Every Town Is a Sports Town: Business Leadership at ESPN, from the Mailroom to the Boardroom

by George Bodenheimer, Donald T. Phillips

Overview

ESPN's rise is one of the most remarkable stories about business and sports in our time, and nobody can tell it better than George Bodenheimer.

It may be hard to believe, but not long ago, getting sports updates was difficult and frustrating. ESPN changed everything. George Bodenheimer knows. Initially hired to work in the mailroom, one of Bodenheimer's first jobs was to pick up sportscaster Dick Vitale at the Hartford airport and drive him to ESPN's main campus—a couple of trailers in a dirt parking lot. But as ESPN grew, so did George's status in the company. In fact, Bodenheimer played a major part in making ESPN a daily presence not just here, but all over the world. In this business leadership memoir—written with bestselling author Donald T. Phillips—Bodenheimer lays out ESPN's meteoric rise. This is a book for business readers and sports fans alike. A Best Business Book of 2015, Strategy Business

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455586097
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	05/05/2015
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

George Bodenheimer is an ESPN and cable industry pioneer and was the company's longest-tenured president, a position he held from 1998-2011, overseeing all multimedia sports assets of The Walt Disney Company from 2003-2011 and serving as co-chairman, Disney Media Networks from 2004-2011. He served as Executive Chairman of ESPN, Inc., from 2012-2014. Bodenheimer graduated from Denison University with a degree in economics. He is married with three children.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Two-Minute Interview 3

If You're a Sports Fan 7

All In 17

Roberto "Remember the" Alomar 26

"This Is a Sports Town" 37

Punch-Through Programming 48

Sunday Night Football 57

Hail Mary 68

Flood the Zone 75

Launching "The Deuce" 86

"Not So Fast, My Friend" 96

"Don't Ever Give Up" 105

The Olympics of Extreme Sports 115

Merging with Mickey 125

"Tell Me How You Did That, Again" 135

"The Works" 144

It's All About People 151

Make It a Priority 161

Secretariat Over Mantle? 170

Thirty-One F-Bombs 180

Saludos 190

Less Expensive than a Cup of Coffee 199

Wow 205

Season of the Fan 215

Al Michaels for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit 226

Everybody Can Be a Leader 235

Three Strikes 244

30 for 30 251

The Worldwide Leader in Sports 259

Thank You for Our Playground 269

The Best Is Yet to Be 282

Epilogue 291

Acknowledgments 293

Index 295

What People are Saying About This

Head Coach, Duke University Men's Basketball and USA Basketball Men's National Team - Mike Krzyzewski

"A wonderful story of how ESPN became number one and stayed there for three decades. Teamwork can work just as well in business as it does in sports."

Editorial Reviews

03/23/2015
In this lackluster corporate history, Bodenheimer, former CEO of ESPN, shares an insider’s account of the company’s early days and its climb to become the top sports network. Armed with an economics degree and a deep love of sports, Bodenheimer began in the mailroom. As ESPN flourished, so did he, beginning his rise through the ranks with successive moves to the Arlington, Tex.; Chicago; and Denver offices. In his telling, ESPN enjoyed plentiful advantages, from a company culture that treated staff members like family, to an eye for opportunity that led the network to begin regularly airing college basketball games and televising the NFL draft. Colorful on-air personalities like Chris Berman increased the channel’s visibility and helped define its brand as “fun.” Bodenheimer touches on all the highlights—the network’s acquisition by Disney, the evolution of the ESPY awards, securing rights to air the World Cup—but the writing falls rather flat. Those interested in the topic will find the details worth the effort, even if the prose doesn’t engage. Agent: Robert Barnett, Williams & Connolly. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"The book is more than worth the read even if you are not a sports fan, but perhaps want to understand what makes one of the most well-known brands in the world so successful."—Baseball Reflections

"[A] lively history of the company."—The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

"Inspiring! A word the best describes George Bodenheimer and ESPN. A culture of people, passion, and non-stop innovation made ESPN one of the biggest business success stories in American history. George's unique leadership style-believing everybody can be a leader and that it's all about people-is an invaluable lesson that has helped me both professionally and personally."

Good Morning America and proud ESPN alum - Robin Roberts

2015-03-20
An insider account of how and why a little cable company in Bristol, Connecticut, became "The Worldwide Leader in Sports." Hired in 1981 as ESPN employee No. 150, Bodenheimer started out delivering mail and driving on-air talent like Dick Vitale to the airport. By 1998, he was president of the company. Because his professional rise synchronizes almost perfectly with the astonishing growth of ESPN, this professional memoir serves not only as a management guide, but also as a broad-brush history of the company. From his early days as an account executive selling and marketing ESPN to affiliates in the Southwest ("…we'll carry it because…this is a sports town") to his last as the company's executive chairman, Bodenheimer helped feed the country's apparently bottomless appetite for sports, peddling the network's unprecedented 24/7 blend of event programming, journalism, and entertainment. From identifying a market for televising the likes of the America's Cup, the Indy Time Trials, the NFL Draft, and the World Series of Poker to packaging previously obscure sports like the X-Games to providing "punch-through" programming like the NFL on cable, ESPN got there first and, by staying true to its brand and mission, transformed itself into a multimedia, global behemoth. Although Bodenheimer confesses to a few of the company's miscalculations and mildly criticizes exactly two people, this relentlessly upbeat account consists largely of bouquets tossed to those responsible for the programming milestones, mentors and fellow executives, and various on-air talents whose reports contain a powerful source of social currency and whose catchphrases have become part of the national vocabulary. With the help of Phillips, Bodenheimer scatters management advice throughout—about branding, setting priorities, handling people—that convinces, if only because of the company's outstanding success. A breezy, bloodless take on a corporate story more colorfully recounted elsewhere.

Kirkus Reviews