Who's powerful in sports?

Can BusinessWeek's 2007 power champ Roger Goodell repeat now that the voting's been opened up to the masses?

Published June 30, 2008 6:00PM (EDT)

BusinessWeek wants to know who you think are "the most powerful people in sports today." You can vote on the matter in a poll at businessweek.com.

Last year NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was No. 1, followed by Tiger Woods and NBA chief David Stern. The top -- and only -- typist or chatterer on the list was John Madden at No. 81, though media executives were sprinkled throughout the top 100, starting with George Bodenheimer, the top dog at ESPN and ABC Sports.

But last year's list was compiled by a panel of "20 distinguished people from the sports and media world." The panel was dominated by athletes and agent types, with a couple of academics and writers mixed in. This year, the panel's been expanded to 35 distinguished people, plus you, the teeming masses. Or at least that part of the teeming masses that makes its way to businessweek.com. It's this item's aim to make those masses a little more teemy.

A BusinessWeek spokesperson said the magazine will consider the collective wisdom of the readers a 36th panelist.

If you've noted the parallel to the historical development of this column's Panel o' Experts, adding experts and the wisdom of the crowd over time, you're not alone.

And if you want to nominate a certain handsome caricature, well, you'd be throwing away a vote on an extremely unpowerful person in sports today, but it'd be pretty funny.


By King Kaufman

King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. You can e-mail him at king at salon dot com. Facebook / Twitter / Tumblr

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