Ron's Commentary

Over a long sports journalism career I’ve enjoyed watching the changes and ebb and flow of not only sports competition and athletes, but also the evolving business side of sports. When I started in sports, a $100,000 athlete contract was considered a king’s ransom, and if you got 3 million dollars for sports broadcast rights, you were really a big time sport. Now, sports broadcast rights are in the billions and athletes won’t accept less than a cool half million to do an erectile dysfunction commercial. Sadly, the biggest change is the game has taken a backseat to the money. Having gotten that off my chest, here are some other observations and musings.

The NCAA wants to create a new sport, “sand volleyball.” Nice idea, but typical of the NCAA they didn’t think the idea through. Envious of the success and excitement “beach volleyball” had in the Olympics, some NCAA wonk(s), probably after too many beers and still remembering all the T and A they saw in Beijing, said, “Hey, that looks like fun and I’m sure the fans will like it, so let’s make it an NCAA Division 1 sport for women.” It may ultimately become a good idea, but the timing is terrible. With schools laying off staff, cutting sports and coaches, who needs another sport that appeals to a limited number of athletes and fans, as well as probably not generating enough revenue to cover their costs. True, equipment costs are minimal (tiny bikinis don’t cost much), but coaches, staff, travel, recruiting and scholarships do. This might be a good idea for USC, the University of Miami, San Diego State or anywhere else sand is plentiful, but try selling it to the universities of Iowa, Michigan and Maine.

One other point: What happened to the student-athlete? With “sand volleyball” it apparently has given way to the stripper-athlete. I’m not a prude, but women, even college women, don’t want to be seen as sex symbols with bouncing boobs and a ball. And knowing how college guys think, I can now see a victory celebration including highly aroused college boys pouring Gatorade over the winning women’s “sand volleyball” team and licking it off their glistening bodies. I’m sure this will make every Mom and Dad proud that either their daughter is a player or their son is a fan.

Moving on. Jeremy Tyler, a 6-foot-11 high school junior, is leaving school to play professional basketball, in Europe. Tyler becomes the first U.S.-born player to leave high school early to play professionally overseas. He hopes to return in 2011 and be a high NBA draft pick. Tyler is blunt and honest when he says, “If you’re really focused on getting better, you go play pro somewhere.” That somewhere for Tyler, and any one who has the pro basketball dream, is only overseas now. The “home” door is closed because the NBA only allows a player to join the NBA after one year of college, or a year after they would have graduated from high school. The NBA is now thinking about making that two years.

Here’s the problem I have with this. Why is anyone who is talented enough to work in any profession precluded from working in that profession, especially when that profession is sports? Coming out of high school and right into the NBA certainly didn’t hurt Kobe or Lebron. We’re not talking about a youth health issue here, we’re talking about a talent issue. If an athlete thinks he can play professional basketball, and an owner agrees and is willing to paying him to do so, where is it morally or legally right to stop that athlete from doing so? I dislike hypocrisy and the NBA, in an effort to portray themselves as a supporter of college basketball and not raiding the kiddie talent pool, is covering its public relations rear end. The NBA is in it for the money, so are the kids, no matter how old they are, so let the market and the kids’ basketball talent determine when they get to play pro ball. Stop outsourcing the development of young American basketball talent.

And while I’m on a rant, this is probably is going to sound like I’m biting the hand that feeds me, but here goes. Being both an on-air, national, sports talk show host and the CEO of the company that owns the network, I look at business things pragmatically. That means I present and evaluate Sports Byline from a listener, a content and a business perspective. I care about giving fans/listeners quality programming that also makes financial sense. Sports Byline USA is now in it’s 21st year and was the first national, sports talk show and network. I’ve tried to make it an intelligent offering of interviews, discussions of sports issues and fan sports talk participation. My rant and issue is with the content aspect of that effort, particularly the athlete interviews. The help line in getting those athlete interviews is the school and pro team media personnel. Today, I find that generally speaking, college and university Sports Information Directors, as well as pro sports team P.R. Directors and media people have gotten lazier and lazier. They either no longer understand the definition of their jobs or they have no desire to be helpful with the media. And, they certainly don’t find out who in the media does their job well and try to work with them. I say this with the full understanding their jobs have become more challenging because of the amount of new media (Internet, blogs, etc.) demanding service.

My sensitivity to this is heightened because of my desire to give listeners an insightful, honest and intelligent interview with athletes, coaches, managers, owners and sports personalities, and at the same time provide our servicemen and women with the interviews they request. The American Forces Network has been a part of Sports Byline for 20 years and I’ve broadcast my show with the troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Germany on many occasions. Therefore, I take it personally when a college Sports Information Director or a pro sports media person makes little or no effort to help in securing a requested interview. I have yet to have an interviewee not enjoy the experience, and many have said, “It’s one of the best interviews I’ve ever had.” In addition, I invite most my guest interviewees to send a shout out to our troops. Many times on my broadcast visits to Iraq and Afghanistan the troops have personally told me how much they appreciate hearing the athletes and sports personalities words of support.

I’ve gone public, not to embarrass or berate the school or team media people, but to challenge them to care more and to do a better job of identifying those in the media who are trying to help fans better understand athletes and the issues they and sports face today. I’m sure the ones who do care about their jobs will take this to heart.

I’m Ron Barr.