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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?

I know, I thought it was called SPEED Channel…

Sports Business Journal has an interesting article regarding the potential of NASCAR creating its own cable network after its television contracts end with FOX, TNT and ESPN/ABC in 2014.  It is an interesting concept since there is an existing cable network (News Corporation-owned SPEED) that largely does the same thing. 

Lots can change in the next few years, but given NASCAR’s faltering attendance and ratings in the past two years (FOX’s NASCAR ratings are down at least 10% year-over-year so far with two races left in its package), one wonders if NASCAR’s decline in popularity is a temporary hiccup or a sign of a larger problem.  The downturn in the economy can explain away many of the empty seats at various tracks as fans, who often drive many miles to see their favorite racer, choose to stay at home to save money.  However, as Michael Hiestand, the TV critic for USA Today, has said, and I am paraphrasing here, staying away from the race track is one thing, but it doesn’t cost someone to sit on the couch at watch the race. 

Another concern is the lack of sponsors this year.  Again, some of this is understandable given the economic environment, but there have been signs that some long time sponsors, such as Kodak, think that big ticket sponsorships of racing teams, which cost somewhere between $15-25 million, are no longer worth it.  This has led to lay-offs and mergers among the race teams and cars (some in the Sprint Cup Series, and many more in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series) running without sponsors on the hoods and back panels.  The lack of sponsorships has also affected the TV networks who have been challenged in selling ads and have been cutting production costs (notice a lack of blimp shots recently?).  Finally, consider the future of General Motors and Chrysler.  In short, the “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” strategy of Detroit is under serious challenge.

In short, NASCAR has some problems it needs to solve in the near term.  How it solves those problems will help determine whether the channel becomes a reality.