Morning Consult Sports: What's Ahead & Week in Review

Morning Consult Sports: What’s Ahead & Week in Review

Sports

Essential sports industry news & intel to start your day.

March 5, 2023

By Mark J. Burns

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Hello and welcome back to the Sunday edition of the Morning Consult Sports newsletter. The countdown is on: My wife and I are leaving New Jersey in May and plan to relocate to Florida later this year. We haven’t settled on an exact location, so please feel free to recommend any cities that you think we should check out.

Before we dive into the week ahead, here’s a quick trivia question. Fill in the blank: ___ in 5 Gen Zers believe recent mass layoffs could have been avoided. Find the answer with the new MCIQ quiz. You’ll find out how well you understand public opinion and be able to catch up on stories you missed.

What’s Ahead

Pickleball is the country’s fastest-growing participation sport according to the Sports Fitness and Industry Association, but what does that mean for the sport’s potential on TV? How interested are U.S. adults and sports fans in consuming pickleball content? My new Morning Consult feature, which answers these questions and more, publishes later this week. (You’ll be able to find it here, along with all of my work.)

Several men’s college basketball conferences start their postseason tournaments this week. The Atlantic Coast Conference’s first round begins Tuesday, while the Big Ten, Pac-12, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference kick off their tournaments on Wednesday. As usual, winners automatically receive a bid to the 68-team March Madness tournament field.

Sports Business Journal’s Tech Week begins Tuesday. The three-day conference includes panel discussions on digital content innovation, fan experience, venue operations technology and athlete performance. Scheduled speakers include Marc Lore (Minnesota Timberwolves/Lynx co-owner), Aaron Amendolia (NFL deputy chief information officer), Claudia Calderon (Los Angeles Clippers chief marketing officer) and Rajan Mehta (WWE executive vice president and chief product and technology officer).

The annual SABR (Society for American Research) Analytics Conference starts Friday in Phoenix. Featured speakers include former MLB pitcher Dallas Braden, MLB stats analyst Mike Petriello and Oakland Athletics’ lead sport scientist and biomechanist Ethan Stewart.

The three-day SXSW Sports Track starts Saturday in Austin. Presented by Sportico, the conference will feature discussions on the future of name, image and likeness partnerships, brands behind the rise of women’s sports and the past and future of fan engagement.

Week in Review

Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry reportedly agreed to sell his roughly 25% stake in the NBA franchise to Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam at a $3.5 billion valuation.
Super Bowl LVII reached 200 million unique viewers who watched at least one minute of the game, a 9% uptick from the originally reported figure of 183 million, according to the NFL, which commissioned a study in collaboration with Nielsen.
SeatGeek Inc. will replace StubHub as MLB’s official ticket reseller, effectively immediately, in a five-year deal that will pay the league about $100 million per year through a revenue-sharing agreement, according to sources.
An employment discrimination lawsuit against the NFL filed on behalf of former league human resources staffer Victoria Russell over how she was treated as a Black woman includes allegations that NFL Films maintains an archived catalog of lewd shots of women at games, which include timestamps on the footage and descriptions of the women like “cheerleaders rear end” and “female fan in bikini top.”
ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro reorganized senior executives’ responsibilities amid Bob Iger’s return as CEO of the Walt Disney Co., giving oversight of content and newsgathering to veteran ESPN executive Burke Magnus, now president of content, and naming Disney veteran Rosalyn Durant, who previously oversaw facilities in Disney’s parks division, as executive vice president of programming and acquisitions, according to a memo reviewed by Variety.
Giannis Antetokounmpo became a co-owner of Nashville SC after the Milwaukee Bucks star acquired an undisclosed minority stake in the MLS team, joining other NBA players who are investors in the soccer league like the Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant with the Philadelphia Union and Philadelphia 76ers’ James Harden with the Houston Dynamo.
ESPN has held talks with undisclosed major sports leagues and other media companies about incorporating a feature on its website and app to direct fans to where games are being livestreamed, including events featured on rival platforms, said people familiar with the matter.
Top NFL draft prospect Jalen Carter turned himself into police in Athens, Ga., after he was charged with reckless driving and racing related to the deaths of his Georgia teammate Devin Willock and football staff member Chandler LeCroy in a Jan. 15 crash. Carter returned to the league’s scouting combine after his release.

Stat of the Week

$29.99

That’s the expected monthly cost for MSG+, a new direct-to-consumer offering from Madison Square Garden Entertainment Co., which will broadcast games featuring the New York Knicks and Rangers, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils. The digital offering will launch this summer.