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A friend sent me the follow story from the folks at Minyanville that he caught on MSN Money.  It lists the eight sports team and two professional leagues that are most in danger financially and may be required to move or close up shop.  As with Top 10 lists, you could pretty much argue that there are others that belong on the list, such as the LPGA.  But it does bring up a number of interesting points that go to the interesection of public relations, government relations and sports.

In a good number of these cases, the teams are clamoring for new stadiums with government help — see the New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes, Sacramento Kings and potentially the Buffalo Bills.  New government funded arenas are controversial even in the best of times.  With state and local governments scrambling to keep the lights on, can these teams count on local governments to help keep them in the current market. Or, in the case of the Islanders and Kings, will they be moving to (or in the case of the Kings back to) Kansas City, a town with an largely empty arena?

By most counts, the WNBA has never made money and, if it did, it never made much.  The collapse of the Houston Comets this year was a black eye for the one women’s professional sports team leagues that has lasted for more than a few years.  If the NBA owners decide to pull the plug on the league or if a number of the teams go the way of the Comets, what does this say about whether the United States will ever be able to support professional women’s team leagues even after all of the successes of Title IX and women’s college team athletics.

A couple of years ago, CNBC ran an interesting documentary titled “NASCAR Gold,” trumpeting the league’s rise from a regional favorite to a national powerhouse.  Now, NASCAR even is in trouble with U.S. automakers in bankruptcy, declining sponsorships, lower attendance and shrinking television rations.  While you can blame the first two on the economy, as Michael Hiestand, the TV sports writer for USA Today, has said more than once, it doesn’t cost you much to sit on your couch and watch the race.  CNBC regognized this last week with a new documentary that looked at NASCAR’s troubles.  The thing that is even scarier for the association and the France family is that the situation will get worse before it gets better.  NASCAR.com wrote recently about whether there will be a future for the two feeder series — the Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series — with lots of cars running without sponsors and teams laying off crew and pinching pennies.  Is this a temporary retreat for NASCAR or has the NASCAR bubble popped — with sponsors and fans?