[Wayne Maybury]

There is a big story here in the morning paper talking about hard times coming for pro sports. George Gillette has hired financial advisors to look into his empire (Montreal Canadiens in the NHL, Liverpool in European Soccer, his NASCAR team, ski hill operations in CO, etc, etc) He has a personal loan of $75 million at 19% and has another $300 million loan coming up for renegotiation (I'm sorry but I can't remember the details on that). Anyway here is a high flier that has been roaming the globe in his private jet but it now appears that he is up to his ying-yang in debt that he can no longer afford. He is probably not the only pro sports team owner in this situation but he is one of the first to go public with his financial problems.

The story went on to talk about the difficulties that the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, MLB, etc are all facing as the car companies and the financial institutions as well as businesses in general, are pulling back sponsorship dollars. In addition, much of the revenue generated in pro sports today is based on TV deals and luxury suites / private boxes. I would think that many companies are going to have a very difficult time justifying the support they have been giving to pro sports.

Wayne