Bloomberg Businessweek Publishes First Annual Sports Issue

Oct. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Bloomberg Businessweek today released its first annual sports issue with 37 pages of the October 24-30 issue devoted to an in-depth look at the business of sports.  Stories on the Green Bay Packers' operation, the anatomy of a baseball trade and the first index detailing how much 122 professional teams spend on average for a win, continue the magazine's mission of covering the world of business while expanding readers' notion of what "business" can mean.  [The Sports Issue: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-sports-issue-10202011.html]

Editor Josh Tyrangiel said, “Most people see sports through the lens of a game, but we wanted to show how the decisions and  transactions made off the field shape what happens on it – and how they can be just as compelling as the game itself.”  

The cover of the Bloomberg Businessweek sports issue features the NFL's Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy with 100 Packers fans at Lambeau Stadium.  The cover story “Meet the Best Owners in Football” examines how, with Murphy's guidance and the fervent passion of its fans, the Packers, "a publicly traded corporation in a league that doesn’t allow them, an immensely profitable company whose shareholders are forbidden by the corporate bylaws to receive a penny of that profit," have become "the NFL’s dominant team and a paragon of the modern sports organization…despite the fact that it plays in by far the smallest of the league’s 32 cities." [Cover story: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-green-bay-packer...]

The issue's centerfold is "The Efficiency Index" which rates how well the four major U.S. professional sports leagues -- the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB -- have turned payroll dollars into wins over the last five seasons.  Pairing all 122 teams’ regular season wins and losses with their player payroll data, Bloomberg Businessweek determined an average cost per win in each league.  Then they measured (by standard deviation) how far each team varied from the league norm.  The Index reveals how every U.S. franchise compares to its cross-sport peers in squeezing wins from money. [Index: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-smartest-spender...]

The NHL's Nashville Predators takes the top spot on the Efficiency Index, MLB's Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays take the second and third spots respectively, the NFL's New England Patriots are fourth and the NBA's San Antonio Spurs are fifth -- and the only NBA team in the Index's top ten.  The least efficient team is the NFL's Detroit Lions at spot 122 (after a 2008 0-16 season they are currently 5-1 this season), with the New York Yankees (their $202 million average payroll is the highest in all of U.S. sports), NBA's New York Knicks (the NBA's biggest spenders at $91 million per season), NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves and NFL's St. Louis Rams coming in at 121-118.

Additional features in the issue include:
•   “The Seven Foot Buffett” about the educated, conservative personal finance planning of NBA Indiana Pacers veteran center Jeff Foster -- and how the NBA lockout could affect players not renowned for their saving savvy [Foster and NBA: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/jeff-foster-the-buff...]
•   “Selling Abby Wambach" about the slim marketing potential for top U.S. female athletes and the U.S. Women's Soccer Team's quest for gold at the 2012 Olympics to snare big-time sponsors [Wambach: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/selling-abby-wambach-10202011.html]
•   “Anatomy of a Trade" in which a key baseball trade made at the July 31 trading deadline is reconstructed, play-by-play, by the General Managers of the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves [Trade: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/anatomy-of-a-baseball-trade-10202011.html?chan=magazine+lifestyle+channel_features]
•   "Inside the Man United Machine" about how the storied English football club has turned itself into the most valuable brand in sports, and much more [Man U: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/inside-the-man-united-machine-10202011.html?chan=magazine+lifestyle+channel_features]

In the opening to the first annual sports issue Bloomberg Businessweek's deputy editor Romesh Ratnesar writes, “It's easy to be cynical about professional sports. Labor disputes, drug scandals, brain injuries, bankruptcies—if fans ever looked to sports as a refuge from the real world, we know better now… [Here] We look at how dynasties are built, how athletes manage their finances, how a trade comes together, and just how many wins money can buy. The rich do get richer, but at least in the sports world (unlike the real one) the underdog still has a fighting chance. Isn’t that reason enough to cheer?"


Press Contacts:  Rachel Nagler, 212-617-7187, rnagler@bloomberg.net
      Patti Straus, 212-617-3279, pstraus@bloomberg.net  

About Bloomberg Businessweek
Named one of the most successful and influential magazines of 2011 by Adweek, Bloomberg Businessweek is a trusted source of essential, comprehensive insight that business leaders depend on to get ahead. Bloomberg Businessweek offers a global perspective to help senior executives profit from smarter, faster, and more informed decisions. Founded in 1929, the magazine is a market leader, with more than 4.7 million readers each week in 140 countries. Drawing on more than 2,300 journalists in 146 bureaus across 72 countries, Bloomberg Businessweek covers the business world like no one else can.

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