Sport & Story Daily October 11, 2024: 40-Year Minn. Twins Era Ends

Sport & Story Daily October 11, 2024

After 40 Years, the Pohlad Family is Selling the Minnesota Twins

October 11, 2024

Good morning! 40-Year Minn. Twins Era Ends

Minnesota Twins to Be Put Up For Sale By Pohlad Family
The Minnesota Twins will change hands as the Pohlad family, which has owned the organization since 1984, has decided to sell. The news was first reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and confirmed by MLB.com.

As Yahoo! Sports notes, businessman Carl Pohlad purchased the team in 1984 from the Griffith family, which had owned the team since its inception as the Washington Senators in 1919 and moved the club to Minneapolis in 1961. Under the Pohlad family's leadership, Minnesota won the World Series in 1987 and 1991 and moved from the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome to Target Field in 2010.
Yahoo! Sports

Yahoo Sports and The Athletic Partner to Launch a New Digital Destination for Comprehensive Women’s Sports Coverage
Yahoo Sports and The Athletic have partnered to create a new home for comprehensive women’s sports coverage. The destination—a women’s sports hub on the Yahoo Sports website and app—will guide fans to written, audio, and video content produced by Yahoo Sports and The Athletic. The coverage will be free and available globally; a subscription to The Athletic is not required.
Yahoo! Sports

Nike Has Lost Some Mojo. But Not Its Market Share
As FOS reports, Nike’s global market share (for sneakers and apparel) dropped to 16.4% in 2024 from 17.1% in 2022.

The online opinion seems just as grim: “Nike sucks right now,” WearTesters told their 880,000 YouTube subscribers. Nike “ran off course,” Business of Fashion wrote. The Drum pinpointed Nike’s “dwindling cultural equity.” 

Still, though, FOS says the brand “still ‘has no parallel’ in scope and size.”
Front Office Sports

USC’s JuJu Watkins Partners With Gatorade in Multiyear Deal
Per SBJ, USC women’s basketball player JuJu Watkins is the latest athlete to partner with Gatorade as part of a new multiyear deal. This is the third NIL deal PepsiCo-owned Gatorade has done after “prior pacts with UConn G Paige Bueckers and former Iowa G Caitlin Clark.” Watkins, a first-team All-American last season and national freshman of the year, will be among Gatorade endorsers featured in a national ad campaign that will roll out later this fall.
Sports Business Journal

Islanders Ink First Jersey Patch Deal With Solo Stove
The Islanders and UBS Arena have signed a multiyear partnership with Solo Stove that allows the outdoor lifestyle brand to be the Islanders’ exclusive jersey patch partner, the franchise’s first. Solo Stove’s flame logo will be stitched into the jerseys of the Islanders and AHL Bridgeport Islanders for all home and away games beginning this season. As part of the partnership, the plaza outside UBS Arena will also be named Solo Stove Plaza.
Sports Business Journal

Source: CW May Call Some NASCAR Races Remotely
Nexstar Media Group’s The CW is considering having its NASCAR booth call some of its races next year remotely from NASCAR Studios in North Carolina, according to sources, amid a broader shift to the practice in the sports media industry. The CW signed a seven-year deal from 2025-31 to air the full season for $115M annually, but it’s getting a head start because NBC Sports agreed to let it air the final eight races of the season to help fans get used to the series’ new home.
Sports Business Journal

Former NFL MVP Quarterback Cam Newton Joins ESPN’s ‘First Take’
Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton signed a contract with ESPN on Thursday as the former MVP will largely be a commentator on ESPN’s morning show “First Take,” alongside Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim. His first appearance will be today at Tennessee State University as part of the show’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) roadshow.
The Athletic

Jets Interim [Coach] Jeff Ulbrich Replaces Nathaniel Hackett With Todd Downing as the Offense’s Play Caller
As AP News Dennis Waszak writes, “Jeff Ulbrich shook up the New York Jets’ struggling offense in his first major move as interim head coach” by replacing Nathaniel Hackett as the offensive play-caller with Todd Downing. Downing, the Jets’ passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach, takes over as New York prepares for a showdown with the AFC East-rival Buffalo Bills on Monday night.

Waszak writes, “Hackett—who is close to quarterback Aaron Rodgers—will remain the offensive coordinator in title, but is taking a back seat to Downing in what is now an undefined role.”
AP News

Nick Nickson Enters Final Season of Play-by-Play Broadcasting, as Local Broadcast Schedule Announced
“There comes a moment when you get a sense that it is the right time to move on, and I feel that after this season it will be that time,” LA Kings Broadcaster Nick Nickson said. “Shortly after graduating from college in 1975, I began my hockey broadcasting career, and it has been an absolute privilege to bring the game to the listeners and viewers from one season to the next. Through it all, I have enjoyed calling every shot, every save, every goal, and two Stanley Cups.”
LA Kings Insider

The Citadel Athletic Director Mike Capaccio to Retire
After thirteen years at The Citadel, the last six years as Director of Athletics, Mike Capaccio announced his retirement as athletics director today. Capaccio has spent more than 40 years in college athletics as a player, coach, fundraiser and athletic director.  A national search for a replacement will begin soon, with Capaccio staying on through the selection, hiring and onboarding of a replacement.
Citadel Sports

AP Photo/Jon Super

In Wrexham, the ‘Rob and Ryan Effect’ Goes Beyond the Soccer Club as Tourism and Investments Grow
Tourism revenue in Wrexham reached about 180 million pounds ($235 million) in 2023, up 20% from the year before and almost 50% since 2018, according to Ian Bancroft, chief executive of Wrexham County Borough Council, via AP News.

As “The Rob and Ryan Effect” takes hold, businesses investing in or relocating to Wrexham have boosted the local economy.
AP News

Five Years After Fallout, Adam Silver Believes NBA Will Return to China
“I think we will bring back games to China at some point,” Silver said Thursday at a sports management conference at Columbia University. “We had a well-known incident there pre-pandemic with a tweet and China’s government took us off the air for a period of time. We accepted that. We stood by our values.”
The Athletic

USATSI

NIL Company Co-Founded by Ex-NBA Player Kendrick Perkins Accused of Predatory Practices, Per Report
As CBS Sports’ Kyle Boone reports, “An NIL company co-founded by former NBA player Kendrick Perkins in February faces scrutiny after an ESPN investigative report found the company used predatory tactics akin to offering high-interest loans. The company, Nilly, offers athletes upfront payments in return for the use of, or sale of, an athlete's name, image and likeness (NIL) for up to seven years. As part of the arrangement, Nilly and its backers foot advances to its athletes and in return receive a cut of future NIL earnings from the player.”
CBS Sports

Breaking: Big 12 Reportedly to Hire WAC Commissioner Brian Thornton
ESPN’s Pete Thamel tweeted, “Sources: The Big 12 is set to hire WAC Commissioner Brian Thornton as the league’s new vice president of men’s basketball. Thornton brings experience as the AAC’s associate commissioner for basketball.”
X/Twitter

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