BY MICHAEL BELLER – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

It’s no secret that people have had to cut back across the board during the economic downturn.  In the sports world, that’s led to lower attendance and plummeting net gate receipts, the best measure of revenue garnered by teams and leagues from people going to games.  In the first quarter of the current NBA season, net gate receipts were down 7.4 percent from the previous season.  MLB attendance plunged 6.6 percent to 73.4 million, and the attendance at NCAA college football games dropped 1 percent from 2008, the first time in five years there were less fans through the turnstiles

The horse racing industry in Illinois is struggling to keep up with other states.

Like most other industries across the country, gambling took a big hit during the recession.  However, there are signs it is on the way back. 

BY MICHAEL BELLER – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

The Olympic torch arrives in Vancouver Friday, where thousands of athletes from around the world want to strike gold.  Companies looking to do the same should be right there alongside the athletes, as a new study found the Olympics could be the perfect venue to spend advertising [...]

A Brunswick bowling alley in Niles, Ill. The company holds a dominant market share in bowling, and net sales in that segment were $82.2 million for the most recent quarter.

BY MICHAEL BELLER – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Don’t play with your food: Are hedge funds to blame for rising food prices?
By Frank Carlson 
May 29, 2008

How would you like to earn a million dollars today, just to have it disappear tomorrow?  Worse, how would you like it if this happened every day?
That’s exactly what grain elevators are experiencing as record commodity prices [...]