The Masters — a tradition unlike any other — started Thursday. I’m a casual golf fan at best, but have been intrigued by all the chatter surrounding Tiger Woods in the run up to the first tee time.

Not just the “will he win?” questions, which are dominating the sports talk. I’m more interested in whether he’ll win given the reportedly radical reinvention of his game in recent months.

The world’s former No. 1 golfer, a fixture of major tournament leaderboards for 15 years, is overhauling his swing. He’s retained a new coach. He’s apparently even bought a new home (dubbed the “slickest bachelor pad in human history” in this somewhat breathless account), all in the wake, of course, of the highly publicized implosion of his marriage.

Whether or not Woods is finished as a dominant golfer is an open question, and this story at Slate makes the interesting statistical case that he’s not. As I write this, he’s even par for the tournament, 10 strokes back from leader Rory McIlroy.

What really intrigues me is Woods’ willingness to radically overhaul his game by revamping his swing. It’s a huge gamble. It reminds me of Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The Baltimore Blast are headed to the Major Indoor Soccer League championships this year for the sixth time in nine years.

To celebrate, the Blast are throwing a party downtown on Thursday so visitors and those on their lunch break can mingle with the players and join in. The celebration will be at noon at Hopkins Plaza on Charles and Baltimore streets. There will be music, free food and Blast paraphernalia, as well as the chance to win tickets to the championship game.

As for the game itself, Baltimore will play against the Milwaukee Wave at First Mariner Arena on Friday. The game will be at 7:35 p.m. and tickets range from $16 to $30.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

They’re all featured in this blog post, thanks to a variety of interesting business news developments Tuesday.

Nonprofit employment grew 2 percent in 2009, compared to a statewide drop in total employment of 3.2 percent, according to “Nonprofits by the Numbers,” an annual report published by Maryland Nonprofits, a trade group that advocates for nonprofit organizations.

Over the period from 2004-2009, nonprofit employment grew by 9.5 percent while total employment shrank 2.1 percent, according to the report. Nonprofits in Maryland employ 255,408 people or 10.6 percent of the state’s work force, and account for 10 percent of all wages paid statewide, up from 9.5 percent of the work force and 8.6 percent of wages in 2004.

Click here if you’d like to see the report.

Meanwhile, just in time for Easter, Just Born Inc., a Bethlehem, Pa.-based confectionary company that makes the yellow, pink, lavender, blue and white chick- and bunny-shaped marshmallow candy called Peeps, has launched an online store, www.peepsandcompany.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The Steelers play the Ravens this Saturday and the on-field rivalry between the teams has spilled over to the fans and has started to spur friendly bets on the outcome.

On Thursday, the airports and Airmalls of the two cities — Pittsburgh International Airport and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport — joined the fray.

According to a statement announcing the wager:

“So, what’s at stake in this competition? If Pittsburgh wins the football game, the airport and AIRMALL directors at BWI must wear a Pittsburgh player’s jersey and eat a traditional Pittsburgh steak salad for lunch while waving a Terrible Towel. If Baltimore is victorious, the airport and AIRMALL directors at PIT must don Baltimore’s team attire while dining on a famous Maryland crab cake.  The losers will have to wear the opposing team’s gear the Tuesday after the game on January 18, 2011.”

The airport bet comes on the heels of one between religious leaders in both cities. Catholic Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore and Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh are wagering that the loser will donate to the Catholic Charities in the other’s diocese or archdiocese. The loser also agrees to wear the other team’s colors and cheer whoever wins through the Super Bowl.

Personally, I’m guessing BWI and the Baltimore Archdiocese might be seeing a little more black and gold after this weekend. Any other friendly wagers out there going on?

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Under Armour defeated Nike in the BCS title game Monday night.

That’s one storyline playing out since Auburn University vanquished the University of Oregon, 22-19, for the NCAA college football championship.

To locals, the backstory is pretty well known, but many sports fans nationally may not have been aware of Baltimore-based Under Armour’s rivalry with athletic shoe and apparel giant Nike.

I started covering Under Armour a bit in 2005, right around the time the company was thinking of going public (they executed a well-received IPO that November, raising about $120 million). No one at Under Armour at that time would speak on the record of any rivalry with the Swoosh — because the company was on an SEC-mandated quiet period, and by that point many of Under Armour’s top executives, including CEO Kevin Plank, were no longer making themselves very accessible to the local business media.

But, in conversations at the time with industry analysts and market watchers, it seemed to be all anyone could talk about. I remember one local attorney, over lunch in Fells Point, remarking that, IPO or no, he expected one day soon to see “the Nike Death Star” hovering over Under Armour’s Tide Point campus, ready to buy the upstart.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

University of Maryland, Baltimore County economics professor Dennis Coates wrote a guest post Monday for the popular Freakonomics blog at the New York Times’ website to explain why losing out on the World Cup is a big win for the U.S. and Baltimore.

His reason? Something called “the winner’s curse,” when a prize of uncertain value is sought by a large number of bidders, which leads to overvaluing said prize.

Coates is a respected voice in sports business circles and has been critical of publicly financed construction of sports stadiums, questioning the economic impact of the facilities.

As he writes:

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Competitive softball player Dale Zwack says in today’s story that finding a good team sponsor is getting harder these days.

In my interview with him he estimated that his team RPM/Junk Yard Dog’s upcoming week-long trip to Florida for two tournaments will put a $6,000 to $8,000 dent in the team’s travel budget.

And that’s with trying to cut corners by renting three small houses for the week to fit roughly 15 people instead of paying for a nightly hotel room. But Zwack said he’s seen some that will go to any lengths to make a tournament.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

After dropping MASN, the Ravens have ended the mystery after two weeks of who will carry the team’s television shows that include Purple Passion and the John Harbaugh Show.

The team on Friday announced that WBAL Plus and Comcast SportsNet will be airing all Ravens television programming, a move that gives the team a broader reach and a foot in the door in the Washington market.

Last year in an exclusive interview with The Daily Record, Ravens President Dick Cass said he’d like to see the team get more exposure in Maryland counties that were arguably split between Ravens and Redskins fans. Namely, Prince George’s and Frederick counties and even parts of Montgomery County.

Looks like this is one way to make that happen and then some (considering Comcast’s reach is broader than just the Washington Metro Area).

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

In case you haven’t seen it, the National Sports Collectors Convention at the Baltimore Convention Center, which I wrote about on Tuesday,  had a little visitor. For the third year in a row FBI investigators used the industry’s largest annual event to further their investigation into claims of fraud, counterfeiting and shill bidding.

I stopped by the convention center Friday afternoon to check out how business was going for dealers and to see if the FBI dampened interest at all.

In a nutshell, the response was “FB-what?” None of the attendees I talked to had heard of the years-long investigation into the hobby industry (I’ll admit, neither had I until I saw the news story) and just about every booth I passed had at least three or four people sifting through products. Bill Huggins, of Huggins & Scott Auctions in Silver Spring, said business has been steady and that he’d bought and sold several select items already that day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The news from market research company NPD Group Inc. sure makes Under Armour’s latest earnings report look even better.

According to the Port Washington, N.Y.-based company, the worldwide sports market (apparel and equipment sales) declined 4 percent in the U.S. last year. In Japan, sales declined 5 percent.

Worldwide, the trend is showing a stronger demand for “sports use” products — footwear, equipment, etc. — than “sports style” products. And if you’re watching your spending, that makes sense — you don’t want to give up playing your sport, so replacing necessities like old shoes and equipment is a must. But you can live without the new pair of workout leggings this season.

Lastly, here’s the good news — demand is expected to go up in 2010, NPD says. The group is forecasting a sales increase of 1 percent worldwide.

“We have just ended the 2010 World Cup and we know that from past tournament years this is a key driver of sales in the football market and in turn that will help to push the overall sport market back into positive territory,” Renaud Vaschalde, NPD global sports industry analyst, said in a statement.

The World Cup is certainly a driver for apparel sales, as I wrote about in my retail story, “Soccer means business” in June. And let’s not forget the Winter Olympics held this year too. But what about 2011? With this slow and steady recovery, will 2011 — without a major, worldwide sporting event — look bad in comparison?

Thank goodness for the Summer Olympics in 2012, huh?

Powered by Bookmarkify™