Happy Holidays and Merry Christmakwanzika! It's time for the 6th edition of the Sports Business Carnival. Here's what's been going on in the world of sports business (or at least what we've been blogging about).
Toby Boyce presents, "What the Mitchell Report Teaches Us..." at Sadie's Take. While it was obviously wrong for players to take PEDs and for baseball to look the other way, Toby compares the situation to the real estate boom, and how everyone tried to take advantage of it, often using questionable tactics.
Adam Swift from MMA Payout, discusses the two promotional models employed in MMA today: Exclusivity (UFC) vs. co-promotion (used by pretty much every other group/entity). The potential Couture-Fedor fight could potentially turn the UFC's model upside down (Couture is under contract with UFC but wants to fight Fedor, who is with M-1). If the UFC doesn't work out a deal with M-1 and the fight happens without the UFC, this could definitely have some interesting implications.
At Sports Agent Blog, Jason Wulterkens discusses the two college coaches who received new contracts and major cash recently: Minnesota's Tubby Smith and Arkansas's Bobby Petrino. The post highlights some incentives and this provides a very interesting look into what makes up a the contract of a college coach (Tubby Smith in particular).
Sports Media Watch provides us with a reason not to place Google ads on your site---you can't fully control them. In an article on CNN about steroids, visitors were shown ads for steroid-related websites, since Adwords tries to match ads to content to display results. Nice job, CNN. (note to self-reexamine how my site is using Google Adwords...)
Regardless of what you may think about Roger Clemens being named in the Mitchell Report, Brian Berger of Sports Business Radio presents us with a story about something that can't be argued: Clemens has made a ton of money in his career. Depending on how everything plays out, Berger says Clemens may have traded a spot in the Hall of Fame for all his millions.
CNBC's Darren Rovell gives us an interview with MLB President and COO Bob DuPoy, who answers questions about the Mitchell Report and how baseball will move forward.
Joe Favorito of Sports Marketing and PR Roundup gives us his thoughts on the media's coverage of the Mitchell Report, as well as some lessons and best practices that we can see from a PR standpoint.
There's a great quote on Money Players by Baron Davis, who talks about how he's learned about how to deal with the pressures of being an affluent athlete and still trying to keep it real with people in his community. While it's probably easier said than done, more athletes should try to surround themselves with people who challenge their way of thinking, rather than "friends" who just want to party and have fun.
I recently released a list of 50 sports social networking websites. Check them out and let me know what you think about niche sites. What do you think their long-term viability is? Also, let me know if I've missed any.
The Sports Business Carnival will take a break for the holidays and see you back here on January 7th for the next edition. Stay tuned for an announcement about how you can submit an article and be a part of the round-up.