California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

Football is big business in the golden State with three NFL franchises and multiple
universities in the Pac 12, WAC and Mountain West conferences.

According to an annual review by Forbes  magazine, out of the 32 teams in the NFL,
the San Francisco 49ers were ranked 22nd at $925 million, up from $875 million last
year and the highest amongst the California contingent.  The San Diego Chargers were
ranked 24th valued at $907 million down from $917 last year and the Oakland Raiders
were ranked 31st valued at $758 million down from $797 million.

However, the average team value of an NFL franchise has dropped for the first time
in 12 years, according to Forbes magazine’s annual review. The average worth of NFL
teams fell 2% to $1.02 billion in 2010 from $1.04 billion last year. That's the first
drop since the magazine began tracking team values in 1998.

And at the end of the season, the state periodically hosts a Super Bowl or one of
California’s pro teams appear in the game.   In fact, nearly 25 percent of the time,
a team from California has been in the Super Bowl (add in the LA Rams appearance,
49ers 4 times, the Raiders 3 times and a once in a blue moon long shot that both the
49ers and Chargers played against one another in the 1997 Super Bowl in Miami).

At the college level, some of the state’s teams generate revenues comparable to
professional sports teams. USC’s Athletic Department budget is over $100 million.
They have practice and playing facilities that rival those found in professional
sports and they pay their top coaches comparable to the pros.   In an economic
report for USC, the Trojans football team brings annually over 550,000 people to
the Memorial Stadium.

California’s college athletes are coveted with lavish stadiums, training fields and
locker room amenities.  Customers are wooed with branded apparel, videos, logos and
advertisement.  Business interests are captured on stadium scoreboards, billboards
and logos on uniforms.  UC Berkeley is in the midst of a $140 million renovation of
its stadium.  The Golden Bears will play this year at the AT&T Park in San Francisco.

And on the college scene, the state is the backdrop to four college bowl games, 
the grand daddy of them all, the Rose Bowl along with Holiday, Poinsettia and the
former Emerald now aka as the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowls.

In 2008, The USC Marshall School of Business conducted an economic impact study of
Tournament of Roses events. The study concluded that $181 million in direct spending
produced at total economic impact of $178 million for the Tournament of Roses events.
This is down from UCLA's Anderson School of Management conducted an independent
economic impact study on the 2005 Tournament of Roses that found its events produced
$208.1 million in direct expenditures and a in total economic impact of $370.3 million
on Southern California.

San Diego’s two post-season college football games, the Holiday bowl and the Poinsettia
Bowl combined to produce an economic impact of $51.3 million for the San Diego region
in 2009 according to a study conducted by the San Diego State University Center for
Hospitality and Tourism Research.

San Francisco identify that their bowl, since its inception in 2002 as had an $100
million impact.

Football, it’s American, just like apple pie and the girl next door, and no place is
it more evident than in the Golden State.  So let’s kick off the season!

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.