ITEM ONE:

GALLUP POLL: NFL HAS MOST FANS OF ANY SPORT

Yet one more survey has confirmed the status of the NFL as America’s most popular sport.  A Gallup Poll conducted in late March reveals that the NFL has the most fans of the 11 sports tested (63 percent).  There were other interesting facts pinpointed in the survey: The NFL is one of only three sports (along with figure skating and pro baseball) of which a majority of women consider themselves fans…the NFL draws proportionally more of its fans from younger Americans.  Seven in 10 Americans ages 18-29 are fans…and “football” took two of the top three spots in the survey, with college football (53 percent) ranking third in popularity behind pro baseball (56).
                  

ITEM TWO:

ADVERTISERS CHOOSE NFL – PAST & PRESENT

Trying to increase ad awareness?  Enlist NFL players, even if they’re retired!  That’s what an advertiser and a TV network did recently.  The New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants has begun a poster campaign featuring New York Jets linebacker MARVIN JONES and the team’s controller, MIKE MINARCZYK, in a push to encourage junior high school students in New York State to think of accounting as a career.  “They’re trying to make people aware of the more glamorous side of accounting,” says Minarczyk.  “It’s a very promising career, a very rewarding career”……And meanwhile, back in the ’70s, Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle “MEAN JOE” GREENE and his now-famous Coca-Cola TV commercial have made a reappearance.  The spot – showing an exhausted Greene flipping his jersey to a little boy who offers him a Coke after a game – was resurrected on May 1 along with other ’70s ad classics to run as the actual commercials during FOX-TV’s hit show, That ’70s Show.  “We were looking for a way to ‘event-ize’ the show for the sweeps,” said JON NESVIG, president of sales for FOX.  “It becomes a little bit like the Super Bowl, where the commercials are part of the show.”                     

ITEM THREE:

FORBES: TITANS OWNER ADAMS A “BEST VALUE BOSS”

Forbes, the influential business magazine, has developed a formula to determine which “Forbes 500” CEO delivers the best value to his shareholders in relation to his annual salary – the “best boss for the buck,” as Forbes terms it.  No. 2 on the list of Forbes’ just-published survey of “Best Value Bosses” is Adams Resources & Energy chief executive officer K.S. “BUD” ADAMS, JR., who also owns the Tennessee Titans.  Without explaining Forbes’ intricate formula here, only WARREN BUFFETT, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, was ranked above Adams for the most productive boss for pay received.  Paying himself a total of just over $1 million during the past five years, Adams’ energy company increased sales by 46 percent over that time to almost $7 billion.  “I try to hire the right guys and I pay them a lot more than I get,” Forbes quotes Adams.  “But they add to the bottom line.”