Garber interview

[bazooka]

There is an interview today at www.sportsbusinessdaily.com of Don Garber, it is a pay site but you can get a trial membership, some excerpts:

about companies interested in sponsoring MLS after the WC:
"A number of computer companies, like Apple, some telecom and networking companies like Americatel and Avaya, Burger King, MasterCard, Toshiba — a dozen new companies, really."

on $$$ losses:
"I keep reading about our $50 million a year in losses and they are nowhere near that. ... We have been able to cut our losses in half over the past two years and our losses are now minimal compared to other professional sports leagues. A big part of that was our contraction, and we also have better cost control overall. We anticipate breaking even as a league, in terms of what is required to run the league, within the next five years. We now have a more viable business to take to investors."

on Spanish language TV:
"Our games are no longer televised in Spanish and that is a strategic decision on our part to support ESPN and ABC. However, in the future, I anticipate we will have a Spanish- language package. The problem now is that the window for Telemundo and Univision is Sunday afternoons. That really isn't a time when we think we can sell tickets."

on stadiums:
"L.A. is online next year. We are very confident about progress being made for the New York/New Jersey team in '04. We are also making progress in North Dallas and Kansas City."

on expansion:
"We need to be bigger than a ten-team league. Expansion is not going to happen next year; we are looking at it for 2004."

profitability of SUM:
"Our payments (SUM purchased World Cup rights through '06 for a reported $40 million) are spread out, but SUM will make money. We hit our budget for this World Cup and we are looking for more."

[MtMike]

If true (and I see no reason why it's not), that's all good news. Break even in 5 years? possible expansion in 2004, losses half of the amount of two years ago. SUM made money-- it's a quick change of pockets from SUM to MLS. Very good stuff.

[SCBozeman]

Let this be the truth. I am always worried we are a heart attack and couple of economic realities away from being league-less.

[soccer4ever]

Are there any significant negatives in the interview that were not quoted?

Everything above is great news, especially the new sponsors, breakeven potential, expansion and new stadiums.

[timmy409]

we are the champions

[hangthadj]

If he's truthul ther i can't find any bad uin those excerpts.

[FlashMan]

I'm sure he knows more than the rest of us, but I think he's blowing big puffs of smoke re the stadia info (re 2004, NJ, north Dallas, KC).

The ideal time for Spanish-tv would still be an evening game so we would still get attendance, be it Saturday or Sunday, but I'm sure Telemundo doesn't want to cut into its Saturday night programs for MLS.

[soccer4ever]

Originally posted by bazooka
There is an interview today at www.sportsbusinessdaily.com of Don Garber, it is a pay site but you can get a trial membership, some excerpts:


Thanks for the link. I registered for the free trial and can hardly believe all the attendance/ratings statistics they have for all sports.

Thanks for the great link!

[FlashMan]

You guys are all wondering if all that information is "accurate" but Garber is known for painting rosy pictures while providing few facts.

[FlashMan]

Originally posted by soccer4ever

Thanks for the link. I registered for the free trial and can hardly believe all the attendance/ratings statistics they have for all sports.


Do they have ratings for ESPN2 Soccer Saturday?

[Jeremy Goodwin]

Originally posted by FlashMan
I'm sure he knows more than the rest of us, but I think he's blowing big puffs of smoke re the stadia info (re 2004, NJ, north Dallas, KC).

The ideal time for Spanish-tv would still be an evening game so we would still get attendance, be it Saturday or Sunday, but I'm sure Telemundo doesn't want to cut into its Saturday night programs for MLS. Does Telefutura have anything in that slot yet?

[notebook]

Very interesting. Thanks for the summary.

[kenntomasch]

Originally posted by bazooka
about companies interested in sponsoring MLS after the WC:
"A number of computer companies, like Apple, some telecom and networking companies like Americatel and Avaya, Burger King, MasterCard, Toshiba — a dozen new companies, really."

This will be easy enough to check on come next season...if any of these people are involved, or if there are any new companies, then he was obviously not just making stuff up. If there's no new computer company, none of the others named, and no other new partners, then either everything fell through or he was just making stuff up.


on $$$ losses:
"I keep reading about our $50 million a year in losses and they are nowhere near that. ... We have been able to cut our losses in half over the past two years and our losses are now minimal compared to other professional sports leagues. A big part of that was our contraction, and we also have better cost control overall. We anticipate breaking even as a league, in terms of what is required to run the league, within the next five years. We now have a more viable business to take to investors."

Not bad for a league that was on its "deathbed" according to a lot of people here last January.

Hey, I thought someone said they were almost guaranteed to make a profit next year? ;)


on Spanish language TV:
"The problem now is that the window for Telemundo and Univision is Sunday afternoons. That really isn't a time when we think we can sell tickets."

Sunday's haven't done so poorly, actually (actually, they've done better overall than Saturdays).


on expansion:
"We need to be bigger than a ten-team league. Expansion is not going to happen next year; we are looking at it for 2004."

This will spawn several threads in the Expansion forum, no doubt. "Looking at" will be recalled as "he guaranteed it" if there's no announcement by MLS Cup 2002.


profitability of SUM:
"Our payments (SUM purchased World Cup rights through '06 for a reported $40 million) are spread out, but SUM will make money. We hit our budget for this World Cup and we are looking for more."

That sounds good, doesn't it? A component of the business that makes money?

[soccer4ever]

Originally posted by FlashMan


Do they have ratings for ESPN2 Soccer Saturday?

I'm sure they do somewhere. This is a monster site. Unfortunately, archives are only available to paid subscribers.

[kenntomasch]

The "only" annoying thing "about sportsbusinessdaily" is that when you "get" their daily "email", while it's "chock full" of interesting "information", they feel the need to "constantly put quotes" around everything, as if they're "afraid of being accused of plagarism" or something.

Unless they "stopped" doing that since the "last time" I read it.

[Barca_Fan2003]

From Garber's mouth to God's ear.

[FlashMan]

Originally posted by kenntomasch

Sunday's haven't done so poorly, actually (actually, they've done better overall than Saturdays).


Are you comparing Sunday afternoons to Sat. afternoons or Sunday evenings to Saturday evenings?

I'm not sure a Spanish language station will give us an evening slot on either day. They probably have afternoon slots open though...

[kenntomasch]

Originally posted by FlashMan


Are you comparing Sunday afternoons to Sat. afternoons or Sunday evenings to Saturday evenings?

I haven't compared the apples to the oranges yet. Sundays overall were slightly better than Saturdays overall from 1996-2001, but there were several big events on Sundays that skewed things just a touch (and the advantage isn't much). I don't have all the game time data to do such a study, but I imagine it's out there.

But if they feel that they can't sell tickets to run-of-the-mill Sunday afternoon games, maybe they're right. In any case, I'm all about not sacrificing a potential Saturday night crowd just to get a Sunday afternoon game on hispanic TV.

[ThreeApples]

Originally posted by kenntomasch


I haven't compared the apples to the oranges yet. Sundays overall were slightly better than Saturdays overall from 1996-2001, but there were several big events on Sundays that skewed things just a touch (and the advantage isn't much). I don't have all the game time data to do such a study, but I imagine it's out there.

Most of the doubleheaders with national team (men and women) have been on Sundays. This alone might be enough to skew overall Sunday attendance over Saturdays. I have not checked the numbers.

But if they feel that they can't sell tickets to run-of-the-mill Sunday afternoon games, maybe they're right. In any case, I'm all about not sacrificing a potential Saturday night crowd just to get a Sunday afternoon game on hispanic TV.

Probably if Sunday afternoon was the only daytime slot each week, they would do it. But if they had Saturday afternoon on ESPN2 and Sunday afternoon on Telemundo or whatever, that would be 40% of the weekend games in unattractive ticket-selling timeslots. Actually more than 40%, since many weekends don't have a full slate of 5 games.

[FlashMan]

Originally posted by Noah Elliott

But if they had Saturday afternoon on ESPN2 and Sunday afternoon on Telemundo or whatever, that would be 40% of the weekend games in unattractive ticket-selling timeslots. Actually more than 40%, since many weekends don't have a full slate of 5 games.

Yes, this would not be desirable.

I presume the head honchos in New York know this as well.