Does the United States Need a Secretary of Sports?
There is a lot to read and listen to these days so I appreciate you making time in your life for this new newsletter. This is my first substantive post, so I hope you find it interesting and am open to your feedback and thoughts. While gambling is certainly front and center right now with March Madness officially kicking off tomorrow, I wanted to start things off a little broader today. Enjoy.
Things are changing a lot in the U.S. Government these days under the Trump Administration. Whether you agree with the changes or not, when transformation of this magnitude happens it is also an opportunity to do a bit of blue sky thinking. If everything is changing and people are thinking outside the box, then what is something that might not be such mainstream idea, but might be worth thinking about? In essence, let’s ask the question “Why not?”. Which leads me to the question of “Does the U.S. Government need a Secretary of Sports”, or a “Department of Sports”?
At first glance the reaction of many is probably a quick “no”. The private sector has taken care of these issues for decades now and for the most part there aren’t any major cross-sport issues that they are falling through the cracks. But if you look abroad there are many countries across the globe who have a government official that focuses on issues related to sports. Sports duties are often combined with other topics like “Youth” or “Culture” or “Tourism”, but a quick tally points to 4 countries in North and South America with Sports Ministers, 10 in Africa, 25 in Asia and Oceania, and 14 in Europe. That’s more than a handful so there is certainly some precedent here and some substance behind asking the question, “why not in the U.S.?”.
One answer to why not is that each sport in the U.S. has its own commissioner, including the NCAA. And even within the NCAA each Conference has its own Commissioner. So why would we need some sort of sports Czar if the leagues are handing a chunk of these duties on their own? Well, a few reasons come to mind. First of all, the jobs of the commissioners are not solely to police the sport but rather, especially in the case of the major four sports leagues, to make money for the individual team owners. Second, to the extent that team owners are policing their own leagues their concerns are largely limited to factors affecting that league or sport alone. In the past many of these issues have been sports specific but as technology drives rapid change in the world many issues are cropping up that will have impacts across sports—from gambling to fan and athlete safety and more. It might be helpful to have some common standards, research, intelligence, or just a good faith third party arbiter to think about or negotiate cross cutting issues of concern without profit being the sole or majority motivator.
Another potential reason it might be helpful to have a Secretary of Sports is the upcoming calendar. In 2026 the U.S. will host (along with Canada and Mexico) the largest sporting event in the world, FIFA’s World Cup. In 2028 we will host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Southern California. Surely this won’t be the last time the U.S. wants to host a major international competition. Wouldn’t it be helpful to have a senior government official who can marshal all aspects of government to put our best case forward and provide oversight of planning, marketing, and more? The nuts and bolts of things are probably best left to the private sector but some strategic aspects may well benefit from concerted and ongoing high-level government involvement.
But many of the issues I mention are already handled by other agencies. The FBI, DHS, and others work with the private sector on the security side of things; Treasury, Justice or the CFTC deal with gambling related issues; and Commerce handles business-related issues. But like the energy sector or the agriculture sector for example (sectors with aligned Cabinet agencies), sports is an industry that is critical to many cities’ economic growth and is also an industry with its own idiosyncrasies. While its importance might not rise to the level of say our national energy or food supply, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics sports teams alone employed over 120,000 people at its highest point before the pandemic. But this number doesn’t include referees, third party stadium vendors, businesses near stadiums who rely on fans for their income, apparel companies, or non-team sports like golf, tennis, or track and field. It also does not include collegiate sports which are not always concentrated in large metropolitan areas like their professional sports teams counterparts. And the idiosyncrasies of the sports world often cut across multiple sports, leading to some potential efficiencies from having a Sports Secretary.
Before you decry the ills of bureaucracy and big government let’s tie up a few loose ends. One, I don’t think a new agency is necessary, though the above discussion points to some positive reasons to have one. Second, if I were to design a new agency it wouldn’t be a large bureaucracy like the Treasury Department or the USDA, but could rather be a smaller, more targeted agency like the Privacy Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Board (headcount ~30 people) or the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (headcount ~ 50) who have narrowly defined missions.
Do we need a Secretary of Sports or a Sports Czar? I can’t really say yes right now, but with so much changing in the world of sports, and with sports so tightly woven into the fabric of our society it’s worthwhile, I think, to debate the idea and talk about the pro’s and con’s. You can be reasonably assured that the existing Commissioners of the four major sports leagues will say we do not need it, in part they will say, because of their track record of success without one. But as long as we are shaking everything else up and questioning long held assumptions about all manner of things in government and society these days, why not this?
If you’re interested in the Secretary of Sports job, feel free to nominate yourself or someone else by emailing me at SecureStakes[at]pm[dot]me or as a comment. If I get some interesting recommendations I’ll share them in the next newsletter. And feel free to take the quick poll below.