Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps: How the NFL Became the Most Successful Sports League in History [Hardcover]

Mark Yost (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2006

The NFL is the most successful professional sport. The league's secret to success is sound business practices like revenue sharing and a salary cap. These policies have created parity on the field and in the boardroom. Because of the collective approach of the league, a small-town team like the Green Bay Packers has just as much chance of getting into the playoffs--and succeeding financially--as big-market teams in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. But in 2006, a faction of entrepreneurial owners led by maverick Washington Redskins executive Dan Synder proposed changes to the league finance and revenue models that many fear will upset this near-perfect system. They are creating alternative revenue sources, such as stadium-naming rights, local sponsorships, radio and television deals, pre-game and post-game clubs. These owners are arguing that revenue they generate locally--outside of the normal NFL model--should be theirs to keep. Other owners worry this would dash the league's parity like Major League Baseball, where big-market teams like the New York Yankees flourish and small-market teams like the Milwaukee Brewers flounder. This critical battle for the future of America's most popular sport has opened a wide rift between owners. Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps offers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the league and examines the maverick owners whose ideas could have lasting repercussions for the players, owners, coaches, and ultimately the fans.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The National Football League generates tremendous profits for all its team owners. It didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't the result of serendipity. Yost, who covers the business of sports for the Wall Street Journal, offers a fascinating financial history of the league from its threadbare early years through the dark days of independently negotiated television contracts to the share-the-wealth concept championed by late commissioner Pete Rozelle, who may be the one individual most responsible for the sporting behemoth that occupies our autumns. Yost covers the battles over merchandising rights for NFL-licensed products, the successful courting of female fans, and the league's attempts to capitalize on the fantasy-football phenomenon. Nary a player's name is invoked, and Yost bypasses any comparisons of the three-four defense versus the four-three. This is about all the money the NFL makes and how it does it, and as such, it will fascinate virtually any NFL watcher as well as the folks with pocket protectors and an affinity for spreadsheets. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Mark Yost has worked in business and sports journalism for nearly 20 years. His bylines include The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, where he served as Detroit bureau chief.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing (October 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419526006
• ISBN-13: 978-1419526008
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #752,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Yost has worked in business and sports journalism for nearly 20 years. He began his career at the Dow Jones Newswire in New York and eventually became Detroit bureau chief, overseeing the wire service's automotive coverage. Yost also worked for the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal for five years, both in New York and Brussels. Today, Yost remains a regular contributor to the Journal's Leisure and Arts pages, where he writes primarily about the business and economics of sports, including NASCAR, the NFL, Major League Baseball, the World Series of Poker, and the Kentucky Derby. He has also written for the Travel pages of the New York Times, book reviews for the Philadelphia Inquirer, commentary for the American Spectator, and catalog copy for the J. Peterman Co.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good facts but not much fun, April 23, 2007

By 

Seoul Survivor (Korea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps: How the NFL Became the Most Successful Sports League in History (Hardcover)

This book serves as a functional primer for NFL fans eager to learn the history of the NFL from a business and organizational perspective. However, the author falls short of providing any sort of novel and intellectually-stimulating critical analysis of the league. The writing style is so formulaic and dry that it quickly grates on the reader. Bottom line: this book does great with recounting facts and providing a detailed overview of the NFL's history as a business, enough to make me glad I'd read it. But it wasn't a very enjoyable read.

As a diehard NFL fan, I was thrilled to find out about this book because I'd been looking for a book that 1) would explore the NFL history from a business and organizational perspective 2) would provide independent, critical analysis of the NFL and 3) would do so with intellectual flair, rigor, and creativity.

Having read the book, I now feel that I have an understanding and appreciation for the business and organizational history of the NFL. Yost does a good job highlighting the key business decisions and agreements that have shaped the NFL into the organization it is today, and weaving personal profiles of relevant managers, commissioners, and television producers.

He also has a knack for writing in easily digestible tidbits. Each chapter is broken down into smaller, clearly delineated sections, which helped keep the pace of the book moving forward.

These sections were important for me, because I found his writing style to be grating after a few chapters. He tends to write sections and paragraphs following a simple formula: a statement/claim in the first sentence is backed up by a recitation of evidence: either facts, multiple examples, or quotes attributed to relevant people.

Although this is a no-nonsense approach, and clearly demonstrates that the author doesn't make any wild, unsubstantiated claims, it got old and annoying for me quick.

It was a bit grating on the brain when he'd back up statements with language and quotes that read as if they were lifted straight from league or team press releases. For example, in a section describing league merchandising and the consolidation of official league clothing into a single license awarded to Reebok, the author writes (p. 130) "Reebok develops polo shirts for warmer days, light jackets and sweaters for fall-like weather, and thick parkas for late in the season. Even the NFL's bulky winter wear is more stylish today, and as well-branded."

Halfway through the book, I thought it was going to be entirely a book of celebratory worship. "Gee whiz, hooray for the amazing NFL and their genius decisions and incredibly rich history of brilliant commissioners." But the sole injection of criticism on the part of the author comes from his views on stadium financing. Chapter 9 seems to have been written by a different person, a Bizarro Yost able to find fault with his subject. He makes a convincing case that the NFL vastly overstates the economic benefit of stadium construction, ensuring that public stadium financing results in a net economic loss for the local community and its taxpayers.

In any case, I'd learned a lot about the league when I was done with the book. But I can't help but think that there are a lot of interesting stories about the league's past that weren't covered, perhaps because they put the league in a bad light, and Yost was weary of stirring skeletons too deep in the NFL closet. And the book was hampered by the author's dry, repetitive structure and writing style. I was glad to get the facts, I just wish it were a more fun and engaging read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creating Big Business from Sports, December 8, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps: How the NFL Became the Most Successful Sports League in History (Hardcover)

I wasn't around then, but from reading it seems to me that during World War II baseball was indeed America's pastime. Football was a distant relative, perhaps about where soccer is today. Now the World Series comes and goes, while every bar and restaurant has a Super Bowl party, and the supermarkets are loaded with Super Bowl displays of beer and snacks.

This book doesn't describe the sport or talk about the coaches. It's about the hard business facts of how the NFL has created a monopoly and built a business model around it for the overall good (that's financial good) of the league.

There are several surprising points: The NFL format appeals to the two prime target audiences of consumers: 18-49 year old males and FEMALES OF ALL AGES, FROM PRETEEN GIRLS TO MIDDLE-AGED MOMS. Really, that big a female audience?

ABC has lost Monday Night Football. It moved to ESPN. Did ABC lose out in the bidding wars? Guess who owns ABC - Disney. Guess who owns ESPN - Disney. Disney simply decided it could make more money moving it to ESPN.

Like I said, this book is about the business aspects, and they are not simple. This is big business, serious business, fascinating business.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Writer's Pedigree Shows Through, October 5, 2006

By 

J. B. Wood (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps: How the NFL Became the Most Successful Sports League in History (Hardcover)

Fascinating! A brilliantly written insight into all those things you always wondered about the business of the NFL. Already an accomplished writer, Yost's Wall Street pedigree shows through in every page. No spin. Just how it should be. Highly recommend, and a must read for anyone interested in the sports business.