Bill Shea, one of the new sports business reporters at The Athletic, writes about how he first became interested in the business of sports.
Shea writes, “How did I get to this point?
“My passion for the business side of sports was born when I was in college in the early 1990s and somehow came into possession of the Feb. 28, 1974, issue of Rolling Stone magazine. The cover story was Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo coverage of Super Bowl VIII between the Miami Dolphins and the Minnesota Vikings. It’s kinetic, brilliant, theatrical writing that I’ve returned to over the years for inspiration and laughs, but what caught my attention as a college kid was the depth Thompson and another writer went into about free agency, salaries, Super Bowl TV commercial ad rates, profits and other business aspects of pro football.
“It was a new type of context for the touchdowns and fumbles.
“Sports business journalism was almost unheard of then and largely remained a niche topic for decades.”
Read more here.
