Happy Opening Day

Juan Soto, Blake Snell and Clay Holmes debuted for new teams, Paul Skenes made his first opening-day start at age 22 and Sandy Alcántara returned from Tommy John surgery.

March 28, 2025

Opening Day is Here: Juan Soto Debuts, Paul Skenes vs Sandy Alcántara, and More
Juan Soto, Blake Snell and Clay Holmes debuted for new teams, Paul Skenes made his first opening-day start at age 22 and Sandy Alcántara returned from Tommy John surgery.

A week after the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers swept an opening two-game series over the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, 26 other teams got underway Thursday on opening day in the U.S. and Canada.
^{AP News}

NBA Formally Takes European League to ‘Next Stage,’ Gets Support From BOG
At the conclusion of the league’s two-day board of governors session in New York, Silver said the NBA, in concert with FIBA, is “ready to go to the next stage” of exploration, which will consist of discussions with the league’s existing stakeholders as well as potential new investors, media partners overseas, global ad agencies and club teams in Europe.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Whitesell’s Venture Invests in Omaha Productions
A source close to negotiations said the deal moved quickly, as Manning has known Egon Durban, co-CEO of Silver Lake, and Whitesell for years. Industry observers have respected Omaha’s business discipline, as sources said it’s shown profitability from Year 1 and never had debt. While the company raised around $10M from Peter Chernin’s North Road Co. in 2023, that has largely stayed on the balance sheet and only used for Omaha’s recent investment in Good Good Golf.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Playback Raises $22M in Funding, Inks MLB Deal
Live-streaming platform Playback, where sports creators and fans watch games together, has raised $22M in funding across Seed and Series A rounds. The Seed round was led by Khosla Ventures, while the Series A was led by Seven Seven Six, with participation from Khosla Ventures and NBA Investments. The funding will support Playback’s growth and help expand partnerships with leagues, media companies and creators.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Yankee Fans Face Blackout as Opening Day Nears Amid Contract Feud Between YES and Cable Giant
The New York Post’s Ariel Zilber writes, “Yankees fans who subscribe to Comcast’s Xfinity cable television service are in danger of missing out on the team’s games this season because of a contract dispute that could result in a blackout of the YES Network.

“YES, the regional sports network that serves as the television home of the Bronx Bombers, could be unavailable on Xfinity systems in parts of New Jersey and other neighboring markets as of midnight late Thursday night following the expiration of a temporary carriage fee agreement between the two sides.

“Negotiations began after the original deal lapsed at the end of last year. Talks are ongoing over Comcast’s plan to shift YES to a higher-priced digital tier.”
^{New York Post}

MLB.TV Suffers Opening Day Outage
MLB’s national streaming package, MLB.TV, suffered a nationwide outage in the early afternoon hours of Opening Day. On what is typically one of the most watched days of the season, subscribers were unable to load individual games. Only the MLB Big Inning whiparound show was being carried by the service, with fans unable to tune into any one of the 10 concurrent games.
^{Sports Business Journal}

MLB, Cable Companies Reach Deal to Broadcast Twins Games
The Athletic’s Dan Hayes writes, “At long last, local cable providers have reached an agreement to bring the Minnesota Twins to your television. Negotiating on behalf of the Twins, Major League Baseball struck deals with Xfinity, DirecTV and FUBO early Thursday morning to broadcast the team’s games over cable this season.

“The resolution to a lengthy negotiation arrived just in time for Opening Day. It followed several months of discord as die-hard fans grew concerned and angry, left to wonder whether the Twins would find a television home in time for the season opener in St. Louis.”
^{The Athletic}

Flyers Fire Coach John Tortorella in Midst of Another Losing Season
AP News’ Dan Gelston writes, “John Tortorella popped off after another Philadelphia loss — the sixth straight on his watch — and declared he was not interested in learning how to coach a losing team in another empty season.

“It’s not his worry anymore.

“The Flyers fired Tortorella on Thursday with nine games left in another losing season for a franchise that hasn’t been in the playoffs since 2020.”
^{AP News}

Former Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery Hired at Penn, His Alma Mater, After Split With Hawkeyes
The longtime Iowa Hawkeyes coach, who was fired after 15 seasons with the program earlier this month, struck a deal to take over at Penn on Thursday, the university announced.

McCaffery will replace Steve Donahue at the Ivy League school. Donahue was fired earlier this month, too, after the Quakers went just 8-19 this season. He reached the NCAA tournament just once in his nine seasons with the program, which is Penn’s only NCAA tournament appearance in the last 17 years.
^{Yahoo! Sports}

W.N.B.A. Practice Facilities Are Starting to Rival the N.B.A.’s
The New York Times’ Tania Ganguli reports: “On Thursday, Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the Liberty and the N.B.A.’s Brooklyn Nets, is announcing plans to build a 75,000-square-foot practice facility for the Liberty in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. The waterfront space, which the Liberty will lease, is on Newtown Creek, a tributary of the East River, and will sit partly on what is now an empty lot. The Liberty’s ownership group says it will pay for the construction and expects to spend $80 million on it.”
^{The New York Times}

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Don’t Write Off Future Cinderellas Just Because It’s An All-Power Conference Sweet 16, Coaches Say
AP News’ Eric Olson writes, “All 16 regional semifinalists are from power conferences for the first time since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The popular theory is that the transfer portal has led to a concentration of the best players at the big schools paying the most NIL money and, soon, the most through revenue sharing.

“Is this year just an anomaly? Purdue coach Matt Painter, whose 2023 team became the second No. 1 seed of all-time to lose to a No. 16 (Fairleigh Dickinson), sure hopes not.

“‘The upsets and how valuable the upsets are to the common fan, it’s created March Madness,’ he said Thursday. “Let’s not get away from it. It’s a big piece of March Madness.’”
^{AP News}

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