Chapter 11. Leadership

The Point: It is not possible to achieve and extend success in any of the business tenets highlighted throughout On the Ball without the presence of leadership. The approaches to, and styles of, leadership laced throughout earlier chapters might vary, but the primary point is the same: Tremendous business acumen might move the ball down the field but, without leadership, it will be nearly impossible to punch it over the goal line.

When most of us think about America's greatest sports leaders, prominent coaches, and Hall-of-Fame ballplayers who redefined their game or fundamentally changed the way the sport was perceived, a few names quickly come to mind: John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, Red Auerbach, Bear Bryant, Tommy Lasorda, and Pat Summit are all top of mind. So too are Jerry West, Roger Staubach, Michael Jordan, Billie Jean King, and Wayne Gretzky.

Each of these coaches and players in his or her own way and with his or her own style demonstrated power and influence. Each had a vision, and each was innovative.

The same has held true over the years on the business side of sports, where noteworthy leadership has resulted in sports fans' ability to follow and, in many cases, live vicariously through the exploits of the coaches and players just mentioned.

For example, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who led the league from 1960 through 1989, increased the 12-team league to 28 teams and, in the process, increased the NFL's revenue by billions of dollars by crafting lucrative TV deals and maintaining an unparalleled degree of labor stability.

Roone Arledge, like Rozelle, redefined his business in this case televised sports. Arledge is credited with creating both of ABC's most prolific sports programs the anthology show Wide World of Sports, which debuted in 1961, and Monday Night Football, which hit the airwaves in 1970. It was Arledge's leadership and vision that provided "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" to generations of sports fans.

Former MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberroth who, in 1984, led the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, ushered in the era in which sports truly became a business. It was under Ueberroth's leadership that, for the first time, the Olympic Games were privately funded, financed in large part through a relatively underutilized sports marketing concept corporate sponsorship. The 1984 Los Angeles Games posted a profit of $215 million and resulted in Ueberroth's being named Time magazine's "Man of the Year."

University of Maryland athletics director Debbie Yow has blazed trails for women administrators who one day hope to lead other powerhouse universities. Hired in 1994, Yow, who was the president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, has not only seen her Terrapins win nine national championships, including the men's basketball championship in the 2001-02 season, but she has also measurably improved the department's financial standing. Among her most impressive accomplishments: The defending NCAA basketball champs now play at the Comcast Center, a new arena that was financed and constructed under her leadership.

It is not just executives who have become sports business pioneers and leaders. Great athletes who have championed causes have also become sports business leaders. Chief among these are Jackie Robinson and, indirectly, Curt Flood. After signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945, Robinson, who realized the importance of having an impact on the lives of others, forever changed sport's landscape by breaking baseball's color barrier two years later.

A quarter-century later, baseball's new player leader was the St. Louis Cardinals' Curt Flood, who refused to be traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969. Although not as vocal or passionate a leader as Robinson, Flood's refusal to change teams triggered one of the sports industry's most important events. Despite the fact that Flood eventually lost his legal battle to become a "free agent," his actions set the stage for free agency, a development that subsequently and significantly increased player salaries in baseball.

Although they demonstrated them quite differently on occasion, each of these leaders, whether "mere" coaches or athletes, league executives, or media moguls shared many leadership traits. Each understood, whether they knew it or not, the essence of leadership.



On the Ball. What You Can Learn About Business from America's Sports Leaders
On the Ball: What You Can Learn About Business From Americas Sports Leaders
ISBN: 013100963X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 93

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