Theory in Action

This example about Staples Center in Los Angeles presents the relationship between sports, business and media.

With the construction of a stadium or arena comes the opportunity for massive advertising and other revenue streams. “The Staples Center in Los Angeles is home to three major pro sports franchises: the Lakers, Clippers and Kings. The owner of the Staples, Philip Anschutz “is able to command top prices for advertising and sponsorships [because of this]” (7). Office supplies chain, Staples has naming rights and other major sponsors include Southwest Airlines, Miller Brewing, Toyota Motor, Verizon Communications and Carl’s Jr.

While Staples Center in unique because of the three franchises, it also has a media deal with Fox Sports, which owns a stake in the arena. Because of this, almost all of the teams home games are broadcast on a Fox Sports cable network.

Fox Sports Network (FSN) has been able to build itself around solid regional coverage. When FOX purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1998, it did not do it to build a contender and win a World Series. Instead, it used the Dodgers to start what would become a series of regional networks by broadcasting most of the team’s games on FSN West. FSN West grew to FSN West 2 and then networks began sprouting across the country. Today, Fox Sports reaches from coast to coast with 25 networks such as FSN Northwest, North, Rocky Moutain, South, Southwest, Detroit, Chicago, Ohio and Pittsburgh (4).

However effective FOX is with regional coverage, it lags behind ESPN on a national scale. In college basketball, the Pacific Ten Conference along with the Atlantic Coast Conference have contracts with FOX. Unfortunately, the Pac-10 is for the most part exclusively on FOX, while the ACC also has a contract with ESPN. Aside from being on the west coast, the FOX Sports deal is one of the reasons why the Pac-10 does not receive as much acclaim as the other schools. As a recent article in the Arizona Star states:

'“The best part about the FSN deal is that the network is not ESPN; the Pac-10 does not have to fight as many conferences for time slots, and does not have to budge from its traditional game days and times...The worst part about the FSN deal is that it is not ESPN...."In recruiting kids nowadays, all they want to talk about is exposure," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "They want to play on television. That's big. For us, on the East Coast, sometimes they don't get to see us" (4).

While the Fox Sports TV deal with the Pac-10 could have an effect on recruiting, it also has its advantages because it does not have to stray from a given schedule due to extensive quantities of games. Since ESPN has contracts with many different conferences, it has to schedule games at strange times during the week. Conversely, most Pac-10 games fall on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Recently, the Pac-10 agreed to extend the contract of its postseason basketball tournament at Staples Center through 2012. Since FOX is contracted with the Pac-10, and also owns the tournament, it has exclusive rights televise the first three rounds on FSN. It only makes sense that FOX would also hold the tournament in the very building that it partially owns. (2)