Doug Benc/Getty ImagesNote: I originally published this in November, but with me now posting articles on Bleacher Report, I decided to re-publish it. So if you read this already and want something original from me, I'm sorry. But I'll have something new up tomorrow. if you're reading this for the first time, then enjoy.Im not a business man. Ive never tried to be and I try not to be. Im a writer and a sports fan at heart, and yes, this is about sports, but more the business of sports for today.Sports teams are a business.There, I said it!We want to believe Reebok New Orleans Saints #9 Drew Brees Realtree camo Jersey
theyre for civic pride. Just ask people in Seattle how much civic pride they have over their Super Sonics right now, or ask a Hartford resident how much civic pride they have over the mighty whale right now, or rabid hockey fan living in Winnipeg or Quebec City, who Im sure are just BURSTING with civic pride over their Jets and Nordiques respectively.No, theyre businesses; they can pick up and leave when they want and theyre out to make money.Of course, they also operate as a monopoly.The Miami Heat is the only NBA team in Miami and the Florida soon-to-be Miami Marlins are the only professional baseball team in Miami. Both teams at one point were on the verge of moving before getting new stadiums built.The Heat got the American Airlines Arena, which I must say is aging like a fine wine as opposed to the old Miami Arena and the Marlins will be moving into their new ballpark in exactly 162 home games, not counting the playoffs.What does one have to do with the other?They both always take a backseat to the Miami Dolphins, both in the hearts of the fans and in the media. On top of that, they both have to share a regional sports network cartel with teams from other parts of the state of Florida!In 2012, it only going to get worse, since the Marlins' new stadium is a retractable roof ballpark. They will be competing for events such as concerts, conventions, professional wrestling, and other events where they can make money other than the team games themselves. It doesn have to be this way, and on top of that, it won, if they can heed my idea.Unlikely, but I have to get it on paper somehow.The Marlins and the Heat should merge all of their non-baseball and non-basketball operations together.Has this ever been done before, two teams of different sports merging?YES, pun intended!Why is the pun there, you may ask?Well, the YES network started off as a merger between the New Jersey Nets and the New York Yankees. This was done in 1999 in order to leverage their television deals together. We ended up with the YES network because they found if they just produced their teams own games and broadcast it on their own network, hence collecting the advertising themselves, theyd make more money than just selling their rights to a FOX Sports Net-type channel.Other teams followed suit and got in the act afterwards, in some cases it succeeded: Comcast Sports Chicago, owned 25% by Comcast, 25% by the Chicago Cubs, and 50% by Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the White Sox and Bulls; Altitude which is owned by the owner ofReebok New York Giants #27 Brandon Jacobs Realtree camo Jersey
the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche; NESN which actually pre-dates YES and is owned 80% by the Red Sox and 20% by the Boston Bruins; and SportsTime Ohio which is owned by the Cleveland Indians.In some cases it failed: Victory Sports One lasted a cool three games when it was established in 2004 by the Minnesota Twins. However, it failed to get cable coverage anywhere in the established markets of the Twins and thus folded as the Twins moved back to their local FSN.However, this merger isn just about their own television network, which we WILL get to, as well as WHY it would succeed. It about integrating the businesses of two sports franchises that seem so different but really together could be the same.Now, I don know if Mickey Arison and Jeffrey Loria know each otherhell, I doubt theyve even been in the same roombut one has to think that if presented with such an idea, something could be worked out.For Arison, it would be a chance to own a piece of a Major League Baseball team. Im not sure if that something hed be interested in, hell if he was, he probably wouldve competed against Huizinga to bring baseball to South Florida (no way he wouldve bought the team from him in 1998 when the team was up for salethe two men hated each other!).For Loria, it would be something new to his portfolio. An NBA team and the glitz and glamour that comes with it. The model with this though is one of efficiency.The Heat and Marlins obviously wouldn merge their baseball and basketball operations. As funny as it would be to see how Larry Beinfest would try to woo LeBron to the Heat, see Pat Riley find a way to make Freddi need to spend some time with his family, see Cody Ross run the point, or even Dwyane Wade fully emulate his hero Michael Jordan and hit below the Mendoza line for the Carolina Mudcats one year, it just not going to happen that way!Here what WOULD be merged:Stadium/Arena OperationsThe Heat own and operate American Airlines Arena, while Miami-Dade County will own the new Marlins Ballpark with the Marlins operating it. The two teams, through their merged company, could create a company in charge of operating both places.Now, the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys set up a joint-venture between the two of them to Reebok New York Jets #6 Mark Sanchez Realtree camo Jersey
operate both stadiums. This plan is similar but, like I mentioned before, there more to it.The positive of this is no competing for events. Concerts expecting to have large draws in the winter in South Florida perfect winter weather take place at the Marlins Ballpark while smaller summer shows would take place at the Triple-A. Plus it would also open up the possibility of a regular season Heat game played outdoors in front of possibly 40,000 Heat fans sometime between December and February.(Id suggest an annual Christmas afternoon game against the Magic, Knicks, or Bulls and tie it in to the Orange Bowl festivities. And while were at it, BRING BACK THE ORANGE BOWL PARADE DAMMIT. Sorry, that another blog!)Sales and MarketingNow here comes the drawback: If you merge their sales and marketing departments, which deal with ticket sales, marketing, the Miami Heat team store, and sponsorships, well, people are going to lose their jobs.Im sorryit a fact of life with these mergers.BUT, wouldn it be more efficient and save both clubs a lot of money if their sales and marketing departments were combined?Just imagine the possibilities: Heat season ticket holders get discounts on Marlins tickets, Marlins season ticket holders get discounts on Heat tickets, and season ticket holders of both teams could actually purchase packages that combine the two teams.Example: Say you buy a 20-game Miami Marlins season ticket package. Well, season ticket sales for baseball are made right in the middle of basketball season, so you buy a 20-game Marlins ticket package and you can get 50 percent off any four Heat games from the time you purchase the tickets until the end of the season.Plus, you could by Heat tickets at Marlins en Miami, the Marlins' Little Havana ticket office or Marlins tickets at the Triple-A. Hell, you could buy tickets for any event taking place at either arena at any of the arenas.Essentially, you could catch a Saturday afternoon Marlins game in April that begins at 1 PM. Youre out by 4 and there are tickets available for the Heat 7:30 matchup with the Knicks that could determine what seed the Heat get in the playoffs.With your Marlins ticket, you could go to a ticket window at the Marlins Ballpark (or even a computer kiosk if youre using a credit card, which many people would anyways), show the Marlins ticket to the attendant (or scan it if youre using the kiosk) and just like that, you could get 25 percent off your tickets to the Heat game.In fact, the Marlins will even be kind enough to let you know the best time to do it (it's when you hear the PA say now pitching for the Miami Marlins, Renyel Pinto.). Same could go with the Heat at the Triple-A as well.Shared SponsorshipsOf course the myth in sports is they make their money from the fans that come see the games. Well, sort of. Sponsorships, like it or not, drive the economy of sports. After all, there are as many as 19,000 sets of eyeballs at the Triple-A and during a sell-out there could be as many as 37,000 at the Marlins ballpark. Reebok Oakland Raiders #21 Nnamdi Asomugha Realtree camo Jersey
Now with both teams negotiating joint sponsorships, odds are companies could pay less money but reach more people. They could probably even pay less for the two teams combined than they do for the Dolphins alone. The two teams already have many of the same sponsors, such as Pepsi, Papa John, and American Airlines to name a few.An appealing proposition to sponsors though would be the opportunity to sponsor both teams, purchase advertising in both venues, AND purchase ads on their new television network, which brings me to the final point (I know youve been reading this for a while and are at word number 1,590 right now, so just bare with me.).Their Own Television Network/Radio NetworkNow they already have their own radio networks but those are really just a loose chain of radio stations that cover the team. Well, they could sell their radio packages together, or even purchase a sports talk radio station in South Florida of their own.The best station for that would be the low-rated 940 The Sports Animal WINZ. Great coverage not only in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, but could be picked up as far north as Palm Beach and as far west as Ft. Myers, both within the markets of the Heat and the Marlins.Then make Dan LeBatard and Jorge Sedano offers they couldn refuse for Drive-Time, while developing new local talent as opposed to syndicated sports programming with the exception of ESPN Radio and Westwood One NFL and NCAA package, then purchase an FM talk station geared towards men 18-45 for overflow programming and general talk or syndicated talk programs like Dan Patrick and Jim Rome.Of course Id also suggest purchasing stations throughout the Marlins' and Heat territory including Naples-Ft. Myers and West Palm Beach to simulcast such programming.Then there their television network. Fox Sports owns a monopoly on sports programming throughout the state of Florida, owning two regional sports networks: Sun Sports and FSN Florida. Unfortunately, these two networks cover sports in the ENTIRE state of Florida.This leads to the Heat and Marlins getting subpar deals to broadcast their games on a sports network with virtually no other local programming, not even a nightly report on all that going on in Florida sports. In fact, if I have to see The Best Damn Sports Show Period one more time, Im going on a five county killing spree!There IS a better way, and this one will not only benefit the Heat and Marlins, but the Panthers, Dolphins, even whichever television stations in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Naples-Ft. Myers networks decide to sign on.The new cable network would be based in Miami, with studios based in the Triple-A for Heat games and in the new Marlins Ballpark for Marlins games, and main studios based in whatever Miami television station theyd partner with (of course, the network would encompass all of South Florida, and when I say all of South Florida Im not just speaking of the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale DMA, but also West Palm Beach DMA and Naples-Ft. Myers DMA.).Theyd purchase the rights to Heat and Marlins games, produce them, and the teams would collect the revenues from advertising. If they choose, they could bid on the Panthers, BUT, I could mainly see Reebok Pittsburgh Steelers #86 Hines Ward Realtree camo Jersey
them just making a serious bid on them, before FSN decides since theyre already losing the Marlins and Heat to make a serious claim to the Panthers, thus driving up the price for the Panthers.Of course, if the Marlins-Heat TV partnership wins the rights to the Panthers, then theyd have a South Florida-only regional sports network. A good idea would be a South Florida cable-only news network to accompany it as sort of a South Florida version of Headline News with bureaus in all of the local television stations affiliated with them in South Florida (before they went all Nancy Grace on us) plus a venue for overflow programming (i.e. Panthers games).Again, the programming would be strictly local. If they do somehow manage to own the monopoly on South Florida sports coverage, they could also bid on exclusive rights to Miami Dolphins preseason football, plus Miami Dolphins postgame press conferences, offseason press conferences, and during draft time, a Miami Dolphins draft special.During the day theyd also air press conferences of any of the teams involved, plus hourly news and weather updates from their partners.What would they air other than press conferences, specials, and the games themselves you might ask?A lot!Id sign a deal with WWE for one. MSG in New York has one, why not our theoretical regional sports network?First youd have programs from the WWE developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling every weekend. It could air late at night or in the early mornings. Then you could have WWE Florida Classics.If a significant wrestling event from WWE, WCW, NWA, or any wrestling organization whose library is owned by WWE took place in Florida, it could be shown on WWE Florida Theatre hosted by none other than the great Craig DeGeorge !During afternoons you could simulcast LeBatard show since he loves to be on TV so much, along with the previous night Marlins, Heat, or Panthers game or even classic games from those teams. Fall Friday nights could be for the high school football game of the week, with coverage of the State Football Playoffs and Championship.Then, after the games, a comprehensive postgame show, then a 30-minute South Florida sports wrap-up show similar to SportsCenter, without all of the superficial shit they include, which also includes relevant national highlights.Now, I mentioned all of these partner TV stations in the three television markets this station would have cable coverage in, but you're probably asking, what would this station do for them?A LOT!This Reebok Pittsburgh Steelers James Harrison Realtree camo Jersey
would be a lucrative package for any television station that decided to sign up for such a partnership. Just cut sports completely from their budget and pay a flat fee to the network for a nightly two minute sports report at 6 PM and 11 PM (or 10 PM depending on the station).PLUS, a Friday night Marlins package, a Friday night Heat package, a Saturday night Panthers Package, and possiblyif Friday night doesn work or even as a supplement to Friday nightsa Sunday afternoon Marlins package (this one would only last until September if the partner stations are CBS or FOX affiliates because of football.)Of course, the main studios would be located at the flagship broadcast station, meaning we need a station that state of the art, would appreciate the programming, and wouldn mind also running a local cable-only supplement to their main news programming.From Miami, Id eliminate WFOR because, hell, it's 2009 and they haven even gone HD yet even though theyre a CBS owned and operated station. While the thought of an all-news station would appeal to WSVN, it hurts that it a FOX station and FOX wouldn be too thrilled with one of their stronger affiliates linking up with someone that drove them out of a lucrative market.WPLG has the ABC affiliation but if ABC gets interested and decides to stir the pot a little bit, wed wind up with ESPN South Florida and honestly we don want that (even though the radio station would be an ESPN radio affiliate AND late nights the RSN would air ESPNNEWS, an ESPN clone is NOT a good idea.).This leaves us narrowed down to two options in South Florida: WTVJ, an NBC owned and operated station, and WSFL, a Tribune owned CW affiliate. (WBFS is owned by CBS like WFOR, therefore it eliminated by proxy despite being the home of WWE Smackdown due to its MyNetworkTV affiliation.)Well, the thing with WTVJ is theyd enjoy the cut costs from not having a sports department, but as for an all news channel operated by them, eh, sorry, couldn see it working. Plus, we already mentioned a Friday night Marlins/Heat package, meaning Jay Leno would be pre-empted, something we all know NBC doesn want despite the fact that it been this year television EPIC FAIL!In South Florida this leaves us with WSFL.Once upon a time it was just known as Reebok San Francisco 49ers #21 Frank GORE Realtree camo Jersey
Channel 39, then WB 39, then CW South Florida, until finally they rebranded the station SFL.
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