TheSportMarket.biz and The Sport Market on TEAM 1040 and teamradio.ca rate and debate the Bulls and Bears of sport business. We are about the business of sport and all of those industries connected to the business of sport, from Sport Apparel to Sport Venues, Sport Broadcast to Sport Marketing and Sport Finance to Sport Movies.

Among the focal points or branches of TheSportMarket.biz are:

Sport Apparel

The fastest-growing segment in the clothing industry. The business of sport apparel spans not only replica and authentic jerseys and team wear, but also performance apparel (i.e. Under Armour, Firstar, Thermo Flow, etc.), fitness wear (i.e. Lululemon, Adidas, Nike, Reebok, etc.) and team-branded casual wear. It can also be interpreted to encompass sport shoe wear, along with equipment such as skates, skis and snowshoes.

Sport Apparel features on The Sport Market include:

- The Look of Sport

Sport Administration

Generally referring to the process of administering in any organization within the business of sport, sport administration entails the execution of business rather than policy-making and is often defined as the performance of executive duties at the level of franchises, leagues or other sports organizations. Sport administration (see also sport management) is typically streamlined into two major areas within the business of sport: sport operations (i.e. General Managers, Coaches, Scouts, etc.) and business operations (i.e. Team Presidents, Vice-Presidents of Marketing, Broadcast and Finance, etc.).

Sport Branding

In the business of sport, branding relates to the work done and the results obtained through defining the qualities associated with a trade name. It covers the series of management activities related to the creation, development and maintenance of a brand or brand name, including the specialized communications processes involved in positioning and protecting the characteristics or distinguishing qualities of the brand. It is often considered an integral part of sport marketing and sport communications and, in the best of organizations involved in the business of sport, it is the driving force behind both.

Sport Betting

The business surrounding the making of wagers on the outcome of a sports event has become the single biggest sector in the business of sport. More dollars are wagered on NFL football than on games in any North American professional sports league.

Sport Broadcast

Sport Broadcasting – and sport television in particular – is one of the primary (if not the primary) driver of the business of sport. It spans sport television, sport radio and web casting. While some leagues are still gate-driven (dependent primarily on ticket sales to make a profit), leagues such as the NFL receive more money from television rights than any other revenue stream.

Sport Broadcast features on The Sport Market include:

- The Ratings Report;

Sport Comedy

The rise of the Internet and the general expanded landscape for sport and sport business through all-sports television, radio and specialty web sites has ushered in a new growth area in the sports & entertainment sector – sport comedy. It is a new genre championed by the likes of Vancouver comedian Torben Rolfsen.

Sport Comedy features on The Sport Market include:

- The Rolfsen Report

Sport Communications

The broad range of communications activities designed to promote a franchise, league or other sports organization. It includes the dissemination of information to attract public interest, typically through mass media communications. Specific forms of sport communications include public relations, media relations, advertising, promotion and web-based communications.

Sport Finance

One of the key – albeit behind the scenes – executive positions for sport franchises and leagues is that of Chief Financial Officer or Vice-President Finance. It has taken on increased importance and interplay between sport operations and business operations in the salary cap era, giving rise to financial specialists known as "capologists". Most Sport Finance, however, refers to the management of revenues and expenses within a pro sport team, franchise or organization. Sport Finance can sometimes relate to the science, process or principles of financial management.

Sport Finance features on The Sport Market include:

- The Billion Dollar Club;
- For Sale.

Sport Foundations

The most progressive organizations in the business of sport make sport philanthropy a priority and most do it through Sport Foundations. Sport Foundations are not-for-profit societies formed with the express purpose of raising funds for a specific cause or donating funds to other organizations or causes. Foundations are often established by endowment, a founding grant or donation. In many cases, foundations are limited to distributing the proceeds made in any one fiscal year through earnings through interest or fund-raising. Many sport franchises or leagues or associations have established their own foundations.

Features related to Sport Foundations on The Sport Market include:

- Giving and Winning: The Sport Philanthropy Report presented by The Stadnyk Foundation

Sport Governance

While sport management typically refers to executive leadership in professional, Olympic or amateur sport organizations, Sport Governance relates more to governance by franchise boards. A key determinant of successful franchises is how ownership relates to management and that is typically done through their Boards of Directors.

Sport Law

Contract management – both with highly-paid players and with sponsorship and other commercial agreements, including broadcast contracts – has become a defining characteristic of the business of sport. For that reason, in addition to increasing importance placed on finance, marketing and salary cap professionals in recent years, lawyers and legal specialists have emerged as critical players in most professional sport organizations.

Sport Licensing

Sport licensing covers everything from the licensing of merchandising rights (i.e. Reebok having the rights to market and sell replica jerseys in the NHL) to the licensing of video games (EA Sports licensing the FIFA name and logo for FIFA 11, as an example). It entails the formal process of issuing a license, typically governing sales or marketing or branding rights. In the business of sport, licensing almost universally involves written permission or consent in the form of a license. The vast majority of Sport Licensing in North America is in the area of sport merchandising or apparel by manufacturers or professional leagues or collegiate institutions.

Sport Management

The act of managing, directing, supervising or conducting; or the group or body of people who manage an enterprise; in the sport industry, it usually refers to the senior employees and/or managing partners in a private sector enterprise or the senior employees or volunteers in a public or not-for-profit sector enterprise; in professional sports teams or franchises or leagues, it can refer to those managing the sports operations or business operations or those overseeing both.

Sport Marketing

Sport Marketing is the engine that drives the business of sport, especially when one considers that it covers those marketing efforts behind ticket sales, sponsorship sales, merchandising sales and broadcast sales. Sport Marketing relates to all activities related to the branding, positioning, promotion and distribution of products or services offered by a franchise, league or organization. Most consider the bread-and-butter of Sport Marketing to be ticket sales and marketing or "putting bums in seats". A sold-out stadium triggers revenue maximization in other areas such as sponsorships, concession and merchandise sales and broadcast rights.

Sport Marketing features on The Sport Market include:

- The Hot Ticket Tally presented by the Canucks Blue Line Priority Wait List;
- The Box Office Report;
- Commercial Rights: The Sponsorship Report;
- The Look of Sport.

Sport Mascots

Since the Famous Chicken (aka the San Diego Chicken) popularized the use of animal, insect or human form mascots at baseball games in the 1970s, they have become a staple of professional sport, in terms of game presentation, special events and even merchandising and licensing.

Sport Media

Sport Media typically includes newspapers, television, radio, magazine and their online applications. The branch of the business of sport has expanded significantly since 1995 and the rise of Internet, and with it, sport web sites and blogs.

Sport Media Relations

Sport Media Relations coves those aspects of Public Relations involving information-sharing and direct relationships with mass media representatives in television, radio, print and Internet.

Sport Medicine

Since its emergence as a specialized field of medicine in the early to mid-1980s, Sport Medicine has become an increasingly important aspect of the business of sport. The best pro teams invest heavily in sport medicine and science personnel, resources and technologies to not only help protect the huge investment they make in player assets but in order to create the conditions necessary for optimal performance. Sport Medicine spans the practice of and practitioners in sport surgery, sport psychology, sport nutrition, sport mechanics, sport therapy and other disciplines.

Sport Merchandising

Merchandising generally refers to the activities or processes involved in the comprehensive function of sales promotion, including everything from market research and the development of new products to advertising and selling. Yet in sport, it refers more specifically to the manufacture, distribution and marketing of sport apparel or other licensed goods.

Sport Merchandising features on The Sport Market include:

- The Look of Sport

Sport Movies

The first decade of the new millennium featured, for the first time, two different sport movies – Million Dollar Baby (2004) and The Blind Side(2010) -- which were nominated for and won Oscars at the Academy Awards, along with a series of other critically-acclaimed productions which achieved nominations and won awards at other competitions, including The Wrestler (2009). Another sport movie – The Fighter – is a lock to garner major nominations, including at the Oscars, and is part of the renewed interest in the genre this decade.

Sport Movie features on The Sport Market include:

- Movies of Sport.

Sport Music

Game presentation has become an art form at sports stadiums throughout North America and around the world and music has become a big part of it as a staple for fans attending games and events.

Sport Music features on The Sport Market include:

- Stadium Top-40

Sport Philanthropy

Sport philanthropy is a form of corporate philanthropy in which franchises, leagues or other sports organizations raise money for a specific cause or group of causes in the community. It often is promoted through the creation of a Foundation, an organization created for charitable purposes only. All charitable organizations are not-for-profit organizations (although not all not-for-profit organizations are charitable organizations). Charitable organizations can take the form of trusts, foundations, unincorporated associations or specifically-defined companies. Sport philanthropy is closely-associated with cause marketing, a form of marketing in which for-profit private businesses cooperate with non-profit organizations or charitable causes for mutual benefit. It is sometimes used to refer generally to the marketing of social or other charitable causes. Unlike direct corporate philanthropy or corporate giving, it does not necessarily involve tax-deductible donations (cause marketing is not contingent on the donation of cash). Most students and historians of cause-related marketing attribute its origins in the 1983 American Express campaign designed to raise funds and awareness for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in New York City. In the business of sport, sport philanthropy by franchises, leagues or other entities can involve direct cash contributions to the community, fund-raising initiatives engaging fans and players alike or even simply the use of a team's brand and media profile to promote a cause or charitable event.

Sport Philanthropy features on The Sport Market include:

- Giving and Winning: The Sport Philanthropy Report presented by The Stadnyk Foundation

Sport Politics

As pro sports teams and leagues have emerged as civic and even national symbols, in North America and around the world, so has the politics around them. Sport Politics affects the business of sport in everything from stadium financing to franchise relocation, and, of course, direct government subsidies or tax incentives to pro sports franchises or leagues.

Sport Public Relations

In general, the practice of PR covers those activities that induce the public to have an understanding for and goodwill toward a person, firm or institution and, in the sport sector, it is typically directed toward athletes, coaches, managers, franchises, leagues or associations. PR becomes a high-profile function within strong organizations which place a premium on it and the way they relate to their fans through the media.

Sport Publishing

Sport publishing is changing as quickly as the technology and web-based applications around it, but in the business of sport, it still refers largely to the publishing of sport-themed books.

Sport Science

See Sport Medicine.

Sport Sponsorship

In most sport organizations, Sport Sponsorship accounts for a significant percentage of revenues, often second only to ticketing in gate-driven businesses and third behind ticketing and broadcast in the most sophisticated of leagues which carry strong broadcast partnerships.

Sport Sponsorship features on The Sport Market include:

- Commercial Rights: The Sport Sponsorship Report

Sport Stadiums

The search for new revenue streams shifted 10 to 15 years ago to premium seating, including club seating, boxes and luxury suites. That made stadiums and stadium development an even more important part of the business of sport than it already was as the showcase for pro sports teams and leagues. This decade, the shift will turn to upgrades and renovations, technological features and retractable roofs.

Sport Stadium features on The Sport Market include:

- Stadiums of Sport.

Sport Technology

The most important technology to impact the business of sport began to make its mark in 1995: The Internet and the World Wide Web. OnLine business now pervades most transactions in professional sport. Yet Sport Technology also includes video board technology, mobile technology applications, "smart seats" and more.

Sport Television

Sport television is the primary distribution channel for the sports entertainment sector and is by far the primary driver of revenues for leagues such as the National Football League in the U.S. It is the way most fans "consume" professional sport, in some cases by a factor of 20:1 compared to in-arena attendance.

Sport Television features on The Sport Market include:

- The Ratings Report.

Sport Venues

See Sport Stadiums.