Overview
It started, as most business deals do, with a handshake. In 1960, a Cleveland lawyer named Mark McCormack convinced a golfer named Arnold Palmer to sign with him. McCormack simply believed that the best athletes had more commercial value than they were being paid forāand he was right. Within a few years, he raised Palmerās annual income from $5,000 to $500,000, and forever changed the landscape of the sports industry, transforming it from a form of entertainment to a profitable and fully functioning system of its own.
āA remarkable sagaā¦filled with insights not only into sports, but also into human natureā (The Dallas Morning News), Players features landmark moments, including the multiyear battle to free Palmer from a bad deal with the Wilson Sporting Goods Company; the 1973 Wimbledon boycott, when eighty-one of the top tennis players in the world protested the suspension of Nikola Pilic; baseball pitcher Catfish Hunterās battle to become MLBās first free agent; and how NFL executives transformed pro football from a commercial dud to the greatest show on earth.
āAn entertaining, illuminating readā (New York Journal of Books), Players is a riveting, fly-on-the-wall account of the rise and creation of the modern sports world, and the people who made it happen. āNo part of the media and entertainment industry has seen a more substantial economic transformation than sportsā¦.A half-century tour spanning a variety of widely recognized and lesser-known sports figures and competitions that have played roles in the industryās developmentā¦.Players could not be more timelyā (The New York Times).
This book title, Players (How Sports Became a Business), ISBN: 9781476716961, by Matthew Futterman, published by Simon & Schuster (April 18, 2017) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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