Feature: US Sports Biz - January 2005  

S&T's US correspondent Mark J Jeffers, takes another look at the wild and wacky world of the movers and shakers in sports across the other side of the pond...

Happy New Year to all…I can honestly tell you, that this column was written without any enhancements from steroids, although I can’t say that a few beers weren’t involved…
With the NHL on strike, it looks like the NBA has picked up the slack with brawls in the stands; I guess that’s called fan interaction. In related NBA news, the league has come up with a brand new set of rules; the new rules will allow fans who are hit by players in the stands to shoot a bunch of free throws.
Fox Sports is selling commercials for the Super Bowl for $2.4m for 30 seconds, we hear that’s a little less than Paris Hilton’s going rate.
In other Super Bowl news…Just to be safe and not draw any penalty flags from the FCC, the NFL is having The Pope and Barney perform a duet during halftime of the Super Bowl. Actually, Sir Paul McCartney is slated to perform.
Office Depot has entered into a multi-year agreement with NASCAR to become the first ever official office products partner beginning this year. Look for lots of paper clips and erasers being thrown into the winner’s circle each week.
George Foreman is at it again, this time the marketing champ is launching a line of cleaning solutions called, what else…’George Forman’s Knock-Out’. I guess George is the Mr Clean of this generation.
Congratulations to Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg for them being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I’ll ‘bet’ you didn’t know…they both support Pete Rose’s induction. Don’t worry about Pete, and I’m not sure why…but he was just inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Hot Dogs are still one of America’s ball park food favorites…the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council (NHDSC) projected that Americans will enjoy 24.2m hot dogs this coming year. I didn’t know they counted such a thing.
It’s hard to believe, but with 28 post season college football bowl games there is still no playoffs to find a national champion, it’s time to introduce a playoff scheme. The current bowl system needs to be ‘flushed’ and the top teams should meet in playoffs to decide the national champion.
Dunkin Donuts has signed Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling to endorse the New England Maple Cheddar Sandwich. I can feel my arteries starting to clog up just writing this…
Churchill Downs has doubled the size of the Kentucky Derby’s purse, increasing the total prize to $2m. That sure is a heck of a lot of hay…
And finally, there is no truth to the rumor that the TV ratings are up for the NHL this season, even thought they are on strike!
That wraps it up for this edition of ‘US Sports Biz’, folks!

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