Business of Sports June 4, 2009, 3:11PM EST

GM: NASCAR's Latest Problem

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2. Jerry West. As a former player, head coach, and general manager of the Lakers, some of "The Logo's" best days were in L.A. Now, the man who traded for Kobe Bryant is heading back to the City of Angels to become the executive director of the PGA Tour's Northern Trust Open. Among his job responsibilities, West will educate the community about the event and "engage the community through public appearances."

1. Joe Gibbs. A Hall of Fame football coach, Gibbs led the Washington Redskins to Super Bowl titles in 1982, 1987, and 1991. A year before he first retired from the NFL, he created his own NASCAR team. Finding equal success on the race track as he did on the gridiron, Joe Gibbs Racing has won three Sprint Cup championships since 2000.

9. UEFA Champions League Final Sponsors
If you watched FC Barcelona defeat Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League Final on May 27, you undoubtedly saw the names of six companies emblazoned next to the pitch. An official sponsorship of Europe's biggest sporting event costs $35 million to $47 million annually. Here is how long each of those companies has been a Champions League Final sponsor:

Ford: since 1992
Heineken: since 1994*
MasterCard: since 1994
PlayStation: since 1997
Vodafone: since 2007
Sony: since 2007

*Heineken subsidiary Amstel Light was an official sponsor of the Final through 2006, when Heineken announced that it would assume the branding.

10. The Other Cheeseheads
In the annals of extreme sport, the Gloucestershire "Cheese Rolling and Wake" has got to be the big cheese.

Held in the southwest England hometown of JK Rowling, Harry Potter demigoddess, the annual event attracts thousands and has taken place at the end of May for "possibly hundreds of years" and "may have been started by the Phoenicians, the Ancient Britons, or the Romans," according to the official Web site. It evolved from early fertility rites, hopes for a bountiful harvest, or more likely, ancient iterations of that wacky British sense of humor à la Monty Python and the Goodies.

The cheesy competition comprises five heats (one for ladies!) down a very steep and stubbly hill. At the official command of the Master of Ceremonies, a guest "roller" pushes a 7-to-8 lb. wheel of Double Gloucester down the precipice and 2 to 20 spirited competitors per heat, many clad in no more than a loincloth, chase it down to claim a £10 second-place or £5 third-place prize. (You guessed it: The winner takes home the now quite dinged-up hunk of Gloucestershire's finest, worth about $20 per pound.)

"The unsung heroes of the event," the Web site enthuses, "are surely the catchers, they are rugby players who volunteer to try to stop the runners at the bottom of the hill, to ensure they do not injure themselves by running into the press compound" or straw bale safety barriers.

Yet sadly, despite the best intent of the catchers, injuries abound. This year's race, however, proved as soft as a spring chevre—only three people were rushed to the hospital, a far lower toll than in contests past.

Rick Horrow is a leading expert in the business of sports. As CEO of Horrow Sports Ventures, he has been the architect of 103 deals worth more than $13 billion in sports and other urban infrastructure projects. He is also the sports business analyst for CNN, Fox Sports, and the Fox Business Channel.