Independent Thinking » Sports

Why I’m Not an NFL Owner

Daria Steigman — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:02:58 +0000

You might have read that the Green Bay Packers are selling ownership shares. Which means that, for $250, you can own a share of the franchise. You can’t sell you share (or shares) and it won’t increase in value–but it makes you an owner of the NFL-Super-Bowl-winning franchise that was once coached by Vince Lombardi.

It would look really cool on my LinkedIn profile. But I’m not going to be an NFL owner.

$250 is real money. It maybe buys my next smartphone. It definitely buys lots of pints of beer at the ballpark this spring. But that’s not the problem.

The fine print is.

Ownership has its privileges. And its price.

Page 5 of the Common Stock Offering Document has a clause entitled NFL Rules that reads, in part:

The NFL Rules prohibit conduct by shareholders of NFL member clubs that is detrimental to the NFL, including, among other things… publicly criticizing any NFL member club or its management, employees, or coaches or any football official employed by the NFL.

Which means that, as an owner, I could be fined by the commissioner and/or required to sell my stock back to the organization–for $0.025 per share. (Come to think about it, that’s better than zero. But I digress.) Which means I couldn’t opine about whether Dan Snyder is the worst sports franchise owner since Marge Schott. And I couldn’t tweet that even a 2-year-old has more discipline than the Oakland Raiders. Not to mention that “what’s up with [insert name of player here]” would be off limits.

There’s a point here. And it’s not about American football.

It’s about reading the fine print.

Fining fan-owners of the only public NFL team would be a public relations nightmare. It’s not going to happen (unless someone really provokes it, or behaves in “conduct unbecoming” that defies public mores). But the business reality is that buying into this deal requires limits on your free speech. Not illegal limits–it’s not a 1st amendment issue. But limits nonetheless.

Business is about choices and trade-offs. Before you make your next deal, make sure you understand both.

Photo by Jeramey Jannene (Flickr).

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On Scholars, Athletes, and Leaders

Daria Steigman — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:04:18 +0000

“Rhodes Scholars are chosen not only for their outstanding scholarly achievements, but for their character, commitment to others and to the common good, and for their potential for leadership in whatever domains their careers may lead.”

Patrick Witt played a football game on Saturday. By that ordinary action, the Yale quarterback seems to have demonstrated the character, commitment, and leadership that the Rhodes Trust has valued for over 100 years.

But Witt, a Rhodes Scholarship finalist, won’t be a Rhodes Scholar. Because the Rhodes Trust scheduled his interview to coincide with his game, he had to choose.

He chose his team.

After an enormous scandal brought on by a failure of leadership in college sports, it’s refreshing to see someone who understands what it means to be a leader.

What do you think? Should Witt have taken the interview? Does it make a difference knowing that Harvard crushed Yale?

Photo by Jayel Aheram (Flickr).

4 Leadership Lessons from the Penn State Scandal

Daria Steigman — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:04:01 +0000

It’s impossible to ignore what happened at Penn State. Which is ironic since Penn State officials, impossibly, chose to ignore what was happening.

This was a massive failure on many levels.

Here are four leadership lessons:

1. Leadership is about making tough decisions. The president of the university didn’t. Joe Paterno didn’t. But the Board of Trustees did, taking quick action once the scandal broke to start to clean house and appoint a special committee to investigate how things went so wrong.

2. Dissent should be encouraged. I don’t know this, but it certainly appears that no one involved with the Penn State football program made a move without consulting Paterno first. Because otherwise I can’t for the life of me understand why a 28-year-old’s first thought after witnessing an assault wouldn’t be to call 9-1-1. You can’t be a good leader if you don’t let people act independently–and disagree with you.

3. Bubbles are bad for business. Tracee Hamilton wrote a terrific column for the Washington Post in which she said in part:

If [Paterno] really loved Penn State as much as he professed, he’d have fallen on his own sword a lot sooner, rather than letting the situation on campus reach a boiling point while trying to engineer his own retirement… If he wanted to save his school and his program and even his friend from the firestorm engulfing them all now, all he had to do was pick up the phone and dial 9-1-1. Three digits.

Paterno was the definition of a ”big man on campus.” The problem with bubbles is that you only talk to friends (see #2) and see what you want to see. And you think you can control everything.

4. The letter of the law is not enough. You can’t lead by technicality. The argument that (indicted and/or fired) Penn State officials have tried to make is that they did what they were legally obligated to do. That might save Joe Paterno from criminal liability, but it certainly doesn’t save him from moral accountability.

What leadership lessons learned would you add?

Photo by Russell James Smith (Flickr).

Out of Practice

Daria Steigman — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:04:29 +0000

Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester suggested that his team’s historic late-season collapse had nothing to do with the fact that he and his teammates were drinking on the job. His rationale: they were doing the same thing in April and May–and the team was winning.

Sure. And if I substituted laziness for running laps, the fact that I’d be sucking air after a couple of months would be coincidental too.

You have to practice. And practice isn’t just for athletes.

If you get out of the practice of blogging, you stop looking for inspiration.
If you get out of the practice of networking, your pipeline dries up.
If you get out of the practice of business development, it’s harder to make that first call.
If you get out of the practice of budgeting, it’s easy to go into debt.
If you get out of the practice of planning, it’s easy to miss market signals.

If you get out of the practice of doing, what falls down in your business?

Photo by Newtown grafitti (Flickr).

What’s Wrong With Being Second?

Daria Steigman — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:05:44 +0000

What’s wrong with being second?

Americans (and probably others too) are obsessed with winning. As though being second, third, or fourth were unacceptable.

Two sports reporters were debating recently whether the USA women’s soccer team was a failure because it lost the World Cup final. Never mind that lots of teams would probably have been very happy to have played in the quarterfinals, let alone in the semis or the final.

Is Google a failure because Ask got into the search market first?
Is Avis a failure because Hertz is #1?
Is your business a failure if you’re not listed in the Dow Jones?
Should you shut down your blog because you don’t have 50+ comments per post or rank on the AdAge Power 150?

Of course not.

In sports, you have PRs.

You pesonal record is about being your best, not competing against Paula Radcliffe, Carl Lewis, or Michael Phelps.

Business is no different. You need to be #1 in your business—not against someone else’s yardstick.

Are you setting the right goals?

Photo by Pink Moose (Flickr).

Golf’s $1.4 Billion Missed Opportunity

Daria Steigman — Mon, 16 May 2011 10:06:01 +0000

When you think of the PGA Tour, what comes to mind? (Bear with me here–this post is not about sports.)

Here’s my short list:

Really ugly clothing
Country clubs
Boring men (see bullet 1) flying around in private planes

What’s on yours?

Here’s what should be top of mind: $1. 4 billion.*

The PGA Tour has raised over $1.4 billion for local charities. This is an amazing story. It’s a story about generosity, and excellence, and giving back to the communities where you live, work, and play (golf).

If I were advising the PGA Tour, I’d be storytelling in every town, city, and state where the tour has a presence. Instead, all we get are halfhearted TV ads branding “the next generation” of players. That and a Together, Anything’s Possible Web site that’s trying to to showcase the great charitable work that individual tour players are doing–but the look, feel, and writing are so bland that it looks to be composed of press releases (it’s not, but you have to be willing to click around to figure that out).

Savvy businesses align their brands inside and outside. The PGA Tour spent so much time promoting one free agent (Tiger Woods) that it’s way behind the curve in figuring out how to tell its own story.

What story is your business telling?

*2009 estimate.

Photo by Dirk Hansen (Flickr).

Opening Day 2011

Daria Steigman — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:05:01 +0000

It’s Opening Day!

Pardon the interruption as I take a much-needed day off to bow at the altar of the baseball gods.

Photo by Lauren Nelson (Flickr).

Happy Presidents’ Day

Daria Steigman — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:23:08 +0000

Wishing everyone (who has the day off) a great holiday. And everyone who’s working a productive Monday. You’ll be a day ahead of me this week.

Photo by Marc Gallant (Flickr).

Roger Clemens Has Nothing on This Guy

Daria Steigman — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:06:54 +0000

So I go out of town for a few days and miss the big sports story. No, not that story. This one.

What’s interesting about the Jay Mariotti story isn’t the facts. Or even the arrest. It’s the glee with which just about everyone has greeted the news.

Apparently this guy has no friends. Not among the community of athletes, coaches, and managers that he’s made his living writing and talking about. Not among his colleagues in the media. Even his co-commentators on ESPN‘s Around the Horn said they weren’t surprised by the sports world’s response to his arrest. One even said that Mariotti will “have to start rethinking how he goes about his business.”

It’s fitting to talk about this on a day that I participated in a tweetchat on the topic of “popularity versus influence.” See, Mariotti was influential (how else could he engender this much vitriol?). But he certainly wasn’t popular.

Business can be competitive. But it shouldn’t be mean. We always talk about the importance of community. That being helpful and giving back matter.

Here’s what you risk when you treat people as disposable. Or even just when they think you have.

Photo by Meddy Garnet (Flickr).

4 Reasons LeBron James’ Decision Makes Business Sense

Daria Steigman — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:37:44 +0000

Mike Greenberg said on ESPN Radio this morning that “you need to separate the decision from how it was done.” (He was talking, of course, about LeBron James.)

He’s absolutely right.

My friend Justin Goldsborough has a terrific post on James, Joe Mauer, and brand legacies in sports. His key point:

If he was still hoping to be the biggest brand in the world or the biggest brand ever, that chance is gone. In fact, he won’t even be the biggest brand in Miami. That’s Dwayne Wade’s team.

I agree, but I think–disappointment in Cleveland aside–we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that James made a business decision. And it was a fascinating one.

1. We’ve known for several years that James, Wade, and several top NBA players took shorter deals in the past in order to time their arrivals on the free agency market. It was a (then) subtle way to level the playing field a bit in a sports world dominated by team owners.

2. One man cannot be responsible for the economic well-being of an entire city. I’m very sympathetic to the people of Cleveland, especially the small business owners who have benefited from great pre-game crowds. But let’s step back and recognize that a business model dependent on one person, one client, or one product being an unending success is a bad business model.

3. One player cannot be responsible for an entire franchise. Plus Dan Gilbert’s classless response on losing his star player tells me he’s the last person I’d want to work for.

4. James is taking less money to work with people he likes and admires. (While we don’t know yet what he’ll earn in Miami, there’s no question it will be far less than the max contract he’d have had in Cleveland.) Isn’t this the type of decision we’d typically be applauding?

What do you think?

Photo by David Shankbone (Flickr).