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Tuesday Tidbits

By Mark

There have been a number of articles and blog posts worthy of your time and attention in the last couple of days so here are a few of them:

Danica Patrick's win at the Japan Indy 300 on Sunday has transformed her from the Anna Kournikova of motor racing - all beauty, no wins - into a champion. Forbes and my friend Darren Rovell weigh in on the impact on her endorsement potential (all good as you might expect) and Darren catches up with Danica for a one on one.

Interesting article in the New York Times about the continuing tension between bloggers and the teams they attempt to cover on a daily basis and the important question of who owns the games being covered.

The Times strikes again with an article about the owner of Kentucky Derby contender Big Brown, a syndicated partnership modeled on a hedge fund which its principal owner hopes will help him raise as much as $100 million to invest in thoroughbreds. The Times article makes it sound as if this has never been tried before. It has. Back in the go-go years of the early 1980s, syndications along this line were all the rage on Wall Street and along shed row - they petered out with the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and I'm not sure that any of them turned out to be a financial success for anyone except perhaps the promoters and their attorneys.

The Wall Street Journal brings us a story about a different sort of syndication entering the sports world. This time it's a public company only the promoters won't say what the money raised will be used to do. It's called a SPAC, a special purpose acquisition company, and there are plenty of them coming public in the last few months. Most have the housing crisis as their reason for existence but this one intends to pursue sports acquisition, specifically teams in major professional leagues and perhaps Nascar. It's an interesting approach and it gives Andrew Murstein, the man behind the company and the owner of a taxi financing empire in New York City, a $216 million warchest to go hunting.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on April 22, 2008 (boomark / email).