Top Stories

  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and golfer Phil Mickelson will team up to take on retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and Tiger Woods in a pairs golf match being organized by AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia and the PGA Tour that will likely take place in May and benefit coronavirus relief efforts, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The follow-up to 2018’s faceoff between Woods and Mickelson would reportedly be held at an undisclosed location without fans, with the competitors adhering to social distancing guidelines by staying at least six feet apart. (CNBC)
  • Sports streaming service DAZN has started informing leagues that it will not pay rights fees for any events that have been suspended or content that has not been delivered due to the coronavirus pandemic, sources said. Most rights deals mandate that the media partner continue to make payments even when games aren’t played, and DAZN is believed to be the first media company with business ties in the United States to withhold fees. (Sports Business Daily)
  • The NFL ratified its expanded playoff format that will raise the number of teams in the postseason from 12 to 14 beginning with the 2020 season, making official a key aspect agreed to with the players’ union in their recently signed 10-year collective bargaining agreement. League officials also said they remain optimistic about playing a full regular season in 2020 that begins on time in September despite the coronavirus pandemic. (The Washington Post)

Chart Review

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

04/01/2020
The Aspen Institute: Coronavirus & Youth Sports – Virtual
04/02/2020
NextUp Town Hall: Leadership During Times of Crisis
View full calendar

Webinar – Before the Jobs Report: What New Data Tells Us About the Labor Market, Unemployment and a Recession

The March jobs report will be released this Friday, but it is unlikely to show the full impact COVID-19 has had on the labor market.

For a better understanding of the pandemic’s impact on jobs, consumer spending and the broader economy, Morning Consult will gather a team of experts on Thursday, April 2 at 3:30 p.m. ET to discuss new data examining how prepared consumers are for an economic downturn and what consumer confidence tells us about a potential recession.

Media

New NFL Wild Card Games Costing CBS, NBC Around $70M
John Ourand and Ben Fischer, Sports Business Daily

CBS and NBC picked up the two new NFL Wild Card games approved by owners today, with sources saying that CBS will pay around $70M for the Sunday afternoon game and NBC will pay in the mid-$70M range for the Sunday night one. Both games will be played Jan 10, 2021.

Coronavirus Could Reduce TV Ad Spending For NBA, MLB And NHL By $1 Billion
Mike Ozanian, Forbes

According to MediaRadar, an advertising intelligence and sales enablement platform, there might be $1 billion in lost advertising spending combined for the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball because of the coronavirus pandemic.

NBA lands ESPN broadcast deal for players-only 2K tournament
Tom Bassam, SportsPro Media

The tournament, designed to help fill the void of live sports during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, will be broadcast in the US by ESPN. The Xbox One-based tournament featuring 16 players will launch on 3rd April and run through 12th April.

NFL

Get ready for a ‘hub-and-spokes’ format for 2020 NFL draft
Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times

Peter O’Reilly, the league’s executive vice president for club business and league events, described it as a hub-and-spokes format, with commissioner Roger Goodell at the hub and announcing the picks, and the spokes reaching out to all 32 club locations. The league has outlined four basic principles for the event, which will be broadcast by ABC, ESPN and NFL Network.

NBA

NBA, players discuss withholding pay if regular-season games canceled
Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association are discussing scenarios for withholding up to 25% of players’ remaining salaries in a league escrow should regular-season games eventually be canceled, sources told ESPN. The collective bargaining agreement maintains that players lose approximately 1% of salary per canceled game, based on a force majeure provision, which covers several catastrophic circumstances, including epidemics and pandemics.

Basketball Leagues Want To Come Back. But Are Quarantined Tournaments A Good Idea?
Chris Herring, FiveThirtyEight

With sports shut down in the face of the novel coronavirus, two American basketball leagues are working on plans for an early return to the court. But what do “safe” games look like in the midst of the pandemic — and would such plans ultimately get a green light from public health officials?

Phoenix Suns could finish regular season at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, if season resumes
Duane Rankin, Arizona Republic

Team officials informed The Republic a letter was sent out to team partners to give them a heads up that Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum could be where the Suns play their final six home games if they’re able to play out their regular season as the season has been is on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. The arena move would allow the $230-million renovation project of Talking Stick Resort Arena to continue without interruption from a Suns game.

MLB

MLB is trying to keep notes from Astros, Red Sox investigations out of court
Evan Drellich, The Athletic

Major League Baseball doesn’t think its notes from the Astros and Red Sox sign-stealing investigations are relevant to a lawsuit brought by daily fantasy sports contestants. The suit alleges that sign-stealing corrupted daily fantasy games and that those involved should be held responsible. The Red Sox and Astros are defendants in the case, along with MLB.

Astros owner Jim Crane contends MLB ‘explicitly exonerated me’ in sign stealing
Daniel Kaplan, The Athletic

Houston Astros owner Jim Crane wrote in a legal filing on Monday that Major League Baseball “exonerated” him in the team’s sign-stealing scandal and that he is thus immune from a lawsuit emanating from his team’s actions. His contention came as part of a series of legal filings from the Astros seeking to either move former MLB pitcher Mike Bolsinger’s lawsuit out of California state court and to Texas, or dismiss it.

MLB vets get $4,775 daily during virus outset
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press

Gerrit Cole, Mike Trout and other veteran major leaguers will receive $4,775 per day in advance pay for the first 60 days of the season during the stoppage caused by the new coronavirus, a total of $286,500. That’s just 2.5% percent of the $193,548 the New York Yankees pitcher and Los Angeles Angels outfielder were scheduled to earn each day during the 186-day season from their $36 million salaries, tied for the major league high this year.

With no baseball on horizon, MLB extends minor leaguers’ pay through end of May
Dave Sheinin, The Washington Post

Major League Baseball said Tuesday it would extend the $400-per-week stipends and medical benefits to minor league players through the end of May — or until the start of the new season, whichever comes first — as the novel coronavirus pandemic cuts deeper into the 2020 baseball schedule.

MLB season likely to start without fans in quest for most games
Joel Sherman, New York Post

Central to the agreement that was reached last week between MLB and the Players Association was a good-faith understanding that there will be “best efforts to play as many games as possible.” Teams derive revenue and players earn salary from games, so both pledged commitment to a regular season as stocked with games as possible.

Stadium workers who have gotten no financial aid from Dodgers or Angels cry for help
Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times

Dodgers concession workers are employed by Levy Restaurants. Angels concession workers are employed by Legends. The Unite Here union has launched a petition calling on the Dodgers and Angels to follow the lead of Staples Center and its tenants — the Lakers, Clippers and Kings — in agreeing to pay workers for all canceled games this season. 

NHL

NHL extends self-quarantine to April 15
Reuters

The NHL self-quarantine period is being extended through April 15. In the second such extension for players and staff, the new date follows the thinking of deputy commissioner Bill Daly to stretch the timeframe for a potential return to activity as each deadline arrives.

Sharks’ Becher defends team’s games amid county caution
The Associated Press

San Jose Sharks president Jonathan Becher says the team made the best decision with the information at the time when it played three home games following a recommendation by the county against large gatherings in early March. Santa Clara County issued a recommendation on March 5 that mass gatherings should be postponed or cancelled to control the spread of the new coronavirus.

College Sports

NCAA council pushing forward on name-image-likeness issue despite COVID-19 pandemic
J. Brady McCollough, Los Angeles Times

With college sports on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it would not have been surprising for the NCAA to delay its timeline for proposing new bylaws on name, image and likeness — especially considering how slow-moving the road to change has been already. But NCAA Division I Council chair M. Grace Calhoun said Tuesday morning that her group will meet as originally planned in late April to push legislation forward.

Top NCAA management to take 20% pay cut amid lost revenue from coronavirus cancellations
Steve Berkowitz, USA Today

NCAA President Mark Emmert and members of the association’s senior management will be cutting their pay by 20% and the association’s vice presidents will be cutting their pay by 10% due to financial pressure the NCAA is facing from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a memo obtained Tuesday.

Larry Scott on TV networks and football disruption, Pac-12 revenue hit
Jon Wilner, The San Jose Mercury News

“In the next week or two,’’ according to commissioner Larry Scott, the conference will dive into the potential for a disrupted football season. “The optimistic model has an elongated training camp and on-time start (to the season),’’ Scott said. “The most pessimistic has no season at all.”

Commissioner Larry Scott on the Pac-12’s financial hit, Power Five coordination, “concern and anxiety” over the athletes
Jon Wilner, The San Jose Mercury News

The Pac-12 is facing a revenue hit of at least $1 million per-school from the cancellation of its men’s basketball tournament and March Madness, although the full extent of the damage won’t be known for weeks. Commissioner Larry Scott said Monday that the conference’s expected distribution of $17.5 million from the NCAA this spring would be reduced by two-thirds, or about $11.5 million.

Soccer

FIFA Plans Huge Emergency Fund to Support Ailing Soccer Industry
Tariq Panja, The New York Times

Faced with mounting concerns and daily updates about the crisis wrought by the coronavirus pandemic on the global soccer industry, FIFA is drawing up plans for an emergency relief fund worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The fund, should global soccer leaders sign off on it, would amount to the biggest response from any major sports governing body to the financial impact of the pandemic.

U.S. Soccer tones down language in new USWNT equal pay court filings
Graham Hays, ESPN

In a new federal court filing for an ongoing equal pay dispute, lawyers for the U.S. Soccer Federation backed away from previous strident language suggesting that the U.S. women’s national team performs a job that requires less skill or effort than that of male counterparts, and thus that the jobs cannot be compared equally.

Racing

NASCAR iRacing bigger in second week
Paulsen, Sports Media Watch

Airing on both FOX and FS1, NASCAR iRacing scored stronger ratings in its second outing. NASCAR iRacing averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.34 million viewers on FOX and FS1 Sunday afternoon, up 53% in ratings and 48% in viewership from the previous week on FS1 alone (0.53, 903K).

Formula 1 could delay new tech rules until 2023
Luke Smith, Motorsport.com

Formula 1 teams are looking to delay the introduction of the new technical regulations by one more year until 2023, according to Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner. F1 was set to introduce an overhauled set of technical regulations in 2021, but has been forced to postpone the plan until 2022 as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Golf and Tennis

No plans to cancel US Open tennis tournament, USTA says
Elizabeth Rosner, New York Post

US Open officials said Tuesday that they have no plans to cancel the famed tennis tournament in Queens this year because of the coronavirus. The Open is set to run Aug. 24 through Sept. 13, and, “We’re still planning accordingly,” said Danny Zausner, managing director of the US Tennis Association, which runs the tournament.

Coronavirus Presents an Existential Threat to Some Pro Tennis Events
Christopher Clarey, The New York Times

With professional tennis on hold until at least June — and perhaps much longer — the sport’s administrators and players are scrambling to cut their losses as tournaments are postponed or canceled en masse. Looming over those adjustments, there’s a threat — that some events, particularly those on the lower rungs of the men’s and women’s tours, will not survive.

PGA Tour expands fields for two tournaments, with more additions possibly on the way
Brian Wacker, Golf Digest

To help make up for those lost starts, fields at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, scheduled for May 21-24, and the Memorial (June 4-7) at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, will increase from 120 players to 144, according to an email sent to players this week. It’s possible other tournaments would do the same, according to a source, with the memo explaining that it’s a “priority of the Tour and the Player Advisory Council to maximize additional playing opportunities this season.”

City of Toronto decision casts doubt on Canadian Open
Will Gray, Golf Channel

The city of Toronto announced Tuesday that all major city events and event permits have been canceled through June 30 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, casting doubt on the fate of the RBC Canadian Open. The tournament is currently scheduled for June 11-14 at St. George’s Golf and Country Club, which last hosted the event in 2010.

Esports

OverActive Media Confirms Round of Layoffs
Kevin Hitt, The Esports Observer

Sources close to the situation have told The Esports Observer that OverActive Media, the parent company of Toronto Defiant (Overwatch League) and Toronto Ultra (Call of Duty League), have let up to 13 employees go. It is unclear whether these staff cuts are temporary or permanent layoffs.

General

Madison Square Garden Board Sets Split Date
Mike Farrell, Multichannel News

The Madison Square Garden Co. said its board of directors has approved a plan to separate the company into two distinct entities — one focused on entertainment, the other on sports — setting an April 17 deadline for the transaction. Madison Square Garden first announced its plans to separate into MSG Entertainment and MSG Sports in 2018. 

Olympic Athletes Wash Their Hands and Social Distance in PSAs from Visa
Diana Pearl, Adweek

Olympians were asked to film themselves engaging in one of the practices that we’re all being instructed to follow right now to prevent the spread of COVID-19: hand-washing, using hand sanitizer and social distancing. These videos have been turned into a series of PSAs, starring athletes including British skateboarder Sky Brown; Kenneth Tencio, a BMX freestyle biker from Costa Rica; and Greek pole vaulter Katerina Stefanidi.

DC Sports Betting Launch Delayed Until Sports Return
Matthew Waters, Legal Sports Report

The launch of DC sports betting is officially delayed until US sports return, according to the Office of Lottery and Gaming. The Lottery’s DC sports betting platform from Intralot was set to launch by March 31 as of two weeks ago. But the uncertainty of when sports will return because of the coronavirus pandemic led to a change of plans in Washington DC.

Opinions, Editorials, Perspectives and Research

Slashing Payroll During Pandemic Could Impact Fan Support Going Forward
Alex Silverman, Morning Consult

A new Morning Consult poll of 2,200 U.S. adults found that just under 40 percent of 1,501 self-identified sports fans say they are less likely to support a team that lays off either full-time employees or part-time and hourly workers, slightly higher than the number who say such layoffs would have no impact on their support.

MLB owners and players, facing a pandemic, put vision ahead of acrimony
Thomas Boswell, The Washington Post

A sport that has been notorious for tense-to-awful labor relations for decades decided to make a quick-and-dirty, split-the-pain deal for the good of the sport. The rich players sacrificed for the . . . well, less rich players. Labor understood that no one wins if the “capitalists” — the club owners — get crushed.

Morning Consult