Recent Articles from Stewart Schley
Sports biz: Going out of biz
Ten years ago, I wrote the first of what would be many “SportsBiz” columns for ColoradoBiz, examining the marketing and pricing approach adopted by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment for a newcomer on the sports scene: the Colorado Mammoth.Tom Philand of Kroenke Sports explained his belief that with t...
Sports biz: Boulder’s not-so-secret agent man thrives on authenticity
Let’s get this out of the way now: Your name is not Johnny Alamo and my name is not Johnny Alamo and that is simply the unfairness we must accept. On the flipside, there is a real Johnny Alamo, who once made a living as a professional freestyle-skier, worked side-by-side with legendary filmmaker Warren Miller, […]
Sports biz: Data network answers Broncos’ need for speed in digital era
There’s a trendy tech move happening in professional football these days: Shotgun formations and cornerback blitzes are sharing the field with cloud-based video and ultra-fast Ethernet connections. It’s a measure driven by a familiar football hunger: the need for speed. The vast consumer embrace o...
State of the state: A&E
Arnie Grossman waited decades for his breakthrough Hollywood moment. It took him all of 35 seconds to get it. That’s how much time Grossman gave himself last November for a carefully rehearsed pitch, describing a movie concept to the agent representing actor Bruce Dern, whose career resurgence was sparked by his Oscar-nominated role as the […]
Sports biz: Improving on the old college try
Your kid just scored the goal, blasted the home run, swished the three, leapt over the linebacker, or chipped it in for birdie to win the tourney. Later than evening, as you burn a fresh DVD highlight reel, you can almost feel that $30k tuition melting away. But here comes George White, ex-college coach, with some advice: Stop right there!
Sports biz: Preseason baseball 2014
If the Rockies are able to compete in the National League West this year, the team will have to pull off some serious Billy Beane magic by overachieving from a payroll standpoint. That’s not because the Rox are skinflints. The projected 2014 payroll – around $90 million – would land the team near the midpoint […]
Sportsbiz: For this rising Colorado company, success is a sticky subject
If you’ve coached youth sports, chances are you’ve had this problem. You hustle to the practice field, hit “mute” on a chirping cell phone, unload a duffel bag full of equipment, greet your early-arrival players, and then realize: You don’t have a clue what to do next. Something like that happened to Greg Waldbaum. He’s […]
Sports biz: Where the fans are
It’s midway into the third quarter on a bright September afternoon at Sports Authority Field, and the Broncos are putting it to Michael Vick and the Eagles. Peyton Manning just capped an 80-yard drive with a touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas, and the crowd’s roar is infectious. Two 20-something women gyrate in a victory dance. A tall […]
Sports biz: Av-onomics: Looking up
For Colorado Avalanche fans, the best thing about the new National Hockey League season is that it’s just that: new. After closing the books on a forgettable year, the Avalanche returned to the ice with a legend in the coach’s box and a much-improved vibe among the fan base, if anecdotal chatter means anything. I […]
Sports biz: We are what we watch
In his introduction to the 2001 book, Fast Food Nation, The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, writer Eric Schlosser makes a gentle suggestion: Be an informed eater. “People should know what lies behind the shiny, happy surface of every fast food transaction,” Schlosser writes. “They should know what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns. […]
Sports biz: Going deep
The most famous touchdown pass in college football history arced over Miami’s Orange Bowl field for seconds before settling into the arms of the Boston College wide receiver Gerard Phelan in a breathtaking last-second finale. But the echo from Doug Flutie’s impossibly magnificent, 48-yard heave continues to resonate, and right now, is especially loud in […]
Sports biz: Fashion statement
Between the annual player draft in April and the first kickoff of the first pre-season game in August, there is a rare period of fallow time in which the National Football League – despite its around-the-clock television channel and daily blog entries posted by teams and the occasional early-look profiles written by sports beat reporters […]