In more evidence of its size and scope, the recession continues to ravage professional sports — affecting everyone from Joe Sixpack fans to the players and owners themselves.

In February, we wrote “Now the Recession Has Hit the NFL” and “Bailout Culture Spreads to…Basketball?”  And in the months that have followed, the economics of the sports business have only gotten worse.   The mighty New York Yankees had to cut the prices of their seats behind home plate — by half!  $2500 tickets in the Yanks’ brand new stadium have been selling for $1200.  The Pittsburgh Pirates have turned to promotions worthy of Wal-mart or Dollar General — “Buc” Night, a play on the Pirate’s nickname in which tickets and concessions cost a single dollar.  On the NFL front, we saw rumors that the original owners of the Dallas Cowboys cancelled their season tickets, citing the costs.   (Hey, the new Cowboys stadium cost more than a billion dollars…Jerry Jones has bills to pay!)

But in a true sign of crisis, we see that the recession is starting to hit the players. Read the rest of this entry »

Dennis Gartman had a memorable quote in today’s Gartman Letter:  ”All economic information of any importance is initially anecdotal.”  He uses random factoids as diverse as Japanese dog food sales to the rental rate for homes on the Augusta golf course during the Masters as leading indicators for bigger-pictures stories to come.  We could not agree more with Mr. Gartman.  We at HS Dent have been using anecdotes to make our basic points about the effects of demographics on the economy for years.   Harry Dent has long used sales of Harley Davidson motorcycles as an example of the “male midlife crisis” in action in his public speeches.  Likewise, “Big Joe” Clark, a board member of the HS Dent Advisors Network, has used the downfall of Interstate Bakeries (maker of the iconic Twinkie) as a powerful example in his presentations.   Read the rest of this entry »