Sport & Story Daily November 13, 2023

Stay Ahead of the Game

November 13, 2023

Good morning! As Gotham FC lays claim to the this year’s NWSL championship, commissioner Jessica Berman is already rolling out plans for next season, including expanding the playoffs…

With TV deal done, NWSL commissioner plots expansion, growth and revenues
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman addressed the media ahead of the 2023 NWSL Championship over the weekend. Fresh off announcing its new four-year media deals with CBS, ESPN, Amazon and Scripps, she said that the NWSL is launching the expansion process for the team that will join alongside Boston in 2026. In addition, the NWSL will expand the playoff field to eight teams in 2024. Read more here.

CFP names Air Force's Richard M. Clark executive director
Air Force Academy superintendent and Lt. General Richard M. Clark has been recruited as the next College Football Playoff executive director. "General Clark's experience leading the U.S Air Force Academy as a Three-star General and also being a four-year letter winner with the U.S Air Force Football team gives him a strong background to excel in this crucial leadership role," Mark Keenum, Mississippi State president and the chairman of the CFP board of managers, said in a statement. Read more here.

Panthers/Bears up 40 percent as TNF continues surge
Even a battle between the Panthers and Bears failed to slow down this season’s Thursday Night Football train. The latest offering from Amazon Prime Video, between the 1-7 Panthers and 2-7 Bears, averaged a 4.6 rating and 9.56 million viewers for a rise of 40% in ratings and 41% in viewership from last year’s equivalent game. All nine Thursday Night Football games this season have posted a double-digit increase in viewership. Read more here.

NASCAR Cup Series viewership dips 5% in 2023
With another season in the books, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series saw an overall 5% decline in viewers this season compared to last year, averaging 2.86 million viewers across NBC, FOX, FS1 and USA Network. That is off-pace from the 3.03 million that the series notched in 2022. Read more here.

NHL Big City Greens Classic returning to ESPN
ESPN revealed that the NHL Big City Greens Classic would be returning for a second edition this spring, per SBJ. The program debuted early this year and showcased live, real-time volumetric animations of players and teams modeled after characters on the Emmy Award-winning show "Big City Greens." Read more here.

Astros, Rockets decision to launch rebranded RSN runs counter to recent Pay TV exits

Teams across the pro sports landscape are pivoting from a regional sports network model that has dominated local distribution for the last three decades to various ‘stream and beam’ focused strategies.

The Houston Astros and Houston Rockets are not amongst them. The two Texas-based clubs acquired their local home, AT&T SportsNet Southwest, from Warner Bros. Discovery in late September and relaunched the channel as Space City Home Network in early October. The teams plan to continue broadcasting their ’ non-nationally televised games inside of the Pay TV bundle.

The Astros and Rockets acknowledge that they aren’t certain remaining on a regional sports network is the most lucrative path forward. But they are content to be patient, maintain broad cable distribution in the Houston market (i.e., the RSN is not on a sports tier), and let the rapidly evolving media landscape play out before settling on a long-term distribution strategy.

“We had an opportunity to maintain a well-run operated network, that had big reach in our market, and to focus on [improving the] core business…and not the what ifs [of alternative channels],” Gretchen Sheirr (president, business operations, Houston Rockets) said. “We can monitor those along the way and now, in partnership with the Astros, pivot and make adjustments through this RSN model as other opportunities become available that might make sense; whether that is through revenue or incremental reach.”

Read the rest of this at JohnWallStreet.

Penn Entertainment CEO says ESPN had to launch sports betting to keep consumers
At the recent ESPN Edge event, Penn CEO Jay Snowden was honest in sharing that diving into sports betting was something ESPN had to do to keep fans on its platforms. If fans are leaving ESPN’s websites and apps to place a bet, it doesn’t make sense for their business. Why should ESPN lose fans and consumers that they could capture with a sports betting operation of their own?
awfulannouncing.com

Warner Bros. Discovery lost 2.5 million streaming subscribers in the last 6 months while its rivals grew—and sports are partly to blame
Until recently, Max didn’t stream live sports as its competitors do. The platform announced that it would offer a free live sports streaming tier that includes MLB, NHL, NBA, College Basketball, and U.S. Soccer from Oct. 5 until March 2024, after which it will cost an extra $10 monthly. In contrast, Disney has long owned ESPN and ESPN+, Apple TV hosts Major League Soccer and carries MLB games, and Peacock simulcasts several sports, including NFL games and WWE events.
yahoo.com

Zach Bryan to headline Bud Light’s Super Bowl concert
Country star Zach Bryan will headline Bud Light’s concert event taking place two days before the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The Feb. 9 concert at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan kicks off a second year of the Bud Light Backyard Tour series and marks a new partnership between the Anheuser Busch InBev-owned beer brand and Bryan, whose self-titled album hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in September.
adage.com

Kipsta replaces Molten as Europa League, Conference League ball supplier
Kipsta, the Decathlon-owned football brand, will replace Molten as the official ball supplier of the UEFA Europa League and Conference League in the next three-year cycle.
sportbusiness.com

Q&A: DAZN CEO Joseph Markowski is upbeat about the future of boxing despite its problems
Showtime announced it would shutter its boxing broadcasts next year, joining HBO in dropping the sport. The moves leave streaming service DAZN as the established U.S. home for boxing while other networks and platforms weigh whether to move forward with the sport. DAZN chief executive Joseph Markowski talked with Times sports culture critic Tyler Tynes about the future of boxing broadcasts, the rise of celebrity boxing and more.
latimes.com

Ratings: NBA, Formula 1 and more
After slipping below last year’s pace a week ago, NBA viewership on ESPN and TNT is back up nine percent to an average of 1.94 million. ESPN on Wednesday averaged 1.85 million for Warriors-Nuggets and 1.65 million for Spurs-Knicks — up 47 and 20 percent respectively from last year’s doubleheader of Grizzlies-Trail Blazers (1.26M) and Celtics-Cavaliers (1.37M).
sportsmediawatch.com

LIV Golf to revive successful tournament for 2024
LIV Golf has announced it is returning to Australia for a 2024 event. Though an official schedule for the league has not been released, LIV CEO Greg Norman confirmed that the Saudi-backed circuit is planning to visit the Grange Golf Club in Adelaide next season. It is the first stop named as LIV moves towards its third campaign.
golfdigest.com

ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 fetches approximately 450 million viewers on television after 34 games
The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 continued its viewership run as the competition gathered an estimated 450 million viewers after the first 34 fixtures on television. According to BARC, in terms of total watch consumption on the linear TV, there is a 10% spike in comparison to the 2019 edition. In addition, the tournament’s Average Time Spent (ATS) per viewer has also increased by 18%.
sportsmintmedia.com

DSG looks to shed even more team rights
The bankrupt Diamond Sports Group began the week with a dramatic deal with the NBA to return all its team rights to the league at the end of the 2023-24 season. Now, similar efforts could be developing with the NHL and MLB, too.
frontofficesports.com

MLB owners to vote on A’s move this week
The owners of Major League Baseball’s 30 franchises will gather this week in Arlington, Texas, for their annual meeting. The highlight of the agenda: a vote on the Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas. The A’s will need 23 of those owners to vote in favor of the move, which includes a proposal for a $1.5 billion ballpark at the Tropicana site on the south Strip.
lasvegassun.com

Bayern Munich reports record revenues of $913 million
Bayern Munich has emerged from the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic in good financial health after reporting record total revenues of 854.2 million euros ($913 million) for the 2022-23 season. The previous record was 750.4 million euros ($802 million) from 2018-19.
apnews.com

U.S. Soccer makes three executive hirings to advance federation’s priorities and initiatives on growth
U.S. Soccer announced three additions to the Federation’s executive leadership including Chelle Adams as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Abe Geiger as Chief Product Officer, and Shari Summers as Chief Soccer Growth Officer. Together, the three will help the Federation with internal alignment and external engagement across the U.S. Soccer membership ecosystem on the Federation’s strategic priorities.
ussoccer.com

Rich Shertenlieb out at 98.5 The Sports Hub
One of — if not the — most popular sports radio shows in America is ending. Toucher & Rich co-host Rich Shertenlieb has departed 98.5 The Sports Hub. Shertenlieb had been paired with Toucher for the past 17 years, and had been on 98.5 The Sports Hub since 2009.
barrettsportsmedia.com

Post-weekend Pic Puzzle
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Sport & Story Daily and Sports & Story College are the sport industry’s daily resource for business news. In addition to serving up exclusive trends, Q&As, and columns, the newsletter connects reads to top platforms and stories from across the sports landscape.

Chris Pursell is the founder of staple industry events such as the Cynopsis Sports Business Awards, the Esports Business Summit, the CMO Exchange, the Tempest Awards, and the Esports Newfronts. He was previously a reporter and editor for publications such as Variety and The Los Angeles Times and launched leading business publications for Cynopsis and PromaxBDA.

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