Sport & Story Daily September 26, 2023

Stay Ahead of the Game

September 26, 2023

Good morning! IndyCar’s new schedule sees a long-time staple hit the pits. Meanwhile, NBC Sports sees big gains from two powerhouses…

🏎 IndyCar lays out calendar for the 2024 season
IndyCar rolled out its schedule for next year, with events that will include the return to the Milwaukee Mile next season while Texas Motor Speedway is off the slate for the first time since 1997. The 17-race schedule features two Saturday night races, a $1 million all-star race in Southern California, 12 races on NBC and a shift of the season finale to downtown Nashville. Read more here.

🎾 Haggerty to continue as ITF President for third term
David Haggerty was re-elected as the President of the International Tennis Federation at its Annual General Meeting in Cancun on Sunday. He is slated to serve a four-year term from 2023 to 2027 after defeating Germany’s Dietloff von Arnim to the top job. The election marks his third term as President with him first taking over in 2015. Read more here.

📺 Ohio State/Notre Dame thriller becomes NBC’s most watched regular-season college football game since 1993
Records for Notre Dame’s “Game of the Century” in 1993 were nearly toppled with NBC Sports’ coverage of Ohio State’s win over the Irish on Saturday, handing the company with its largest regular-season college football audience in 30 years. The Buckeyes’ three-point victory over the Fighting Irish averaged 10.5 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and NBC Sports Digital. Read more here.

🎮 EA Sports FC unveils new esports ecosystem
EA Sports unveiled a new esports ecosystem for its newest football video game franchise. EA Sports FC Pro will serve as a new global circuit for EAFC players to compete in one-versus-one competitions throughout 2023 and 2024 and consist of two regular-season competitions known as FC Pro Open and FC Pro Leagues. In addition to the arrival of FC Pro, EA Sports has also confirmed the return of the eChampions League competition for 2024. Read more here.

🎥 ESPN reportedly relocating from New York Seaport studio by 2025
ESPN’s Seaport studio in New York is reportedly preparing to close its doors. According to Puck News, the company is planning on relocating from the Seaport studio to a new building at 7 Hudson Square by the 2025 fiscal year. The report also says that ESPN “is likely” to shut down its Los Angeles production center, with staff working there either moving back east or remotely working. Read more here.

Supercross-Motocross come together after 50 years

The inaugural SuperMotocross (SMX) World Championship wrapped up this past weekend in Los Angeles. Team Honda HRC’s Jett Lawrence earned the overall win on Saturday night, along with the points needed to become the sport's first SMX World Champion and the $1 million grand prize bonus.

The SMX World Championship is the culmination of the Monster Energy Supercross (think: preeminent off-road series) and AMA Pro Motocross (think: leading grassroots series) seasons. The two homologated motorcycle racing series came together this year, their 50th seasons, to establish a joint postseason and maximize their collective media rights values.

The strategic partnership has also made it easier to promote their respective seasons, and to tell “the story of [the OEM] brands, [the] athletes, [and the] sport for 10-11 [consecutive] months,” John Hinz (CEO, KTM North America) said.

As a result, race entries, fan attendance, and television viewership are all on the rise; and increased OEM and sponsor interest has followed.

“It’s the collective voice that we’re all finally on the same page with a common goal to grow the sport and grow motorcycling [driving business growth],” Dave Prater (VP, Supercross) said.

Read the rest of this at JohnWallStreet.

Chicago Bears’ investors buy into Bill Foley’s soccer company
Ryan Sports Ventures, the sports investment division of the Chicago-based Ryan family, has acquired a minority stake in Bill Foley’s Black Knight Football Club, owner of the English Premier League’s AFC Bournemouth. The financial details of the investment have not been disclosed.
sportico.com

WestJet announces official Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic partnership
WestJet, along with The National Hockey League announced it will serve as the official airline of the 2023 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic on Oct. 29. Returning to its city of origin, the tournament will be hosted at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium at 5 p.m. MT in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the outdoor NHL game.
paxeditions.com

Range Media Partners acquires Stoked Management Group to bolster sports vertical
Range Media Partners acquired the upstart athletic management shop Stoked to bolster its in-house sports vertical, Range Sports. Announced on Monday, Range brings Stoked clients and executives into the fold including veteran Lowell Taub, who has been named chief revenue officer and head of athlete marketing at Range Sports.
variety.com

24 Hours of Le Mans drives 113 million global viewers
No fewer than 196 countries offered TV coverage of the event and 113 million viewers tuned in: two-and-a-half times more than last year. The 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans will be held from June 12 to 16, with an illustrious line-up already taking shape.
24h-lemans.com

NBA 2022-23 season scored 100m unique viewers in India
As the NBA 2023-2024 season gets set to start in October, the league, which has made international expansion a key priority, has issued data showing that NBA games attracted record numbers of viewers in India during the 2022-2023 season. The NBA said that 2022-23 NBA season was the league's most-watched ever in India, surpassing 100 million unique viewers across linear, social media and digital media platforms for the first time ever. tvtechnology.com

NBC Sports presents comprehensive live coverage of 44th Ryder Cup across NBC, USA Network and Peacock
NBC Sports offers coverage from the first tee shot of the Ryder Cup to the final putt from Friday-Sunday, totaling 100-plus hours of live coverage during Ryder Cup week from Marco Simone including on-site studio coverage and featured matches. Dan Hicks and Terry Gannon handle play-by-play, while Paul Azinger and Justin Leonard are analysts.
nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com

Peachtree Sports Network launches statewide on Gray stations
Peachtree Sports Network, Gray Television’s newest sports broadcast channel, will launch Sunday, Oct. 1, on WPCH Atlanta ch. 17.2. The channel will focus on live, local sports programming all year long and will feature teams from multiple sports across the state. The broadcast network will launch in Atlanta but will soon air on Gray-owned over-the-air channels in Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, and Savannah in the coming months.
tvnewscheck.com

How an extinct saber-toothed cat made Regions the Nashville Predators' first jersey patch sponsor
More than 50 years ago, some 30 feet below ground at 315 Deaderick St., the Nashville Predators' relationship with Regions Bank began. Neither the franchise nor the bank existed that day in 1971, when construction workers manning a backhoe discovered the 11,000-year-old bones of a saber-toothed cat, including a 9-inch fang, while digging at the site of what would first be known as the national headquarters of First American National Bank.
tennessean.com

Commanders still face legal fight over former name
The Native American Guardian’s Association — a nonprofit organization aimed at advancing cultural and ethnic awareness —filed a defamation lawsuit against the team in U.S. District Court in North Dakota, claiming a “coordinated and willful effort” by the team to defame and delegitimize the organization both verbally and in writing.
frontofficesports.com

Robbie Hummel to continue calling Big Ten basketball on NBC, FOX
Robbie Hummel, one of the Big Ten’s predominant analysts, is leaving ESPN to join NBC and FOX to continue calling the contests. News of the move first reported by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post on Monday morning. barrettsportsmedia.com

Tuesday Trivia
In the game of Cribbage, how many points does a player need to win?
Answer to last week’s question: Sakata competed in weightlifting.

Thanks for reading!

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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Sept72