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- Sport & Story Daily October 9, 2024: NFL “Cannibalizing” WNBA Views
Sport & Story Daily October 9, 2024: NFL “Cannibalizing” WNBA Views
Sport & Story Daily October 8, 2024

The NFL Slate is “Cannibalizing” WNBA Viewership
October 9, 2024
Good morning! NFL “cannibalizing” WNBA views

Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Why WNBA Finals Are Threading the Needle During Peak Sports TV
As FOS’ Alex Schiffer and Colin Salao write, “The broadcast schedule feels like a missed opportunity for a league still making steep year-on-year viewership gains despite the significant drop-off since Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever were knocked out. But ESPN, which has exclusive WNBA playoff TV rights, broadcasts a full Saturday slate of college football games; earlier in the playoffs, it was airing MLB’s wild-card games. What it does not have is weekend NFL rights. The end result is that ESPN’s best window for the WNBA ends up being Sunday afternoons.”
The solution is coming in 2026, once the WNBA’s new $200 million per year media-rights deal kicks in. ESPN has owned the exclusive rights to the WNBA playoffs since 2003, but the new deal distributes playoff games to NBCUniversal and Amazon. This will allow them more opportunities to avoid NFL windows.
Front Office Sports

Billionaires and a $20 Million Red Card Are Reshaping U.S. Soccer
“We hope to prove to folks that we’re good stewards of capital—that by virtue of giving us money, you can see impact,” U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson said in an interview. “And if you look at our business over the last two years, we went from a business losing $40 million a year to one that will be quite profitable and is making record investment in things that years ago wouldn’t have seemed possible.”
Sportico

FanDuel Nearing Naming Rights Deal to Replace Bally Sports: Report
The sports gambling giant is reportedly nearing a deal to replace Bally as Diamond Sports' naming brand for its regional sports networks.
Diamond declared bankruptcy last year, with its parent, Sinclair, losing money since its $9.6 billion purchase from Disney in 2019. Diamond's networks broadcast 38 teams in MLB, the NBA and NHL.
Fox Business News
MLB Gets Local Rights For Guardians, Twins, Brewers
MLB has added three more teams under its TV umbrella. The league announced that it will broadcast and distribute local games for the Guardians, Brewers, and Twins for the 2025 season.
The Rangers are also leaving Diamond Sports Group, and evaluating their local media options for next season. SBJ’s Tom Friend previously reported that the Rangers are developing their own direct-to-distributor broadcast model, independent of MLB.
Sports Business Journal


Jets Stunningly Fire Coach Robert Saleh After a 2-3 Start and Tab Jeff Ulbrich as Interim
As AP News’ Dennis Waszak Jr. writes, “Owner Woody Johnson made the stunning decision Tuesday to fire Saleh five games into his fourth season after the team’s 2-3 start following a 23-17 loss to Minnesota in London on Sunday.”
“This was not an easy decision, but we are not where we should be given our expectations,” Johnson said in a statement. “And I believe now is the best time for us to move in a different direction.”
AP News
Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall to Retire From Organization at End of 2024
Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall, a “transformative figure who reshaped and energized the franchise during one of its darkest periods,” is retiring effective Dec. 31, according to SBJ via Brad Townsend of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Although she turns 65 on Dec. 15, her decision “comes as a surprise,” just three weeks before the start of the season. A few days ago, a source said that Marshall was “in contract-extension negotiations” with Mavericks Gov. PATRICK DUMONT.
Sports Business Journal
Former USMNT Manager Gregg Berhalter Named Director of Football, Head Coach of Chicago Fire: Sources
Former U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter has been hired as the Chicago Fire's director of football and head coach, according to sources briefed on the decision.
Berhalter, 51, was fired as coach of the U.S. team after they failed to get out of the group stage at the Copa America this summer. Berhalter previously led the U.S. back to the World Cup in 2022, where the Americans advanced from the group stage before falling to the Netherlands in the Round of 16.
The Athletic


Getty Images
Utah Hockey Club Gears Up For Inaugural Opening Night
Smith Entertainment Group has “embraced the challenge” of establishing the new Utah Hockey Club since it moved to Salt Lake City this past April, and the club is finally ready to hit the ice in its inaugural regular-season opener tonight, according to Nicholas Cotsonika of NHL.com via SBJ. Utah has sold about 8,500 full-season-ticket equivalents, even though Delta Center has 11,131 unobstructed seats for hockey for the time being.
Sports Business Journal


AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter
SEC, Big Ten Leaders Mulling Future of Fast-Changing College Sports
As AP News’ Eddie Pells writes, “The Big Ten and SEC already have the upper hand in college football. At meetings this week, their leaders are setting the stage to exact even more control over the sport’s future.
“Among the talking points when an advisory group made of members from the conferences meets in Nashville, Tennessee, are the future of the expanded college football playoff and a possible scheduling agreement between the two conferences that would indirectly make it harder for the rest of college football to compete for the 12 or possibly 14 spots available in the postseason. No final decisions are expected this week…”
The Athletic
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