(this isn't a law related post)
They are. Just ask the General Manager of the NBA's Portland Trailblazers. At least he thinks so, according to a quote in the March 27, 2006 edition of Sports Illustrated. The G.M. laments the instant news, the spin, the knuckleheads that write about his team.
My question to him is, "are you that stupid?" In the early 1990's the management of professional sports teams (and college athletic directors)lamented the growth of sports talk on radio. Many complained that the medium was loaded with lunatics. They didn't embrace radio. It was only recently (since 2003 or so) that sports teams saw the value (and money) in radio. Heck, even former Braves President Stan Kasten has radio time now.
After radio came the internet. If you think management hated sports talk radio, you know what the reaction was to the web. Forums, fansites (like gatocoutnry.com), and "suck" sites had these guys buying Tums by the truckload. Did they embrace it? No. Only after a half decade are you seeing them buy in. Tiger Woods breaks news on his own site now.
Well, it looks like blogs are the latest whipping boy. Rather than again embracing it and in true business form controlling/manipulating it to a team or player's benefit, it's more crying. Will it take these guys five years to realize that blogs are not going away? In this Google Generation, everything is instant.
Will these guys ever get it?
For a guy who manages a half billion dollar business, he seems to be lacking vision and smarts about the future.
