An Artifact From a Grim Era in Detroit’s Showrooms

[Henry]

If you look at the decline in market share for GM, Ford, and Chrysler, it becomes very obvious that the "decline of Detroit" is very much the decline of GM...It's really GM that fell, and hard, with vehicles like the Vega and Cimmaron, and more to the point, a crappy dealer system.  Dealers seem to play a huge role in how a brand is perceived, and there's far too many shitty ones.

Ditto for the NBA after Jordan left (in terms of pro sports). The NFL still remains the most popular sport in America, and MLB is still recovering from the 1994 players' strike. First it was Kobe Bryant, and now it's LeBron James who has been crowned the Next Great One, but Jordan set the bar so high that no one can ever replicate his level of greatness. Also, the NBA has fallen very hard because teams have been allowed to leave well-established fanbases in cities like Charlotte and Seattle for lesser-known ones in New Orleans and Oklahoma City, respectively. While I think it's great that the Hornets will return to Charlotte next year, I have a very bad feeling that the SuperSonics may never come back, and I certainly don't want them to return at another city's expense (see what almost happened to Sacramento a few months ago). The current TV coverage is also marginal at best, and ABC/ESPN doesn't seem to be on top of its game at all, because who wants to see the same teams (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and maybe Dallas/San Antonio) play every week anyway? Have some variety, for Pete's sake! That's where NBC in the 90s (and CBS in the 80s) excelled. And finally, the empty seats in many arenas (most notably in Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Washington), just go to show how crappy the NBA really is.

BTW, does anyone else think it's a mere coincidence that GM's longtime sponsorship of the NBA has somewhat contributed to each other's downfall in recent years?

[formulanone]

Actually, the NBA has never been quite as big as football and baseball in America. I think ratings and polls suggested, circa 1990, that the NFL had overtaken MLB has America's favorite sport. I never understood why the media made a big deal out of Jordan's retirement as a huge loss for the league; there were at least a dozen other well-established players with an excellent skill set, and like most leagues, new and fresh talent arrived and/or matured every year...to this day.

What that has to do with an automobile company which succeeds and flounders in varying amounts is mere coincidence, if not even remotely related. Sure, sponsors pull out when things go south, but we're not talking about a sinking ship of a league racked with scandals. After all, KIA Motors is doing quite well in the past five years, and they're an official sponsor of the NBA, mainly because they're both attractive to a younger, more urban audience.

(Yes, I know some folks don't care at all about the NBA, and others that prefer hockey or whatever as their favorite.)