Opening Remarks

"Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door"

-Albert Camus

Formalities first:

Welcome to Cornell University's ILR Sports Management Club's Official Blog.

My name is Geoff Rosenthal, a Cornell freshman majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) with a crazy, but certainly reachable dream of one day entering the sports industry in order to turn what has been a passion for over fourteen years into a career.

As Editor-in-Chief, it is my goal to make this blog an everyday stop for readers interested in stimulating, sports-related conversation.

When you click our homepage, you'll find a bevy of posts written by talented club members with unique insight and strong opinions backed by facts and stats. I encourage you to learn more about these writers by clicking here.

The Blog is just one aspect of ILR's Sports Management Club. The club, whose stated goal is "educating [its members] about opportunities in the sports industry," has hosted such speakers as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Vice-President of Labor Relations in Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, and on February 1st, 2011, John Ruger, Ombudsman for the United States Olympic Committee.

Additionally, the Sports Management Club hosts a weekly radio show and produces the Sports, Inc. magazine, which is published each semester.

In terms of timing, The Blog couldn't have started at a more gut-wrenching time for sports fans, specifically NFL and NBA fans.

The NFL is on the verge of shutting its doors next season , while the NBA needs Lebron James to attend labor meetings in hopes of making some kind of progress in its labor dispute. But that's for another post.

As an NHL fan, I've been through a lockout - it's not a lot of fun for anybody. It'll be interesting to see if the NFL and NBA learned anything from the NHL's 2004-05 non-season.

That's for another post, too.

I encourage you to bookmark The Blog, http://ilrsmc.blogspot.com.

In fact, while you're at it, go ahead and "Like Us" on Facebook and "Follow Us" on Twitter. All the cool kids are doing it.

If you ever have any questions, complaints, suggestions, or just need someone to rant to, our blog's email is located directly to the right of this post. You can also click HERE to send us your email.

I look forward to interacting with you in the comments section, as well. Don't be afraid to express your opinions and take issue with an author's opinion. Do it respectfully, but make your voice heard.

As Camus so elegantly stated, great works are born in the simplest of places. In this case, it's the dorms and apartments and libraries at Cornell University.

Without further ado, Here. We. Go.