Amazon's Star-Studded Upfront

As the AP News’ Headline Reads: Contracts? Buyouts? Study at 1 School, Play for Another? Ambitious Pitches to Revamp College Sports

May 14, 2025

Amazon Highlights NASCAR, NBA, NFL in Upfront
SBJ’s Mollie Cahillane writes, “Amazon closed the first day of upfronts with a bang -- and a slew of sports talent. From the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan, DJ Steve Aoki entertained the crowd before the presentation kicked off Monday night with an entrance from Lizzo, Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista – who made their way to the stage through the crowd. As expected, sports were a heavy presence in Amazon’s presentation to a crowd of several thousand, with a pre-recorded spoof of ‘New Heights’ with Travis and Jason Kelce attempting to explain Amazon’s ‘full-funnel’ advertising offering. Many in the crowd expected that to be it, and then the brothers came on stage.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

Pete Rose, 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson Among Players Reinstated by MLB
ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. writes, “In a historic, sweeping decision, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday removed Pete Rose, ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and other deceased players from Major League Baseball's permanently ineligible list.

“The all-time hit king and Jackson -- both longtime baseball pariahs stained by gambling, seen by MLB as the game's mortal sin -- are now eligible for election into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.”
^ESPN

Five NBA Teams Opt Back to FanDuel Sports Network
“FanDuel Sports Network is excited to continue to deliver exceptional broadcasts for our 13 NBA team partners through a flexible, multi-platform offering that fans can easily access and reaches 100% of the teams’ local markets,” a Main Street Sports Group spokesperson said Monday night. “We will continue working alongside the NBA and our team partners to innovate the viewing experience and drive engagement.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

YouTube, NFL Formalize Brazil Game Deal
The NFL and Google announced yesterday that the tech giant will stream its first exclusive game this season, bringing audiences the Week 1 game from Brazil free on YouTube and to existing YouTube TV subscribers. It’s already known the Chargers are the home team for the game at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo on Friday, Sept. 5, and sources told SBJ last month that the Chiefs are the likely opponent. The matchup will be formally announced Wednesday night when the NFL schedule is released.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Fever Widen Their Local TV Reach to 4 More States and 4.6 Million Households
The Indiana Fever have added 11 midwestern TV markets for their over-the-air local broadcasts this season, expanding into Caitlin Clark’s home state of Iowa and across Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. The deal, negotiated between Tegna and the team, increases the franchise’s footprint to 4.6 million households and mirrors a multi-network arrangement that Tegna recently made with the Dallas Wings. Similar to how it helped the Wings raise their audience to 6.3 million households throughout Texas, Tegna is partnering with five other networks to maximize the Fever’s reach.
^{Sports Business Journal}

ESPN Reveals Details Around DTC Service... ESPN
ESPN unveiled details from its new New York offices -- the first press event the company had on the premise -- on its streaming service launching this fall, simply calling it “ESPN” with two pricing plan options. ESPN will cost $29.99 per month for an unlimited subscription, which includes 47,000 live events per year and all of ESPN’s content, including ESPN+, SEC Network, ACC Network and all linear networks. The other plan -- a “select” ESPN product -- will cost $11.99 per month and include ESPN+ content.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Alex Morgan Takes Minority Stake in San Diego Wave
Two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist Alex Morgan becomes the latest retired athlete to take a stake in a women’s sports franchise as she joins current controlling owners, the Levine-Leichtman family, as a minority investor in the NWSL’s San Diego Wave FC. Wave FC declined to share the exact amount of Morgan’s stake, the cost of the investment or if an outside firm consulted Morgan through the deal.
^{Sports Business Journal}

SBJ Women’s Sports: Keys to Sustaining Valuation Momentum
The new SBJ newsletter on women’s sports has launched and, in its first edition, Rachel Axon addresses money as one of the biggest indicators of change:

“Michele Kang’s purchase of controlling interest in the Washington Spirit in 2022 for $35 million (10x the previous NWSL team sale) was revolutionary -- until the next one. Now it looks like a bargain compared to the enterprise value of $250 million that Disney CEO Bob Iger and Willow Bay, his wife, used to buy a controlling interest in Angel City FC in a deal that put a $250 million enterprise value on the club, a record for any women’s sports team.

“Since then, we’ve seen expansion fees in both leagues -- $110 million for Denver’s NWSL club and $125 million for Portland’s WNBA team -- have been more than 50x what each was five years ago. We’ll also get a look soon at another team sale price as the Connecticut Sun hit the market.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

Ex-Manchester United Sporting Director Dan Ashworth Set for FA Return
The Athletic’s Oliver Kay reports: “The 54-year-old left the organisation in 2019 to join Brighton and Hove Albion having worked as the FA’s director of elite development and later technical director, where he helped develop the men’s and women’s national teams. The men’s technical director at the FA is now John McDermott. Ashworth’s return in a wide-ranging strategic role is expected to be confirmed this week.
^{The Athletic}

NFL International Games 2025: League Announces Historic 7-Game Slate of International, Overseas Contests
The league announced where each international game would take place. Three will occur in London, where the NFL began playing games in 2007. The league will also see a return to Brazil, where the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers opened their season last year. And then the league will play one game in Germany, one game in Spain and one game in Ireland.
^{Yahoo! Sports}

United Center’s Mezzanine Level Revamp Focuses on Groups and Flexibility
The Banner Level reimagining will replace 74 Penthouse Level suites. The project is reminiscent of mezzanine-level concepts rolled out at fellow dual-sport arenas in Boston and Philadelphia to make better use of hard-to-sell portions of an arena. United Center will dynamically price the Banner Level seating products, most of which will be sold on a per-game basis and with affordable pricing front of mind.
^{Sports Business Journal}

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Big 12 Football Primer: Parity Reigns Supreme With No Truly Elite Squad
SI’s Bryan Fischer writes, “FanDuel lists every Big 12 team win total as between 5.5 and 8.5 on the season, which speaks to how closely bunched each of these programs are and lends credence to simply picking names out of a hat (or finding a quarterback you like) when it comes to sorting out a potential order of programs in 2025. There’s no truly elite squad that can be viewed as a preseason national title contender, but there is a deep bench of teams from one to 16 that should make the Big 12 a regular destination for viewing wild and unpredictable games each weekend this season.”
^{Sports Illustrated}

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