The past four decades have seen a revolution in the world of sports that is "almost as dramatic as the change in any other discipline in our society," said Mark McCormack, chair and chief executive of International Management Group (IMG), during the year's first Gordon Grand Lecture.
And soon, even more exciting innovations will hit the field, McCormack told the audience gathered for his Nov. 9 talk at the Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1954.
McCormack himself played a major role in shaping the modern sports scene. An amateur golfer who once entertained hopes of turning pro, the alumnus was looking for a way to "use my legal education to stay in the field of golf" when he offered to handle the legal and financial affairs of fellow links-lover Arnold Palmer, who had just joined the professional circuit. This was something, the alumnus noted, that "no one was doing in the early 1960s." Shortly thereafter, McCormack signed golfers Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus -- then virtual unknowns. As the golfers' success became his success, McCormack said, "I decided to try to do my own grand slam in other sports."
Today IMG is the world's largest athlete representation firm and licensing agency, with an international clientele that includes Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, Joe Montana and Wayne Gretzky, among other top athletes. The conglomerate promotes and manages many international athletic events, including Wimbledon, and owns the world's largest distributor of sports television rights. The Gordon Grand Fellowship, which promotes dialogue between leading business figures and Yale students, brought McCormack to campus so he could share this expertise in the business of sports with the graduate and undergraduate population.
In his talk, "The Evolution of Sports -- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," McCormack noted that not so long ago, sports broadcasts were limited to several hours on Saturday, and newspapers devoted only a few pages to athletic events. "Even those were mostly local and regional sports," he said. "There was virtually no coverage from one country to the next." Furthermore, some sports that are very popular today, then garnered little attention and respect, he added.
As illustration, McCormack described golf pro Brian Barnes' experience at the Italian Open about 25 years ago, when golf was regarded as "literally nothing in Europe." On the 14th green, Barnes found a spectator standing in a direct line between his ball and the hole and gestured for the man to move. When the man repeatedly refused, Barnes asked a nearby policeman for assistance. After a "long, animated conversation in Italian" with the spectator, the policeman informed Barnes that he'd decided the man didn't have to move. "Barnes said, 'Can I ask why?'" recalled McCormack. "And the policeman said, 'He paid to get in here; you didn't.'"
Today, by contrast, some tournaments offer golfers high fees just for showing up, noted McCormack, and the rewards for winning have skyrocketed. This year alone, for example, Tiger Woods won over $6 million -- "more money than Jack Nicklaus won in his entire career," he said.
Product endorsement has also become more lucrative for athletes over the years, said McCormack. In 1960, Arnold Palmer (then a leading money-winner with $60,000) had a "global contract" for $5,400 a year to promote Wilson sports equipment. "That contract had a clause that said any time he endorsed any other product, he only could do it if, in the endorsement, it mentioned Wilson golf clubs," he recalled.
"The money [sports figures earn] has obviously changed immensely," said McCormack, pointing out that this has put pressure on today's athletes to make maximum dollars as quickly as possible, since their careers have a "limited earning curve." The push to compete financially has also eroded the comraderie that athletes once enjoyed, the alumnus contends. "Because of big money, it has become very professional, and in many ways, very, very cold."
Turning to the future of athletics, McCormack said, "I see no end to the talent evolution in any sport." While some argue that today's athletes cannot compare to legendary sports figures, he asserted, "Today's stars and tomorrow's stars will bury yesterday's stars in any sport you want to pick." This is due partly to improvements in training and partly to today's superior equipment, he added.
In the years to come, sports will become "more and more global," predicted the alumnus. "The World Series of baseball in the 21st century is going to be something that is contended between the Japanese, the Taiwanese, the Cubans and the Americans. It will be a true world series." Similarly, it is an "absolute certainty" that the National Football League will soon have franchises throughout the world, he proclaimed.
Among the biggest issues looming on the sports horizon is how best to use emerging technologies, noted McCormack. "The Internet challenge is obviously a huge one," he said. "The challenge is to have it be compatible with, rather than to conflict with, your broadcast partners."
Another important technology will be digital television, which "will enable the viewer to be his own director" by allowing the user to follow local players or teams at international competitions. "This will enhance the value of 'tele-visual' rights from territory to territory," said McCormack.
In addition, he noted, "There is technology in existence now that enables you to put signage on a television screen that doesn't exist at the venue itself. What this will do is increase the commercial opportunities for the event organizers. They'll be able to put a patch on a player's sleeve technologically before too long."
Looking at which sports will rise in popularity in the future, McCormack predicted tomorrow's favorites will have certain "key ingredients" -- they will be Olympic sports (so the networks can recoup the money they bid for broadcasting the Games by covering related competitions); they will be visually interesting on television (yacht-racing and cross-country skiing aren't contenders, he notes); they will be cheap to televise; and they will be both cheap to play and "good for your body."
McCormack's top candidates for the "sports of the future" are volleyball, water sports, bicycling and "the real longshot, the sport of dancing," he said, noting that the latter has already been adopted as an Olympic sport. "I believe that dancing is going to become the figure skating of the 21st century."
Asked if, after all his years on the business side of sports, he is still a fan, McCormack answered: "I am passionate about sports. I get this great vicarious thrill from sports. ... People ask me, 'When are you going to retire?' And I say, 'People retire to do what I do every day. I can play golf with Tiger Woods, play tennis with Monica Seles....' So, I say, 'As long as I'm lucid I'll still be here.'"
-- By LuAnn Bishop
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