Sport & Story Daily September 18, 2023

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September 18, 2023

Good morning! Amazon is welcoming big returns, as TNF soars in season two on the platform…

🦅 Amazon sees spike for TNF return
The season debut of Amazon’s Thursday Night Football opened with a bang as the franchise notched a viewership high and across-the-board double-digit gains. The Vikings/Eagles matchup averaged 16.6 million viewers on the season premiere of TNF on Amazon Prime Video, according to Nielsen’s custom live streaming report, marking the largest TNF audience ever on the service. Ratings were up 12% and viewership 16%. Read more here.

💰 Goldman Sachs preps sports franchise unit for high net worth clients
WSJ writes that Goldman Sachs Group is planning to launch a new sports franchise unit for the company’s investment banking business, offering ownership stakes in private sports teams. The business will include the bank’s mergers and acquisitions practice, as well as its sports financing team to work with asset and wealth managers on offering investments in stadiums, teams and other high profile transactions. Read more here.

🤝🏼 Premier League’s Everton FC bought by investment firm 777 Partners
Miami-based investment firm 777 Partners locked in an agreement to acquire Everton FC, the Liverpool-based soccer club. Moshiri has owned a controlling stake in Everton since 2016, and 777 will acquire his 94.1% share of the club. Read more here.

⚽ U.S. Soccer plans to build a national training center and make a landmark move to Atlanta
The U.S. Soccer Federation locked in plans to build a national training center in Atlanta, which would become a “first-of-its-kind” facility that will become the federation's new headquarters and centralize most of its operations. U.S. Soccer has been based in Chicago since the early 1990s. The Atlanta facility, which will include everything from fields to office space, will become an all-in-one hub for the federation's commercial staff, youth national team camps, sporting operations and much more. Read more here.

📺 DirecTV And Nexstar call truce, letting millions view NFL football as companies finalize carriage deal
DirecTV and key station owner Nexstar Media Group ended a two-and-a-half month standoff and agreed to restore the signals of dozens of stations while the two companies finalize a carriage renewal. About 159 ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and CW affiliates went dark on July 2 due to distribution terms. Read more here.

Hypersonic air travel could alter landscape, money behind pro sports

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated his desire to play more games overseas and refused to rule out awarding permanent NFL franchise(s) to cities outside of the United States in a press conference earlier this month.

Goodell’s global expansion aspirations have seemingly been fueled by the league’s ability to successfully sellout multiple games in the same European cities (London, Frankfurt), and to grow fan engagement metrics across several other international markets.

The desire to maintain competitive balance across the league has kept the NFL from permanently parking franchises abroad. The time required to travel between the U.S. to Europe has historically been among the toughest obstacles to overcome.

For context, nonstop flights from Chicago to London take upwards of eight hours.

But the emergence of hypersonic air travel has the potential to change that dynamic, and drastically alter the physical landscape of –and money behind– professional sports in the process.

Hermeus recently announced it is building a plane that will be able to travel at speeds of 3,850 miles per hour. A planes moving that fast could get from Chicago to London in 90 minutes.

Click here to read the full story on JohnWallStreet.

Why JCPenney is investing in Amazon Prime’s ‘Thursday Night Football’
Prime Video has an entirely new slate of sponsors for “Thursday Night Football,” including one unlikely partner—JCPenney. The retailer is presenting sponsor of the postgame show beginning with Thursday's Vikings-Eagles game, which kicked off the second season of Amazon’s NFL slate after the streamer gained exclusive rights to the game last year.
adage.com

Disney talks on ABC sale heat up as Byron Allen makes offer
Media mogul Byron Allen offered $10 billion, albeit tentatively, for Disney’s flagship broadcast network as well as the FX and National Geographic cable channels, according to a person familiar with his proposal. Separately, Disney has held exploratory talks about ABC and its eight local TV stations with Nexstar Media Group Inc., people familiar with those discussions said.
bloomberg.com

Ferrari renews partnership with Puma
Italian sportscar maker Ferrari on Sunday said that its racing division has renewed a partnership with German sports goods maker Puma. Scuderia Ferrari has renewed its multi-year partnership with Puma, which will become its premium partner starting from next year, the company said, without mentioning the deal's value.
reuters.com

Spire Motorsports buys Live Fast Motorsports’ charter; deal worth around $40 million, per sources
The deal is worth approximately $40 million, persons briefed on the situation but not authorized to speak publicly told The Athletic. Spire acquiring Live Fast’s charter for the No. 78 team increases its count to three cars heading into the 2024 season. The team currently fields Cup Series teams for Corey LaJoie (No. 7) and Ty Dillon (No. 77), though Dillon is not expected to return to the organization next season.
theathletic.com

ESPN, ABC using double-box view in Monday Night NFL doubleheader
When the two games are overlapping on ESPN and ABC, both broadcasts will cross-promote by drawing attention to the other game during select points. There will be a double-box view that will give people the ability to watch both games at once, although it will not be in the user’s control as to when that appears on the screen. Each network will also have a smaller score bug that will display information about the concomitant game in real time.
barrettsportsmedia.com

ESPN’s Hispanic Heritage month kicks off year-long content initiative commemorating 20th anniversary of ESPN Deportes
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15), ESPN will kick off a year-long content initiative that commemorates the 20th anniversary of ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s Spanish-language network, to be celebrated on January 7, 2024. The campaign kicks off today, Friday, Sept. 15, will roll out gradually over the next year, and feature a slate of special programming in English and Spanish across ESPN platforms.
espnpressroom.com

NBCU’s Lazarus mulls NBA deal
NBC Sports lost the rights to the NBA in 2002, but it is reportedly interested in making a run to bring the league back to its platforms. During a recent appearance at the IMG Summit, NBCUniversal Media Group Chairman Mark Lazarus emphasized the nature of the appealing property.
barrettsportsmedia.com

Valve opens up Dota 2 esports with Dota Pro Circuit closure
Game developer Valve has announced that it will discontinue the Dota Pro Circuit, Dota 2’s top-tier tournament structure, after The International 2023. In the announcement, Valve admitted that the league created a ‘stranglehold’ on the events calendar and negatively impacted the ecosystem by reducing innovation and excitement.
esportsinsider.com

Commanders' stadium a hot property as D.C., Virginia, Maryland begin vying for leverage
With Snyder’s departure, new hope is blooming all around the DMV — D.C., Maryland, Virginia — region that a new stadium, or a significantly renovated FedEx Field, could rise up. A more modern facility could bring a Super Bowl to the D.C. area, and would be a significant step toward helping the franchise regain the luster it lost, and abandoned, during the Snyder era.
yahoo.com

Phoenix Suns encourage old-school TV viewing option with antenna giveaway
The Phoenix Suns are bringing old-school television viewing back, but the antennas the team is gifting to fans aren't your grandpa's "rabbit ears." The giveaway is part of the team's new television deal with Gray Television to broadcast all 70 non-exclusive regular-season Suns games on Arizona's Family, the region's channel 3 station.
yahoo.com

NRG departs Apex Legends & blames EA for not supporting esports
NRG Esports is leaving Apex Legends esports, citing EA’s lack of support for esports and organizations as a primary reason for leaving the game. The company has released the players on its ALGS squad and dropped many of its Apex Legends content creators months ago.
dexerto.com

Jamie Horowitz out as layoffs begin at WWE
Layoffs following the merger with Endeavor have cost WWE one of the biggest names behind the scenes in sports media. Jamie Horowitz has been let go from the company after spending the last two-plus years as its EVP of Development and Digital. Catherine Newman, WWE’s EVP and head of marketing, and Amanda Bloom, a director with the company, have also been let go.
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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