Business Acumen Crucial to Reporting on the Sports Beat

By Kevin Sweeney
December 6, 2004 03:57 PM

A new sports franchise offers cities across the country the opportunity to roll out the red carpet. But just how expensive that red carpet actually is often comes into question.

Professional sports are overflowing with money. Record-high player contracts and rising ticket and concession costs are a primary focus of journalism coverage. But stadium deals have recently entered the spotlight, with historical venues ditching their traditional names to satisfy corporate America.

The issue of stadium financing has reached a fever pitch in our nation's capital, where the Montreal Expos are slated to become the Washington Nationals. Coverage of the baseball team moving to D.C. illustrates that business truly touches all beats of a newspaper's desk. Business skills are critical to getting the story right when it comes to all sports finances, whether they be on the professional, minor or collegiate level.

"You have to be well-rounded and understand lawsuits and labor negotiations with the sports unions," says Mel Antonen, a USA Today reporter who has covered baseball for 15 years. "You can't survive as a sports reporter without business knowledge."

With a proposed facility in the District of Columbia, public financing is being sought to cover the estimated $530 million price tag.

"The important thing is to look at specifics to see if the government is actually fulfilling its role," Antonen says. "Make sure you hold those people to the fire."

Despite strong division among members, the D.C. Council recently gave preliminary approval to stadium financing but a final vote is still to come. Major League Baseball approved the move on Friday.

Representatives within the Council contend that public dollars could be used for more important matters such as education. This issue has emerged in the D.C. baseball movement.

"D.C. Councilman Jack Evans has repeatedly said that it's not a question of how many dollars are being spent on education in the District, but how efficiently those funds are being used," notes Michael Zitz, a reporter with The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va. "The city government in Washington is infamous for throwing money at problems and getting nowhere."

Consider the history of those in charge of the finances. Consult the track records of similar initiatives in other cities.

"Billions of dollars have been spent on stadiums in other cities built by taxpayers," Antonen says. "In some cities it's worked very well, in others it hasn't. Call stadium representatives, taxpayer groups, city officials and sports directors in those cities."

While local businesses stand to benefit from the traffic of baseball fans, there is a downside to their potential profits in the form of taxes. Many small companies in the District are concerned over high taxes.

In your coverage, present both sides of the story. There are bound to be organizations that are thrilled with 30,000+ fans strolling by their places of business and are willing to shoulder the tax burden. But include those companies that are not as optimistic.

"There is the argument that a sports stadium only benefits hotel and restaurant workers," Antonen says. "Sometimes politicians sell this as a widespread benefit to all businesses. The irony is Major League Baseball has a ton of money and could pay for the stadium itself."

Corporations that could pay upwards of $50 million for naming rights to the D.C. stadium have not been brought to the table. That could lessen the burden on public financing.

Competing franchises can play a role in the ultimate destination of a franchise. Baltimore Orioles manager Peter Angelos has repeatedly expressed concern over losing fans and revenue to a team close to his city. There has been debate over whether to build the stadium in the District or Northern Virginia.

Since the two proposed sites were in different locations, financial implications and political jockeying come into play.

"Now it appears fairly certain that about $100 million will be spent annually by Virginia residents in D.C. on baseball that might have been spent in Loudon (County, Va. )," Zitz says. "Economists disagree about the level of spin-off impact such spending can have.

"But in this case, with two competing localities so close together, one or the other is unquestionably siphoning a huge amount of money from the other that wouldn't otherwise be spent in the city or county."

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism