Sport & Story Daily June 13, 2024

Stay Ahead of the Game

June 12, 2024

Good morning! All Eyes Are On Paris 👀

AP Sports Week in Pictures: Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower and Diving Amid Skyscrapers in Boston
Associated Press photographers captured the first eye-catching photo of the Olympic rings going up on the Eiffel Tower and people capturing their own images at dusk in Paris. The Olympics start July 26.
^{AP News}

Odds Stacked Against NFL in Multibillion-Dollar Sunday Ticket Trial
The NFL is likely to lose the ongoing class action trial in Los Angeles brought by bars, restaurants, and individuals who allege the league illegally inflated NFL Sunday Ticket’s cost and required subscribers to purchase all the available games rather than a lesser number, legal experts tell Front Office Sports.
^{Front Office Sports}

Breakthrough? Tiger Says PGA Tour and LIV Golf Are Eyeing ‘End Game’
FOS reports that Tiger Woods was part of an extensive meeting in New York City with representatives from LIV Golf’s financial backers at the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, including Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

“It was productive,” Woods said Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference. On Saturday morning, the PGA Tour released a statement, saying that “more progress was made” and the Tour remains “committed to these negotiations.”
^{Front Office Sports}

Culture Change: NBA Players More ‘Hands On’ With Business Deals
Sportico’s Eric Jackson writes, “NBA players no longer merely associate themselves with businessmen. They are businessmen.

“It’s a realization today’s ballers are having after watching stars of the past score big off the court, from Kobe Bryant’s lucrative Bodyarmor investment ($400 million exit) to LeBron James’ ownership stake in SpringHill Company (valued at $725 million in 2021).”
^Sportico

India’s IPL Cricket Valuation Rises to $16 Billion, Says U.S. Investment Bank
Per Variety, the Indian Premier League cricket universe has emerged as one of Asia’s most valuable sports properties. U.S. investment bank Houlihan Lokey says that the business enterprise and brand values of the IPL combined now total $16.4 billion.
^Variety

NHL Garners Increase in Stanley Cup Final Game 2 Viewership
Per SBJ, the Panthers’ 4-1 win in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday drew an average audience of 3.6 million viewers on ABC and ESPN+. That marks a 46% increase over the comparable Golden Knights-Panthers Game 2 last year, which also aired on a Monday night on TNT, TBS and truTV. The first two games of the series are now averaging 3.3 million viewers, up 28% from 2023.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Shari Redstone Ends Paramount Merger Talks With Skydance
Paramount Global controlling shareholder Shari Redstone has "ended discussions to sell her controlling stake" to Skydance Media and "merge the two companies, drawing to a close months of negotiations,” according to Jessica Toonkel of the WALL STREET JOURNAL per SBJ. National Amusements, the Redstone family company that controls Paramount, indicated that the parties had "not been able to reach a deal that would have given Skydance the keys to one of Hollywood’s most storied brands.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

Report: Big Ten Hockey Teams to Play at Wrigley Field Next Season
Sources say that the conference “hasn't announced details but the plans being discussed,” include “three Big Ten men's hockey games and one women's hockey contest involving Big Ten schools Wisconsin and Ohio State.” The men's teams reportedly "include Wisconsin, Michigan State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State."
^{Sports Business Journal}

Penguins Hire David Quinn, Former Sharks and Rangers Coach, as Assistant
The Pittsburgh Penguins filled a large void behind their bench Wednesday, hiring former San Jose Sharks and New York Rangers head coach David Quinn to replace Todd Reirden as an assistant coach on head coach Mike Sullivan’s staff.
^{The Athletic}

Sheldon Keefe Adds Former Blackhawks Coach Jeremy Colliton to His Staff With the Devils
Sheldon Keefe has filled out his coaching staff with the New Jersey Devils, hiring former Chicago Blackhawks head man Jeremy Colliton.

Devils president and general manager Tom Fitzgerald made the announcement Tuesday, less than three weeks after hiring Keefe following his dismissal by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
^{AP News}

Playfly Aiding Schools With On-Field Sponsorship Support
As SBJ’s Ben Portnoy writes, “Schools are already exploring the NCAA’s latest rule change—and Playfly [Sports] is there to help.

“The rule change that permits on-field advertisements during regular season football games—a move that should help schools add revenues amid the likely settlement in the House, Hubbard and Carter cases—has received plenty of support throughout college sports. Playfly, meanwhile, has been working with Vision Insights to create an exclusive continuous measurement platform that measures and provides values of TV-visible signage for all televised college football and basketball games across each of the company’s properties.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Big Ten’s Mind-Blowing New Look, Take the Conference USA Challenge: Mandel’s Mailbag
The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel writes, “It suddenly just hit me: Someone is going to finish in 18th place. (Athlon predicts it will be Purdue. No love for Ryan Walters.) Whereas previously a team could go 1-11 and still maintain an ounce of dignity to finish only seventh in its division.

“Also: It’s not the ‘Big Ten’ anymore. Not the number, but the hodgepodge of schools, from second-place Oregon to fifth-place USC to ninth-place (!) Rutgers to 14th-place UCLA. It’s a conference that we still primarily associate with the Midwest, but now nearly 40 percent of its members are from outside the region.”
^{The Atlantic}

A 2023 College World Series Team Required Police Protection After Threat From a Sports Bettor
USA Today’s Prince J. Grimes writes, “NCAA president Charlie Baker has expressed a desire in recent months to better protect student-athletes as legal sports betting becomes more widespread. His latest anecdote on why that protection is necessary certainly supports his cause for concern.”

“The threat was serious enough [that] we showed it to authorities,” Baker said.
^{USA Today}

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