NBA's LA Lakers continue to fire on all cylinders

On the court this National Basketball Association regular season, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers continued their winning ways. Off the court, the drawing power of Bryant and the iconic Lakers brand was no less impressive.

That's why the defending champion Lakers top the first annual NBA Composite Power Rankings compiled for the 2009-'10 regular season by TheSportMarket.biz.

With appearances in the last two NBA Finals -- including last year's championship win over the Orlando Magic -- the Lakers are the best all-round professional basketball club on the planet on the strength of the composite power ranking which spans both basketball operations and business operations.

As is the case for the less-celebrated Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (http://thesportmarket.blogspot.com/2010/04/vancouver-canucks-1-in-nhl-composite.html), the Lakers hold the best on and off court results of any franchise in the NBA during the 2009-'10 regular season. Third on the floor through 82 regular season games -- with a winning percentage of .695 -- and first at the box office, the Lakers score an overall performance index of 2.

That puts them #1 among the NBA's 30 clubs in the composite power rankings, which combine final regular season standings (the best way to guage of basketball operations performance across all lines of the game: management, coaching, scouting, sport medical, science and training support and player development personnel) with regular season box office clout (the leading indicator of business operations performance, with sponsorship, merchandise and broadcast sales typically built on attendance and ticket prices).

Powered by 41 virtual sellouts at the Staples Center (averaging 18,997 fans per game) and an average ticket price of $93.25 which is in a class of its own in the NBA, the Lakers edge out the two teams they're most likely to face in the 2010 NBA Finals and western conference finals, respectively; the second-ranked Cleveland Cavaliers and third-ranked Phoenix Suns.

With superstar Lebron James at the helm, the Cavs parlay a league-leading .744 on-court winning percentage and a sixth-ranked estimated box office of over $1.15 million US per home game into an overall performance index of 3.5. Phoenix saw its sellout streak of three plus seasons end last October, but the resurgent Suns have finished strong on the floor under veteran Canadian Steve Nash (fifth overall with a .659 winning percentage) and seventh in the league at the box office, averaging $1.13 million US per game. The Suns' overall performance index is 6.

Dwight Howard and the Magic are seeded to face the Cavs in the eastern final after another solid regular season in which they were second in the conference and second in the league. Yet their home in a small central Florida theme park market means they have to settle for an average ticket price of $40.30 US that is eighth lowest in the NBA and a box office that at $704 K US is about a third of what the Lakers take in at every home game (especially when one considers what the titlehoders make on their "Nicholsons", their VIP courtside seats at the Staples Center).

A new and bigger Amway Center next year will help the Magic move up the overall rankings but the Lakers are clearly well-established as the current league leaders across all aspects of the business of basketball, with a heritage brand, a superstar in Bryant and a winning team...not to mention a home in the second biggest media and television market in North America.

The full NBA Composite Power Rankings for 2009-'10 are available at www.Facebook.com/TheSportMarket.

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Impact of Vancouver 2010 on U.S. television: Less watching TNT and FOX and more watching NBC

The NBA All-Star Game made the most of its venue opportunity and, with 108,713 at Cowboys Stadium last Sunday, set an all-time record for basketball game attendance.

The new $1.6 billion US stadium was as big a star in the proceedings as were Lebron James and Kobe Bryant. The buzz around the stadium and its capacity to set the attendance record heightened media coverage in the U.S. and sponsorship activation hype around the NBA's fan festival in Arlington, Texas.

Expect more of the Mark Cuban-inspired outdoor NBA All-Star games in 2013 and beyond at places like Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Reliant Stadium in Houston and University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Those are the positives. The downside for the 2010 NBA All-Star game was a 4.4 cable rating with 6.9 million viewers of the game on TNT in the U.S., a television audience decline of 15.4 percent from last year’s 5.2 rating and 7.6 million viewers.

Yet no one should look at that drop in ratings as a reflection of long-term concern for the NBA and its All-Star format. The equally-iconic Daytona 500 had an even larger drop of 16 per cent over last year on FOX.

TNT and FOX had less people watching their sports properties last weekend because NBC -- and its cable platforms -- had more. That's because NBC is carrying the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games in the U.S. and every four years, competing networks programming in February have to grin and bear the television magnet that is the Winter Olympics.

More than 152 million Americans have watched at least some part of Vancouver 2010 in the first week of the Games on NBC's networks; the most since the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan drama drew millions of non-sports fans to Lillehammer 1994. Last night's figure skating gold drew an average American audience of 24.8 million and a cumulative tally of 77 million viewers -- both well higher than Turin 2006.

The night before, NBC rode Shaun White's snowboarding gold to knock off American Idol, scoring 12 million more viewers than the FOX juggernaut, which typically rules Wednesday nights in the U.S. Last Friday's opening ceremonies kicked things off big time for NBC with an average audience of 32.6 million in the U.S.

NBC has done well and will continue to drive strong ratings around Vancouver 2010 because (a) they are happening in the North American time zone; (b) they are effectively cross-promoting their coverage across multiple platforms and on all three screens; (c) the economy is keeping more people at home in front of their televisions; (d) as is the cold winter weather throughout much of the U.S.; and, most important, (e) American athletes are hot, off to a great start and the U.S. team tops the medal podium at the midway mark of the Games.

Nothing drives interest and national television audiences -- especially for Americans -- like success.

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