This week we had the honor to interview again Dr. Ron Dick, associate professor of sports marketing at Duquesne University in the school of business. Ron also worked for 20 years in sports, including 15 years in the NBA with the Sixers and the Nets, and then five years in the NCAA.
📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on the Houston Astros winning the World Series. Then we discussed various reports saying that Jeff Bezos and Jay Z are looking to buy the NFL team the Commanders. We also talked about the LIV Golf League, the NHL season, the NIL, Kyrie Irving’s suspension following his social media post. Lastly we discussed the upcoming 2022 Soccer World Cup in Qatar kicking off this month.
🚀Best Quotes: Here’s some of the key discussion points and best quotes from our conversation with Ron:
On the Houston Astros winning the World Series this year:
“ It wasn't a surprise to me at all that they won. I mean they had the most wins in the American League and maybe the Dodgers had more wins in the National League, but you can't be surprised when a team wins 106 games and goes on to win the whole thing”.
“I think the Phillies were a little more surprising coming in as the new formatted six seed as a wild card team with only 87 wins. The fact that they got there was even more amazing. Now I am biased because I was born in Philadelphia and I'm a big Phillies fan”.
But I think there's no doubt that the 2017 World Series with the Astros is tainted. They acknowledged a fine of $5 million (..) However, this one feels a little more legit. Yeah, I think the 2022 Astros World Series Championship is legitimate”.
On various reports saying that Jeff Bezos and Jay Z are looking to buy the NFL team the Commanders:
“I don't know what the price is. It has to be a lot. I don't know that one person wants to buy all that, but Daniel Snyder seems to be a person that has very few friends right now, and he seems to being pushed out as we saw with the LA Clippers owner for the right price. We can push almost anybody out”.
On Kyrie Irving’s suspension following his social media post:
“I saw some of the comments and they're horrific. I mean they're tragic. You just can't speak that way about somebody's religion and to think that there isn't going to be blow back on this. I don't know why he thinks the things that he says. He said he has other supporters around him or something”.
“There are a lot of owners that are Jewish in the NBA. And it's very offensive to everybody involved. It doesn't matter what your Net worth is (..) Why would you want to say some things about a whole group of people like that? That's never going to fly and it's certainly not going to fly in 2022. And I don't know why he doesn't apologize”.
“There's always drama around this guy. There are always problems and issues and at some point you need to ask yourself": Is the squeeze worth the juice? I mean, that's how I see Kyrie and it's just sad that he can't get out of his own way”.
On the impact and the evolution of NIL after 2 years:
“It’s more clear now that the NIL has affected a conference like the SCC Southeast Conference in basketball and has helped propel them because they have bigger arenas, they have the biggest stadiums, they have the bigger donors that can donate money back to the cause of signing that key player. So that is what I see going on with NIL. It's still obviously evolving”.
“The one warning I would say to everyone out there is that for whatever reason the United States government has doubled the size of the IRS and is getting ready to double it, which means that any of these young men that get a 1099 pop possibly sent to their home house (..) You have to show that on your taxes, and that is all evolving”.
“I don't know if a lot of these teams want to show that and if the players want to show what kind of money they're making. I don't know how much of this is a cash deal, but they definitely have to keep their eyes on that. And I would think the person in every athletic department that has to help them with that, their title would be a senior associate or associate athletic director for business operations and finance (..) So the NIL is going to get bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger”.
On the LIV Golf League:
“Rory McIlroy is really trying to get the PGA to make peace with the LIV Golf League and it's not going well. He's trying to bring both sides together to come up with some sort of an agreement”.
“I mean, this is similar to what happened between the ABA American Basketball Association in the sixties and seventies and the NBA. So ABA and the NBA both were really good leagues. And at one point they had a merger. Now is there going to be a merger here as well ? I don't know about that”.
“But the LIV Golf League is not going away. You have to acknowledge them and you have to make this thing work. And if you have to share the players and share the pie and share the TV ratings and the TV money and the sponsorships and everything that goes with that then that's what the PGA has to do”.
On the upcoming 2022 Soccer World Cup in Qatar kicking off this month
“So I have no idea who's going to win this Soccer World Cup in Qatar. You would know it better than me (..) Did Qatar buy their way in? They're obviously a member of the G20 and they have deep pockets with all the oil and stuff, so I don't know”.
“ I had an opportunity to go to all seven continents, even Antarctica. But I remember being there, and my wife pushed me on that, which I appreciate. I remember being there in late June of 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal. It is a wonderful city and a great country. And the bars were packed and Portugal was playing, and I'm like “Okay, this makes sense”. You couldn't even get inside. They put it on a big screen and people were so jacked up”.
“It's hard for us to relate to the incredible intoxication of soccer in in the world, especially in Europe, and it seems like South America with Brazil”.
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