Sport & Story Daily February 15, 2024

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February 15, 2024

Good morning! Is it time for the NFL to allow private equity investments? Falcons owner weighs in

Arthur Blank on PE in the NFL: ‘There Are Models That Can Work’
As Front Office Sports’ Daniel Kaplan writes, “The NFL is the only one of the big four sports leagues that does not allow private equity investment—but it’s up for discussion. There’s an owners committee studying whether to lift the NFL’s rule, and that group will potentially offer up some options for a vote to reverse the bylaw at the upcoming owners meetings in Orlando, March 24–27, Falcons owner Arthur Blank tells Front Office Sports.

‘There are models that can work,’ says Blank, who’s on the five-person committee discussing PE. ‘It’s something the NFL is looking at from a positive standpoint, but we’ll see how it shakes out.’”
^{frontofficesports.com}

Jimmie Johnson Struggled in His First Year as NASCAR Team Owner. Can He Make Legacy a Winner?
Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth once took what AP News’ Dan Gelston calls “a formidable 103-mile bike ride that ended atop North Carolina’s Mount Mitchell, at 6,684 feet the highest U.S. mountain east of the Mississippi River.”

Gelston goes on to write, “Perhaps it is fitting that with Johnson facing another long ride to the top — this time with his NASCAR team that wrestled with controversy, sluggish results and turnover in its debut season — that he called on Kenseth to help steady Legacy Motor Club.”
^apnews.com

NHL Playoff Teams Are in Selling Mode, Per Report
ESPN hockey reporter Emily Kaplan tweeted, “One month out of NHL trade deadline & biggest trend emerging is potential playoff teams selling. The Flyers, 3rd in Metro Division, have been actively taking calls on roster players. The Blues, Caps, Flames, Kraken, Preds & Wild, all in the Wild Card hunt, could be sellers too.”
^twitter.com

Suns' Ishbia Launches New Investment Company, Lands NBA G League Team
The name Player 15 Group was inspired by Mat Ishbia’s career as a walk-on basketball player at Michigan State, where he was No. 15. Suns and WNBA Phoenix Mercury owner has launched Player 15 Group, an operating and investment company.
^{sportsbusinessjournal.com}

Sports Streaming Venture Roils All But One Broadcaster Stock
As Sportico’s Brendan Coffey writes, “The immediate effect on the media landscape was seismic: Shares of sports-centric streaming service Fubo plunged 22% last Wednesday, after the news was announced. While not quite as drastic, there were still dramatic drops, too, in the shares of Paramount, NBC parent Comcast and local station and network owners Sinclair and Nexstar. Interestingly, shares of Fox and Warner Brothers Discovery also fell after the news. The combined market cap loss of those seven companies in reaction to the streaming bundle: $15.8 billion. There was one winner: ESPN parent Walt Disney Co., which saw it shares leap more than $11 higher on the news. The jump added $20 billion to Disney’s market cap.”
^sportico.com

Your Vision Insights: The Big Game’s Broadcast Value for Partners

This past Sunday, Vision Insights analyzed the Big Game and all of the exposure brand partners received during the broadcast. Leveraging ad rates provided by Guideline (powered by Standard Media Index), Vision Insights valued and published the Top 5 brands that garnered the most exposure on Sunday, as well as the boost Allegiant Air received from being the naming rights partner for Allegiant Stadium. 

MLB’s Free Agent Market Begins to Thaw, Soler Agrees to $42 Million Deal With Giants, AP Source Says
As the AP’s David Brandt reports, “The San Francisco Giants and slugger Jorge Soler agreed to a $42 million, three-year deal on Tuesday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations, taking one of the remaining marquee free agents off the market as most of the 30 teams reported for spring training in Arizona and Florida.

Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, lefty Jordan Montgomery, third baseman Matt Chapman, slugger J.D. Martinez and former MVP Cody Bellinger are all still looking for homes as camps got underway.”
^apnews.com

Jenny Cavnar to Call 95 A's Games This Season as First Female Primary PBP Voice
In 2015, Cavnar became the first woman to do radio color commentary for an NL game. Now, she will be the first female primary play-by-play announcer for an MLB team when she joins the NBC Sports Bay Area booth to call A’s games this year.
^{sportsbusinessjournal.com}

Caitlin Clark Fans Can Expect to Pay Hundreds to Get in Door For Her Run at Record Thursday
Fans who want to be able to say they were in the arena when Caitlin Clark set the NCAA women’s career scoring record will be paying an unprecedented premium at this point.

Even the person responsible for the spectacle was having trouble accommodating everyone who asked her for tickets.

“I’ve had to tell a lot of people, ‘No,’ ” said Clark, who still was able to take care of a large group of family and friends for Thursday night’s game between No. 4 Iowa and Michigan at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
^apnews.com

Adam Silver: Las Vegas 'Definitely' an Expansion Candidate
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday that Las Vegas is "definitely on our list" of cities under consideration for expansion franchises.

The NBA has another year after this season on its $24 billion, nine-year media rights deal, and Silver has long said that serious expansion talks won't happen until the new media deal is finalized.

"We want to figure out what our media relationships are going to look like, but then we will turn to expansion," Silver said again Wednesday in the interview on "The Pat McAfee Show" on ESPN, one of the league's media partners.
^espn.com

Chris Holtmann Fired as Ohio State Men's Basketball Coach
Ohio State has fired Chris Holtmann, ending his tenure as the Buckeyes' men's basketball coach just shy of his seventh season in Columbus.

Associate head coach Jake Diebler will serve as the Buckeyes' interim head coach for the rest of the season.

"I want to express my appreciation toward Chris for the first-class program, and the well-respected program, he has run here at Ohio State," outgoing Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith said in a statement.
^espn.com

Oklahoma Gymnast on Winning Two National Championships: “It’s Insane”
“It's incredible. Being able to say we've won two national championships since I've been on the team is absolutely amazing,” said University of Oklahoma gymnast Audrey Davis during the Flipping Out With Bridget Sloan podcast. And it just gives me chills. My hands are sweating thinking about it; it's insane. But it's something that it's in the back of our minds every day at practice.

In our minds, though, we are not winners anymore. That year's done and over with; we're onto the next season. It doesn't matter how well or however you did last season; this is where we're at right now. We start from the bottom, and you climb your way up that. That's just how we do it.”
^spotify.com

Michigan AD: Jim Harbaugh's Exit Won't Impact NCAA Investigations
"Their investigation is ongoing," Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel said. "I don't think [Harbaugh's departure] will change any of their investigation. It just will continue to move forward, and we'll see where it goes from there. We'll continue to work with them. We'll continue to support their efforts to investigate."
^espn.com

Former Pac-12 Schools Likely to Still Play in Bowls With Pac-12 Tie-Ins
“Out of a series of not-great options, the most workable — short of blowing up the bowl system and the (35 non-playoff) bowl contracts — is to have the former Pac-12 schools sent to Pac-12 bowls for two more years,” a source said.
^{actionnetwork.com}

Chris Del Conte on Texas' SEC Move: "We're Just Going Home"
“For us to go to the Southeastern Conference, I can’t tell you how excited I am,” Texas vice president and athletics director Chris Del Conte said Tuesday night.

He’d add, “We know the anticipation of going into the Southeastern Conference is coming, and we wanted to let everyone know that Texas lives there. In 1903, Texas was a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic (Association), the precursor to the SEC. That was where we were at one time, and we’re just going home.”
^on3.com

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