AUDACITY: THE SPORTS BUSINESS CONSORTIUM
Sports Books
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At the Sports Business Consortium, we just don't read books, we review them.  Many sports-related books provide educational uplift while others fall short.  We reserve the right to recommend or reject a book based upon the following criteria: topic relevance; content; organization; narrative quality; length; and price.  In keeping with our late sixties and early seventies lingo, we'll ultimately conclude if a book is a worthy read by characterizing it as a "Read On" (like we used to say "Right On!") or "Read Off". 

Review for:
"Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN"
by James Andrew Miller & Tom Shales
Published by Little, Brown and Company
New York,  May 2011 (1st ed.)

June 15, 2011 (New York) The long-awaited book, "Those Guys Have All the Fun" is an interesting "read" at times, but contains too much superfluous information making the reading experience, at times, laborious.  The book is 745 pages of excerpted interviews with snippets of narration.

We learn that ESPN was "hatched" by the father and son duo, Bill and Scott Rasmussen, were driving to the Jersey Shore in August 1978.  A major traffic jam resutled in the two of them debating, discussing, and ultimately creating the template for an all-sports cable network.  After research, meetings, family investment, the purchase of a transponder, and the backing of a wealthy investor (Getty), the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESP) was born.