso, who previously worked at the National Football League and Major League Baseball, discusses everything from his role in men...

Scott Soshnick and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including the NCAA, under growing pressure from California and other states, taking a step toward letting student-athletes benefit from use of their name, image and likeness. The board of the governing body for college sports voted unanimously to have its three divisions consider bylaw and policy changes th...

Scott Soshnick and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including Derek Jeter’s digital publishing platform, The Players’ Tribune, seeking a buyer. The digital media company is working with a financial adviser and could be sold in the coming weeks. It isn’t clear how much the platform is worth. Growth-starved digital media companies have been merging in the hope...

Galatioto Sports Partners founder Sal Galatioto joins Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr to discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including his new $500 million baseball fund (only Galatioto’s lawyers told him he couldn’t talk about the fund). He did, however, discuss limited partnerships in sports and why professional sports leagues are changing their owners...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including the effect New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson's knee injury has on the NBA's television schedule. Williamson, the most heralded rookie since LeBron James, recently had knee surgery and is scheduled to miss up to eight weeks. The Pelicans are slated to make 30 national...

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including a discussion of whether the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% provides runners with an unfair advantage. Several long-distance runners asked the sport’s governing body, the IAAF, to investigate the shoes, which played a central role in a pair of record-setting performances recently. Among...

Syracuse University sports management professor Rick Burton joins Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr to discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including a review of how the National Basketball Association handled its China controversy. Burton, a former commissioner of the Australian Basketball League (NBL), also talks about the tension between the league and C...

Scott Soshnick and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including a horde of unhappy Boston Bruins and Celtics fans at TD Garden, where a renovation has led to an uncomfortable seating problem. Delaware North, the owner and operator of the arena, spent $100 million to upgrade and expand the building. Fans, however, lots of them, have complained that the new seat...

Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including two big pieces of financial news about the XFL -- the cost of season tickets and the average player salary. The country's latest professional football league, which launches in February, is setting its ticket prices on the low end, hoping $20 tickets will lure in new fans. The average player w...

Don Cornwell, a partner at boutique investment bank PJT Partners, joins Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr to discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including the brouhaha between the National Basketball Association and the government of China, where the first of two scheduled exhibition games between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets was played today....

Scott Soshnick, Eben Novy-Williams and Michael Barr discuss a host of issues related to the business of sports, including the Rage Room inside of Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center. It's a first for a major professional sports arena. The room allows fans to release some stress by smashing items inside of what's called the Disassembly Room. Some of the items even include objects adorned with that ni...