Sport & Story Daily May 23, 2024

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May 23, 2024

Good morning! PE in College Sports is HERE

RedBird, FSU Trustee Launch College Sports Investment Fund
Sportico reports: RedBird Capital and Weatherford Capital are launching a college sports-specific investment fund, one that could lend as much as $2 billion to athletic departments across the country.

Led by RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale, Collegiate Athletic Solutions (CAS) is hoping to cash in on a college sports industry in upheaval, with athletes on the verge of more robust compensation and schools seeking new funding sources to stay competitive.
^Sportico

The Case to End College Football
As Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva write in a sure-to-be-controversial piece based on the premise of a forthcoming book The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game, “Let’s start with the basics: Big-time college football is one of the most egregious sites of economic exploitation in U.S. society today. Despite recent moral panics about how name, image and likeness (NIL) liberalization is ruining the sport, the fact remains that although 42 athletic departments produced more than $100 million in revenue in 2021-2022, universities continue not to directly compensate the campus athletic workers responsible for producing that value.”
^Sportico

Roger Goodell Bizarrely Cited Player Safety as a Reason to Cut the Preseason in an 18-Game Schedule
During the NFL’s spring meetings in Nashville, Goodell discussed a number of issues facing the league, but he centered on a potential 18-game regular-season schedule. He talked about the NFL supposedly trying to make the game safer and used that fact to float the idea of further reducing preseason exhibitions in the name of adding an 18th game.
^{USA Today}

Deep Playoff Run Ups Ante in T-Wolves’ Ownership Saga, Experts Say
FOS’ Alex Schiffer writes, “Rodriguez embraced Anthony Edwards on the court in Denver after the team clinched its first Western Conference finals appearance in 20 years, which starts Wednesday night in Minnesota against the Mavericks. Taylor has been courtside for multiple playoff games and was the victim of a Jamal Murray staredown in the Timberwolves’ Game 3 loss. While it’s early to gauge how the T-Wolves’ run has influenced the valuation of the franchise, even its current one is enough to add some value, experts tell Front Office Sports.”
^{Front Office Sports}

NBA Formalizing Deals With Disney, Amazon, NBC
Per SBJ, industry sources believe ESPN will ultimately pay $2.8B annually — though other industry sources insist it is still an earlier reported $2.6B — for the league's "A" package, which includes the NBA Finals, a conference final, weekly primetime games, the WNBA and likely shared international rights. NBC's proposed "B" package is believed to be worth between $2.5B and $2.6B annually and would probably include a "Basketball Night in America" or "Sunday Night Basketball" following the NFL season, a total of two primetime windows a week, conference semifinals and a conference final. Amazon's deal is believed to be worth between $1.8B and $2B and would likely include the Emirates In-Season Tournament, the SoFi Play-In Tournament, first-round playoff games, the WNBA and international rights.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Sky Rookie Angel Reese Named Newest Owner of DC Power Football Club
Per The Athletic, WNBA rookie and former college basketball star Angel Reese can now add “professional sports owner” to her resume. Reese is the newest owner of DC Power Football Club, the new Washington, D.C.-based professional women’s soccer team that will begin play in the USL Super League this summer, the team announced Tuesday.
^{The Athletic}

NFL Votes to Loosen Debt Limits For Team Sales
SBJ is reporting that buyers of NFL teams will now be allowed to borrow up to $1.4B to help finance the transaction, $200M more than before, under rule changes approved yesterday by owners. The change is intended as a partial solution to the growing challenge of finding people wealthy enough to buy teams under the league’s rules. It was recommended by the five-member special committee on ownership policy, which is evaluating a series of ways to increase liquidity in the NFL team equity market, including opening minority ownership to private equity.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Stanley Cup Playoffs Racing Toward Record Audience
SBJ has reported that the NHL is on pace for its best Stanley Cup Playoff average on record. After two rounds, games across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, and truTV have averaged 1.16 million viewers, the best figure on record following a conference semifinal round and up 9% from 2023. The second round was also the best conference semifinals ever on cable TV in the U.S. (1.55 million viewers, up 12% from the same round last year). 
^{Sports Business Journal}

Audience Analysis: Preakness Stakes, NASCAR All-Star Race Both Hit Three-Year Highs
NBC drew 5.5 million viewers for the race segment of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday afternoon. FS1 averaged 2.57 million viewers for the NASCAR All-Star Race from North Wilkesboro, marking the best figure for the event since 2021, when it was run in Texas in mid-June (2.74 million).
^{Sports Business Journal}

Penn State’s $700M Plan Signals an Intensifying Facility Arms Race
“We are behind, both in fixing the necessary structural needs in the stadium, and [in] what we provide our fans,” said Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft. “It is time for Penn State to catch up to its peers. Beaver Stadium should be more than just average, more than just comparable to others. … Doing nothing is not an option.”
^{Front Office Sports}

NFL Draft Heading to Pittsburgh in 2026
"The NFL Draft is one of the biggest, most-anticipated sporting events of the year, and we're thrilled to partner with the Pittsburgh Steelers and VisitPITTSBURGH for our 2026 event," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "We have a unique opportunity to spotlight this wonderful community on a global stage, benefiting Pittsburgh's economy and entertaining football fans from all markets. We know this pride of Pennsylvania will shine bright in 2026."
^{Yahoo! Sports}

NFL Hires Stephanie Kwok as VP of Flag Football: Why the League is Investing in the Sport
As The Athletic’s David Lombardi writes, “Flag football has seen a rapid recent expansion. It’s even been approved to be included in both the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games…To that end, the league has created a new executive position: vice president, head of flag football. On Tuesday, the NFL announced it has hired Stephanie Kwok, a Stanford alumnus and Harvard Business School graduate, to this new role overseeing flag football.
^{The Athletic}

With College Sports at Critical Juncture, Private Equity Groups Pushing for Their Piece
Per Yahoo Sports, The ACC has joined the Big 12 as the second named party in House v. NCAA to vote to settle that case and related antitrust cases, sources told ESPN on Tuesday. Big 12 presidents and chancellors voted virtually Tuesday afternoon to unanimously approve, with departing members Texas and Oklahoma abstaining. The 12 continuing members from this year's conference all voted to pass.

The settlement is widely expected to pass, which will chart a new course for college sports in establishing a framework for schools to share millions of dollars with their athletes in the future and create a fund of more than $2.7 billion to pay former athletes who were not allowed to sign name, image and likeness deals.
^{Yahoo! Sports}

With $2.8B Settlement Looming, NCAA's Smaller Conferences Feeling Squeezed: 'What Other Options Are There?'
“It’s both ironic and a gut punch,” Big Sky Conference commissioner Tom Wistrcill told Yahoo Sports in an interview Tuesday. “The SEC and the Big Ten are announcing record revenues and distributions to their members while I’m looking at a 10% operating budget cut so that money can go to their former student-athletes.”
^{Yahoo! Sports}

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