Sports Most Important People

Throughout the history of sports, there have been important people and events that have had a major impact on the sport industry that can never or maybe have not been felt to their fullest yet. The list of people who have had an impact on the sport industry ranges from Billy Beane to Branch Rickey. And the important events that have impacted the sport industry range from sports illustrated being launch in 1954 to the re-integration of sport in 1945.

In my opinion, the top five most influential people in sport industry at as follows:

5. Robert Bowman. Robert Bowman is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Major League Baseball Advanced Media. Bowman's impact may not be felt for a long time, but right now he is leading the sport industry, specifically baseball into the future of television, which is Internet Protocol Television. In 2001, MLB planned live video streaming, which began the next year. This live video streaming was the first step into taking MLB into the future of television and the internet. Now, season packages can be bought and you can watch out of market games online through your computer, in the future you could watch them online on your television. But, the impact made is that Bob Bowman paved the way for MLB to head into the future, and it has spread on to other sports, CBS puts the march madness basketball games online through live video streaming, CSTV had pay per view football games through live video streaming and the World Cup plans on having live video streaming soccer games.

4. Curt Flood. On October 7th, 1969 the St. Louis Cardinals traded Curt Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies, but Flood did not want to play there due to their poor standings and their stadium. So, he forfeited a lucrative $100,000 contract by refusing the trade. Flood demanded to the commissioner that he become a free agent and challenged the old reserve clause that MLB had in place. On January 16th, 1970 Flood filed a $4.1 million dollar lawsuit against the then MLB Commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, saying that the reserve clause violated federal anti-trust laws. He would later on lose the case in the Supreme Court by a 5-3 count. By his case raised awareness about the reserve clause and gave the players an opportunity to become on unity. In 1970 the MLBPA was able to collective bargain for impartial arbitration which led to the Messersmith/McNally arbitration, and when the arbitrator, Peter Seitz ruled in favor of the players it created free agency in baseball. Flood took the ultimate sacrifice, his career, for something that he believed in, which gave future players a chance at a better way of life.

3. Roone Arledge. Roone Arledge was a television product for ABC during its rise in the 1960's, 70's and 80's. Arledge helped bring international sports to America; he also produced games to make the viewers closer to the action. He used things like unusual camera angles, hand held cameras and microphones on the field of play, these kinds of things are now a fixture in every game shown on television. In 1970, he and then NFL Commissioner, Pete Rozelle, convinced ABC to showing sports in primetime with Monday Night Football. Now, Monday Night Football has its on spot in American society, a fixture on Monday night, watched by many each week it is on. Roone Arledge's vision led to sporting events being shown in ways never imagined, and now it is his vision that helps connect fans to the team, players and organizations through the way a game is shown on television.

2. Pete Rozelle. Pete Rozelle was an NFL Commission for 29 years during 1960 and 1989. He obtained and antitrust exemption so that NFL teams could sell their broadcast rights at a collective unit, he introduced revenue sharing among teams and in 1963 he introduced NFL Properties, which was the first league-wide licensing effort. He worked with Roone Arledge to get Monday Night Football and he turned the Super Bowl into the greatest single event in sport. The latest Super Bowl drew a rating of 57.1, which means roughly 63 million people watched the Super Bowl. Rozelle has turned the NFL into arguably the biggest sport in America, and he did that through innovations like NFL Properties and broadcast rights deals.

1. Brady Rickey. Branch Rickey has the greatest impact on the sport industry and sports as a whole, his impact will never be fully estimated. He introduced the farm system in baseball, which is probably one of my favorite parts of baseball, seeing ball players develop through the minor leagues and seeing how they develop is important to me, especially since I'm an Oakland A's fan and their farm system is very important in their organization. The main thing he did, and the one thing that should and hopefully will never be forgotten was that he reintegrated baseball with the signing of Jackie Robinson in 1945. Not only did he reintegrate baseball, but he also picked the right player to do so. Rickey's impact can never fully be understood as long as integration in sports is going on, which will never go away, so he will have the biggest, longest lasting impact on sports.