Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This self-glorifying piece of garbage seems like the kind of book that comes free when you pay to see the author speak about modern business. Problem is, with most of these types of books as a matter of fact, the people writing them have been out of business for several years and it shows.

I received this book for Christmas because my brother thought it was actually about ESPN. The other reviewers nailed it when they said ESPN is only used to sell the book. The early days of ESPN, the operation, were dry and lifeless in this presentation.

It's not that this is a terrible read, because Evey does have some interesting stories to tell. It's just that the title is completely false, and people expecting meaningful insight into ESPN won't get it here. This is not the history of ESPN, or even an in-depth look at its creation. It's the autobiography of Evey, pure and simple, and his ESPN dealings get the focus of about half the book. But even that section is just about HIS dealings, not the bigger picture. I'm going to give him two stars because some of this stuff is kind of interesting.

But I really don't like being conned, and (even though I just plunked down $1 for this at a used book sale) I was conned. I admit I wouldn't have looked twice at a book called "The Stuart Evey Story," but the big "ESPN" on the cover grabbed me.

Evey acknowledges that part of his success as an oil executive and resort developer was conning people a bit. Well, he's used the same method to sell his book. Don't be conned.

Silly me. In looking for the definitive history of ESPN, I somehow stumbed on this this effort: nothing more than a self-written vanity project by a long-retired executive with no journalism background and waaay too much time on his hands. Readers must endure droning tales of Stuart Evey's days as glorified gofer to a son of eccentric billionaire J. Paul Getty; pointless tales that have nothing to do with the founding of a network. Other reviewers summmed it up nicely, that Evey was nothing more than a well-placed conduit for funds from Getty Oil to ESPN's true creative founders... he provided nothing more and in this excreble effort mightly attempts to snatch much of the credit. Sorry, pal, you were there as an early observer, little more. (Oh, you hired Jim Simpson? Wow.) ESPN has risen to become an important player in the twenty years SINCE your departure. The whole effort is pathetic, really.

You'd be better off reading Michael Freeman's "ESPN: The Uncensored History." Freeman's book is extremely thoroughly researched and Evey comes off as quite a jerk. He thought because he brought the money to make it a go, it was HIS network (wrong) and he could make decisions without the input of Chet Simmons (also wrong). He also thought--again, because he brought the money--that he could take ALL the credit for ESPN (extremely wrong). He did occasionally have good, useful ideas but this is not a guy you would want to work with. Bill Rasmussen still can't stand to hear his name.

This is as mentioned an autobiography. For those who have read Sports Junkies Rejoice by Bill Rasmussen this gives another perspective on the founding of ESPN. Rasmussen's book is a little more technical and not as "action packed" but seems more informative. This book is filled with Evey's Ego and his justifications for kind of screwing over Rasmussen. Still it is good to see the other side. The thing is while Rasmussen had the idea, and Evey got the Getty money, the real success of the network came down to those who hosted and produced sportscenter, broadcast the events and marketed the network. ESPN did not really become a full fledged success until the 1990s. Really the network was still showing reruns of the 1960 TV series Home Run Derby in 1989. So while the founding is an interesting story it isn't until a majority of TV's got cable and ESPN got good sports contracts (the NFL and MLB) that ESPN became the giant that it is now.

Former ESPN Chairman Stuart Evey pulls

no punches and leaves no stone interned

in exposing the USFL, ESPN, Network

merger scene of the 1980's. He does have

several errors in here that Pro Fooball

fans will notice pretty much right away.

He says the AFL and NFL merged in 1972,

when the deal was hammered out on June

9th, 1966 and the AFC and NFC started play-

ing an interlocking schedule in 1970. Also,

he reads too much into Donald Trump's NJ

Generals temper tantrums. The language

can get kind of rough in this book too,

for those a sensitive nature. Good effort

though.

Biographies are my thing. I read this book with reservations, considering my mediocre-at-best interest in sports. I thought it may be the first bio I didn't finish. I'm pleased I gave it a shot because sports was secondary. Told well was the fascinating story of ESPN's beginnings, and of a gutsy Getty Oil executive who took a serious risk.