The constant pressure on the bottom line, with players wanting more dollars, and owners wanting more dollars, and no one sure where they will come from, will only grow more urgent, as sport looks under any rug for more money. It's getting to the point now where I don't know where any other income can come. Everything is already tapped out. Fragile television ratings, battered by the glut of channels a viewer has before him from his couch, remote control in hand, make future large hikes in TV money uncertain. Ticket prices will continue to go up.
Nothing is surer.
But the powers are wary of fan tolerance. More and more, corporate money will be called upon to be financial salvation, from stadium naming rights to a bazaar of advertisement at the ballpark. Owners are pushing us to find more places and more ways to exhibit that. The proliferation of sports on television, radio and the Internet. Growing every day, at such a pace media officials are dazzled, while administrators are cautious.