Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 14

Business of Sports 6B TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2001 Jordan's return pumps cash into NBA coffers By Don Walker MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL MILWAUKEE For sports fans, the return of Michael Jordan means the best basketball player ever is back in action as a member of the Washington Wizards. But there's another dimension to consider. Given the star power Jordan possesses, his return to the basketball court represents encouraging economic news, something that has been in short supply since the Sept. 1 1 terrorist attacks. "If you think about it, Jordan is creating 41 sellout games this year, representing all of the Wizards road games," said Bob Williams, president of Chicago-based Burns Celebrity Sports.

"He's already increased ticket sales for the Wizards. NBA ratings will go up 50 in the games he's featured in, and the NBA will be able to charge more for those 30-second spots. There's a whole domino effect here, and it's about the only good economic news around." Brandon Steiner, whose sports marketing firm works often with the NBA, says Jordan's return is a good-news story. "Sports marketers are breathing a little easier today," he said from his New Rochelle, N.Y., office. "Jordan opens doors and gets people talking.

In the NBA, there's never any hype for the opening game of the season. But there willbe now." For NBC and Turner Sports, which broadcast NBA games, Christmas came early. Like golfer Tiger Woods, the mere presence ofjordan on television translates into a ratings boost. And although both networks didn't have the lowly Wizards on their schedule for the upcoming season, network planners will spend the next week to 10 days going over schedules, looking for a way to feature a team that won just 19 games last year. "Jordan has been involved in most of the highest rated games ever, in the playoffs and in the Finals," said Kevin Sullivan, a spokesman for NBC Sports.

"Like Tiger Woods, he also draws in the occasional fan or the non-fan." "It certainly should boost interest in the NBA a little further," added Greg Hughes, a Turner Sports senior vice president. "With all of the young stars coming into their own last year, they caught the imagination of the American public. Now the public can see how they compare against Jordan." NBA ratings have fallen steadily since Jordan left the game in the 1997-'98 season, averaging a 3.0 rating last season, compared with 4.6 in the year Jordan left. Now there are hopes in the league and in network boardrooms that Jordan and the other top-level players such as Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen and others can revive the game. "All eyes will be on Jordan," as fans rushed to buy tickets, Jordan jerseys and other apparel.

Jordan's move also made the Wizards a much more valuable franchise. Marc Ganis, who runs a Chicago based sports valuation firm, said the value of the franchise, previously put at $210 million, just increased by 25. "If they're smart, they can sustain that value for a few years," Ganis said. "They'll get people in the building and they can entice sponsors into long-term contracts." The Milwaukee Bucks and other NBA teams have certainly taken note of Jordan's return. As they do every season, the Bucks are offering several season-ticket packages.

Two of the packages offer a Wizards game, and one of them, dubbed the Michael Jordan package by Bucks sales representatives, offers both of the Wizards' games this season at the Bradley Center. The Wizards will play the Bucks on Jan. 11 and April 3. There are other winners as well. Nike and Jordan are joined at the hip, and Williams of Burns Celebrity Sports says the shoe and apparel giant can benefit without necessarily having to spend any more money.

"With the nature of their relationship, there are already Michael Jordan shoes and apparel in the market," Williams said. "With a demographic group prone to following trends, they will buy Wizards jerseys, shoes .1 COLD FIX: Michael Jordan ices down his xm sore knees after practice last week with the Washington Wizards. Associated Press mounted earlier this year that Jordan would return, the Wizards upped their season ticket list from 10,000 to 12,500. On Wednesday, it was difficult to even reach the Wizards by phone because of not immediately increase, but they'll become more valuable from Jordan's on-court presence. This season, for instance, ticket buyers will presumably actually show up for their games.

"All those no-shows masquerading as empty seats will be gone," said Ganis, "and replaced by real fans spending money." Real Impact on TV money In terms of league merchandising, Jordan will help. Besides the merchandise each team sells itself, the teams also share about $1-2 million in league merchandise royalties from retail outlets. And, said Marty Hanaka, ex JordanTicket sales, TV revenue up Jordan's return to NBA FromlB when (Jordan's) announcement was made." Mike Golub, senior vice president of business operations for the Memphis Grizzlies, said, "When the news broke, the business probably tripled and today is our best sales day. This will be a slam-dunk sellout." Fans can always hope to pick up tickets through online auctions, where Wizards tickets were bid up last Wednesday across the Internet. But for teams who'll likely sell out long before Jordan takes their court, his presence might average $176,000 from tickets alone.

Consider that only Dallas, Vancouver and the Los Angeles Clippers managed to average smaller crowds on the road last season than Washington, which averaged 15,872. Now, consider that the average capacity in NBA arenas is 1 9,3 12. Safely assume the Wizards manage to fill the 3,440 seats they couldn't last year. Okay, many of those seats were likely cheap and apparel. That will benefit Nike right away without bringing out any advertising." In Wisconsin, Jordan has been a corporate pitchman for Madison-based Rayovac, the battery and lighting device firm, since 1995.

John Daggett, director of marketing services for the firm, said Jordan's return to the limelight would help the company. "Michael's resurgence is going to help those products that are associated with him," Jordan said. "He added some great credibility to the Rayovac brand." Daggett said the firm had retouched some of the existing commercials featuring Jordan, but have no plans to snoot new ads. Rayovac, Daggett noted, has always featuredjordan in everyday clothes, not in an athletic setting. "We highlight Michael as a personality vs.

Michael Jordan the basketball star," Daggett said. "We feltthat long ago he had transcended basketball. It really didn't matter what he did or did not do on the basketball court." Upper Deck the collectibles and trading card company, is wasting no time cashing in on Jordan. On Monday, they will offer an Mi's Back Bonus Pack (free with the purchase of a box of regular NBA trading cards), according to Mary Mancera, a spokeswoman for the Carlsbad, firm. "Star power drives products, and Jordan has demonstrated that he is in a class by himself," Mancera said.

Anticipating, for example, whether the Wizards go far, or even make, the postseason, which represents about 75-80 percent of the national TV money. But if they do, and Jordan keeps them coming back, there might even be a little something in this for Jordan himself, even beyond the NBA spotlight that might help with his business ventures. Jordan will give up his stake in the team, for now. But once he's pumped it up, he might get back in. Ted Leonsis, who heads the team's minority ownership group, said he expects a three-step dance with his star: Divest, play and talk when the playing ends.

1 0 1 com rf 7 253 A I 1 I "1 '1 ones. But at the average NBA ticket price of $5 1 .27, as estimated by Team Marketing Report newsletter, those extra sales would constitute $176,368 per game, or a league-wide boost of $7.23 million because Jordan is once again leading an NBA road show. The Wizards, of course, expect an even bigger boost. By that formula of assuming sellouts and average prices, the team stands to make an extra $308,000 per game about 12.63 million over the whole season. More fans coming to Wizards' home games On the league's nba.com web site, former President Clinton is quoted as saying Jordan wouldn't come back "just for the gate." And that makes, sense, given that his comeback will have a much broader impact.

Ticket sales of about $33 mil-lionaccounted for only about half the Wizards' revenues by the team's own estimates for the season before Jordan came aboard as a front-office executive. There was also about $8 mil Henderson, who started the season at Triple-A Portland, had failed to get the hit Sunday, he might not have ever gotten it because there's no guarantee a big league team will pick him up in 2002. That's baseball drama. This was the season that Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn, two players who symbolize the best of baseball for many fans, made farewell tours before riding off into retirement. When Ripken and Gwynn were packing their bags, Japan's Ichiro was getting comfortable in his first major league season before his suitcase was completely unpacked.

Ichiro, the only major leaguer with his first name on the back of his uniform, finished with 242 hits, the most in the majors in 71 years. Ichiro, the Seattle Mariners' leadoff batter, was the team's catalyst in the Mariners' drive to go 1 16-46, although he might lose the AL MVP Award to teammate Bret Boone or 2000 MVP Jason Giambi of Oakland. Sneddon 'Bonds 'record Steiner said. "We all want to see what Iverson does against Jordan, or Kobe." In Washington, Jordan's return meant a huge surge in ticket sales for the Wizards. As speculation lion annually from local TV and radio and $6 million from local sponsorships.

With Jordan's return, says Marc Ganis, a sports business consultant, the Wizards could ask for bigger broadcast rights fees. "It's happened time and time again when big stars join teams," said Ganis, who's worked with teams, arenas and local governments. "And broadcasters are delighted to pay them more when their ratings are about to skyrocket." Sponsors already locked into long-term deals might not have to pay anything more, Ganis said. "But the Wizards could go back to them to broaden and extend their deals." But the add-ons don't necessarily end there. The Wizards ownership also owns the team's arena, which two years ago grossed about 12 million in clubs seats, about $11 million from luxury suites, $6 million in concessions, $4 million in sponsorships and $1.4 million from retail stores and parking.

Those revenues might could last The Athletics gave perseverance a good name this season. They began the season 8-18, quickly falling out of the AL West race behind Seattle, but finished at 102-60, the second-best record in the majors this season, to earn the AL wild-card spot. Their .773 winning percentage at 58-17 after the All-Star Break is the second-best second-half mark of all-time. There's a solid suspicion that the Athletics are the test team in baseball and will prove it in the playoffs, including the World Series. On the field and when the National Anthem, America the Beautiful and God Bless America are beijig sung, baseball has been something special this season.

The old friend was here when America needed it most. Steve Sneddon is a sports writer for the Reno Gazette-Journal. You can reach him at 788-6358 or e-mail him at ssneddonrgj.com. 6 BBB 829-7311 ecutive vice president of The Sport Authority, "he'll positively impact the sale of all basketball-related merchandise backboards, balls, shoes." But the league's big enchilada is its national TV money, which is split between teams. NBC, and cable TV carrier Turner Sports, are in their final year of four-year deals totaling $2.64 billion.

In the midst of renegotiations, NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol on Wednesday noted that a new long-term deal obviously shouldn't assume Jordan" will stick around for years. Said Ebersol, on CNBC: "We are safer, and the NBA is safer, anticipating nothing." i JOURNAL I I A mi 'f I I -J i I 8 I I i i itmn. I rf YourCo: 1 1 51 Fi i 1 1 FromlB Notably, there's Bonds, whose accomplishment shouldn't be diminished by the fact that Mark McGwire had broken the home run record with 70 only three years earlier. McGwire had broken Roger Maris' 37-year-old record without having to play in a pennant race the last month of the season. Bonds single-handed, it seemed at times, kept the San Francisco Giants in the playoff race until the last weekend of the season.

Although some folks can foresee a revolving home run record, the hunch here is it will take closer to 37 years than three years to break Bonds' record. Bonds' record run overshadowed Rickey Henderson's remarkable effort to break Ty Cobb's career runs-scored mark that had stood for 73 years before falling last weekend. Henderson also became the 25th player to reach 3,000 hits on the final day of the season. If the 42-year-old Tour players play Forged Irons! Come in and find out why! Tour Forged Irons on Sale Now At: GOLF WORLD 10300 South Virginia St. Big Screen TV Specialists "We Service and Repair What Others Sell" AUDIO VIDEO SERVICE Of Nevada Since 1955 3338 South McCarran Blvd.

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