John's blog posts
City of Angels
Interview International Business Times. (See the xl attachments for all images) -Why does it seem teams want to go to LA in 2016, compared with recent years and two decades ago? What are the major selling points? -What are the economic benefits or drawbacks of a move to LA for the three franchises and the…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 12, 2016 in National Football League
Future Fading Fast In Toronto
Interview with the Toronto Star. – With the momentum in Los Angeles, and with the seeming excitement around London, is there any way to assess where Toronto might stand as it relates to the queue for an NFL franchise? LA and GTA are the two major elephant-in-the-room missing pieces in the NFL expansion-relocation-extortion game that…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 8, 2016 in National Football League
Size of the Fight in the Dog
Interview with the AP. I’m working on a story about the Rams’ effort to move to LA. The team’s relocation application was made available and it is very critical of the economic viability of the St. Louis market. I’m hoping you can tell me if this might have ramifications for St. Louis down the road…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 6, 2016 in National Football League
LA Triplets
Interview with NBC. What addressable market does Los Angeles have for NFL football, both in terms of viewership and attendance? Attachments: Market size. Alternative futures. LA is obviously valuable as the second largest TV market in North America, but TV ratings and viewership for sporting events is typically lower in LA compared to other mega-markets…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 5, 2016 in National Football League
Tres Amigos
Interview with LA News Group. 3 Amigos There are two stadium proposals Rams owner Stan Kroenke plans to build a new $1.9 billion stadium/residential/retail complex at the site of Hollywood Park, a former horse racing venue. The Chargers and Raiders have another proposal for a $1.7 billion stadium project in Carson. I found an economic…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 3, 2016 in National Football League
Whole Other Level
Interview with Pacific Standard.
Posted by John Vrooman on September 14, 2015 in National Basketball Association
Out of the Money
Interview with USA Today / and CNBC NHL Expansion/Relocation. How valuable is the Las Vegas market for any sports league? What do you see as Las Vegas’ strengths and weaknesses as a market Las Vegas is probably beyond the economic edge for expansion of any of the 4 major NA sports leagues. This is probably from…
Posted by John Vrooman on July 19, 2015 in National Hockey League
NHL For Sale
Interview with Pittsburgh Tribune. Expansion Proposal. I’m working on a story about the possible sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Hurricanes have been on the market for at least a year, and the Penguins announced seven months ago they were exploring a sale but nothing has materialized. Some deals made in recent years managed to…
Posted by John Vrooman on July 11, 2015 in National Hockey League
Stop Moaning about Pay
Interview with Daily Beast. I’m working on a story about the economics of women’s sports pegged to USA winning the Women’s World Cup and the kerfuffle over the pay gap. Many of the numbers that have been cited are indeed shocking. For instance, this from the Washington Post But the financial rewards for women’s teams and their players…
Posted by John Vrooman on July 10, 2015 in Major League Soccer
Art of the Goldman Deal
Interview with LA Times. Basically I’m looking for experts in stadium financing, municipal finance, investment banking, etc., to talk with about the big banks get out of these deals, how they design them, why teams use them and what it means for the cities/states/taxpayers that are often party to these deals as well. Goldman Sachs…
Posted by John Vrooman on May 23, 2015 in National Football League
3 Futures for the Bolts
Interview with San Diego Union-Tribune. I’m researching a column about the state of play facing Dean Spanos as he decides among three options: 1) Forego or seek to extend the L.A. option and stay in San Diego, under the Qualcomm lease that expires in 2020. 2) Stay in San Diego, pursue stadium deal for another…
Posted by John Vrooman on May 21, 2015 in National Football League
Playoff Money
Interview with International Business Times. — How does the revenue a NBA franchise earns from a single playoff series compare to the regular amount of money it earns during the regular season? The basic rule of thumb is that a playoff team grosses about $1 million per home playoff game. The big difference is that…
Posted by John Vrooman on April 17, 2015 in National Basketball Association
Much Ado ‘Bout Nothin’
Interview with CNBC. What reason would the NFL have for cutting out this policy after a season in which there were no blackouts? The long sought blackout policy change is largely a cosmetic attempt to deflect mounting anti-blackout political pressure from the US Congress and to reflect negative blow-back from the FCC ruling limiting blackouts…
Posted by John Vrooman on March 24, 2015 in National Football League
Puck on the Net
Interview with NY Times. Would you, even almost 20 years after hockey came to Nashville, characterize it as a niche sport here? Yes, but this is true for almost all markets after the original 6 plus the next 6 clubs. Outside of these 12 markets hockey is considered a boutique sport with specialized but devout…
Posted by John Vrooman on February 25, 2015 in National Hockey League
More Playoffs
Interview with Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Full graphics (XL File) Basically, I wanted to see if I could gauge 1) how much in additional revenue two more playoff games would provide via the networks. Currently the 3 NFL TV networks (excluding ESPN) are paying between $2.00 and $2.50 per viewer in regular season TV rights 2014-22. CBS recently…
Posted by John Vrooman on February 20, 2015 in National Football League
Money on Hollywood Park
Interview with LA Times. Bolts and Raiders ain’t gonna happen. My money is still riding on Kroenke’s Hollywood Park express. V. Guessing by now you’ve heard about the Chargers/Raiders stadium plan in Carson. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nfl-stadium-20150220-story.html#page=1 Any thoughts on how the economics of this sort of thing might work out? The Chargers and Raiders are probably blowing…
Posted by John Vrooman on February 20, 2015 in National Football League
Empty Threats
Interview with Tampa Tribune. Bad news and good news. The bad news is that these veiled and not so veiled relocation threats extorting public concessions are standard operating procedure by all of the major sports league cartels. In this case the new MLB commissioner is following the usual old script written by a league of…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 28, 2015 in Major League Baseball
Exploitation of Kevin Durant
Interview with CNBC. KD Salary structure (updated) What would a major player like Kevin Durant be worth in a league without salary caps? Is his salary fair now? The NBA has essentially 3 salary caps. Since 1984 Each team has faced a soft salary cap (it can be exceeded for a variety of reasons)at 49-51%…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 23, 2015 in National Basketball Association
Ticket Drive Test
Interview with USA Today. Expansion Theory. How valuable is the Las Vegas market for any sports league? What do you see as Las Vegas’ strengths and weaknesses as a market Las Vegas is probably beyond the economic edge for expansion of any of the 4 major NA sports leagues. This is probably from both the…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 15, 2015 in National Hockey League
Yin-Yang of Sports
Interview with Pacific Standard. Without sport, it seems, America would be a much different place. What would America look like without organized and professional sport? In a hypothetical America without organized sports we would probably no longer exist. As derived from our societal DNA, organized sport reflects the basic duality of western man and the…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 12, 2015 in National Football League
Playoff Payoff
Interview with Fiscal Times. Is Ohio State one of the few college sports programs that is profitable? Also, are the benefits that schools see from events like the college football championship such as rising applications fleeting? No all of the Power 5 programs are in the black, it is the bottom half of the…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 3, 2015 in NCAA Football
Inaugural CFP
Interview with CNBC 12/23/2014 Working on a story about the economics of the College Football Playoff. I’m looking at sponsorship, ads, TV deals and other revenue sources to attempt to gauge how big of a commercial event it will be this year and in the future. I’m also trying to gauge where it stands in…
Posted by John Vrooman on December 29, 2014 in NCAA Football
Baseball Capitalism
Interview with Pacific Standard. I’m writing a story on the future for Cuban baseball, now that the embargo has been lifted. I’m wondering what this will mean for the MLB? Do you foresee a huge influx of Cuban talent now? What about the relocation of a floundering team? And from an economics standpoint, what do…
Posted by John Vrooman on December 23, 2014 in Major League Baseball
World Cup Fever
Interview with Financial Times. Just wanted to ask you whether growth in interest in the World Cup and men’s national team (plus, the addition of new foreign stars to the MLS) was a breakthrough for soccer in the US. Unfortunately US interest in the men’s national team peaks with the onset of the World Cup…
Posted by John Vrooman on November 24, 2014 in Major League Soccer
LA Extortion Triangle
Interview with NY Times. NFL Stadium Package. Mostly what I wanted to ask John about is if it makes sense — given the role the TV deals play in NFL economics — for a team to move to Los Angeles if it will have to pay for construction of a new stadium, land, practice facility…
Posted by John Vrooman on November 8, 2014 in National Football League
Winning Streak
Interview with CBS. The NHL has almost doubled its revenue since 2006. What’s the secret to its success? The NHL last added nine clubs in 9 years in their ill-fated sun-belt expansion from 1991 – 1999. This caused an explosion in payrolls from 56 percent of revenue to over 75 percent by 2003-04. This immediately…
Posted by John Vrooman on November 7, 2014 in National Hockey League
Taking Credit for Dawn
Interview with New York Times Magazine. ** First, I’d definitely want to know your take on the concussions and as they relate to the tax exempt status. In the not so favorable light of the recent series of public relations blunders the non-profit tax exempt status of the NFL has once again been called into…
Posted by John Vrooman on October 16, 2014 in National Football League
Panthers Price
Interview with Charlotte Observer. – The Bills recently sold for $1.4 billion. How much could a franchise like the Panthers go for? I pegged the final auction prices of $1.4 billion for the Buffalo Bills last month and $2 billion for the LA Clippers 2 months ago by using the following fool-proof blind-squirrel-finding-acorn method. Annual…
Posted by John Vrooman on September 30, 2014 in National Football League
Under the Bus
Interview with CBC. So far, the actions sponsors have taken seem to be pretty tame and largely confined to statements or directed at individual players rather than entire teams (aside from Radisson) or the league. Do you foresee advertisers taking stronger action or actually pulling ads from game telecasts over the domestic abuse issue? Yes…
Posted by John Vrooman on September 21, 2014 in National Football League
The Untouchables
Interview with Sports Illustrated. So far, we’ve seen NFL sponsors say they are watching the situation with the league and its handling of the Ray Rice incident but no company has disassociated itself. What does that say about the value sponsors place on their connection to the NFL? In the sports business world the NFL is…
Posted by John Vrooman on September 19, 2014 in National Football League
Tale of two Optima
Interview with Bloomberg. Is the current controversy swirling around the NFL likely to do any real economic damage to the league either in the short or long term? The NFL is economically bulletproof from political scandal and misconduct from players to owners. NFL players have zero power individually and collectively. After losing every bargaining confrontation…
Posted by John Vrooman on September 18, 2014 in National Football League
Lords of the Realm
Interview with Washington Post. Roger Goodell is the paid enabler for the 32 lords of the NFL realm. To give this expendable front man credit for NFL’s revenue growth would be like giving the rooster credit for dawn. Art Modell once said that NFL owners are a bunch of fat cat Republicans who vote socialist on football. The League’s revenue…
Posted by John Vrooman on September 16, 2014 in National Football League
World Cup Kool-Aid
Interview with Florida Trend. Everyone’s talking about the World Cup and that now is professional soccer’s moment to rise to the top tier of spectator sport in the U.S. Do you agree or are we all drinking the Kool-aid? I think you’ve spoken in the past about the World Cup giving a boost for a…
Posted by John Vrooman on September 10, 2014 in Major League Soccer
International Balance of Talent
Interview with Fortune Magazine Transfer spending is analogous to the international balance of trade, where wealthy leagues usually import more talent than lower revenue domestic leagues. The bad news is that wealthy leagues like EPL have an adverse transfer balance but the good news is that the transfer deficits directly reflect the relative economic power…
Posted by John Vrooman on September 9, 2014 in UEFA Football
Continental Drift
Interview with CNBC. How does a league decide how many teams it should have? Is the MLS being smart with a jump from 19 teams now, to a planned 24 by 2020? After a critical mass is formed usually in multiples of 8, a sports league will expand as long as the marginal (extra) benefits…
Posted by John Vrooman on August 8, 2014 in Major League Soccer
Buffaloed
Interview with Associated Press. A prospective ownership group that includes rocker Jon Bon Jovi has conducted a feasibility study to buy the Buffalo Bills and build a stadium in Toronto. This raises fears that the group is interested in buying and relocating the franchise. Not looking to you to confirm any of this. Simply seeking…
Posted by John Vrooman on August 7, 2014 in National Football League
Extortion Triangle in Toronto
Interview with the Toronto Star. I’m doing a story about the sale of the Buffalo Bills, and was hoping you might have some time to chat today about what might be some motivating factors for the league, the Wilson estate, and the advantages/disadvantages of the various bidding groups. I’ve spent the last while reading your…
Posted by John Vrooman on August 1, 2014 in National Football League
Basketball Jones
Interview with CBS and Associated Press. I am writing for CBS about Steve Ballmer’s purchase of the Clippers. Is the $2 billion purchase price a good deal? Here’s what I told you in the last interview: There is a perfect storm brewing for the value of the LA Clippers to approach $1 billion. First, if the…
Posted by John Vrooman on May 30, 2014 in National Basketball Association
Unification of European Football
Interview with Fortune Magazine. 1) What in the economic set-up in European football makes it so much more top-heavy with the big teams in terms of success? (this obviously is a big question and much of it can be dug out of your paper and others, but if I could get a few pithy sentences…
Posted by John Vrooman on May 27, 2014 in UEFA Football
Do the Right Thing
Interview with Associated Press. I am working on a story about the NBA’s handling of the Donald Sterling race comments. I’m trying to get to the bottom of just what the league had to lose if it didn’t respond decisively and favorably in the eyes of its players, coaches and, almost as important, its sponsors….
Posted by John Vrooman on May 4, 2014 in National Basketball Association
2027
Interview with USA Today. Revenue Pie 2014. –The league takes in about $10 billion revenue annually. Any idea how that pie breaks down in categories? I’ve read that $4-5 billion comes from TV rights. –The league projects getting up to $25 billion in revenue by 2027. Given the market trends, is this realistic? How do…
Posted by John Vrooman on January 23, 2014 in National Football League
©2024 Vanderbilt University · John Vrooman
Site Development: University Web Communications