Friday Night Football
[Guest post by DRJ]
You know football has become a big dollar sport, with high-priced coaches, lucrative deals for stadium and practice facility naming rights, and televised match-ups, right?
“National appeal turning high school football into big business.
Although Friday nights remain sacred in Texas – no live telecasts or Web casts of high school football games are permitted – the state’s best teams are finding national exposure by waiting a day.
This week, two Texas high school football games will be shown on national TV on Saturday: Euless Trinity at Odessa Permian and Miami Northwestern vs. Southlake Carroll. Those games, to be televised live on FSN Southwest and ESPNU, respectively, are the latest signs that high school sports have become big business.”
There’s big bucks available to high schools from fees for naming rights, expense-paid trips, and TV revenue:
“Enter TITUS Sports Marketing of Dallas, which finds businesses eager to associate themselves with high school sports in football-crazy Texas. In 2004, it sold the naming rights to an East Texas high school football stadium to a health care company, a deal worth $1.2 million over 12 years, TITUS President Dave Stephenson said. It also sold the naming rights to the indoor practice facility at Southlake Carroll, which has won four state titles in the last five years and 80 of its last 81 games.
For the [Miami Northwestern vs. Southlake Carroll] Clash of Champions, Stephenson said his company is paying the travel costs for Miami Northwestern, including airfare, charter buses, hotel bills – even admission to The Sixth Floor Museum, the downtown Dallas attraction devoted to the JFK assassination.
***
Similar games exist elsewhere. Earlier this month in Ohio, Burger King sponsored a series of 11 games called the Kirk Herbstreit Ohio vs. USA Challenge. At least 13 of USA Today’s preseason top 25 teams will play in similar national events this season, with title sponsors including Nike, Dodge and State Farm. “I think this will be very common in five years,” Stephenson said.”
Burger King, Nike, Dodge, and State Farm — those aren’t the names that remind me of high school football. But I’m game.
— DRJ
Sports columists and bloggers predicted nationally televised high school games years ago, because of all the constant attention at the pro and college level. What’s more, football as a spectator sport is greatly enhanced by television–far more than any other sport.
Paul (5efd01) — 9/14/2007 @ 3:40 pmI was flipping through the channels last night and got to 6000 or so an nothing was on that was worth watching. Had I stumbled across a football game played by my alma mater I would have tuned in.
tyree (896af4) — 9/15/2007 @ 9:09 amNo connection to high school football, eh? Picture this then…
Sun just setting out near El Paso, and you’re in Marfa, TX, sitting on the tailgate of your honking new Dodge Hemi down about the 15 yard line, diving into that big ol’ bag of Burger King goodies you picked up earlier. And you think to yourself, Why couldn’t it have been Allstate as the sponsor? I could have very easily found a line built around ‘you’re in good hands.’
allan (642a19) — 9/15/2007 @ 11:00 amWhen schools use taxpayer money to build sports stadiums that they turn into profit making entertainment businesses, priorities get warped.
The school whips up enthusiasm for its sports with rallies and student promotions to increase ticket sales revenue. Administrators enlist ever more unpaid students to create ever bigger entertainment spectacles – and other school programs that do not generate revenue get pushed aside. That includes all sports other than football, basketball and volleyball (the ones where it is easy to charge admission).
Students in the big 3 or 4 sports become celebrities and get away with bad behavior that would get other students after school detention or suspension because the school cannot afford – in the money sense – to lose a key player for a key game. Other programs at the school end up having to be self supporting – marching band, pep bands – which are required to devote their free labor to supporting the sports machine have the band parents run constant fundraisers. The drama program, the soccer team, the track team, the dance team – even the cheerleaders – are made to earn their own way while the big 3 or 4 sports get a free ride.
Should public school priorities be set by how much money a school can make off of unpaid student labor? That is exactly what is happening and all the money goes back solely to the athletic program (not even the band or cheerleader groups that the school mandates to perform at the sports profit-making business).
High schools are making big bucks: ticket sales, food sales, clothing sales, and now adding stadium naming rights, advertising rights, even personal seat licenses and broadcast rights!
Districts are misleading their voters by promoting bond elections to increase funding for academics but then siphoning 1/3d or more off to create taxpayer funded for-profit sports entertainment businesses.
Some states have begun looking into the need for legislation over these issues. The National Association of State Boards of Education is calling for all school boards to carefully review and question the exploitation of unpaid students as we turn amateur sports into professional entertainment.
Anderson (2ad854) — 9/16/2007 @ 9:28 amOur local high school once played saturday afternoon games but now play friday night games ever since they got lights and a electtric scoreboard
krazy kagu (fa81b9) — 9/16/2007 @ 10:52 am