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By Mark J. Burns
Morning Consult Sports will be off Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Publication will resume Tuesday.
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Week in Review
TV and Streaming
- In an SEC filing, 21st Century Fox Inc. said that it won’t be attempting to buy back 22 regional sports networks from the Walt Disney Co. despite being seen as the front-runner. The RSNs, which reportedly have an asking price of around $20 billion, have received interest — for all or a piecemeal buy — from private equity firms such as Apollo Global Management and Blackstone Group LP, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Amazon.com Inc., RedBird Capital Partners and rapper Ice Cube.
- Endeavor Streaming’s products and services division signed a deal to carry the WWE’s over-the-top network, an entertainment platform that since its 2014 launch has been supported by BAMTech Media, a Walt Disney Co. subsidiary. Endeavor Streaming — which combines William Morris Endeavor Entertainment LLC’s internal video platform technology with NeuLion, a service provider it acquired in March for $250 million — also counts clients such as the NFL, NBA, Euroleague, MSG and Big Ten Network, among others, in its portfolio.
- Following Fox Sports’ most-watched college football regular season ever, the network is reportedly close to signing former Ohio State football head coach Urban Meyer as an analyst, a role he once held at ESPN in 2011 after his departure from Florida. Fox is said to envision the 54-year-old Meyer, who retired after the Buckeyes’ Rose Bowl win on Jan. 1, as the kind of big television name who can potentially place the “Fox College Football Pregame” show on par with ESPN’s “College GameDay.”
Football
- An investigation found that American football is facing an evaporating insurance market that is changing the economics of the sport amid declining participation rates. Insurance executives have equated the issue to an occupational hazard that has cost insurance organizations at least $100 billion, leading to some football programs being cut as they face higher costs and a lack of overall coverage.
- According to a new Morning Consult poll, 31 percent of respondents believe the upcoming Super Bowl will be more political than last year’s contest, but even so, those Americans were just as likely to watch the prime-time event on Feb. 3 as the general public. Adults who said they thought this year’s game would be more political were no less likely to say they’d watch in comparison with last year’s contest, leading some media executives and sports marketing experts to say that the Super Bowl carries the same level of influence regardless of one’s political opinion.
- The NFL announced that Maroon 5 will headline the game’s halftime show in Atlanta on Feb. 3. The rumored performance was initially met with skepticism months ago as the music-rich city already boasts local talent such as Ludacris, T.I., Future and Usher — to name a few — but Atlanta will still see one of its own in rapper Big Boi join the pop-rock band on the Pepsi stage along with Travis Scott.
- The league also announced Gladys Knight will be performing the national anthem for the game. In a statement, the Grammy-winning singer and actress addressed the league’s treatment of free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, saying “the distinctive senses of the National Anthem and fighting for justice should each stand alone” and that she hopes to “give the anthem back its voice” during her performance.
- Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said the ongoing partial federal government shutdown has her city heading into “uncharted territory” as they ramp up to host the big game. City passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport experienced the country’s longest screening delays on Monday as TSA workers have called in sick or no-showed at an increased rate, with airport officials advising travelers that it could take three hours to clear security.
Baseball
- Craig Cheek, a retired Nike Inc. executive and founder of the Portland Diamond Project — an effort to bring pro baseball to Oregon’s largest city — has confirmed the names of 17 other “Charter” investors who are trying to secure a stadium and team to the tune of more than $2.5 billion. Three former MLB players, a Nike vice president and his wife were among the newly disclosed names involved in the project, which also counts Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and his Grammy Award-winning wife, Ciara, as investors.
- Barry Bonds’ former agent, Jeff Borris, said he believes MLB owners are colluding against players to suppress salaries, which dropped in 2018 despite league gross revenue hitting $10.3 billion. In the mid- to late 1980s, baseball’s owners blatantly colluded against players, with Borris and others filing 13 separate claims on behalf of clients, eventually resulting in MLB teams paying $280 million in damages.
Esports
- Free-to-play video game Fortnite last year generated $2.4 billion in annual revenue, the most in history, according to a report from Nielsen’s SuperData. Free-to-play games accounted for 80 percent of all digital game revenue last year, totaling $87.7 billion.
- Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. is reportedly set to pay the NBA and its union up to $1.1 billion over seven years, an agreement which will allow Take-Two’s 2K studio to continue making its NBA 2K video game franchise and other league-branded games. The value of the deal, based on a percentage of sales of Take-Two’s NBA games, is more than double the organizations’ prior licensing deal in 2011.
Nassar fallout
- Michigan State University interim President John Engler resigned following criticism over recent statements he made about victims of Larry Nassar, the former sports doctor for the school and USA Gymnastics who is serving an effective life sentence for child sex abuse. Engler, a former three-term governor of the state, faced a backlash after telling The Detroit News editorial board that some victims were enjoying their time in the spotlight.
Apparel
- Nike Inc. unveiled the Nike Adapt, a futuristic self-tightening shoe concept that tracks a consumer’s performance in real time via a smartphone app and needs recharging every two weeks. The company will initially launch with $350 basketball shoes that also hold sensors, gyroscopes and accelerometers to provide additional data to Nike, if consumers opt in to share that information.
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What’s Ahead
- The Championship Round of the NFL playoffs is today as the New Orleans Saints host the Los Angeles Rams on Fox before the New England Patriots play at the Kansas City Chiefs on CBS. Winners will play in Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta on Feb. 3.
- The NHL All-Star Break begins on Thursday and runs through Sunday.
- The Australian Open continues through this week, ending on Sunday.
- Feb. 7 is the NBA trade deadline.
- The first spring training game will be on Feb. 21 between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics in Mesa, Ariz.
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Events Calendar (All Times Local)
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Morning Consult Sports Top Reads
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