P T Barnum of circus fame was all about entertaining the masses. This is not necessarily done with high brow entertainment, think MTV. Gene Simmons was an ex high school teacher, he started KISS a music group with outrageous make up. I have no idea if they had any music talent, I doubt it, but he is not teaching high school any more....
In my lifetime a lot of promoters have taken a form of entertainment that was languishing and turned it into a real industry. NASCAR, wrestling, and pro football come to mind. Pro football was a near amateur sport in the 1930s and 40s. It did not have near the following of baseball. Finally Pete Rozell re did the gate split and draft so the weaker teams had money to compete. Bingo, a new genre was born.
Wrestling is another former low brow sort of sport that became really big time. Yes the 40s and 50s may have been some golden age of wrestling but no one was making money like they are now.
Managerial accounting and the study of business ought to be about innovation, sadly it is not. I have proposed making DESIGN a major part of an MBA program.
For example. would you have thought of American Gladiators? They guy that did has made a lot of money.
How about the Monster Truck circuit? Yeah those ridiculous 'trucks' that look like giant tonka toys and sort of jump around inside arena well when they are not rolling over.
NASCAR was a bunch of good ole boys racing their cars on weekends, yes there was factory participation but finally someone got serious after Bill France got things going and REALLY made it big time. By the way a lot of race car teams are now looking for sponsors amid the recession.
Honda has abandoned Formula I and their $300 M budget for it.
But what will be the next big show after wrestling, gladiators, roller derby? Figure that out and you will not need to worry about working for someone else.....
Or follow the trends. I bought a bicycle so I could cycle from work to grad school to finish my MBA at UT, the bicycle was the only way, too far to walk, no where to park. And so following the trends,
Trek and Cannondale both started in the US in the 1970s, now they are large corporations.
But none of this is possible without budgets and computing break even and target profit, our next areas of study in this managerial accounting.
Not long ago the Dallas Cowboys were for sale for $50M Tom Landry seemingly had lost his touch and talked about a five year re building program. Ross Perot had the money but replied, show me how it makes money. Ross had no vision, Jerry Jones however did have vision. Today one could not buy the Cowboys for $50M. Jones hired a new coach, won the super bowl and never looked back. While team fortunes have declined since Jimmy Smith left as coach, the new stadium just opened and will host the 2011 Super Bowl.
A few years back I read of an enterprising gal that attached small diamonds to the back pocket of some 'designer jeans.' They quickly sold out at what was then a high price of $65 a copy. Now that is innovation.
Billy Mays achieved success for his clients by creating a whole new genre of advertising on cable tv.
Well see what I mean by innovation?
"Jones hired a new coach, won the super bowl and never looked back"
Alas, Jones might have done well (or got lucky) with Jimmy Smith but with his revolving door on the coach's office it causes one to wonder how much sunk costs have gone into each coaching change....
Posted by: Tina | July 02, 2009 at 10:52 PM
No question that the magice wsa Jimmy SMith, not Jerry Jones, yet living here for the last two years it is amazing that he talked Arlington into, gasp, $350 M taxpayer dollars for his new stadium.
YOu had to see him on TV when he came back from snagging Super Bowl 2011, you would think he had permanently elevated the entire economy of DFW for years rather than two weeks.
Posted by: Dennis Elam | July 03, 2009 at 07:22 AM
Elam-
I agree with you, saying that it would be amazing that they would get a new stadium com 2011. It would think probably take more that the 350 m tax payer dollars for this stadium.
Posted by: Chris Sims | July 05, 2009 at 01:06 PM
OH the stadium costs MORE than one BILLION DOLLARS.
Three hundred fifty million is just what Arlington put up.
Posted by: Dennis Elam | July 05, 2009 at 05:31 PM