Personal Seat Licenses - Another Way to get Woodshedded

THE BIZ: THE PSL "PROBLEM"

by Peter Keating

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You can have this. For years.

You know what's really grinding fans' gears these days? Personal seat licenses, or PSLs. A PSL is the right to buy a season ticket, as opposed to a ticket itself; a team that sells PSLs will charge you one fee for a long-term license to your seat, then another fee to actually plant your butt in that seat. Recently, the New York Giants announced that when the new stadium they are building with the Jets opens in 2010, they will charge season-ticket buyers from $1,000 to $20,000 for PSLs on top of ticket prices of $85 to $700 per game. On cue, fans, columnists and radio hosts erupted in protest. Anthony Chiappone, a Democratic state assemblyman from Hudson, N.J., has even proposed banning PSLs throughout New Jersey.

But are PSL's really that evil?

There are a few good reasons PSL's exist. Many teams, particularly in the NFL, sell tickets for much less than they could command if they let supply meet demand. We know this because when tickets get re-sold or scalped, they often sell at considerably higher prices. (When was the last time you paid face value for a scalped football ticket?) PSLs are basically just the clubs' attempt to capture some portion of that secondary market.

Suppose you're paying $100 per game for an NFL team's season tickets. You will probably attend some games and re-sell other tickets to help defray your costs. If you're forced to pay $8,000 for that team's PSL and then you keep the license for 20 years, essentially you will be paying $400 per year, or $50 a game, of your scalping proceeds back to the team. Indeed, if teams really wanted to maximize their revenues, they would auction off PSLs, but as far as The Biz can tell, only a bankruptcy court has ever tried that.

ANOTHER MAJOR REASON TO EMBRACE THE PSL? FRANCHISES THAT RELY ON THEIR FANS FOR MONEY HAVE LESS NEED TO MILK THE GENERAL PUBLIC FOR NEW STADIUMS.

Instead of creating whole new markets for seat licenses (and the resulting revenue sources), teams could just jack up ticket prices for individual games. But keeping down the face value of tickets has a number of upsides. It makes it easier to funnel tickets to local pols, since many states limit or report gifts above a certain threshold. In Pennsylvania, for instance, lobbyists have to disclose gifts that exceed $250 a year. That makes it convenient to give tickets with a face value of $100 or $200 to state and municipal officials, even if they could sell for $500 or $1,000 on the open market. Holding the line on face value also helps teams in value-based rankings, such as The Mag's own Ultimate Standings, which uses average ticket prices to calculate how much bang fans get for their buck.

As a fan, there are good reasons to want your favorite team to snag fuller value for its tickets via PSLs instead of allowing scalpers to keep all the money from re-sales. For one thing, clubs can use extra revenues to invest in better players and facilities; scalpers can't. The Giants, for example, plan to raise $371 million through their PSLs—dollars that will help add club seats and luxury boxes at the new stadium, which will in turn generate revenues that will help the team keep pace with the Cowboys and Redskins. Another, major reason to embrace the PSL? Franchises that rely on their fans for money have less need to milk the general public for new stadiums. The San Francisco Giants built AT&T Park and the St. Louis Cardinals constructed Busch Stadium without taxpayer grants in part by relying on PSLs. Meanwhile, the Yankees and Mets, with no PSLs, are relying on $1.6 billion in bonds, some of which are tax exempt, to build their new ballparks.

So you can complain about the higher prices you get with PSLs, or about how your club doesn't spend enough on free agents, or about how sports teams get all kinds of ridiculous tax breaks. Just don't complain about all three.

from 'The Mag'

LIFE OF REILLY

Weighed down by too much cash? Don't worry, I'm here to help.

David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images

By Rick Reilly

Congrats, newly minted NBA rookie!

Now you've been drafted. Next comes the delicious multimillion-dollar contract. And that's when you must do what most NBA players do: start going through cash like Jack Black through the Keebler factory.

Filing for bankruptcy is a long-standing tradition for NBA players, 60% of whom, according to the Toronto Star, are broke five years after they retire. The other 40% deliver the Toronto Star.

It's not just NBA players who have the fiscal sense of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. All kinds of athletes wind up with nothing but lint in their pockets. And if everyone from Johnny Unitas to Sheryl Swoopes to Lawrence Taylor can do it, so can you! With my How to Go Bankrupt* DVD series, it's a layup to go belly-up!

Ten essentials, just to get you started:

1. Screw up, deny it, then fight by using every lawyer and dime you have. Roger Clemens just sold his Bentley, reportedly to pay legal bills. Marion Jones lawyered herself broke before she finally copped and went to prison. Paging Mr. Bonds, Mr. Barry Bonds.


2. Buy a house the size of Delaware. Evander Holyfield was in danger of losing his 54,000-square-foot pad outside Atlanta, and it's a shame. He had almost visited all 109 rooms!

FROM $300M UP TO $27M DOWN? EASY.




3. Buy many, many cars. Baseball slugger Jack Clark had 18 cars and owed money on 17 when he went broke. And don't get just boring Porsches and Mercedes. Go for Maybachs. They sell for as much as $375,000—even though they look like Chrysler 300s—and nobody will ever know how to pronounce them, much less fix them.


4. Buy a jet. They burn money like the Pentagon. Do you realize it costs $50,000 just to fix the windshield on one? Scottie Pippen borrowed $4.375 million to buy some wings and spent God knows how much more for insurance, pilots and fuel. Finally, his wallet cried uncle. The courts say he still owes $5 million, including interest. See you in coach, Scottie! (For that matter, why not a yacht? Latrell Sprewell kept his 70-foot Italian-made yacht tied up in storage until the bank repossessed it, in August 2007. He probably sat at home and cried about that—until the bank foreclosed on his house, this past May.)


5. Spend stupid money on other really stupid stuff. In going from $300 million up to $27 million down, Mike Tyson once spent $9,180 in two months to care for his white tiger. That's why Iron Mike's picture is on our logo!


6. Hire an agent who sniffs a lot and/or is constantly checking the scores on his BlackBerry. Those are the kinds of guys who will suck up your dough like a street-sweeper. Ex-Knick Mark Jackson once had a business manager he thought he could trust. Turned out the guy was forging Jackson's signature on checks—an estimated $2.6 million worth—to feed a gambling jones. "And it wasn't like I was a rookie—I was a veteran," Jackson says. The only reason he says he's getting some money back is because he didn't …


7. Sign over power of attorney. What's it mean? Who cares? Just sign! The guy you're signing it over to knows. And while you play Xbox, he'll be buying large portions of Switzerland for himself. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar let an agent named Tom Collins have power of attorney once, and it cost Kareem $9 million before he figured it out.


8. Spend like the checks will never stop. Also known as the Darren McCarty method. Despite earning $2.1 million a year, Red Wing McCarty, who started a rock band called Grinder, went splat by investing in everything but fur socks ($490,000 in unlikely-to-be-repaid loans) and gambling large ($185,000 in casino markers). In other words, a Tuesday for John Daly.


9. Just ball. Don't write your own checks. Don't drive your own car. Don't raise your own kids. Just be a tall slab of skilled meat for others to feast on. Not to worry. It'll be over before you know it.


10. Most of all, set up a huge support system around you. It'll be years before you'll realize they call it a support system because you're the only one supporting it. They're all on full-ride scholarships at the University of You. "Guys go broke because they surround themselves with people who help them go broke," says ex-NBA center Danny Schayes, who now runs No Limits Investing in Phoenix. "I know all-time NBA, top-50 guys who sold their trophies to recover."

See, kid? You can be a top-50 guy!

So order my How to Go Bankrupt series now, and get this empty refrigerator box to sleep in, absolutely free!

*(Only $1,449 plus shipping, handling, service fee, dealer prep and undercoating. Per month.)

Love the column, hate the column, got a better idea? Go here.

Want more Life of Reilly? Then check out the archive.

Presidential Jocko

REPORTING FROM THE JOCK-OSPHERE:
CANDIDATES EDITION

by Ryan Corazza and Evan Bartsch

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Smile? When Obama's marginal tax rates will make FDR's America feel like Reaganomics? Not this guy.

With the field set for the 2008 election, we've been keeping a close eye on the advocacy going on in the athletic world with our Presidential Fantasy League. And out there among the jock-osphere exists some athlete endorsements, with their stance on who should lead this country away from high gas prices and a weak dollar (two areas a Pres is virtually powerless, but anyway). Who can forget Barack ringing up Greg Oden, or Diana Taurasi pushing the Obama-Barkley ticket? What of McCain getting approval from Dana White, or the coveted Luis Gonzalez nod and Curt Schilling endorsement?

Today on Jocko, we wanted to briefly highlight a few other recent posts on the subject of politics. Call them the passionate and perhaps undecided. For a brief update on the candidate jock status, we'll remind that Barack has become synonymous with basketball, and McCain was also once a lightweight boxer. So keep that in mind, Mr. and Mrs. athlete blogger/voter.

Mark Cuban: The Definition of Madness

The Maverick boss is baffled by voters.

"They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results," he writes. "So why is it the American people allow our politicians to do the same things over and over and we believe them and expect results different from previous elections?

"I've looked at the websites of current and previous candidates to get an understanding of their platforms. They all have positions, some of which I agree with, some of which I don't. But there is one thing that is missing from each and every one of them, any manner of implementation. Health care, spending cuts, retaining or repealing tax cuts, keeping or removing troops, the soundbites with pretty numbers never end. Not a single candidate provides details on how exactly they are going to accomplish anything. Don't they realize that economists exists to make lottery ticket buyers look smart, not presidential candidates?

"It reminds me of business plans I get from kids who tell me about their vision and project all kinds of numbers leading to grand results. They can site historical facts and figures, but when it comes time to get into details of exactly how they are going to execute on their plans, the response is basically that they will figure it out as they go. I wouldn't invest in a business that is winging it any more than I want to vote for a presidential candidate that is winging it."

Vonnie Holiday: It's Historic

''I don't care who you are, with this election, how can you not pay attention to what's going on?'' said Dolphins defensive tackle Vonnie Holliday. 'It's historic. As a kid you're told you can do anything, just put your mind to it, and for a long time, for women, for blacks, that wasn't necessarily the case. Now, Hillary made that dream a reality. When my daughter says, `` `I want to be president,' it's like, `Yeah, you have a shot.'

''Same for my son,'' says Holliday. "He can be president one day.''

Matt Treanor: Six Figure Taxes Got Me Into Politics

Treanor, whose famous wife also has a blog, feels the pinch a bit when he sees how much he's putting back into the system.

''I started getting more interested when I started making more money, and they were taking a lot of it. When you pay six figures for federal taxes, you want to know where it's going, what motivates our politicians.

"I don't like the way we've been going about our business for a while now. War stinks. But I'm a patriot, to some extent. It shouldn't take the bombing of the World Trade Center for people to put a flag in front of their homes or say what a great country we live in. It's an amazing place, and everyone should exercise their right to vote.''

from Espn the Mag: Today's Jock-O

June 2, 2008, 10:47 AM - by Ryan Corazza and Evan Bartsch

REPORTING FROM THE JOCK-OSPHERE

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The Celt's Success: One part KG, one part Pierce, one part Rondo's blog.

[Ed's Note: In the long view of the sports media industry, it's still a relatively new concept that athletes, agents, executives and yes, mascots, could circumvent us and tell their own stories…instantly, on blogs. We say, fantastic—but we're going to cover what they're writing.]
Read More

from ESPN the Mag: Remembering Vlad

---

June 2, 2008, 9:43 AM - by Eric Adelson

REMEMBERING THE LEGACY OF
VLAD THE IMPALER

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Konstantinov with the Cup in 2002.

His number can still be spotted in the stands at games in Detroit—the red 16 sewn on white. He's there too, sometimes, in the owner's box, silently watching the ice below. His younger face still stares out from a picture on the wall facing the entry to the Red Wings locker room, so that every player can lock eyes with him before every period of every game. But what lingers most about the presence and absence of Vladimir Konstantinov is the idea of the player he would have been, and the reality of the team that has come to be without him. Read More

from ESPN the Mag: Ice Cube Breaks it down

ICE CUBE BREAKS IT DOWN: THE LAKERS, KOBE, RADMONOVICH AS OL' DIRTY AND RAIDERS HATS!

by Chris Sprow

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His work and his life have diversified, but not his choice in NBA teams.

With his beloved Lakers set for a possible Finals-clinching showdown with the Spurs tonight, we had to check in with Ice Cube, who was happy to critique L.A. on their situational play, put together a team of players from his industry, dish on who he was thinking of when he wrote a famous line, wonder about Pau Gasol as a rap star, discuss fatherhood—and even dispel notions that a Raiders hat symbolized much more than the fact that he grew up in L.A. and was a Raiders fan. And, well, didn't you wear the hat of your favorite team? Read on…

Mag: First off, the Lakers look good, but is this team capable of winning the title?
Ice Cube: I think so. You know, now we gotta concentrate on having better situational possessions. Our clock management is not where it should be, and I think some of our rotations are a little stale.

But they got one on the road.
Yeah, but I almost pulled my hair out when our first team was sitting down late with a seven-point lead, I'm like, 'This isn't the regular season!'

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Home away from home. Courtside.

Yeah, but, it's also like stealing if you get one in San Antonio.
We stole two in this series! We were down by twenty in game one, were about to lose and then came back, then last night we hold them off. Seems like the odds are in our favor.

Changing topic … who's your starting five from your industry?
Oh man. I would definitely have Snoop in there. He's got game. He can definitely ball a little. Believe it or not, Brian McKnight has some game too. I'd get him in there. I'll take Lil Bow Wow as well. I'd scout from there…

Coaching?
I don't know, but I'd grab a Hall of Famer for sure.

Take the Lakers starting five, and give me the equivalent rapper.
I would have to give myself Kobe. For (Derek) Fisher, I'll go with Nelly—he's small with a tight, smooth kind of game. For Lamar Odom, I'd say DMX…

Why, because he's well-rounded like you? Sort of a Swiss Army knife player?
Yeah, for sure.

(Vlad) Radmonovic?
He's somebody who's kind of sporadic, kind of unpredictable. Maybe Old Dirty Bastard. Yeah. That's him.

Gasol? I don't know any rappers from Spain.
Yeah, me either. I'll just let him rap.

Your famous line from "Today Was a Good Day" is "…(bleeped) around and got a triple-double." Who did you have in mind when you wrote that?
Come on. Magic Johnson!

Just making sure it wasn't Pooh Richardson.
Magic Johnson was and is my favorite basketball player of all time.

Is he the basis for Ice Cube as a Lakers fan?
It was all Magic. By the time he's drafted into the league, I'm just starting to understand what basketball was all about, and then he came and won a championship his first year.

Other thing about that line was how it implies you are big on the stylistic element of the game.
No doubt.

Who epitomizes that today?
The style today? I'm not sure who has the ultimate style overall, but for me, Kobe; he has the ultimate style in the current game. Everything he does it's like there was a bigger element to it. It's like, swagger. He has it.

You went to Taft High School, which is insane for the amount of talent out of there. You got Joan Jett to Jon Lovitz. Lisa Kudrow? It's nuts. There's a monster list.
Yeah, we got some pretty good ones, even recently, Steve Smith got a ring for the Giants this year. And it was always in what we considered a cool area. Everybody wanted to go there because it was right on the boulevard. And it had athletes and entertainers, and with all of them, they kinda push you.

It seems everybody associates LA as much with what's off the field as what's on it. I can't even watch USC without seeing Snoop and Will Ferrell working the sidelines. Is it a great sports city, truly?
No question. For one, it's one of the best things to do in L.A. People have a lot going on, but we're also always there when it counts. The playoffs get nuts here.

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To Ice Cube, this equals fanhood.

But no football…
But you do have football teams. Two power conference teams with deep ties to the city, deeper than football, plus two basketball teams plus college, NHL hockey, two baseball teams. It's deep, and the teams are supported.

And those Raiders hats became sort of a cultural symbol.
Well, we were Raiders fans. And you also have to remember this: it sounds simple, but when the city was really divided, and we've all seen that, sports were a huge part of getting people together. You can at least agree on your teams.

What other sports are you playing these days.
I still play a lot of basketball, I swim and I'm good at pool. I'll play whatever. I'm a pretty good bowler.

Tell me you got a bowling alley in your house.
Nah. But I do have a full basketball court, with glass. It's tight.

And there's a daughter at home for that. As a father, you've had a life that's been pretty full. How does that come out in fatherhood?
You know, I've got a really well-rounded view of things, and I've seen a lot and done a lot, and as opposed to somebody else, maybe that means I have some stories to tell, or at least a few more lectures.

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Lakers cred? Check.

So some final thoughts on the Lakers … if they finish this off, and Kobe's the MVP, it's saying a lot going back to decisions they had to make, namely Shaq-Kobe.
Well, I understood why we got rid of Shaq at the time. We had two superstars, both of their contracts were about up, and we go to the Finals in June, and you basically got 45 days to make a deal or both of them could leave. What do you do?

Coulda happened this summer, too.
I understand where Kobe was coming from this summer. You know, put somebody around this dude that can at least help him be a champion.

And even when the season started, you're not looking at them like, "Oh this team is bound for the Finals…"
Well, I went to Opening Night, and I was interested to see how they'd play. You got all this controversy, Kobe on the trading block, and what I saw was, a team that said, 'We might not be that great, but when he's not here, we might get blown out by 40 or 50, so we need to step up." From the players, it didn't seem like everybody was worried about Kobe at the time, but was more into playing how they were supposed to. That's what I saw.

Is this Phil's best coaching job yet?
You know, I thought Kobe would be able to carry this team for a while, but when they lost (Andrew) Bynum, I thought they were out of the playoffs, first round. But when they added Pau (Gasol) and (Trevor) Ariza, it gave him the pieces we needed. I still think we need Bynum. I still think we need a strong center; I'm not completely satisfied with Pau's game there. Is this all good enough to win the championship? Phil comes in there. He can.

Jock-O for Friday

from ESPN:

REPORTING FROM THE JOCK-OSPHERE

by Ryan Corazza and Evan Bartsch

Getty Images

"You think Alyssa will like the suit?"

[Ed's Note: In the long view of the sports media industry, it's still a relatively new concept that athletes, agents, executives, and yes, mascots, could circumvent us and tell their own stories…instantly, on blogs. We say, fantastic—but we're going to cover what they're writing.]

Donte Whitner: YouTube Diss

The Bills safety isn't taking too kindly to haters. In fact, he's posted a YouTube video of a fan reacting negatively to his draft choice in 2006 as motivation to get better. Check it out HERE.

Kyle Harrison: Turtle Sshoes and Ellen's Moves

The laxer on his new hot sneaks:

"Anyway, as you know, I love shoes, and pretty much any type of Nike is OK with me!" he writes. "On my drive across the country, me and my boy Brett came across this hot shoe store in Utah called '10' and they had all kinds of hot sneaks. But what made the store even better was they had a few people on site who were able to put whatever design you wanted on your shoe! When I was there I grabbed a pair of high top blazers and got them to draw my tattoo (a turtle, good luck on in my family) on the side which came out great."

And on Ellen:

"Oh yeah, such a random thought, but I happened to catch 5 minutes of Ellen today when I got home, how do we feel about her dancing at the beginning?" he writes. "I've got a few concerns."

The solution to Ellen's dancing follies? Set her up with your turtle sneaks, son. She should be getting down and dirty in no time.

Pat Neshek: On the Mend

With the news that he'll be out for what looks like the rest of the season, the Twins reliever has been filling time with what he does best: trading and auctioning items via message board. Don't miss your chance to pick up his My Little Pony backpack!

Chris Cooley: Getting Hitched Today

"Christy stepped through my back door three July's ago," he writes. "She walked into the house like she had climbed out of a poster in my high-school bedroom. Past fashionably late, she had given me way too much time to sit and drink and I knew it would be hard not to make an ass out of myself. By the time I was face to face with my favorite Redskins Cheerleader all I could muster was a shrugged shoulder handshake."

It was a summer Saturday night and Christy was thinking about me. I would have never known what she had on her mind, but I couldn't keep my eyes off her. She confessed that it wasn't coincidence that brought her to the house and she was prepared. If looks were bait then I was hooked. She dressed to make men panic, but beyond that she was beautiful. Her smile was incredible and she had something terribly contagious in her eyes. Awkward glances and stares filled the room, and before the night ended I knew that I wanted more."

On three: One, two, three … awwwwww.

Paul DePodesta: Road Warrior

Pauly D labored through a lot of baseball the other day. How much? Try 38 innings.

"On the amateur scouting front, I just returned to my hotel room after 38 innings of baseball (the first game went 11 innings - a bad omen for the rest of the day)," he writes. "Those 38 innings fell just shy of 16 hours to play. I don't care how much you love the game, that's a lot of baseball for one day. The first 7th inning stretch of the day occurred around noon time, and the fourth 7th inning stretch, yes the fourth one, was at 1:25 AM. Trust me, mid-inning pitching changes were not welcome as the evening turned into night and night turned into morning."

Tommy Lasorda: Proud of Piazza

Nothing like a boy you saw being born and raised and that you helped bring to the bigs becoming such a big success, eh?

"I was proud of him when he was my bat boy," he writes. "I was proud of him when he played college baseball. I was proud of him when he was drafted. I was proud of him when he went to the Dominican. I was proud of him when he became a Dodger. I was proud of him when he won the Rookie of the Year. I was proud to see him play in the World Series. I was proud when he became the all-time leading catcher in home runs and that he finished with a batting average over .300. I was proud to see him get married and have a daughter. I am proud that he was a 12-time All-Star, and I am proud to say that one day he will be in the Hall of Fame.

"But what I am most proud of is his heart, and his determination. What he has accomplished is the perfect example of what someone can attain if they believe in themselves.

"I love you, Michael."

Between Cooley and Tommy, we got our most sappy Jock-osphere to date. Enjoy your stay and hug your neighbors, friends.

Flea: The Silence of the Salty People

"the silence of the salty people
the silence of the loudest basketball place (do they pipe in noise
too during games?...hmmm...)
the silence of the crowd who booed the honorable Derek Fisher in a
blatant display of boorishness and classlessness
the silence of the dopes in the Utah crowd who threw things at the
Laker bench in the 4th quarter
the silence of the pathetic chanting of "referees s- -k" because they
had to defer of the blame, they could not handle their loss with dignity
the Utah Jazz has some great players and they are a tough team, i
wish them well
but they were no match for the finesse, brains, and grit of the los
angeles lakers"

How passionate is Flea about his Lakers? Just don't question his fanhood.

Yooooouuuuukkkkk: Say it ain't so, Youk!

"Thanks for all of the feedback on this blog since the start of the 2007 season. I am no longer actively blogging here since the Japan Opening Day Series. See you at the ballpark."

David Boreanaz, Actor: Flyers Alive in his Heart

"I think I'd like to start by saying if you take a team that finished dead last, one picked by many to not even make the playoffs, and that team not only makes the playoffs but defeats a hot team like Washington, and takes out its frustrations further on the No. 1 seed in the East before bowing out against 'the Next One' and a host of superstars, well&it would be silly to say this team was anything but a success.

"In fact, it was amazing. The 'experts' didn't even give us the time of day to make the playoffs, but we proved everyone wrong, got to the Eastern Conf finals and I'm proud of them. I'm very, very proud of my club.

"I have nothing but good things to say. And I'm on here now to represent my organization, I'm here to show up, unlike another club that didn't show up on Sunday (sorry boys, that was a cheapshot, but it's all in good fun and in the spirit of Philly love)."

Thomas Williams: Work? He Friggin' Loves It

"This is really happening. I am in the NFL. For a guy who has always dreamed of this day happening, it's amazing that it's become a reality. I am in Jacksonville, got here late last week to start OTAs and I'm enjoying every second of it. I am absolutely loving putting that helmet on every day. When you graduate from college it's time to get a job and go to work. The fact that my job is in the NFL will never get lost on me. I know I have a long way to go and a lot of work to do to make the roster, but it's an honor to be here and I am very excited about it."

Colin Doyle: Amped for More LAX

"I will be playing in Brampton in the OLA Major Series (indoor lax) and competing there for the Mann Cup, as well as playing in the MLL with the Rochester Rattlers. Both seasons, continue over the course of the summer and do conflict sometimes, but I look forward to playing a full MLL season and as many as 13 games in the OLA. It should make for a busy summer, but what else would you rather be doing??? Both teams will be very competitive, as both teams are loaded with talent!! In Rochester, we have a very Canadian feel with the likes of John Grant, Gavin Prout, Jeff Zywicki, Brodie Merril, Jordan Hall. We also boast some of the best American field studs in Jack Ried, Casey Powell and Joe Walters....along with many other big time players. On paper this team is AWESOME!!!"

Ah, if games were only played on paper, Colin, this writer might be a different person … and Mr. Destiny would have turned out better for James Belushi too.