Beyond the Box Score w/ the Sports Professor

He was number 15 on the 2010 edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Power 100, but could Brett Favre’s reign as a sports icon finally be ending?  The Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback has struggled on and off the field this season, bothered by both a bum elbow and the scandal surrounding nude cell phone pictures he supposedly sent to a New York Jets employee. 

According to Yahoo Sports, Favre earned approximately $7 million in 2009 through deals with Wrangler jeans, Snapper lawnmowers, and Remington hunting equipment.  Additionally, throughout his tenure with the Green Bay Packers, the Jets, and the Vikings, Favre has appeared in commercials for Nike, Smart Car, Prilosec, and MasterCard.  However, some endorsers are already distancing themselves from Favre.  Wrangler is scaling back commercials amid the fallout from the alleged texting scandal.

As the trouble mounts for the NFL’s all-time leading passer, Favre could be looking down the same reputational road as Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger in the wake of their own sex scandals.  A road with potholes so big they’d easily swallow a high-profile endorser.

Nike will replace Reebok as the NFL's official uniform provider beginning in 2012, in a deal voted on by the league’s 32 owners.  Owners also voted to give headwear rights to New Era, while Under Armour retains its rights to the NFL scouting combine.  Reebok has no NFL rights after the 2011 season.

In addition to jerseys, Nike also acquired the right to produce all on-field clothing, including sideline personnel apparel and fan gear.  Nike had been an NFL uniform supplier in the mid-1990s, but hadn’t held those rights since Reebok took over in 2002.  This new deal is worth upwards of $30 million annually for five years.

Landing the jersey deal is a big coup for Nike, as the company could easily match the estimated $500 million Reebok grossed from NFL merchandise sales last year.  With rights moving to Nike, financial analysts believe Nike’s earnings per share to increase by 2-3%.  Nike also expects to change the uniforms dramatically, using the newest technology available.

As we enter the second phase of the Major League Baseball playoffs, MLB is producing its largest postseason marketing campaign ever.  Approximately $20 million in asset media will be spread across rights holders through the World Series.  There’s also an additional $5 million in paid media, including a cable buy on non-sports channels Discovery, CNN and FX.

In Philadelphia, the highly anticipated battle between Cy Young Award caliber pitchers Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum on Saturday drove secondary market ticket prices out of the ballpark.

In Arlington, Texas, MLB is continuing its policy of charging $25 per guest to the businesses renting office suites connected to the ballpark.  Rangers Ballpark is MLB’s only stadium that has on-premises office space with views of the field.  Renters there were long ago informed that, should the Rangers make the postseason, visitors to the office would have to pay up.

On the sponsorship side of the championship series, Taco Bell debuted a TV ad for its new “XXL Chalupa” featuring Yankees manager Joe Girardi and pitcher Mariano Rivera.

Major League Baseball playoffs begin this week, with all of their accompanying fanfare.  Lately, fans have gotten accustomed to seeing the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies in the postseason.  This year, however, massive payrolls weren’t a prerequisite for making the playoffs.  Of the eight MLB teams with $100+ million in player salaries, only two still have a chance to win the World Series. 

With a payroll of just $68 million, the Cincinnati Reds and the ghost of former owner Marge Schott are making their first postseason appearance since 1995.  The Texas Rangers, fresh out of bankruptcy and rarin’ to go under new co-owner Nolan Ryan, won their division with the fifth-smallest team salary in the league.  In the NL West, the San Francisco Giants’ $99 million payroll barely beat out the San Diego Padres’ $38 million team.  The Tampa Bay Rays, whose $72 million payroll doesn’t even come close to the $206 million the Yankees spent on players, won the AL East. 

Team front offices relish the opportunity to play in the postseason, not just for the chance to be crowned world champions, but also for the extra revenue generated.  A single home postseason game can be worth upwards of $2 million to a franchise.  So, while some of this year’s playoff teams may have qualified with relatively cheap payrolls, their current success will help increase future salaries.  

Excessive spending in baseball doesn’t necessarily guarantee success.  It pays to be good. 

Here are the 8 MLB playoff teams’ payrolls, along with their payroll rank among baseball’s 30 teams:

Rank    Team                            Payroll

1.  New York Yankees               $206 million

4.  Philadelphia Phillies              $142 million

9.  San Francisco Giants            $  99 million

10. Minnesota Twins                  $  98 million

15. Atlanta Braves                     $  84 million

19. Tampa Bay Rays                 $  72 million

20. Cincinnati Reds                    $  68 million

27. Texas Rangers                     $  55 million

Outside of the baseball postseason’s interesting payroll discrepancies, MLB during its final week reported that while the league has passed the mark of 3 billion in total attendance since 1901 – the year the American League joined the older National League – MLB ended the 2010 regular season with a total attendance of just over 73 million, down .5% from last year and the third straight year in decline.

One set of numbers definitely on the upswing: postseason advertising revenues.  Both TBS and Fox last week reported that their playoff ad inventory was more than 90% sold, more than double last season’s pace.  TBS is charging sponsors such as Capital One and RIM (BlackBerry) $80,000-$90,000 per 30-second spot for divisional series games and $125,000-$150,000 during its ALCS coverage, according to industry sources, while Fox is charging the likes of Budweiser and Chevrolet “between $400,000 and $450,000 for a 30-second World Series spot and up to $225,000 for NLCS spots.”

Golf’s fourth and final major kicked off yesterday at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. The PGA Championship attracted more than 875 media representatives from 13 countries last year. This year, 27 hours of live TV coverage will be broadcast on CBS and TNT. Turner Sports will present the first two rounds of Championship coverage in 3D. With PGA Tour ratings down 4% on the year, will people tune in?

2010 U.S. Open ratings were higher than last year for a couple of reasons. The final two rounds of this year’s Open at Pebble Beach aired in primetime, whereas last year’s tournament experienced several rain delays that affected the regular broadcasting schedule.

A perfect storm made this year’s British Open one of the least-watched majors ever. Being overseas, the tournament ended early in the day in the U.S., especially on the West Coast. It also was the first time broadcast entirely on cable, and it didn’t help that no prominent players were in contention on Sunday.

Our early prediction for this weekend’s PGA Championship - ratings will fall from last year, when Woods went into the final round leading. Woods, the PGA’s biggest TV draw, is coming off arguably his worst tournament as a pro. However, since player performance is one of the biggest factors in TV success, ratings could increase if Tiger is within striking distance on Sunday.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  As Tiger Woods comes off his worst ever start at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, he does so with several fewer fans than he had when he won the tournament last year.  New data from Marketing Evaluations, the market research company that calculates Q scores, found Woods' appeal among sports fans is down by a third and by 50% with the general population compared to last year.  Said Marketing Evaluations president Steven Levitt, with Tiger struggling both on and off the golf course, “it will be quite challenging, if not impossible, for [Woods] to regain the warm feelings he once had from his fans.”

Woods’ troubles have been reflected in various lists over the past couple weeks.  His estimated endorsements for 2010 are worth $22 million less than last year, according to Sports Illustrated's annual “Fortunate 50” list.  While EA Sports kept Woods as a spokesperson, first month sales of the "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11" video game are down 68% from last year’s release, including an unfathomable 86% on the Nintendo Wii platform.  And for the first time in four years, Woods doesn’t hold sole custody of Harris Interactive’s “Favorite American Athlete” poll.  Instead, he shares the top spot with Lakers G Kobe Bryant.

Despite all of his problems, Woods won’t be the most despised athlete in Ohio this week.  That distinction goes to former Cavs star LeBron James, who fell to sixth from third on the same Harris Interactive poll.  With the Cavs struggling to rebuild its roster and the Indians long-gone from the AL Central Division race, stalwart Ohio-based companies are examining whether or not to reallocate some of their sports sponsorship dollars in the wake of James’ abrupt exit from the Cleveland.

The decision is easier for one Bridgestone supporter.  According to sports attorney Fred Nance, of the international law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, now isn't the time for companies to cut sponsorship spending.  "Sports sponsorships help companies stand out in this turbulent economic environment," Nance said.  "The reality is you have to spend money to make money, and sports sponsorships reach consumers while they are engaged in an activity they truly enjoy."