Tag: sports

The US sports blackout because of the pandemic has left at least a $12 billion crater in the national economy. And even if stadiums and arenas light up anew soon, they won’t look the same.

An Olin sports-business expert doesn’t expect the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball to welcome fans if/when they return in 2020, for example. Football, however, likely will allow a limited number.

Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Olin, estimates the shutdown of professional, college, scholastic, community and recreational sports across America has impacted the sports industry by $12 billion.

“And that number could more than double,” Rishe said.

“From restaurants, hotels, production crews for local/regional sports programming, vending machine and game operators and more, when sports don’t happen, it has a trickle-down effect on the entire economy,” he said.

Rishe did a deep dive into data for ESPN. His analysis shows the sudden disappearance of sports will erase at least those billions in revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs, “an economic catastrophe that will more than double if the college football and NFL schedules are wiped out this fall” by the pandemic.

Rishe analyzed the impact of a lack of fan spending, using Fan Cost Index data from Team Marketing Reports and attendance estimates, which are publicly available.

College football and MLB

Rishe calculates that a cancellation of the college football season would collectively cost the 65 Power 5 schools more than $4 billion.

Ditto for America’s favorite pastime. Forty percent of Major League Baseball revenue is derived from fan spending on tickets and game-day spending at ballparks, Rishe pointed out.

“These losses will likely exceed $4 billion alone this year,” he said. “I don’t see any scenario at present where fans are back this year—not unless teams or leagues invest heavily in testing for fans. And I don’t see that happening this year because they already have to exhaust quite an effort to ensure players and staff are tested.”

Rishe does foresee pro basketball and hockey returning to play.

“But with no fans,” he said. “Both will likely select just a few cities where they will complete their season in an atypical way never before seen.”

The NFL and college football seem headed for some seats filled for games.

 “I do believe we will see a small percentage of fans allowed back,” Rishe said. “The challenge for teams and athletic departments — aside from allowing a small percentage of fans in — is to decide which fans will be allowed in. Your biggest college donors are likely to be given priority, but will they be willing not to attend all games so that some of the other season ticket holders and students can attend games?”

Youth sports

It’s not just the absence of professional and college sports causing economic pain.

In 2019, the youth sports industry was pegged at $19.2 billion. Rishe estimates the loss to youth sports to be at least $2.4 billion, and he said he believes his estimate is “conservative.”

“There are many communities all over the country that historically have hosted youth sports tournaments fielding nonlocal teams, which fuels local tax dollars from visitor spending at hotels and restaurants,” he said.

“Not this year. It’s yet another example of this trickle-down effect hitting multiplex sports facilities in mid-sized and small towns across America quite hard.”

Think about it. No buses rented. No concessions or tickets. No meals or festivities surrounding sports. Imagine how many vending machines in elementary, middle and high schools, and at community fields aren’t netting a single quarter for months on end.

Part of a series about summer internships from Olin MBA ’20 students. Today we hear from Fifunmi Ogunmola, who worked at United States Tennis Association as a finance intern.

How I prepared for my interview/landed the internship

Over the summer, I was a finance intern at the United States Tennis Association. I had applied for corporate finance intern roles on LinkedIn, MBA Focus and other job boards and then, I received a call from a director at the USTA as part of a pre-interview screening. I eventually interviewed with a senior finance director, who became my manager.

I prepared for the interview with resources from the Weston Career Center. I had mock interviews with some of my peers. Also, I had access to resources to help me prepare for finance-specific interview questions.

How I used what I’ve learned at Olin during my internship

With multiple team projects and club activities in our first year, we learned collaboration. This proved useful during my internship. I had to work with my teammates, other interns and staff in other departments.

In addition, learning critical and strategic thinking in my classes helped me put my summer project in perspective; the model I was developing was not just to solve a department’s problem, but to provide a solution with nationwide impact.

How the internship prepared me for my final year at business school

Prior to the internship, I asked my manager in an email how to prepare for the internship. He asked me to come with an open mind. I saw the relevance of that advice multiple times during the internship. Beyond learning new technical and managerial skills, I learned so much about an unfamiliar industry.

As I begin my final year of business school, I intend to have an open mind; to explore more opportunities to connect and to embrace learning in all forms.

A day in the life

9:00 a.m.: Workday officially begins.

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.: Check emails; check-in with manager on revisions to the 2020 budget presentation; check-in with teammates; complete pending tasks.

10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.: Intern check-in with the New York office.

10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Work on tasks for the day; attend meetings (with teammates, other departments, work mentor etc.).

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Lunch and learn (professional development sessions over lunch).

1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Complete tasks for the day; work on summer project or other projects.

3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.: Intern project meeting.

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Work continues.

5:00 p.m.: Already?! Tomorrow is another day!

How the internship is shaping my long-term career goals

The projects I worked on during the internship further revealed my career interests in finance and data analytics. This has guided my selection of classes and my decision to take complementary courses on LinkedIn Learning.

In addition, some of the lunch and learn sessions I attended taught practical skills on corporate communication, networking with senior executives and building a personal brand, all important elements of career success.

I believe that as I continue to gain the academic knowledge required to achieve my career goals, and as I build upon these specific skills learned during my internship, I am on the path to an enriching career.

The Scottrade Center, home of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, is looking for a new name. TD Ameritrade recently acquired Scottrade and says it’s not interested in retaining the naming rights for the arena. KMOX radio asked Olin’s Patrick Rishe, director of the business of sports program, for his take on attracting a new brand name for the center.

Patrick Rishe

“Whether you’re talking about the sale of a franchise or the sale of naming rights or the sale of your home, competition will drive that price up,” Rishe explained.

“So I think that’s the strategy that they should employ. Unfortunately, if you look at it on a national scale, even with the renovations, Scottrade is still going to pale in comparison to Chase Center (in San Francisco) or Golden 1 Center (in Sacramento) and so forth.”

What name would you like to see on the home of the Blues?

Link here to listen to the KMOX story.

First came cable. Then streaming services. Now Amazon, Facebook, and Google want to get a piece of the action when it comes to bidding on rights to ‘broadcast’ major sports events and professional leagues’ seasons.

Patrick RIshe

An article in Barron’s last weekend prompted the conversation on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” Monday, Aug. 7, with Patrick Rishe, director of the Sports Business Program at Olin.

Will the broadcast television networks be able to out bid the dot.com billionaires for broadcast rights? Stay tuned. Or watch the convo here on CNBC.

At the top of his game in 2009, golf star Tiger Woods was earning an estimated $92 million from product endorsements. Plagued by problems on and off the course from marital issues, knee and back surgeries to failure to win a major since 2008, or a tournament since 2013, the Tiger Woods brand has suffered. With the DUI arrest of Woods on Memorial Day in Florida, Olin’s Director of the Business of Sports Program, Patrick Rishe, is not optimistic about Woods’ power to attract or keep endorsements going forward:

Woods is more “expendable” these days as a brand ambassador because his playing career is in serious jeopardy of ever again coming remotely close to the greatness we all witnessed for the better part of two decades.

Part of this is because he is now, with this arrest, going to be perceived by corporate America as a two-time offender of the public’s trust.

That’s what Rishe said in his column for Forbes.

In an interview May 30 on CNBC, Riche predicts that Woods will lose more endorsement contracts (although, he admits, Nike is hard to gauge), as a result of his latest transgression.

In a statement to CNN and other media outlets, Woods, currently rehabbing from back surgery, said he did not realize the mix of medications “had affected me so strongly.”