Sport & Story Daily October 4, 2023

Stay Ahead of the Game

October 4, 2023

Good morning! The TGL sponsorship stakes are off and running as the upcoming league prepares to tee off in 2024, landing Sofi as a presenting partner…

⛳ SoFi & TMRW Sports announce long-term partnership including presenting sponsor of TGL & venue naming rights partner
TMRW Sports formally announced a multi-year, wide-ranging commercial partnership with SoFi Technologies, which will become presenting sponsor of TGL, the new tech-forward, primetime, team golf league developed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports. Additionally, the league’s purpose-built arena in Palm Beach on the campus of Palm Beach State College will be named the SoFiCenter. Read more here.

📺 ESPN’s NFL Week 4: Seahawks-Giants on Monday Night Football draws more than 16.6 million viewers
ESPN featured multiple game presentations during NFL’s Week 4, with Monday Night Football delivering more than 16.6 million viewers for Seahawks/Giants, up 32% from last season’s MNF Week 4 game. ESPN also says the Falcons/Jaguars traditional game presentation ranked as the most-viewed event ever on ESPN+, while the Toy Story Funday Football alternate presentation delivered the biggest live event to date on Disney+. Read more here.

💺 Rays draw smallest MLB postseason crowd since 1919 in loss to Rangers
Just 19,704 fans visited Tropicana Field to watch the Tampa Bay Rays fall to the Texas Rangers in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series. The last time a postseason game drew so few fans (in a non-COVID year) was Game 7 of the 1919 World Series. Read more here.

♦ WNBA officially approves Tom Brady’s ownership stake in the Aces
The WNBA’s owners officially approved Tom Brady’s bid Monday to purchase a stake in the Las Vegas Aces. The team announced in March that he had acquired a minority share in the championship team. Read more here.

🎮 IESF appoints Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal as President
The International Esports Federation named Saudi Arabian royal family member HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud as its Active President. IESF’s former President, Vlad Marinescu, has stepped down from his position. Read more here.

USGA, Ally near U.S. Women's Open sponsor deal
In 2022, the USGA signed ProMedica to a 10-year deal, but it lasted just one year Kiyoshi Mio/USA TODAY NETWORK The USGA is expected to make Ally the new presenting sponsor of the U.S. Women’s Open, replacing ProMedica, which lasted only one year out of a ten-year deal.
sportsbusinessjournal.com

Genius Sports, PLP roll out Premier League Data Zone worldwide
Data, technology and broadcast services group Genius Sports has signed a new deal with Premier League Productions (PLP) for the global rollout of its data zone feature, which is designed to enhance match broadcasts with live performance analytics and data-driven graphics.
sportbusiness.com

Miami Open inks Protective Life Corporation to deal
Protective Life Corporation, a national insurance and financial solutions provider, is making its debut in the tennis world as the exclusive Life Insurance Partner and Official Gold Partner of the Miami Open 2024 presented by Itaú tennis tournament. Through strategic initiatives and Miami Open Unites, Protective will look to be active in the community with a presence in the areas surrounding the tournament and involvement from some of tennis’s premier athletes.
miamiopen.com

NBA and Decathlon announce multiyear partnership expansion
Decathlon, one of the world’s largest sporting goods retailers, and the National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced a multiyear expansion of their existing merchandising partnership that will provide fans in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America with a wider range of officially-licensed NBA products.
theretailbulletin.com

ESPN drops new creative campaign ahead of NHL season
ESPN launched its National Hockey League (NHL) season-opening campaign, “To Know Hockey is to Love Hockey.” The creative debuted during ESPN’s coverage of the Monday Night Football game between the Seattle Seahawks and New York Giants and was designed to “showcase the electricity of the sport and its ability to capture the heads and hearts of fans.”
espnpressroom.com

MLB.TV sees record numbers in 2023
In the 2023 season, Major League Baseball reports that there were 12.7 billion minutes of action watched on the platform, up 9% from last year. Furthermore, the outlet has experienced a 14% increase in users, along with a concurrent 17% increase in the games watched. These changes are attributable to the remodeled portal, and likely the rules changes that have hastened play and grown offensive output.
barrettsportsmedia.com

NBC’s Ryder Cup TV viewership plummets as U.S. loses again on the road
The TV viewership numbers have been released for NBC’s coverage of the 2023 Ryder Cup, and it looks like U.S. fans weren’t particularly eager to watch the European team’s resounding victory in Rome. Facing drastic time differences and a down US squad, NBC garnered 1.414 million viewers on Saturday, the second day of competition, and just 1.315 million for Sunday’s singles matches, Sports Business Journal reported.
si.com

Overwatch League looking to build ‘revitalized esports program’ in near future
With its latest season wrapped up, Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League announced that the League will “focus on building a vision of a revitalized esports program,” suggesting a big overhaul before the next outing for the league. The year’s playoffs’ viewership was halved when compared to last year, continuing the trend of declining numbers for what was one of the most-anticipated esports leagues ever created.
esportsinsider.com

Afternoon swings lift FS1
FOX Sports is reporting that its afternoon programming on FS1 scored a record-setting September, bolstered by upticks for The Herd (up 39% year-over-year), First things First (up 113%) and Speak (up 77%). Both The Herd and First Things First also laid claim to their most-watched month ever.
twitter.com

Golden Knights, Maple Leafs lead NHL ticket demand on StubHub
The 2023-24 NHL season kicks off next week with a trio of games Tuesday night, including a faceoff between the league’s two newest teams, the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken. It is one of the NHL’s hottest tickets given the Knights will raise their Stanley Cup banner; the average price sold on StubHub so far: $465. Vegas is the NHL’s most in-demand team this season, according to StubHub’s preseason ticket report.
sportico.com

Fiji Airways Takes Flight as an Official Partner of the LA Galaxy
The LA Galaxy launched a wide-ranging new partnership with Fiji’s national airline, Fiji Airways. The multi-year agreement, brokered by AEG Global Partnerships, strategically aligns the brands and establishes Fiji Airways as an official partner of the club as well as a presenting partner of the Galaxy’s Torrance-based, multi-use athletic field. Effective immediately, the field will be known as the LA Galaxy Sports Complex Powered by Fiji Airways. This is Fiji Airways’ first partnership with an MLS team to date.
businesswire.com

Matt Shepard won’t return as Detroit Tigers TV voice
The Detroit Tigers and Bally Sports Detroit have decided that Matt Shepard won’t return to the team’s television broadcast booth in 2024. Shepard became the TV voice of the Tigers in 2019 after previous broadcasters Rod Allen and Mario Impemba were fired due to a physical altercation in 2018.
barrettsportsmedia.com

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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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