Here’s a stat that might surprise you: Which sport controls nearly 20 percent of the Businessweek/ESPN The Magazine Power 100, which was recently released online?
If you guessed professional curling, you’d be wrong ... and something of a moron, actually.
It’s motorsports, and there’s quite a bit of spread in who made it and who didn’t.
NASCAR CEO Brian France hit the list at No. 6 — notably behind the commissioners of the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (no mention of Teresa) made it at No. 23, and Roger Penske clicked in at No. 54, two spots ahead of Jeff Gordon and three spots ahead of F-1 despot Bernie Ecclestone.
Did I write despot? I meant czar. Sorry.
Jack Roush was No. 62, followed by Fenway Sports Group and Roush Fenway Racing co-owner John Henry at 65. Tony Stewart checked in at No. 74 and Bruton Smith wound up at No. 84.
There’s been no report that Bruton will take his No. 84 ranking elsewhere (possibly to U.S. News and World Report?) if he’s not given an immediate pass to No. 5, ahead of France, but stay tuned. It could happen.
Joe Gibbs is No. 93, and Lesa France Kennedy was in at No. 98.
There are several with indirect ties to motorsports on the list, topped by Budweiser marketing man Tony Ponturo at No. 20.
On the TV side, Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox, is at No. 10, which seems kind of low. David Hill, the man behind Fox’s NASCAR television programming is No. 14, and Ed Goren, the producer for all of Fox Sports, is at No. 49.
Several ESPN types made the list, including George Bodenheimer, the network’s boss (No. 4); John Skipper (36) and John Walsh (66). Turner’s David Levy made the list at No. 38, and Chase Carey of DIRECTV was at No. 55.
Rankings of this nature are fairly subjective. Businessweek and ESPN The Magazine polled 20 influential sporting figures to come up with this one.
But still, to have 20 of the 100 have either direct or indirect ties to motorsports is outstanding.
Earnhardt was the fifth athlete named, behind Tiger Woods (No. 2), Peyton Manning (No. 13), David Beckham (No. 17) and LeBron James (No. 19). The rest of the top 22 were either CEOs or owners.
Among the active athletes on the list, motorsports ranked behind only the NBA in numbers (the basketball league had four players, motorsports three). Baseball and football had three athletes each, while golf, tennis, soccer, skateboarding and cycling had one each. For those of you scoring at home, that’s 16.7 percent for motorsports.
Again, that’s not bad.
Some conclusions: this list was weighted heavily toward American sports, as is acceptable for a U.S. magazine. Still, it was sort of liberating to see Bernie Ecclestone come in behind two NASCAR drivers, the CEO of NASCAR, a car owner and a gaggle of advertising/marketing and TV types.
Ah, Bernie, is there no end to the ignominious erosion of your power base? The combined shenanigans with the U.S. Grand Prix finally caught up, and it’s a good bet that BE has decided once more that the U.S. is a bad place for his brand of arrogance to play well.
One glaring omission to this list is NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick (I would have thought he’d be in the 30s at least). A list like this that features Penske, Roush and Gibbs but not Hendrick is suspect, to be sure. Not that the other three aren’t powerful in their own right, but none of the three is the most powerful team owner in NASCAR. That’s Hendrick.
Ponturo’s high ranking is evidence that Bud’s purse strings are still among the richest in all of sport, not just motorsports. It will be interesting to see, now that Dale, Jr. is off the Bud wagon and sipping at the Pepsico dispenser if that changes for next year.
All in all, good news for motorsports. Here’s to a banner 2008, where we can hopefully move beyond the 20-percent mark and annex a quarter of the list.