Sport & Story Daily June 10, 2024

Stay Ahead of the Game

June 10, 2024

Good morning! “We’ll always have Paris.” Nope.

As usual, Caitlin Clark dominated most of the sports media discussion over the weekend because many perceived a snub as she was left out of the upcoming Paris Olympics. Below are two perspectives on the topic: 👇🏼

Caitlin Clark: ‘No Disappointment’ Over U.S. Olympics Women’s Basketball Roster Omission
Caitlin Clark said she has “no disappointment” regarding the recent news that she’s expected to be left off the Team USA women’s basketball roster for the upcoming Paris Olympics. The Indiana Fever rookie sensation said she was informed of the decision ahead of the news — which has been the source of widespread commentary and debate — becoming public.
^{The Atlantic}

Don’t Be Upset With Caitlin Clark Being Left Off Olympics Roster
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel writes, “USA Basketball appears set to do the right thing, just not the fun thing. Call it a rare victory of reality and competition over marketing and money. Even the biggest Caitlin Clark fan in America can appreciate that; a victory for what should be rather than what normally occurs.

“The U.S. women’s basketball Olympic roster began getting leaked out this weekend, news that, before this year, mattered only to the most hardcore of women’s basketball fans.”
^{Yahoo! Sports}

UA’s Plank Has Four Years to Double Stock Price—and $325M to Gain
Per Sportico, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank will receive at least $26 million if he helps the company’s stock reach $13 in the next four years. Should that happen, his total compensation will jump thanks to his 53 million shares of the company.

According to a Thursday SEC filing, Plank, who returned as the company’s CEO in March, will receive an annual base salary of $900,000.
^Sportico

Brewers Owner Attanasio, Chapus in Talks On 25% Benfica Stake
Per Sportico, Crescent Capital managing partners Mark Attanasio and Jean-Marc Chapus are in talks to acquire about 25% of Portuguese soccer club SL Benfica, according to someone familiar with the talks.

Benfica is publicly traded in Lisbon as Sport Lisboa e Benfica Futebol SAD (or Benfica SAD). Chapus and Attanasio are in negotiations to buy the stake from a private shareholder, said the person, who was granted anonymity because the talks are ongoing.
^Sportico

Sources: France Family Charter Change Included in Latest Offer to NASCAR Terms
The family has owned and controlled NASCAR Holdings since the inception of the racing series in 1948 by Bill France Sr. The current version of the charter agreement, which was implemented in 2015 and expires after 2024, bars any member of the France family who has an active role in NASCAR event management from owning a stake in a charter. In discussions with teams about the new agreement, NASCAR had broached the idea of changing that clause so that someone in the family could now buy a charter.
^{Sports Business Journal}

WNBA Media Rights Come Into Focus as NBA Talks Winding Down
The WNBA and NBA currently have just one joint broadcast partner: Disney, which reportedly pays roughly $40M of The W’s current $60M domestic media rights deal. The WNBA’s simultaneous deals with Amazon Prime Video, CBS and ION -- along with Disney -- expire following the 2025 season, leaving Commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s negotiators the ability to re-up with presumptive future NBA partners Disney and Amazon and also hand-pick among NBC, WBD, CBS, ION or perhaps others.
^{Sports Business Journal}

WBD’s U.S. French Open Deal For 10 Years, $650M
While Variety reported that Warner Bros. Discovery had made a deal with the French Open, THE ATHLETIC notes it is a 10-year, $650M deal making WBD the new home of the French Open

in the U.S. beginning in 2025. The move comes as WBD, which is the home of TNT Sports, is “in the midst of negotiations with the NBA as it tries to hang on to some rights to games.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

MLB Forges Ahead With Global Tour, Aims to Clear European Hurdles
Per FOS, the Mets and Phillies will play a series on Saturday and Sunday at London Stadium (above), home of the Premier League’s West Ham United. The event, part of the ongoing MLB World Tour, is the third set of games in London following Yankees–Red Sox in 2019 and Cubs-Cardinals last year. 
^{Front Office Sports}

Mets Owner Steve Cohen Says ‘Fans Have Been Through Worse,’ Eyes Turnaround
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen says his team can still turn around its season and fans “have been through worse." Cohen praised his front office and manager Carlos Mendoza during a news conference Sunday before the Mets rallied for a 6-5 win over the rival Philadelphia Phillies to split their two-game London Series. As Yahoo Sports notes, the victory left the Mets eight games under .500 just more than seven weeks from the July 30 trade deadline.
^{Yahoo! Sports}

Red Stars Set NWSL Crowd Record at Wrigley Field
NWSL club Bay FC earned a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Red Stars before a “record-breaking crowd" of 35,038 at Wrigley Field. Saturday’s announced attendance broke the former league record of 34,130, set in October 2023 at Lumen Field for former soccer player Megan Rapinoe’s final regular-season match. As the Chicago Tribune notes, the game also “marked the first professional women’s sporting event at the ballpark” since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League hosted the stadium’s first night game in 1943.
^{Sports Business Journal}

If NCAA House Settlement is Approved, Smaller Schools Could Take the Brunt of the Impact
“We don’t know the unintended consequences of what this looks like,” a small-conference commissioner told me, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. “Do all these things like collectives and scholarship limits — do they all go away because the institution can now pay for these things? At the Power 5 level, they’re probably fine with this; the Group of 5 is probably more in the middle; and then you’ve got the lower-level DIs that get the DI basketball revenue and will have to take a cut. They’re the ones who this is going to hurt the most.”
^{The Atlantic}

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