Creating an Empire: ESPN - The No-Holds-Barred Story of Power, Ego, Money, and Vision That Transformed a Culture [Hardcover]

Stuart Evey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 2004

ESPN: Creating an Empire tells the full story of ESPN's origins, of make-or-break decisions that were made on a seemingly daily basis, and involved a cast of characters including Howard Cosell, Ted Turner, Roone Arledge, Don King, and Peter Ueberroth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Evey, founding chairman of the famous sports network, recounts his experiences as the cutthroat businessman central to the creation of what would become one of cable TV's most profitable and watched channels. He begins his memoir—the publication of which coincides with ESPN's 25th anniversary—by describing his relationship with his reclusive, eccentric, very wealthy boss, George Getty (of Getty Oil), and how that played into the Getty company's decision to put Evey at the helm of the burgeoning network. The narrative dashes back and forth between Getty's home in England, the oil firm's holdings in Mexico and Liberia, and, finally, to ESPN's broadcast home of Bristol, Conn. Less an analysis of ESPN's place in programming history than an egotistical blow-by-blow account of big business dealings, Evey's book barely illuminates the personalities behind the network itself (with a few brief exceptions) or the philosophy behind its success. Rather, it breathlessly extols the virtues of Evey's globe-trotting, big-check–signing bosses and adds excess drama to the stresses behind corporate mergers and acquisitions negotiated on Hawaii's beaches. In fact, Evey spends so much time detailing the various backstabbings and tough-guy business decisions he insists were necessary to the station's success, that when his tale ends with him being brought low by alcoholism and divorce, it doesn't inspire much empathy.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

ESPN has certainly had an odd history. Created out of nothing by the former communications director of the New England Whalers, funded by Getty Oil, overseen by a Getty Oil V.P. (Evey), the network was an idea so out-of-left-field that lots of people figured it wouldn't work. "Get it straight," Evey writes, "ESPN had no precedent." And, for quite a while, it looked as though it might have no real content, apart from peripheral sporting events that most people didn't watch anyway. Evey recounts the battles to win contracts to televise major events, and he introduces us to the personalities behind ESPN and to the enormous risks--financial and professional--required to launch a new television network. Not just a book about a sports network, it's also a story about the early days of cable television, when a lot of people still thought the idea of paying for programming was just plain loony. ESPN proved them wrong. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books; 1St Edition edition (August 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572436719
• ISBN-13: 978-1572436718
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #724,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars aka: my ego--love it or leave it, August 27, 2004

By 

Daniel Slone - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creating an Empire: ESPN - The No-Holds-Barred Story of Power, Ego, Money, and Vision That Transformed a Culture (Hardcover)

I was extremely disapointed in this book. I was expecting from the title and description an inside account of the founding of ESPN and perhaps some insight as to how/why it became as successful as it has. Instead, I was treated to nearly 300 pages of Stuart Evey massaging his ego and telling us all the wonderful things he accomplished. It seems that Mr. Evey's main accomplishments were hobnobing with enough rich and famous people to know who to call when he needed someone for a job. His position in the growth of Espn it turns out was just as the money man. ESPN was not his idea, and after the station started, it appears he had minimal creative input that he was able to tell us about. His most important function it seems with ESPN was firing Mr Rasmussen--the originator of the idea, the person who pitched the idea to Evey, the person who put up all the money he had to start the venture, and the person who had the foresight to lease time on the satelite that was ESPN's greatest asset as the beginning. Stuart Evey should get credit for convincing Getty to put up the money for ESPN at the beginning, but any credit for the growth of Espn into the giant it is today is far removed for him--despite what the book jacket might lead you to believe. My only recommendation of this book would be to someone who like the concept of People magazine--toss a lot of famous names around, dish a little dirt, but don't say anything in depth.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Never judge a book by its cover!, September 19, 2004

By 

rvrinsea "rvrinsea" (Seattle, Wa USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating an Empire: ESPN - The No-Holds-Barred Story of Power, Ego, Money, and Vision That Transformed a Culture (Hardcover)

One of the most misleading book titles and jacket blurbs I have ever encountered.

A disjointed first-person narrative that was in desperate need of a ghost writer and clearly was rushed to coincide with ESPN's 25th anniversary.

ESPN is merely a subtopic in this autobiography by Stuart Evey. Evey was the financier of ESPN while serving as an executive at Getty Oil. Evey's basic theme is that he is given little credit for the success of ESPN, although his book gives little reason why the reader should believe the contrary.

In new business formation, there are three primary roles: the entrepreneur (the person with the raw idea), the first CEO, and the financier (or venture capitalist.) ESPN is no exception. Evey, in his role as financier, discusses his role in obtaining the necessary financing from the Getty Board of Directors and in eventually negotiating the sale of ESPN to ABC. These sections of the book are quite good, and excellently illustrate how business deals are closed at a very high level.

Mr. Evey also discusses the termination of the original entrepreneur (Bill Rasmussen), once again a common occurance in new business formation. Rasmussen is an interesting character who has written his own tome on ESPN, that according to Evey is in substantive error concerning Evey's role. If you grew up in Springfield Massachusetts in the 1960's, Rasmussen was the back-up sportscaster on WWLP-TV. If you lived in Hartford Connecticut in the early 1970's Rasmussen was the voice of the Hartford Whalers. In any event, Rasmussen is dismissed by the Whalers and dreams up the one great idea, ESPN, but lacks the horsepower to fulfill his dream. Evey documents how Rasmussen ended up with about $1.2 million (and well below $1 million on an after-tax basis) on an idea that is now worth an estimated $16 billion. His explanation of why Rasmussen is dismissed, however, is quite shallow.

Finally, the founding CEO was Chet Simmons, who also has written a book about ESPN (that once again according to Evey, does not give him sufficient credit). Someone interested in new business formation, might do well to read all three books to understand the perspectives of the main actors in this case; their perspectives are very typical of those found in most new business start-ups.

With ESPN relegated to subtopic status, the majority of the book concerns Stuart Evey, and the opening 70 pages of the book are an excellent account of what it was like to be the "right hand man" of the eccentric, tragic, super wealthy Getty family.
However after 120 somewhat disjointed pages about ESPN, frequently with a shifting and inconsistent timeline, the book returns its focus to Stuart Evey, sort of. The next chapter, 13 pages, is a verbatim transcript of an interview (not conducted by the author)with ESPN announcer Jim Simpson, the purpose for the inclusion apparently being a two paragraph mention that Mr. Evey recruited him to ESPN.

The final chapter of the book concerns Mr. Evey's admittance to the Betty Ford Center for treatment of his alcoholism in apparently 1985. Mr. Evey implies that he had been dismissed from ESPN, Getty and Texaco (Getty was acquired by Texaco), but never explains why. He also notes that due to divorce settlements, income tax and his being over the age of 50 that his future was uncertain. The next page of the book is the epilogue set in 2004 that describes ESPN's present size! So absolutely missing is what happened in the intervening 19 years.

Consequently, the reader is left with a work that fails on two accounts: (1) a superficial understanding of the launch of ESPN and (2) a disjointed autobiography that is missing a large component of the author's life.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Creating An Wire Transfer -EVEY, September 15, 2004

By 

TMAC (Sierra Madre, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating an Empire: ESPN - The No-Holds-Barred Story of Power, Ego, Money, and Vision That Transformed a Culture (Hardcover)

This book has little to do with the history of ESPN. It is mostly Stuart Evey's historical account of his own carrer at Getty Oil, with a bit of nasty gossip thrown in. ESPN is emphasised in the title to capitalize on their 25th year aniversary. Evey was a company man for Getty, and not one of the entrepenuers that risked everything to create the all sports network. ESPN was Bill Rasmussen (who thought up the idea) and Chet Simmons (who put it all togeather and made it work). Evey was the guy that listened to Rasmussens pitch then figured out a way to screw him out of 85% of ESPN in exchange for $10 million dollars in seed money. Rasmussen, whos lease on a satelite expired in less than 30 days, figured 15% of something is better than 100% of nothing, so he took the deal. Evey didn't put up a dime of his own money. The extent of his creative contribution was hiring John Forsyth (I am still scratching my head on that choice?) to do a segment explaining how cable and satelites work. What a genius! I'm am sure it was one of the worst peices ESPN has ever produced. As a fan of ESPN, I am thankful Evey didn't have more control, otherwise the network would have never made it.