FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday March 28, 2008


Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal
Releases Top 20 to Watch in Major League Baseball
Owners, Players and Executives Included in First Annual 20 to Watch List

Charlotte, NC (March 28) – Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal today unveiled its 2008 list of top 20 people to watch in Major League Baseball this season. The list is comprised of owners, players and key executives in the industry. The list which is in no particular order is below.

SportsBusiness Journal’s 20 to Watch
Dealmakers and game breakers to watch this MLB season

Dennis Mannion
Chief operating officer
Los Angeles Dodgers
After a bumpy start, Dodger owners Frank and Jamie McCourt are beginning to gain traction and pursue a very aggressive on- and off-field agenda for the club, including new rounds of renovations at Dodger Stadium. Mannion, most recently Baltimore Ravens senior vice president, will be the man foremost in charge of making the varied initiatives happen. Even-keeled and well-versed in a variety of areas including sales, new media, and facility operations, Mannion will be aided by former Boston Red Sox publicity impresario Dr. Charles Steinberg.

Marla Miller
Senior VP, special events
Major League Baseball
All eyes will be on New York and Yankee Stadium for this summer’s All-Star Game, with much of the event’s operation falling under Miller and her group. The scope, marketing opportunities and logistics of this year’s game are all significantly larger compared with previous years. The fanfest will expand to a full week, other promotional and hospitality events will be spread across the city, and ticket demand is already at a fever pitch with MLB sponsors and partners, the Yankees’ massive season ticket base, and the general public all angling for access.

Stuart Sternberg
Owner
Tampa Bay Rays
With the Florida Marlins finally in possession of a stadium deal and the Oakland A’s moving forward on Cisco Field, Sternberg’s Rays are the MLB club with the most unsettled ballpark situation. So Sternberg will spend this spring and summer trying to sell the public on a $450 million waterfront stadium plan that, combined with an aggressive urban redevelopment effort for the current Tropicana Field property, will go to voters as a referendum on the November ballot.

Frank Coonelly
President
Pittsburgh Pirates
After a string of 15 straight losing seasons, impatience among the dwindling Pirates fan base is higher than ever. But Coonelly, who earned a no-nonsense reputation working in MLB’s headquarters as chief labor counsel, has cleaned house in the Steel City and enters 2008 with a new general manager in Neil Huntington and new manager in John Russell. Buy-in among fans has not been immediate as ticket sales are essentially flat with last year. But an undeterred Coonelly is nonetheless vowing a new era in Pirates history.

Nolan Ryan
President
Texas Rangers
Another team stumbling through several disappointing seasons, both on and off the field, the Rangers turn to hall of famer Ryan, who brings a successful track record running the Class AAA Round Rock (Texas) Express and gives the team a higher cachet with the public. But what’s more interesting is that owner Tom Hicks, who is increasingly preoccupied by the Liverpool soccer team and the Glorypark development project around Rangers Ballpark, has given Ryan more power and authority than any other Rangers employee during his control of his club.

Crane Kenney
Chairman, Chicago Cubs
Senior VP, general counsel, Tribune Co.
A year ago, the roadmap appeared clear: billionaire Sam Zell would buy the Tribune Co. and quickly sell off the Cubs and its related assets, including Wrigley Field. The situation is not nearly so clear now, with the club still in Zell’s hands, the process toward a club sale proceeding on a slow, uncertain course, and the crusty, iconoclastic Zell considering several options, including selling the ballpark to the public sector and renaming the hallowed facility. Unrest is quickly building among the Cubs faithful, and it will be up to Kenney, a lawyer by trade, to show a sense of direction.

Jeff Wilpon
Chief operating officer
New York Mets
Nearly all of the New York press has fixated on the family transition of power within the New York Yankees from George Steinbrenner to sons Hank and Hal. But another, more seamless handoff is occurring in Queens as Mets owner Fred Wilpon increasingly hands the reins of the club to son Jeff. The younger Wilpon is taking a lead role on the ongoing development of Citi Field and sits on the board of the forthcoming MLB Network. More comfortable in public settings than his father, Jeff remains no pushover and is quickly growing assured in his heightened role.

Bill DeWitt III
President
St. Louis Cardinals
With Mark Lamping leaving to run the new Meadowlands football stadium, the Cardinals are more of a family affair than ever, with the 40-year-old son of team owner Bill Dewitt Jr. taking over control of the club’s day-to-day operations. More reserved and cerebral than Lamping, DeWitt III has played key roles in the development of Busch Stadium and adjacent Ballpark Village. But with the Cardinals coming off a 2007 full of missteps, DeWitt III will quickly need to show a calm, decisive hand.

Larry Baer
Executive vice president and chief operating officer
San Francisco Giants
The remaking and rebranding of the Giants falls on Baer after the end of the 15-year Barry Bonds era. The consensus is that it will be an uphill fight. The club is not considered a playoff contender, attendance is projected to be down from its usual lofty perch, and the sales lure of the 2007 All-Star Game is just a memory. Nearly every other Bay Area sports team is also undergoing lean times, so competitive pressures are not as high as they could be. But many industry eyes are on Baer as he seeks to sell a younger, more plucky version of the Giants.

Michael Weiner
General counsel
MLB Players Association
A fast-rising star within the players’ union, Weiner is at once brilliant, affable and presents a more humane face to the organization compared with the more confrontational aura surrounding senior union leaders Donald Fehr and Gene Orza. Weiner has counseled NHL players on salary arbitration cases and was eyed as a potential replacement last year for Ted Saskin to lead that union. But Weiner was not interested in the job, signaling strongly that he may one day take over for Fehr.

Joba Chamberlain
Pitcher
New York Yankees
There are lots of chiefs in the Yankees’ tent: both the Steinbrenner sons, President Randy Levine, Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost, and general manager Brian Cashman just to name a few. But Chamberlain arguably embodies the new Yankees era more than any other. Untouchable in trade talks as the Yankees finally commit to a youth movement, Chamberlain became a local folk hero after throwing just 24 regular-season innings. Look for Chamberlain to make another leap this year into one the club’s most popular players and highly sought-after endorsement personalities.

Ryan Howard
First baseman
Philadelphia Phillies
Given baseball’s intensifying efforts to reconnect with the African-American community, MLB would love for Howard to continue on his rapid rise into one of MLB’s truly elite players. Howard, however, had an up-and-down season last year and his once lighthearted demeanor darkened deeply at times. Now fresh off a record $10 million arbitration win, expectations will be through the roof for the young slugger. Exposure is already on the rise after an expanded endorsement deal with Adidas.

Doug Sellars
Executive producer; executive VP, production
FSN
Through its relationship with 14 MLB teams, Fox Sports Net televises more than 1,600 regular-season games each year. Sellars orchestrates that coverage, ensuring that production standards and quality remain consistent throughout FSN’s 16 regional sports networks. One of FSN’s key executives in managing its MLB relationship, Sellars has spent much of his time recently increasing FSN’s HD output, doubling the schedule for each of the past four years. This year, FSN plans to televise 1,000 games in HD.

Tim Scanlan
VP, event production
ESPN
ESPN is the television outlet of choice for most baseball fans, and no one determines the look, feel and presentation more than Scanlan, who has his hand in virtually every aspect of ESPN’s baseball productions. From story lines, to camera shots, from naming production and broadcast crews, to overseeing graphics, replays and budgets, Scanlan’s the man the top executives turn to when it comes to ESPN’s heavy MLB inventory. You’ll find him in ESPN’s production truck when he’s on game site or, as is most of the time, he’s in Bristol directing the action.

Future CEO
MLB Network
Perhaps the most sought after job in sports media today, MLB Network’s CEO will guide the channel through its planned Jan. 1, 2009, launch. The league hired Spencer Stuart to conduct the search, and the CEO will report to a board consisting of five MLB owners, two MLB executives and two media partners. The executive will need to have significant industry stature and experience, while also meshing with MLB’s often-insular corporate culture.

Dinn Mann
Executive VP, content
MLB Advanced Media
MLB.com is seeking to differentiate itself more from its competition through the rollout of many new content initiatives this season, including a daily whiparound video show, and Mann is quarterbacking many of them. The former newspaper veteran has also been at the front lines for the creation and subsequent revision of new credentialing policies that place limits on multimedia content developed by news outlets at MLB ballparks.

Mark Attanasio
Owner
Milwaukee Brewers
Can the Brewers become the next mid-market team to make a leap like Detroit or Colorado into baseball’s big time? Expectations are huge this season in Milwaukee with a long-awaited youth movement now possibly poised to pay dividends with a postseason appearance. Payroll will surpass $80 million, a franchise record, more than triple the 2004 level, and attendance is similarly targeted to challenge high-water marks for Miller Park. Attanasio hoped to make The Jump last year before injuries helped derail a promising season.

Stan Kasten
President
Washington Nationals
Years of drama ranging from the club’s relocation to stadium construction battles are now done with the opening of Nationals Park. But Kasten’s honeymoon will be short as impatient fans will look for the newfound stability to translate quickly into economic might and wins. Off the field, the selling will need to remain in high gear as offseason ticket activity did not reflect the excitement typically associated with a new stadium opening.

Chris Tully
Senior VP, broadcasting
Major League Baseball
The man who along with executive vice president Tim Brosnan did much of the tough negotiating last year on the Extra Innings and MLB Network distribution contracts, as well as the package of network deals in 2006, is now a top candidate to be chief operating officer for the forthcoming league-owned network.

Chris Koch
CEO
New Era
MLB’s official cap company doubled in size over the early part of this decade by relying on a fashion sense unmatched in licensed sports apparel. With the fashion business slowing, New Era must refit. Koch forecasts single-digit growth domestically and double digits overseas. New Era will add stores in Berlin and Manchester this spring, bringing its total to seven. Majestic Athletic, MLB’s uniform rights holder, is another relatively small, family-owned business that was sold to VF last year. Is the same inevitable for New Era? “We have no plans to sell,” Koch said. “Every week I get asked, but we’ve built something special and I don’t want play golf every day.

About SportsBusiness Journal

SportsBusiness Journal is published by Street & Smith’s Sports Group, a division of American City Business Journals, which is a unit of Advance Publications. Along with sister-publication SportsBusiness Daily, SportsBusiness Journal has become a must read for sports business executives.

Contact: Josh Benedek
212.981.5126
Josh_Benedek@dkcnews.com