Brand NFL:
Making & Selling America’s Favorite Sport
by Michael Oriard
GV954.3 .O75 2007
New Book Island, 2nd floor
With football season in full swing, the Packers still doing well, and the BCS bound to make a lot of people mad yet again, I figure that we should highlight a new addition to the collection about the pigskin game.
Oriard, currently a distinguished professor at Oregon State University, takes on the task of profiling one of the most popular American professional sports and its commercialization over the years. Oriard brings an interesting perspective, as he played for the Kansas City Chiefs in the early 1970s. The book’s jacket highlights the fact that professional football brings in over six billion dollars in revenue a year as an industry – not too shabby. The heart of the book centers around the marketing of the NFL and whether or not the branding that took place in the late 1980s actually hurt the sport and its previously noncommerical appeal. One little tidbit from the book: he value of the Green Bay Packers increased to $911 million in 2006, making them one of the most valuable in the League.
