California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.
 
Football is big business in the state.  And the season of pro and college
football has begun. 

While the NFL is the most valuable and profitable team sport in the world
it has been impacted by the downturn in the economy.  According to a report
by Forbes, the teams of the NFL are on average worth about $1 billion, the
same from 2008.  And while the values remained basically unchanged, unfortunately,
eight teams lost value including the Oakland Raiders who lost the most value at
seven percent.

Out of the 32 NFL teams, San Diego ranked 24th, the highest in value of the
California teams at $917 million, San Francisco at $875 million and Oakland
at $797 million.

A key manifestation of the economic downturn is that few fans bought pre season
tickets so some televised games were blacked –out for communities.  Additionally,
many teams have exhausted their wait list for tickets and are now facing an
uncertain American consumer. But the prices for an NFL ticket have not fallen.
The average cost of a ticket rose 4 percent this year to $75 dollars and the
Fan Cost Index which takes the cost of what it  takes to bring a family of four
to a game is now $412.

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 planning a $140 million renovation
of its stadium.

And at the end of the season, the state periodically hosts a Super Bowl or one of
California’s pro teams, 49er’s, Raiders and Chargers 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 and Raiders 3 times and a once in a
blue moon long shot that both the 49ers and Charges played against one another in
the 1997 Super Bowl in Miami). And on the college scene, the state hosts the grand
daddy of them all, the Rose Bowl along with Holiday, Poinsettia and Emerald Bowls.
Football, it’s American, just like apple pie and the girl net 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.