Darren Rovell from CNBC joins the show to talk about his career as the go-to guy in sports business on TV and to look at the impending financial doom for many of our favorite sports. Uplifting, right?

We start with his reaction to the Jim Cramer v. Jon Stewart ‘feud’ and wonder if people in the offices at CNBC walk around saying ‘what the heck happened?’ Rovell thinks that people on the outside have made more out of this situation than those inside and the meetings at CNBC aren’t as devious as perhaps people are trying to portray them.

For those who don’t know, Rovell has been around for nearly 10 years, but is only 30. Yep, he’s younger than us, and probably younger than you. (Makes you feel great about your dinky podcast, doesn’t it? Oh, where was I?) Rovell worked at ESPN before leaving in 2006 (wow) to go to CNBC, but whenever needed ESPN still calls on him. Is he the only guy out there doing what he does, or is he just the best?

We ask what it’s like going from being the nerdy financial guy at a cool sports network to being the cool sports guy at a nerdy financial network. How do the networks -- and his role -- differ?

Rovell has written books, ran the NY Marathon, placed fifth in the World Championship of Watermelon Seed Spitting and played against the Washington Generals. Looking at his career, what has been his favorite story to work on? After talking about his book on Gatorade and his documentary on Nike, Rovell lets us in at a look at his motivation.

1. “I work every day because I feel like someone is going to steal my job. One emotion that drives me when I wake up in the morning is that someone is going to steal my job -- every day. And the other emotion is -- I just love this. I think that kinda drives me.”
   

We shift gears to talk about March Madness. with CBS inline to bring in more than $450 million dollars this month, is the NCAA tournament the most lucrative event in sports? Is it fair to compare a month-long event to something like the Super Bowl, which is just one day?

While TV revenue seems strong, there is growing concern around the country that some venues won’t be sold out and some fans of teams won’t be able to make cross-country trips to watch their teams play. Simply put, how can people afford this? We also discuss the financial viability of going to the NCAAs and going to a Bowl game. Which is more lucrative for a school, and at what point does a school break even and start to make money off these trips?

We shift from college to the NBA to ask Rovell about the ‘bailout’ given to the NBA. I’ve been on a two-week rant about this topic, stating that teams should fail if they’re going to fail and if the league can’t support failing franchises, they should contract them. But Rovell is the guy to ask, and he explains what our emailers have explained -- the NBA is not actually that bad an investment for the banks.

We do address the notion that regardless of bailout money, people aren’t going to games. Even corporations aren’t using their boxes or stocking them with food. Rovell thinks that the NBA is too focused on the game and not focused enough on the ‘event’ nature of the game. In other words,  if your team stinks, you won’t want to go. There are no ancillary reasons to go to an NBA arena anymore (great atmosphere, cool halftime shows, etc).

And Rovell drops a bomb explaining that owners will soon have to change the way they look at patrons as revenue streams, going so far as to suggest they’ll have to amend the architecture of their arenas and that the day of the luxury box may be nearing its end. Jerry Jones won’t be happy.

1. “The stadium is going to change. They’re going to blow up these skyboxes and change these things. Even the Staples Center president told me they’re thinking about figuring out how to blow up a couple of suites and blow out the walls so they can do something that makes a little bit more sense than what is now something that is days of old.
   

1. “Those teams that will not change the architecture of their stadium, and will say, ‘ah this will eventually come around,’ are going to be screwed. That’s pretty crazy, and it’s a lot for me to watch, because in some way, I’m trying to figure out how the Mets and the Yankees and the Cowboys and obviously the Giants/Jets...how they’re going to do it. This is crazy.”
   

He tells us about a bar in one of the Cowboys’ luxury suites that is line with crocodile skin. Rovell asks, “do you think anyone in corporate America will be caught dead in that thing? And that wasn’t even the most high-end.”

Talking about how both the NBA and NFL will face financial problems when some teams won’t be able to fill their stadiums and lavish luxury boxes, we spin toward a sport that has no safety in numbers -- golf. Rovell spoke with PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem about the future of the PGA so we ask Rovell how the Tour is going to survive when so much money in event sponsorship and TV advertising is so closely tethered to the financial and automotive industries. Because of where their money has always come from, regardless of Tiger Woods, will golf suffer the most?

Last, why the heck doesn’t a guy like Rovell have a wikipedia page? What is it with wikipedia these days?

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