November 28, 2023

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Colorado has lost several top recruits since its 4-8 finish this season. Will that damper the excitement for university donors — who gave a record amount in 2023 — heading into Deion Sanders’ second year in Boulder?

— David Rumsey [[link removed]]

Mets Owner’s Major Hire Underscores Emphasis on Media Revenue [[link removed]]

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

With the New York Mets already in the midst of a significant transition after a deeply disappointing 2023 season, the club has turned to a longtime media executive to run its business side.

The Mets and owner Steve Cohen have hired outgoing Bloomberg Media CEO M. Scott Havens as their new president of business operations. The position has been vacant since Sandy Alderson transitioned to a consulting role last year.

The Mets’ hiring of Havens extends extends a trend seen in many other parts of the sports, particularly major college [[link removed]] entities such as the Big Ten Conference and Notre Dame, in which media executives are increasingly being tapped for senior leadership roles. In many instances, that media experience is trumping prior tenure in sports.

This latest hire arrives at a pivotal time for the franchise, less than three months after the Mets also hired former Milwaukee Brewers executive David Stearns to run the club’s baseball operations. Havens takes the business reins as Cohen looks to turn the page on a season that began with an MLB-record $344 million Opening Day payroll but ended with a trade-deadline roster dump [[link removed]] and a 75-87 record.

Like all other MLB clubs and the league [[link removed]] as a whole, the Mets also are seeking to find a solid pathway for their local media rights.

SportsNet New York — co-owned by former club owner Fred Wilpon’s Sterling Equities, Charter Communications, and NBC Sports Group — is on relatively solid ground compared to the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group. But YouTube TV dropped [[link removed]] SNY this past season, and all regional sports networks are grappling with a new reality in the face of accelerated cord-cutting [[link removed]], making Havens’s media experience that much more valuable.

“He’ll provide a modern vision and strategic direction for our organization,” Cohen said.

Set to begin his new role in January, Havens also joins the Mets as Cohen embarks on an ambitious, $8 billion plan [[link removed]] to remake the long-derided Citi Field area with a casino and entertainment complex.

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“[David Tepper] is running the team like Jerry Jones without having Jerry Jones’s football background. You really can’t do that … It’s just not a way to build a successful pro sports franchise.”

FOS senior reporter A.J. Perez on the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte F.C. owner firing his fifth head coach in six years.

🎧 Listen and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Google [[link removed]], and Spotify [[link removed]].

Orioles Look Toward Simpler Plan To Finish Stadium Lease Deal [[link removed]]

Evan Habeeb/USA TODAY Sports

With the clock ticking toward a Dec. 31 deadline to complete a lease extension at Camden Yards, the Baltimore Orioles and Maryland Stadium Authority are now potentially looking to simplify the deal’s terms.

The Orioles and the public authority that owns Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which opened in 1992, announced [[link removed]] a 30-year lease agreement [[link removed]] in September that would keep the MLB club at the venerable ballpark — a key move in what was a renaissance [[link removed]] season for the franchise, which had a 101-win regular season. The Orioles lost in the Division Series to the Texas Rangers, who went on to win the World Series.

That lease extension included a 99-year development rights agreement allowing the Orioles to bring in private investment to certain public areas around Camden Yards. However, that pact was only a nonbinding memorandum of understanding, leaving critical details such as projected costs and exact uses of the development property unsettled.

As the deadline approaches, talks are now building around a potentially scaled-down lease extension that would bind the Orioles to Camden Yards for at least another 30 years but separate the issue of the development rights, according [[link removed]] to the Baltimore Sun, to be picked back up after the lease extension is finalized.

In a sense, the move would bring the matter largely back to where it’s been for much of the past three-plus years, as development rights were one of the key sticking points in prior lease talks between the Orioles and MSA.

The Orioles have long felt that the lease extension and a larger development were fundamentally intertwined, while many Maryland politicians were looking to see a tangible commitment from the team and its chairman and CEO John Angelos, before the granting of additional rights.

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Investment Interest In U.K. Women’s Soccer Has Never Been Higher [[link removed]]

Barclays Women's Super League

As momentum around women’s sports continues to grow globally, U.K. soccer is proving to be a key market in which to invest new money.

Several Premier League clubs are seeking to stoke private equity investment in the Women’s Super League teams they are affiliated with, according to Bloomberg [[link removed]].

The idea would be to allow outside investors to buy into WSL commercial operations, rather than have EPL clubs completely fund women’s teams. Previously, the FA had reportedly [[link removed]] asked EPL clubs to invest more than $31 million in WSL operations.

Meanwhile, Mercury 13 — the new $100 million fund [[link removed]] focused on building out a multi-club portfolio for women’s pro teams — remains on the hunt for its first investment after a deal to acquire Lewes FC’s women’s club fell through. The two sides announced [[link removed]] the news on Monday.

Mercury 13, led by entrepreneur Victoire Cogevina Reynal, said it remains committed to investing in women’s soccer, while Lewes plans to search for an alternate investor.

Tickets In Demand

Arsenal is closing in on a significant attendance mark for its women’s teams, with nearly 100,000 fans having already attended [[link removed]] four home matches this season. Arsenal women play about half their matches at the same 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium that regularly houses the men’s squad. Arsenal had 54,115 attend its home opener at Emirates Stadium.

Chelsea’s women’s team has averaged over 7,200 fans in five home matches, and Manchester United has drawn an average of 15,306 fans over four matches.

Wimbledon Expansion Fate Rests In London Mayor’s Office [[link removed]]

Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports

A $250 million expansion plan [[link removed]] from the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club is in an even more fragile state after the London borough of Wandsworth voted against the proposal.

Confirming a recommendation [[link removed]] from its planning officers, the borough’s council unanimously voted down the bid to build a new 8,000-seat stadium and 39 additional courts, finding that it would “cause substantial harm to the openness of metropolitan open land.”

The 7-0 vote followed nearly three hours of debate and prompted [[link removed]] cheers from the public gallery.

AELTC CEO Sally Bolton called the decision “disappointing,” reiterating the organization’s view that the effort would be “one of the greatest sporting transformations for London since [the Olympics in] 2012.”

Wimbledon is the only one of tennis’s four Grand Slam tournaments that doesn’t hold its qualifying events on site — they’re held several miles away at a smaller, 2,000-capacity venue.

The latest ruling is a setback to expansion efforts after prior approval from the neighboring borough of Merton. The 73-acre site spans parts of both Merton and Wandsworth.

The matter now heads to the office of London mayor Sadiq Khan, with a decision expected by early December on whether to kill the proposal or review it further. That decision now rests with the deputy mayor for planning, Jules Pipe. Khan has personally recused himself following his prior support for the expansion effort.

“To use a tennis analogy, we’re at one-set-all, but we’ve got a long way to go,” Christopher Coombe, a member of Save Wimbledon Park, told [[link removed]] the Guardian. “This is a five-set match with no tie-break.”

Larger Trend

London appears to be reticent in letting sports and entertainment development take over its environs.

The latest pushback on Wimbledon’s expansion is consistent with London’s recent refusal [[link removed]] to approve the construction of a Sphere similar to the $2.3 billion next-generation venue [[link removed]] in Las Vegas.

Conversation Starters The Pop-Tarts Bowl will introduce the first-ever edible mascot [[link removed]]. The winner of the inaugural game will celebrate by “taking a bite of the giant pastry mascot.” Sports Illustrated has allegedly been publishing [[link removed]] stories written by AI, attributing them to writers who don’t exist — complete with profiles featuring AI-generated headshots and bios. When asked about it, all content was deleted. With the last 2023 Big Ten football slate this past weekend… came the final [[link removed]] edition of the conference’s popular “map” commercial. Editor's Picks David Tepper’s Reign Marred by Firings [[link removed]]by Doug Greenberg [[link removed]]Between the Panthers and Charlotte FC, Tepper has fired five head coaches. The Pac-12 Plays Its Final Regular-Season Game. Then A Court Decides Its Fate. [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]The conference's future rests with a court decision. Delaware to Pay $5M to Move to Conference USA, FBS [[link removed]]by Doug Greenberg [[link removed]]Delaware will be the first football program to pay the FBS $5M. Question Of The Day

Have you tried non-alcoholic beer?

Yes [[link removed]] No [[link removed]]

Monday’s Answer

47% of respondents eat dinner at restaurants 1-3 times a month, and 44% eat dinner at restaurants 4+ times a month.

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