Average MLB Ticket Prices

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With the MLB season in full swing and summer coming on, let’s take a look at ticket prices to go see a ball game. Continue reading →

Floyd Mayweather’s Contract Demands: Gummi Bears & DJ’s

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If you’re going to book Floyd Mayweather for a fight it takes more then a big payout to get him there. You also have to make sure his visit is up to his liking.

Contract details of his demands were leaked when his Australia fight was cancelled. Here is more from The Sydney Morning Herald. One can only imagine what he demanded and received for his Manny Pacquiao match up.

Mayweather’s rooms in Melbourne and Sydney had to be stocked with Cristal champagne, gummy bears, M&Ms, fresh fruit and juices.

the fighter demanded that both hotels have a barber skilled in cutting African-American hair available 24-hours-a-day. He also wanted a butler, chef, makeup artist and a women’s hairdresser on call.

Mayweather’s 31-person entourage – which included a Miss Universe winner, personal DJs, a mascot, agent, security guards, personal assistant and other assorted hangers-on – required a full floor of rooms.

Later in the evening, the nightclubs Studio 3 and The X-Studio would have to turn over the stage to Mayweather’s personal DJs – DJ Jaybling and DJ Efeezy – for the entire time he was there.

Any breach of these conditions would have been punishable by a steep fine.

NFL Top 50 Players Merchandise Sales

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1. Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks

2. Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos

3. Tom Brady, New England Patriots

4. Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers

5. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers

6. Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys

7. Richard Sherman, Seattle Seahawks

8. J.J. Watt, Houston Texans

9. Marshawn Lynch, Seattle Seahawks

10. Johnny Manziel, Cleveland Browns

11. Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys

12. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints

13. Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots

14. LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia Eagles

15. Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts

16. Clay Matthews, Green Bay Packers

17. Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys

18. Brandon Marshall, Chicago Bears

19. Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions

20. Odell Beckham Jr., New York Giants

Read the rest of the Top 50 via Yahoo Sports

NCAA & TV Ad Revenue from March Madness

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The NCAA Basketball Tournament kicks off in a few days. As America tunes in to watch the games the NCAA will watch their bank coffers fill up. How much does the NCAA make each year during tournament time. According to Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College, hundreds of millions:

    “The institution itself that’s based in Indianapolis, makes money primarily through television rights to the March Madness basketball tournament. They get somewhere in the neighborhood of $770 million dollars a year. That constitutes around 90% of all of the revenue that goes to the NCAA,”


Television stations are more then willing to pay that type of money to the NCAA for rights to air the games. Here is their ad revenue from 2013:

    Over the past decade (2004-2013), the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has triggered more than $6.88 billion of national TV ad spending from 269 different marketers. Ad revenue in 2013 was $1.15 billion, up 3.8 percent from the prior year.

2015 NFL Free Agency: $1.5 Billion in Contracts Signed by Players

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NFL free agency kicked off on Tuesday March 10th. Numerous players either stayed or left their teams in pursuit of greener pastures. How much in contracts were signed this past week? Sportrac.com has a system set up tracking these numbers and here is the breakdown from studying the signings.

– Over 100 free agents signed

– Average length of contracts is 3 years

– Total amount of all contracts signed (disclosed/undisclosed) tops over $1.5 Billion

– Total amount of guaranteed money NFL teams must pay is $634 Million. The top five contracts account for $170.9 Million of that.

NFL contracts almost never get fully paid out. Each year these contracts are reworked, players cut, retirement or clauses are invoked terminating the amounts paid. Guaranteed money is paid out in full barring any contract clauses not met.

How Much Money Goes Into March Madness Bracket Pools?

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Tis the season where millions of Americans take a gamble in starting to fill out their NCAA tournament brackets. Men and women will take out their wallets and throw down some money to enter in a pool with other in the hope they make some easy money in applying their college basketball knowledge. How much money do Americans spend during this time of year? It’s very hard to estimate since 90% of all NCAA tournament gambling is off the books. But lets take a look at some history to guage this sports investing event.

In 1999 there was a report issued by then President Bill Clinton:

National Gambling Impact Study Commission, formed by President Clinton, released a 1999 report citing surveys showing that well over 90 percent of all sports betting nationwide takes place off the books. If accurate, that would push the total wagered on the NCAAs across the country closer to $1 billion.

Fast forward to 2014 where more data can be evaluated yet is still a rough estimate, one sports investing website gave this estimate:

The site Pregame.com estimates that wagering on this year’s March Madness tournament will exceed $12 billion, more money than was riding on the Super Bowl. Of that, $3 billion will be put into office pools of tournament brackets.

Comparing those two estimates, NCAA Tournament betting has exploded 1100% in America. Good luck with your tournament pools this year.

H/T The Fiscal Times and BetFirm.com

Vegas Sets 2014 Sports Gambling Records

The numbers are in and sports investing broke records in 2014 for betting revenue. ESPN supplied the breakdown:

The state’s 187 sportsbooks won $227.04 million off of the $3.9 billion wagered on sports in 2014. Both amounts are all-time records, according to Nevada Gaming Control.

Football, per usual, carried the load. The sportsbooks won $113.73 million on college and pro football in 2014, a giant 40.73 percent increase from 2013. Overall, $1.74 billion was bet on football in 2014, $12 million more than in 2013. Nevada Gaming Control does not track pro and college football separately, but sportsbook managers estimate the NFL accounts for around 55-60 percent of their annual football handle. From September through December, the books are up $98.16 million on football.

In comparison, the books won $54.2 million on basketball and $21.2 million on baseball in 2014. Both numbers were down, 8.36 percent and 26.88 percent, respectively, from 2013.

MLB Spring Training Helps Players Pay Less Taxes

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While baseball purist fans rejoice in spring training opening up, so do the players not just for the game but also their paychecks. Spring training camps are located in Arizona and Florida which helps players pay less since they are legally working in those states. This helps cushion the tax blow they receive from the states they play in during the regular season.

Sean Packard, CPA, who is Director of Tax at OFS. He specializes in tax planning and the preparation of tax returns for pro athletes shared this tax benefit with Forbes.com:

Spring training is an opportunity for players to escape state income taxes on roughly 20% of their income. Professional athletes pay taxes in all states in which they play. This is known as the “jock tax.” Most states calculate a player’s jock tax based on the number of duty days spent inside the state divided by the total days a player works.

Unlike most sports, where preseason training occurs near the team’s home, spring training takes place in one of two states, Florida or Arizona. Florida does not have an income tax and while Arizona does, it does not begin taxing professional athletes until the beginning of their teams’ regular season. This means that duty days spent in the state prior to the season do not count as taxable days. Holding spring training in these two tax havens can save elite players hundreds of thousands of dollars in state income taxes.

Packard provides an example of how money a player can save just at spring training.

The portion of Santana’s salary allocable to spring training under the duty day calculation is $5.355 million. If the Mets held spring training in New York instead of Florida, this income would be allocated to New York and subject to their 8.82% income tax. But because the Florida (and Arizona) climate is more conducive to baseball in February, Santana will save $472,000 in state income taxes.

NCAA Merchandise Sales Helps College Students

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When The Ohio State football team hoisted their BCS football trophy in the air earlier this month, students back in Columbus also got a boost from merchandise sales. Here’s more from The Columbus Dispatch:

Winning the first national championship in the new playoff system is a gift that Ohio State University officials expect will keep giving — and one that ultimately will benefit students.

They expect a $3 million bump in royalties over last year from licensed merchandise sales, based on anticipated revenue of $17 million in royalties this year.

Just how is the merchandise money divided at the university?

For every dollar that goes into the licensing office, 55 cents goes to academic affairs, which handles scholarships, libraries, ongoing programs and the university’s 14 college units; 15 cents goes to the athletics department; 15 cents goes to the alumni association; and 15 cents goes to the student life program and its 1,000 student organizations.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Indiana Pacers Worth Hundreds of Millions

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Forbes magazine is stating that the Indiana Pacers has spiked in value over the last year and is now edging up to the “Billion Dollar” mark. Here is more in their report:

The value of the Indiana Pacers franchise skyrocketed by $355 million just since last year to $830 million, according to Forbes magazine. The Pacers rank 21st among the NBA’s 30 teams. The Los Angeles Lakers were first at $2.6 billion. In the magazine’s annual report on franchise values, posted Wednesday, reporter Kurt Badenhausen attributed the huge growth of the NBA to “a massive new $24 billion television contract, a nearly six-year bull market in equities creating tremendous wealth, and cheap credit.”

The Pacers new financial numbers are perplexing considering the deal they struck last year with the city of Indianapolis using taxpayer money to subsidize their operations.

The Pacers’ value also increased 74 percent and could renew questions about the Capital Improvement Board’s decision, less than a year ago, to use $160 million in tax money to cover operating costs and upgrades at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Pacers keep revenue from all fieldhouse events — basketball and non-basketball alike.

The CIB who negogiated the deal gets money from taxpayers:

The CIB gets its revenue primarily from hotel, food and beverage, and admissions taxes. The agency also collects money from rental fees, parking garage income, car rental taxes, cigarette taxes and Downtown income and sales taxes.

While most of the CIB’s revenue comes from Marion County, six neighboring counties — Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson and Shelby — also pitch in through a 1 percent food and beverage tax.

H/T Indianapolis Star