Interview: Money & Sports
>> welcome back. fans of the 4-8 detroit lions are so unhappy, many have begun wearing paper bags over their heads to games. now they’re lashing out at team owner william clay ford and the ford motor company. one fan has taken it to a new level, selling his loyalty on ebay. in this week’s “money & sports,” we’re joined by mike buteau out of our atlanta newsroom. how much does a football fan’s loyalty cost?
>> initially, he thought it only cost a penny, that’s what the opening bid was but eventually he pocketed $286. he said he wasn’t looking to make a profit but happy to be rid of the detroit lions as his team.
>> what effect will the team’s play have on ford motor?
>> all season long, the ford family has been the butt of a lot of criticism. this team has had a terrible record since the team has been run by the ford company, or the ford family. matt millon remains in place. they’ve fired their coach. people are protesting their games. there was a message board on websites shut down because too many people were putting up negative comments. fans have been escorted out of ford field for holding signs up against ford. detroit newspapers are asking for suggestions for signs to be held up and one of them was “think ford last,” a playoff from their slogan so it’s not a good situation for detroit, the lions and the ford family.
>> not long ago, basketball fans could go to a game and hear themselves speak. not so easy anymore. commissioner stern wants to do something about this. what is the plan?
>> he was chatting on espn.com with fans and one fan suggested to him, if your games are so exciting and the product so exciting, why do you have to have music constantly blaring during the action. music is played during the play while it’s going on and david stern is talking to teams who will have silent nights, without music playing during the action. this will be a welcome change to a lot of people because as you know, when you go to sporting events, you can’t hear yourself speak because of all the music and everything else going on.
>> does this affect sponsorship agreements within the arena?
>> i spoke with the director of game operations with the atlanta hawks today and he said essentially this is not looking at for sponsorships. they’ll still do promotions and sponsorsships during the games but you won’t have music blaring as the ball is brought up court and guys are shooting three’s and there’s that going on. they’re going to shut off the music and see if the crowd makes noise.
>> manchester united fans stunned when the team failed to make the playoffs. the defeat could be a blow to the bottom line. how will that impact them financially?
>> there’s a number of things it will impact. right away, manchester united, the biggest thing with them the past year ago, was the purchase of the glazer family and they bought the team in hopes of increasing the revenue and profits by 50% over the next 10 years. this is a big blow not to have them in the final 16. it really affects their global appeal. the numbers range anywhere from they could lose about $26 million to upwards of $173 million.
>> you have more news in soccer.
>> today, the world cup draw came out and defending champion, brazil, was picked to play croatia in the first day of the match. the world cup draw came out. the u.s. got their pool. they’ll be with ghana, the czech republic and italy in a tough draw.
>> thank you very much. we’ll catch up on the latest world and national headlines. and our “world’s biggest mover” segment segment is ahead. we’ll look at the indian stock market , all coming up.
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Listen Market briefing ---Lori (slow)
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been able to reach agreement on jerome york being added to the g.m. board of directors. york would have represented kerkorian on the board. g.m. and tracinda say they expect to continue talks on this matter in the future. gold reached a 24-year high. investors bought the precious metal as an alternative to stocks, bonds and currencies. what’s fueling the rally in gold? hedge funds and large speculators have more than tripled net long positions since the end of july, bets that prices will increase. the move in gold came as the dollar rose versus the yen and euro but fell versus the british pound sterling. u.s. consumer confidence rose for a second month as lower gasoline prices left households with more money to spend during the holiday season. the university of michigan’s preliminary reading of consumer confidence for december came in at 88.7. treasuries fell in reaction -- checking on how stocks finished the day. stocks down for the week but really it was semiconductors that helped boost the market . deborah kostroun joins us from the new york stock exchange.
>> stocks were higher today, but lower for the week and leaders in the s&p 500 on the day, semiconductors, taking the lead. also, autos and utilities performing well. in fact, semiconductors, year to date, some of the best performers in the s&p 500 as a group. they’re up 14%. but this week, a little bit of a different story. semiconductors were the worst performers in the s&p 500. this was ahead of a lot of news coming out in the semiconductors. you had intel and texas instruments updates. also national semiconductor earnings. intel was higher on the day although their sales forecast disappointed investors. the bigger story that emerged was competition from a.m.d. intel’s chief financial officer, andy bryant, saying that advanced micro will take market share in hand-to-hand combat, forcing intel to cut prices, weighing on sales and speeding up introduction of new products for servers. a.m.d. was the biggest gainer on the s&p 500 on the day and the biggest gainer in the semiconductor index. consumer confidence rose again in december as lower gasoline prices gave people more money to spend on the holiday season. the big story today in crude oil and natural gas was the big turnaround we saw. natural gas started out, we hit a record but by the close of trading, it was lower. if you compare that to what was going on all day in the s&p energy index, energy stocks were lower all day today. what you did see, integrated oil, oil services and natural gas, they were lower all day today. taking a look at alltel, this is the largest rural telephone company, planning to spin off its landline business and buy back $3 billion from stock. looking at industrials, g.e. announcing it will increase its 2005 stock repurchase plan by $1 billion to $5 billion. i’m deborah kostroun at the new york stock exchange for bloomberg news.
>> thank you. and semiconductor stocks helped lead the nasdaq lower for a third day in four. robert gray has details on today’s nasdaq trading from the market site in times square.
>> late afternoon rally helped the nasdaq finish higher on friday as a measure of consumer sentiment, the university of michigan consumer sentiment index rose more than expected this month and as oil fell below $60 a barrel on the nymex and according to the director of nasdaq trading at standard morris harris, that is the sweet spot. we did see stocks rising after it fell below that level. gains on friday did not help the nasdaq higher for the week, ending its streak of gains at seven weeks, the longest advance since the fourth quarter of 1999. semiconductors helped lead the way on friday. we saw stocks rising almost 2% on the session during friday with hardware and internet stocks leading gains.
