A League of His Own (good stuff)

A League of His Own (good stuff)

Since professional sports are usually dominated by entrenched leagues, there is often an annoyed, or just plain ambitious, entrepreneur sitting on the sidelines somewhere, eager to bust up what he regards as a monopoly by launching a competitor. Some efforts are more successful than others.

The American Basketball Association, for instance, had sufficient appeal following its launch in 1967 that the dominant National Basketball Association made a deal in 1976 to absorb four ABA teams — a move that brought Julius “Dr. J” Erving and other stars to a wider audience. The current roster of National Football League teams includes 10 — among them the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets — that got their start in the 1960s in the American Football League, before a 1969 merger.

wsj.com
6/9/09