Top Stories

  • D.C. United announced that Wayne Rooney will leave the team after the 2019 season and return overseas to coach and play for Derby County, which plays in the second-tier English Football League Championship. United has already been preparing to fill the void left by Rooney — who has tallied 23 goals and 14 assists in 43 league matches — with a source saying that club officials are scheduled to meet with a representative for Arsenal midfielder Mesut Özil next week in Washington. (The Washington Post)
  • According to a memo, the NCAA has introduced new criteria for agents representing prospective student-athletes testing the NBA Draft process, including that they hold a bachelor’s degree, pass an in-person exam and maintain certification by the National Basketball Players Association for at least three years. The new directive, which the NCAA contends protects student-athletes’ eligibility, has been dubbed the “Rich Paul Rule” by many, a reference to LeBron James’ agent, who never earned a college degree. (CBS Sports)
  • Danish golfer and Ryder Cup winner Thorbjorn Olesen was charged with sexual assault, being drunk on a plane and common assault, according to police officials, following his arrest last month at London’s Heathrow Airport upon his return from a World Golf Championships event. Police said the 29-year-old will appear in court on Aug. 21. (Reuters)

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Events Calendar (All Times Local)

08/08/2019
How Pro Sports Can Be A Player In Climate 12:00 pm
Activision Blizzard to Release Q2 2019 Financial Results 1:30 pm
CBS Corp Quarterly Earnings Call 4:30 pm
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The New CCO Podcast – Celebrating a Legend

PR legend Harold Burson recently announced he will return to his childhood home of Memphis, TN, after seven decades leading one of the world’s largest and most successful PR agencies.

On this edition of The New CCO, we revisit a conversation with Harold from the 2018 Page Spring Seminar. Harold discusses the future of the communications industry, his path into the profession, and how the digital era has and will continue to reshape it.

General

The Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2019: Serena And Osaka Dominate
Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes

Naomi Osaka entered the U.S. Open last year largely under the radar as the 19th-ranked player in the world. But that all changed with her run to the finals and memorable win over Serena Williams. When Osaka backed up the Open title with a second straight slam win at the Australian Open in January, the next marketing superstar was born.

Wanted: A Digital-Savvy Sports Marketer. No Sports Experience Necessary
Mark J. Burns, Morning Consult

Later this month, Kate Jhaveri will begin her first day as the NBA’s chief marketing officer following a two-year stint at Amazon.com Inc.-owned Twitch, along with prior stops at Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. — in other words, a total sports outsider. That the NBA would choose a tech-savvy CMO without full-time sports experience isn’t surprising given the league’s efforts as a digital pioneer.

Disney to Offer Streaming Bundle of Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu for $12.99
Cynthia Littleton, Variety

Disney disclosed Tuesday that it will offer a streaming bundle of Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and the advertising-supported version of Hulu for $12.99 a month. The bundle of Disney direct-to-consumer properties will be available for purchase on Nov. 12, the day that the ambitious Disney Plus service is set to bow in the U.S.

Journalist, former ESPN host Jemele Hill has book deal
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press

Jemele Hill, the ESPN host who departed the sports network a year after tweeting that President Donald Trump was a white supremacist, has a book deal. Hill’s memoir will be published in 2021, Henry Holt and Company announced Tuesday.

Future of Media: Why Monday Night Football Could Move to a Streaming Service
Liam McKeone, The Big Lead

Mark Evans is the Senior Vice President of Sales at Fox Sports. He recently spoke with The Big Lead about a variety of topics, including how Fox will challenge ESPN and CBS for rights.

Twitch will stream Team USA basketball games
AJ Dellinger, Engadget

USA Basketball has had a hard time getting players to participate in the upcoming FIBA World Cup, but the organization has managed to lock down one position: its streaming partner. Today, Twitch announced that it will be the exclusive home for live streaming content from USA Basketball’s men’s and women’s teams.

Papa John’s Is a Bit More Optimistic, Thanks in Part to Shaq
Jessica Wohl, Ad Age

Papa John’s is pinning much of its recovery on the star power of Shaquille O’Neal, who is starting to pop up in marketing for the brand. The No. 4 U.S. pizza chain, which a year ago was dealing with the fresh fallout of the use of a racial slur by founder John Schnatter, is still seeing its sales fall.

Nike acquires data science company as it continues digital push
Matthew Kish, Portland Business Journal

Nike Inc. has acquired a data science company as part of the sportswear giant’s continuing digital push. Boston-based Celect uses data to predict retail behavior.

NFL

Kroenke’s $5 Billion NFL Stadium Lands American Air as a Sponsor
Scott Soshnick, Bloomberg

American Airlines will pay $90 million over 10 years to sponsor the new home of the NFL’s Rams and Chargers, becoming the first official partner for billionaire Stan Kroenke’s new Los Angeles Stadium. American Airlines agreed to sponsor the 2.5-acre space that serves as main entrance to the $5 billion Inglewood, California, stadium, which doesn’t have a naming-rights partner yet, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Redskins, NBC Sports Get NFL’s Approval for First Predictive-Gaming Live TV Broadcast
Darren Rovell, The Action Network

NBC Sports Washington announced Tuesday that it will bring the predictive gaming broadcasts that it has done for Washington Wizards games to its Washington Redskins broadcasts. The streaming “Predict The Game” broadcast will feature the same video and audio as the main TV broadcast, but will feature prompted questions in which fans can win $1,000 each quarter if they are best at answering them.

Can the Giants Really Bank on Daniel Jones?
Ben Shpigel, The New York Times

About a week after the Giants drafted him sixth over all, quarterback Daniel Jones and his two sisters went out for ice cream in Charlotte, N.C., their hometown. While scooping Jones’s cookie dough, the man behind the counter glanced at a television showing highlights of another prominent Duke athlete, the basketball star Zion Williamson.

NFL Renews With Zebra Technologies For On-Field Player Tracking For Next Gen Stats
Kristi Dosh, Forbes 

The NFL is extending its partnership with Zebra Technologies Corporation as the Official On-Field Player-Tracking Provider through the 2021 season. Over the past five years, Zebra has implemented a player and ball tracking system that helped launch Next Gen Stats, providing the league, clubs and fans with unprecedented access to data and analytics on the game.

The NFL changed its replay rules after the Saints-Rams fiasco. Now comes the hard part.
Mark Maske, The Washington Post

The lasting image of an otherwise successful 2018 NFL season was of the missed pass-interference call in the NFC championship game that helped send the Los Angeles Rams, rather than the New Orleans Saints, to the Super Bowl. The officiating blunder hung over the league’s marquee matchup and took some of the luster off a season of captivating play and recovering TV ratings — and it led franchise owners to take the step of making interference calls and non-calls reviewable with instant replay for the 2019 season.

NBA

Ex-star Steve Nash will contribute to TNT’s NBA coverage
Joe Reedy, The Associated Press

Steve Nash will take on an expanded role in his second year with Turner Sports, contributing to NBA coverage. The network announced Tuesday that Nash is returning to B/R Football’s UEFA Champions League broadcasts on TNT and B/R Live. He’ll also be a contributor to TNT’s NBA coverage when the upcoming season begins in October.

Why Kids Want to Be James Harden
Ben Cohen, The Wall Street Journal

Brooklyn Nets guard Joe Harris has spent part of his summer for the last five years hosting a camp for youth basketball players, and he’s learned that being around kids all day is a useful way of understanding the recent history and the inevitable future of his sport. “In those five years,” he said, “it’s been crazy to me to see how these kids play.”

Ben Simmons says he was ‘singled out’ trying to enter casino
The Associated Press

Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons has explained a social media post that seemed to imply he’d been racially profiled by security staff at a Melbourne casino by saying he and his friends felt “singled out.” Simmons posted a video on Instagram in which he asked why he and two black friends were asked for identification but another person in their group who is white was not.

MLB

Mariners’ Beckham handed 80-game PED ban
Reuters

Seattle Mariners infielder Tim Beckham was suspended 80 games without pay by Major League Baseball on Tuesday after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug Stanozolol. Beckham, 29, is batting .237 with 15 homers, a career-high 21 doubles and 47 RBIs in 88 games in his first season with the Mariners.

Senators Call on M.L.B. for More Transparency on Foul Ball Injuries
Billy Witz, The New York Times

Two United States senators raised questions on Tuesday about whether M.L.B. is doing enough to protect its fans from foul balls, writing a letter to Commissioner Rob Manfred urging him to release data that teams may be collecting on which seats are most vulnerable at their ballparks.

Blue Jays to extend protective netting for 2020 season
Ian Harrison, The Associated Press

The Toronto Blue Jays will extend protective netting at Rogers Centre next season, joining other teams that have taken measures after foul balls injured fans. The team also announced Tuesday that it will extend the nets next season at its spring training home in Dunedin, Florida.

MLB Players’ Weekend is back with the nicknames, but with a less colorful twist
Eduardo Gonzalez, Los Angeles Times

Back for a third consecutive year, MLB players across the league will be able to show their personalities and passion during Players’ Weekend. However, this year’s edition has a less colorful twist to it.

NHL

Wild GM search update: Hurricanes’ Don Waddell, Penguins’ Bill Guerin latest to interview
Michael Russo, The Athletic

The Wild’s search for a new general manager continued Monday in Racine, Wisconsin, with two more in-person interviews, and one is as unique as it gets in any offseason, let alone this late in an offseason. Why?

Soccer

NWSL teams see major attendance boost at games since U.S. won the World Cup
Lila Bromberg, USA Today 

As the U.S. women’s national soccer team celebrated its 2019 World Cup victory, players called for fans to turn their support into action and pay more attention to the National Women’s Soccer League, the professional women’s soccer league within the United States. Fans appear to have responded — NWSL attendance numbers have skyrocketed since the World Cup. League-wide attendance increased 70 percent from games before the World Cup to games after the tournament, while attendance following the Cup showed a 53-percent increase from average numbers in 2018.

Racing

EV startup NIO sold its Formula E racing team
Sean O’Kane, The Verge

Chinese EV startup NIO has sold the majority stake in its Formula E all-electric racing series team, according to longtime motorsports journalist Sam Smith. The company will remain a sponsor, a person familiar with the sale tells The Verge, but Chinese motorsports promotion company Lisheng Racing bought the stake and will run the team’s operations from here on out.

Golf and Tennis

Former coach David Leadbetter blames Lydia Ko’s parents for her stunning decline
Joel Kulasingham, New Zealand Herald

Lydia Ko must “leave the nest” and take control of her own career if she is to return to the top of women’s golf, says her former coach David Leadbetter. The 22-year-old Kiwi is in the worst slump of her professional career and currently sits at 23rd in the world golf rankings after holding the number one spot for 84 weeks during her peak.

College Sports

Unproven Ohio State quarterback ready for hype, expectations
Mitch Stacy, The Associated Press

Justin Fields knows all about heat. He grew up in Georgia. But the pressure cooker in which the celebrated prep quarterback now finds himself is about to get turned up.

Esports

Bumble has found its match, striking a deal with an all-women’s Fortnite team
Annie Pei, CNBC

Bumble is swiping right on the esports industry by partnering with one of the world’s biggest teams. The women-first social networking platform announced Tuesday that it has partnered with Gen.G, a global esports organization originally founded in South Korea.

Opinions, Editorials, Perspectives and Research

The Hinkie-fication of the NBA: It’s all about the plan
Seerat Sohi, Yahoo Sports

At some point in the midst of the shortest, most muted championship victory lap of all time and a free-agency period in which fans stalked and pined for the rights to Kawhi Leonard, then a Toronto Raptor and a freshly minted Finals MVP, it became clear that nobody really believed one bird in the hand was worth two in the bush. Sure, fans love to win.

Morning Consult