Sport & Story Daily March 22, 2024

Stay Ahead of the Game

March 22, 2024

Good morning! Women Already Win March Madness

Women’s Hoops Set to Break March Madness Viewership Marks
As FOS’ David Rumsey reports, “ESPN, the sole broadcaster of the women’s tournament, had its most-watched regular season of women’s college basketball on the network’s platforms since 2008–09, averaging 476,000 viewers across games on ESPN and ABC. That growth builds on several broken records during the ’23 tournament, including the most-viewed women’s college hoops telecast with 9.9 million viewers for LSU’s victory over Iowa in the final on ABC. In ’23, ESPN also had record viewership for the Final Four weekend as a whole, as well as Elite Eight and Sweet 16 action.”
^{frontofficesports.com}

NBA G League Team Ignite Shuts Down Amid NIL Changes
The NBA announced the shuttering of its G League Ignite program Tuesday, citing the NCAA’s new NIL and transfer policies among the reasons for the decision. The team will play its final game on March 28 against the Ontario Clippers.

“Four years ago, we started Ignite to fill a void in the basketball landscape, and I’m proud of the contributions we were able to make to that ecosystem,” G League president Shareef Abdur-Rahim said in a statement. “With the changing environment across youth and collegiate basketball, now is the right time to take this step.”
^sportico.com

Comscore Beats Nielsen to MRC Accreditation for TV Measurement Using Big Data
Comscore has gotten Media Rating Council accreditation for total household and average audience measurement in national and local TV, making it the first measurement company to get the approval for using “big data” measurement nationally on TV.
^adage.com

Ken Griffin and the $7.5 Billion Dolphins Deal That Wasn’t
As John Ourand of Puck writes, “The size of the position Griffin was set to acquire remains unclear, but the deal would have valued the team—and its arena, Hard Rock Stadium—at $7.5 billion, which would have considerably eclipsed the current record for a transaction. (Unsurprisingly, given his history in the real estate and REIT business, Ross is one of four NFL owners—alongside Josh Harris, the Patriots’ Bob Kraft, and the Panthers’ David Tepper—who also own their own stadium and the peripheral real estate.) Last year, Harris, a private equity mogul, paid a then-record $6 billion for the Commanders and FedEx Field.”
^puck.news

Sony-Verizon Headsets Sponsorship Deal on NFL Owners’ Agenda
Under the deal, two brands would share the rights to the NFL’s biggest vacant asset: Sony and current 5G and tech sponsor Verizon. The exact contours of that collaboration are still up in the air, but we understand Verizon would get headset branding at league-owned events (such as the Super Bowl) and Sony gets the regular season.
^{sportsbusinessjournal.com}

Disney Sales Team Cleans Up on March Madness Ad Market
The Walt Disney Co. telegraphed the degree to which it is committed to women’s sports earlier this year when it signed off on an eight-year, $920 million extension of its NCAA rights agreement. At the time the deal was finalized, NCAA president Charlie Baker said the women’s basketball tournament alone was worth $65 million per year, or around 57% of Disney’s total annual payment of $115 million.

What a difference a few years makes. In 2016, Baker’s predecessor, Mark Emmert, revealed that while the men’s hoops tourney was the only postseason event that makes the NCAA money, ‘women’s basketball loses $14 million by itself.’”
^sportico.com

Aramark Takes Over F&B at Giants' Oracle Park
"It was a very short timeline, which is unusual,” said Aramark Sports + Entertainment President & CEO Alison Birdwell, who didn’t know the details of why the Giants decided to split with longtime F&B partner, Bon Appetit. "There was an RFP that we responded to, and they were eager to move quickly and make a decision, which they did."
^{sportsbusinessjournal.com}

Notre Dame’s Swarbrick Unties Himself From NCAA’s Gordian Knot
“I feel so bad about how it’s messed up right now,” the Fighting Irish athletic director told Sportico over Zoom this week, in the waning days before he retires after 15 years on the job. “I hope I can find a path that allows me to still play a role.”

As Sportico’s Daniel Libit writes, “In his decade-and-a-half at Notre Dame, Swarbrick rose to become one of the most powerful, longest-tenured and highest-compensated ($2.73 million in FY 2022) college ADs ever.”
^sportico.com

Is Bigger Better? Coaches Divided on March Madness Expansion
As Front Office Sports’ David Rumsey writes, “The men’s NCAA tournament is finally underway, but the future of March Madness is the topic that has dominated discussion among many coaches, of bluebloods and underdogs alike, as teams gather in cities across the country for the opening round of games. Should the tournament expand?

Kentucky coach John Calipari (above), who won it all in 2012, hopes the 68-team bracket stays in place. ‘Keep it where it is,’ he said ahead of the No. 3 Wildcats’ matchup against No. 14 Oakland on Thursday evening.”
^{frontofficesports.com}

UNC BOT Chair Calls for ACC Transparency
With two prominent ACC schools electing to sue the ACC pertaining to the grant of rights over the past three months, speculation has turned to UNC’s next steps.

"I think it's too soon to tell,” Preyer said, “but it certainly creates added pressure on the conference to address the concerns of its member schools.”
^{247sports.com}

Long Beach State's AD Shamelessly Said Firing Coach Dan Monson Was Actually Just an Inspiration Ploy
“My belief and hope is that by doing what I did and the timing of it, they would play inspired, and that’s what they did,” Bobby Smitheran told ESPN/AP on Thursday. “I’m not trying to pat myself on the back, but it worked.”
^{ftw.usatoday.com}

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