Super Agent Leigh Steinberg

After years of avoidance, Leigh Steinberg acquiesces to the excitement that is Fantasy Sports.

By Leigh Steinberg via National Football Post

I knew that fantasy football had a massive following and was an invaluable source for stimulating income and interest in the NFL, but always kept my distance.

I have zealously avoided any activity that would put my inside knowledge of player status and coaching evaluations into an improper forum. I saw the television and magazine content regarding the activity everywhere but didn’t have a modicum of knowledge as to the mechanics. That all changed when I received an urgent call from my COO Scott Bogdan several weeks ago.

Scott informed me that his fantasy league was having its’ draft that night and one of the key players was out of the country. If I couldn’t pinch hit, the consequences would be catastrophic. The entire course of human history might be altered. So I reluctantly acquiesced to his desperate importuning and agreed to fill in that night as long as that was the end of my involvement.

When I arrived there was a large group of intense young professionals gathered in a tense, war room like atmosphere. There were pizza cartons and prodigious quantities of adult beverages (I stuck to Diet Coke) and the air was crackling with excitement. They had stacks of research material within arms reach.

It turns out I was ten minutes late, an action that they informed me was punishable by long periods of solitary confinement in the California Prison System. Scott had already made my first pick. What joy, he had been able to secure Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.

Wow, what a triumphant beginning for the franchise. The most statistically prolific quarterback in the history of football, my owner would be in paroxysms of delight. But noooo, you know the rest, and the draft process disintegrated from then. I may have started my actual career with Steve Bartkowski being picked first in the first round and signing the largest rookie contract in NFL history, but the first pick of my fantasy career was not so auspicious. I made the mistake of actually picking the best players.

It’s estimated by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association that 32 million people age 12 and above in the U.S. and Canada played fantasy sports in 2010. Participation has grown over 60% in the past four years with 19% of males in the U.S. playing fantasy sports. It is estimated that more than 19 million people compete in public and private leagues online nationally. And here’s the great news for the NFL—fantasy football players consist of 90% of the fantasy sports industry. Fantasy sports are estimated to a have an over than $4 billion dollar impact on the sports industry and the numbers are growing exponentially.

And there’s more good news: Fantasy players watch more game telecasts, buy more tickets and spend money at stadiums at a much higher rate than general sports fans. For example, 55% of fantasy sports players report watching more sports on television since they started playing fantasy sports. New businesses have sprouted—there are actually insurance salesmen and lawyers who will settle your fantasy sports disputes for a price. I now understand why there is often cheering from fans that seems unrelated to the actual game results.

One of the benefits of productive collective bargaining has been the fact that NFL football play has continued uninterrupted since the 1987 replacement games and will continue to be played for the next ten years. Instead of wasting time with unnecessary labor vs. management strife, there is focus on new ways to enjoy football that generate revenue. The NFL Network, naming rights, Season Ticket on Direct TV, overseas play, Red Zone channel and fantasy football are products of creative minds dedicated to exploding ancillary ways of enjoying the product on the field rather than damaging the relationship with fans with discouraging business headlines.

There are new systems that allow a television monitor tuned to a game to display fantasy football results on the side of the screen and allow players to be interactive and there are sure to be more technological innovations.

So fantasy football is a valuable addition to the NFL landscape, which adds richness to the experience and adds revenue to the bottom line.

Follow Leigh on Twitter: @SteinbergSports

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By Leigh Steinberg, Daily Pilot

September 3, 2011 | 11:30 p.m.

This weekend begins my favorite time of year. It marks the return of high school, college and NFL football.

Combined with the pennant races in Major League Baseball and many other sports, it is a cornucopia of sports participation and television viewing that lifts every fan’s spirit. There are certain circles where this phenomenon is not as welcome. I once represented a hard-core sports fan in a spoof on the Roseanne Barr show whose wife was suing him for alienation of affections on the grounds that his couch obsession was ruining their marriage.

Gloria Allred represented the wife and the debate was lively. I’m happy to say we prevailed.

 I arrived at the secret location on the Peninsula only to discover a group of men sitting around computerswith War Room intensity. They were picking teams of current NFL players which would allow them to compete with each other based on the performance of the players they drafted on the field.

I was reminded of that upon receiving an urgent message from my COO Scott Bogdan, a former Corona del Mar High football player who is a technological genius. Fearing the worst I checked in last week to be told that my presence was required at the draft night for the fantasy football league with Scott and his friends. It seems one of the participants could not be present to pick his team and Western civilization might fall if I could not fill in for him. The draft was held on Wednesday night and I was warned that every millisecond I was late would insure dire consequences.

The formula for calculating points was complex, as one participant explained, “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” These were talented young professionals using their educations and considerable skills to outwit each other. Their collective knowledge of the running backs, quarterbacks and wide receivers throughout the league would put many NFL directors of player personnel to shame.

I picked Peyton Manning with my first pick, couldn’t go wrong there … wrong. It seems there was doubt as to whether he would play the first week and I might have already jeopardized the chances of my owner. I used my actual knowledge of team offenses and players to draft which probably consigned my owner to the deepest, darkest dungeon of the league. I didn’t exit the high-tech room festooned with pizza boxes and beer (fortunately there were a couple lonely Diet Cokes) until after 10 p.m.

It is estimated by the Fantasy Sports Trade Assn. that 32 million people aged 12 and above in the U.S. and Canada played fantasy sports in 2010. Fantasy football players consist of 90% of the fantasy sports industry. Participation has grown over 60% the past four years with 19% of males in the U.S. playing fantasy sports. One frightening marker for our economy is that 30% of fantasy footballers manage their teams while on office computers. Today it is estimated that over 19 million people compete in public and private leagues nationally.

This new way to enjoy sports pumps some three to four billion dollars into the sports business. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement act of 2006 limited credit card use for online gambling, but kept fantasy football legal.

The NFL entered into a reported five-year $600 million deal in 2006 with Sprint that was driven at least in part because of fantasy sports, allowing subscribers to draft and monitor their teams with their cellphones. Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, NFL.com, fantasy football.com and Fox Sports provide information and garner major revenue.

Some of the businesses that have popped up in this billion-dollar industry include fantasy sports insurance salesman and attorneys who will settle disputes for a fee. Fantasy sports players watch more game telecasts, buy more tickets and spend money at stadiums at a much higher rate than general sports fans. (Thanks to Justin Greeley, our UC Irvine law student intern for research help).

So when you can’t relate to the wild cheering and joy that greets certain plays on the field, you are in the presence of the uber-universe of fantasy sports.

LEIGH STEINBERG is a renowned sports agent, author, advocate, speaker and humanitarian. His column appears weekly. Follow Leigh on Twitter @steinbergsports or blog.steinbergsports.com.

The Bill Simmons grantland.com project launched today, and Chuck Klosterman proved with his first column he’s the (not-so) secret weapon.  —Todd Merriman

Games described as forgotten typically earn that classification because they deserve to disappear; traditionally, it’s a modifier historians use to marginalize or dismiss a given event. But this game is “forgotten” in an actual sense: There’s almost no record of its existence. Fewer than 500 people watched it happen. It was not televised and there’s no videotape. It wasn’t broadcast on the radio. Only a couple of small-circulation newspapers made mention of what transpired, and — because it happened before the Internet — Googling the contest’s details is like searching for a glossy photograph of Genghis Khan. The game has disappeared from the world’s consciousness, buried by time and devoid of nostalgia. And this, of course, is not abnormal. Junior college basketball games from 1988 are not historic landmarks. We are conditioned to forget who won (or lost) the opening round of the North Dakota state juco tournament because those are moments society does not need to remember. They don’t even qualify as trivia.

But something crazy happened in this particular game.

Click here for the complete article on this amazing 3 on 5 vitory!

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Click here for the full article on the National Football Post. Great article from Jack Bechta.

Major props go out to Commissioner Larry Scott and the Pac 10 for its recent $2.7 billion TV deal. Conference TV revenues will go from about $62 million a year to $252 million per year. I know we all love college sports but this is big business. Additionally, the ACC recently inked a deal for $155 million per year and the Big 12 for $130 million per year. Considering that many conferences also have their own TV and digital networks they are developing, there could be more money coming down the pike once these properties mature and start firing on all cylinders.

The acceleration of growth and value for these college properties do not come without growing pains. As new money starts flowing into the athletic departments, micro battles for everyone’s share will form in each AD’s office. Boosters who have been donating cash for years will want to see more luxury boxes. Head coaches in football and basketball will see continued salary increases while the other sports will continue mismanaging their programs.

Believe it or not, the majority of college athletic departments are run a lot like the US government, with recurring deficits. Boosters and private donations usually make up the shortfall each year to bring the departments into the breakeven area. For example, one Pac 10 AD recently told me that when he arrived to take over the reigns of the athletic department, all but two sports were operating in the red. He said that every coach will spend his or her allocated budget and then some, without paying detailed attention to the bottom line. The problem starts when a coach gets an extra $10,000 from a fundraiser or a booster one year and then expects it to be there every year and spends the money anyway before it is garnered. The fact is that the majority of college sports such as golf, softball, field hockey, swimming and diving are big money losers for most athletic departments. And with Title IX and other political pressures to spread the wealth, it will be just a matter of time before most schools eat through their new revenue windfalls to end up operating in the red again.

The biggest problems I see facing university athletic programs is that their personnel isn’t qualified to handle the big business of college sports. Most Athletic Directors started out working in the athletic department in compliance or even coaching one of the sports. They move up the latter to the job of assistant AD and then eventually land the title role of AD upon a vacancy. Thus, many don’t have any real outside job experience in the business world. And with figures such as 30 million up to and over 150 million in revenue rolling in per member school per year, and with operating budgets to match, many just don’t have the experience to handle the job. So eventually what happens is that consultants are hired and boards of trustees start calling the shots. Eventually, for a lot of campuses, there are too many cooks in the kitchen calling those shots and even fight for the power to do so. As a result, many school presidents feel more comfortable spending money on search firms to hire their head coaches.

ICONDavid Brandon left his $2.6 million salary at Domino’s to run Michigan’s athletic program for up to $825,000 a year.

There are some schools that are starting to get it right. Michigan for example has hired David Brandon, the former CEO of Domino’s Pizza. He has a long-term plan for maximized revenues, running a realistic budget and planning for the long-term while keeping the spending dollars at sobering levels. Pac 10 Commissioner, Larry Scott, is a Harvard graduate and was the former president of the Women’s Tennis Association from 2003 to 2009. Women’s tennis is big business. Larry was used to doing TV and sponsorship deals. While at the WTA, he increased sponsorship revenues fivefold and total revenue grew over 250% under his reign. He was obviously capable of helping the Pac 10 max its property value.

Another problem I see coming down the pike for the NCAA and its member schools is the disparity between what the players receive in stipends, especially in football and basketball, versus the revenues those sports produce. While most college athlete stipends don’t cover the average cost of living for a scholarship athlete, salaries for coaches and administrators will rise, non revenue generating sports will get more money but will eventually start running deficits again, and the competition to win will lead to building more elaborate facilities.

As the economics of collegiate sports escalates and the dividends of the transparent wealth gets distributed throughout the respective athletic departments, student athletes’ resentment (especially in football) will grow, and thus more problems like what we saw at Ohio State and North Carolina will continue. I’m not sure if increasing stipends to athletes and getting more qualified individuals to run the NCAA and the athletic departments will help but I know it’s a step in the right direction in curbing the derelict problems we see each and every year. For an agent who represents both college head coaches and players, was a scholarship athlete, I can tell you first hand, what you see now is just the tip of the iceberg. Where there is big money, big problems usually follow.

I am going to be writing weekly posts for the National Football Post where you can get definitive information from NFL insiders, providing unique insight into the inner workings of the NFL front offices, locker rooms, and playing fields. Great site and excited about the new partnership. Link here to the intro post - http://goo.gl/SdBzf

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HBO, NBC Big Winners At Sports Emmys

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences bestowed its 32nd annual Sports Emmy Awards on Monday night in New York, celebrating the best in broadcast sports for 2010. NBC’s Sunday Night Football was named Outstanding Live Series again and won one of the Peacock’s seven Emmys (the network’s Olympics coverage took five trophies), tying it with HBO for the most victories by a network. Among HBO’s kudos was a win for Outstanding Documentary (Lombardi) and three for its anthology series Hard Knocks. ESPN and ESPN2 combined for seven wins, CBS had six, and ABC and Fox had three apiece. Studio host Bob Costas (baseball) and play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick (hockey) won, as did analysts Kirk Herbstreit (college football) and Cris Collinsworth (pro football), and ABC’s coverage of the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands was tapped as Outstanding Live Special. Play-by-play broadcaster Al Michaels received the Lifetime Achievement Award.