• The Wall Street Journal , Tuesday, October 14, 2008 10:45 AM

The sports industry has been in the zone for quite some time, but even it won't escape the impact of the financial meltdown, Matthew Futterman reports. Who's going to fill those corporate skyboxes? How much will reconfigured companies be willing to pay for sponsorships?

For decades, long-term television deals helped to insulate big-time professional sports from the economy's ups and downs but these days, teams rely increasingly on the money they collect by selling premium tickets to the sparkling new stadiums and arenas built during the past 15 years.

"We're not just competing for people's entertainment dollars anymore," says Brett Yormark, CEO of the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets. "We're going up against milk and orange juice."

In response, the Nets are offering a buy-now-pay-later deal to attract fans to its dreary Izod Center arena: Season-ticket buyers can attend games without paying for them until Jan. 5.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »