Dana Blankenhorn

Sport Economics Bring Recession Home

My local soccer club went toes-up yesterday.

The Atlanta Silverbacks, in the minor-league USL, announced they won't play next year.

The decision was a no-brainer. Since U.S. soccer lacks the promotion-and-relegation process that lets every European team hope it can score the big bucks, there is no upside to the investment. Without an upside it's all ego. Amazing how, when things go bad, ego becomes the first casualty.

Soccer isn't the only troubled sport. Arthur Blank, who owns the Atlanta Falcons, is cutting back, both in business and in charitable giving. The Home Depot co-founder has found there is a bottom to his pocket.

Blank's cutbacks put the lie to the Silverbacks' excuse for folding, namely the chance the MLS will move a team in here. Blank was the money man behind that speculation.

All this reveals an important truth about how the economics of sport have changed in this decade, and given us a taste of things to come.

Leadership

The difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary is calm in the center of the storm.

• We see it in athletics, where the pitcher or the quarterback or the point guard is able to somehow control their emotions, stay in the moment, slow down the game and deliver the victory.
• We see it in business, where a trader or CEO keeps his head while markets are falling and scoops up assets at a fraction of their "real" price.
• We love to see it in Las Vegas. It's what the great gamblers have. It allows them to bluff and take pots when they have nothing, because they separate themselves from the emotions of the moment and take advantage of others' normal weakness.
• We see it on the stage, in the movies. We see it in religion. The greats all have it. That ability to be still, to hold a mirror to the audience and let themselves be the hero the viewer wants them to be.

We're seeing it in politics this week, in the person of Barack Obama.

It is an extraordinary talent.

Grinding It Out

While waiting for Barack Obama's e-mail on his Vice Presidential pick, I decided to take a break today and enjoy some footie.

It was the U.S. vs. Brazil with the Gold Medal on the line.  Unlike many past matches of this type, the better team did not win.

The U.S. did.

The game illustrated the two schools of soccer, or futbol, or football -- the beautiful game. Brazil played beautifully. They had better players. They passed us silly the first half, back-and-forth across the pitch. They looked deadly early in the second half, firing shot-after-shot at goalie Hope Solo (right). It was one-way traffic until they tired, and the Americans gave up their own short passing game for long breakaways up the middle.

The U.S. goal, by a girl named Carli Lloyd, came seemingly out of nothing, a quick flip to get space and a screamer past the goalie, across the face of goal. Then it was back to hang in there baby, Brazil coming in from all angles, attack after attack, corner after corner, the issue not decided until their last missed by inches less than a minute from time.

We call this grinding it out. When my daughter Robin played, through high school, she became a specialist at this sort of thing. It's not pretty. It's exhausting to watch. It's physical, tackling and getting in front of people, banging the ball downfield just to get a breath.

But it works. At all levels. The balance between the beauty of a Brazil and the grinding it out mentality is what makes the game so compelling. Because you can see the same balance in a U-10 rec game as in a game played by pros.

Speaking of the pros...

The Trouble with China

The trouble with China is there is no trouble with China -- not among the Chinese.

Despite all our rhetoric about China's human rights abuses and its horrible environment, the Chinese people are actually quite happy. A Pew poll this year found that, while Chinese people will complain about rising prices, the rising wealth gap or government corruption, 65% are satisfied with their government.

One can argue there is a severe disconnect between how Chinese see themselves and others see them. The Chinese see themselves in a positive light, while their neighbors distrust them.

Partly this is Olympics fever. I recall it from Atlanta's own experience with it, back in 1996, and it wasn't until Eric Rudolph's bomb went off and Munson Steed ran his shell game that anyone questioned anything of what was going on. The legacy of those games is still mainly positive. The economy boomed for years afterward, and Centennial Olympic Park has become a major tourist destination, where it was formerly a collection of warehouses, and would have remained such without the Games.

Mainly this is a wealth effect, which government policies get credit for creating. All the talk of America attracting "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when wealth disparities were at their height, when our industrial revolution was new, and when the poor lived in utter wretchedness.

Before this boom some 90% of Chinese people had no concept of what money could bring. Now hundreds of millions enjoy TVs, refrigerators, fast food, and an ease their parents could only dream of. Sure, it comes with problems, but the trade-offs seem worthwhile.

Does Politics Trump Everything?

I didn't intend on getting into this, but I had the Congressional hearing on, with Roger Clemens, and there's an important point which needs to be made. (Picture from 108 Red Stitches.)

Does politics really trump everything? Does the truth of something mean nothing? Or is everything just a function of which political party you belong to?

Let's be clear. Roger Clemens is a Republican, a staunch one, a charter member of the "jockocracy" who got rich off sports and thus identifies with the rich.

That fact should mean nothing regarding whether Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs. The Congressional committee should be testing the evidence, and acting in an impartial manner as much as possible.

I don't know the truth, but I have suspicions. I know what Clemens looked like a decade ago. I know what he looks like now. His head is two sizes larger. That is one side-effect of steroid use. And his record over the last 10 years, his success in continuing to pitch well into his 40s, also has to be seen suspiciously. Especially in light of the specific allegations contained in the Mitchell Report, and the further evidence offered by former trainer Brian McNamee.

Every case of conspiracy is, as prosecutors say, a piece of shit. That is you depend on members of the conspiracy, criminals, to testify against others. You expect drug dealers to rat on their customers, customers on their dealers, and you don't judge guilt or innocence  based on party affiliations.

Do you?

Coach Lilly

What happened to the U.S. Womens World Cup team this week was sad, but pretty neat in a way.

Sad, because Coach Greg Ryan made a classic mistake, replacing his goalie for a semi-final, and he paid the appropriate price, in that the team was crunched, 4-0 by Brazil.

Pretty neat, because this is the kind of thing which happens to mens' teams all the time, and for once it got the kind of attention we give mens' teams.

End Football Now

This morning I watched a great football match. Although this post is not really about that football.

England fell behind, came back through an incredible individual effort by Kelly Smith (who pulled off her shoes to celebrate the goals), then was tied at the death by Japan. The game featured several hard collisions, with one goalie nearly knocked out and another player lying injured while play continued around her.

Football, or soccer, can be a dangerous game. Some great players from the past have died from the impact of repeated concussions with the hard leather balls used in the 1960s.

My Hero Falls

To a lot of kids today the fall of Michael Vick is tragic. They believed in him. They thought he was special. They are terribly saddened.

For me the loss is also personal. But it has nothing to do with Vick. It has to do with a hero from my time.

His name is Billy "White Shoes" Johnson.

In the years when I lived in Houston, from 1974-1980, Billy was my favorite player. He was mostly a punt returner, but he was also a wide receiver. He played with enormous flair, and when he scored he did this silly Charleston-like touchdown dance which sent the crowd at the Astrodome into a frenzy.  He finished his career in Atlanta, with the Falcons, and the Oilers moved to Tennessee a decade or so later.

Turns out that, in this decade, Billy Johnson was Vick's "fixer."

What's a fixer? A fixer is a guy hired by the team to back you up when you screw up. He fixes things.

In Billy's case the title was coordinator of player programs. In 2002, when Vick failed to show up on some parking tickets it was Billy who drug him to court, then told the media Vick's claim that the charge was "bogus." Two years later, when one of Vick's friends swiped the watch of a security scanner at the airport, Billy got it back, and paid the guy off.

Shoeful Mike

The coming end of the Michael Vick story has me thinking about another, similar story from the distant past, that of Shoeless Joe Jackson. (Picture from the sport gallery of Andy Amato.)

Like Vick, Jackson was a man with country origins, laid low by a Commissioner who was trying to "send a message." In the Jackson case, however, the hysteria was far more intense, a conspiracy to "fix" the 1919 World Series. Jackson actually hit .373 during the series, but he made some crucial errors, and admitted taking $5,000 from gamblers as part of the conspiracy.

Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis was brought in as Commissioner of Baseball to deal with the mess. The way he dealt with it was to throw Jackson, and the other "Black Sox" out of baseball for life. Without the conspiracy, Jackson was a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame. At the height of the furor a kid reportedly begged the outfielder, "say it ain't so, Joe." Jackson had no reply.

Vick's case is different. There is no doubt of his guilt. CNN resident legal idiot Jeffrey Toobin said today that "lots of athletes have come back from wife-beating charges," and this is just dogs, but no athlete ever abused a wife as Michael Vick did his dogs, and the breed in general.

Much Adu About Nothing

For a special treat this Sunday here's a sports story which has nothing to do with scandal, or drugs. Or even David Beckham. Although it is about soccer.

It's about Freddy Adu. Four years ago, Freddy Adu was the face of U.S. soccer. He signed with Major League Soccer at just 14, having already completed high school, and was said to be the next big thing.

Sad to say, he may turn out to be U.S. soccer's Mickey Rooney, classically trained, too famous too young, and too short. Rooney had increasing trouble getting good roles as he aged, his cute turning to dumpy, and his un-Andy Hardy lifestyle had him forgotten before TV even arrived. Rooney's story has a happy ending. He's 85 and recently celebrated 25 years of marriage. He seems happy, content, everything any of us could hope to be at that age, a role model once more.

Adu should be so lucky.

Now 18 he flew to Europe this weekend, tail between his legs, hoping to catch on with Benfica, a Portuguese team.  He had tried out with Manchester United, he was hoping to catch on with Celtic in Glasgow, so while Benfica is a big club, for Portugal, it's a real come-down.