January 3, 2024

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It’s been four months since the injured Aaron Rodgers has seen game action, but even away from the field, the feud between the controversial quarterback and Jimmy Kimmel is creating real problems for Disney. … Very little is truly set in stone in sports, as Rory McIlroy’s changing stance on LIV Golf shows. … The new majority owners of the Dallas Mavericks are making a big bet on legal sports betting and commercial casinos in Texas—something that’s at least 16 months away from happening. … And: Stung by the potential departure of the Washington Wizards and Capitals, the D.C. Council is looking to create a dedicated fund to improve Nationals Park.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

Rory McIlroy Walks Back LIV Stance, Now Criticizes PGA Tour [[link removed]]

Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

The PGA Tour begins its 2024 season on Thursday when The Sentry tees off with a $20 million purse in Maui, but the player making the biggest news is not competing. Rory McIlory, who is skipping this week’s tournament, made some bold statements about LIV Golf during a recent appearance on the Stick to Football [[link removed]] podcast.

McIlroy admitted that LIV exposed the PGA Tour’s flaws and that he has been too judgmental of players that have joined the circuit. “You’re asking for millions of dollars to sponsor these events, and you’re not able to guarantee to the sponsors that the players are going to show up,” he said. “I can’t believe the PGA Tour has done so well for so long.”

The No. 2-ranked player in the world also softened his previously hardline stance against LIV, if it were confined to a shorter schedule, perhaps in the fall, rather than competing head-to-head against the PGA Tour. “You go and do this team stuff and it’s a bit different and is a different format,” McIlroy proposed. “If they were to do something like that I would say, ‘Yeah, that sounds like fun,’ because you are working within the ecosystem.”

PGA Tour Back in Sync

The 2024 campaign marks the first time in a decade that the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup season is confined to a calendar year. Since the 2013-14 season, the PGA Tour has used a wraparound schedule that sometimes began just weeks after the previous season ended.

This season, the FedEx Cup runs from January until the playoffs in August, when a season-long champion will be crowned and earn $25 million. Theoretically, in a perfect world as described by McIlroy, each year would look like this, and LIV, which begins its season in February, could hold team-focused events in the fall instead of competing with the PGA Tour’s main slate of tournaments. This year (as it did in 2023), the PGA Tour will conduct a fall series of events that don’t offer FedEx Cup points.

ANALYSIS

Rodgers-Kimmel Feud ‘a Big Can of Worms’ for ESPN

When Aaron Rodgers suggested that Jimmy Kimmel would be on the list of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s associates during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, it “opened up a big can of worms” inside ESPN, sources tell Front Office Sports.

“McAfee’s show is dangerous—but it gets viewers and makes money,” an ESPN source says. “Rodgers has a deal with McAfee’s show that would be tough to void. Both Rodgers and McAfee don’t care about repercussions.”

Read more [[link removed]] from senior writer Michael McCarthy and senior reporter A.J. Perez.

New Mavs Owners Make Big Bet on Texas Gambling Future [[link removed]]

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Neither sports betting nor commercial casino gambling will be legal in Texas until at least mid-2025, if not later. But the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban continue to act as if they expect that legalization is coming.

Less than a week after the Adelson and Dumont families that control the Sands Corp. completed their deal [[link removed]] to acquire majority control of the team, a company established by those families has taken control of prime real estate near downtown Dallas previously held by Cuban. The parcel, more than a dozen acres in size, currently houses the team’s practice facility and is valued at $42.9 million for tax purposes.

Another company formed by the Sands Corp., the publicly traded casino and resort giant, has also purchased more than 200 acres in nearby Irving—near the location of the Dallas Cowboys’ former Texas Stadium—valued at more than $36 million. The Sands Corp. has not detailed its plans for the properties. But the Mavericks’ deal with Cuban, reportedly valuing the team between $3.5 billion and $4 billion, is premised [[link removed]] in part on the development of a new arena and casino complex in Dallas.

“When you think of all the places you want to save up to vacation, Texas isn’t one of them,” Cuban said last year. “There’s no real destination that you save up for. That’s a problem, and I think resort gaming would have a huge impact.”

A Sands Corp. spokesman told The Dallas Morning News [[link removed]] that “there certainly could be additional [land] purchases in the future” in Dallas.

Uphill Fight

Texas lawmakers meet in alternating years and will be back in session in 2025. While hopes of sports betting passage in the Lone Star State are rising [[link removed]] in some corners, the issue ran into firm opposition during the 2023 legislative session, as did casino gambling. The Sands Corp. alone spent more than $6 million last year in Texas on lobbying, and the group was joined by dozens of other sports betting and casino advocates coveting the country’s second most-populous state. But there has been minimal appetite for gambling legalization thus far among Texas Republicans that control the legislature.

“I’ve said repeatedly there is little to no support for expanding gaming from [the] Senate GOP,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said [[link removed]] last spring. “The senate must focus on issues voters expect us to pass. We don’t waste time on bills without overwhelming GOP support.”

Nearly eight months later, the political situation has not materially changed.

“When the session was over, there was not a cry from voters calling their senators or House members, [saying], ‘I needed this bill.’ ” Patrick said [[link removed]] last month.

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D.C. Proposes Funds for Nats Park Amid Wizards and Capitals Uncertainty [[link removed]]

Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Washington, D.C., is on track to pay off the construction bonds on the publicly owned Nationals Park as early as 2027, which would be nine years ahead of schedule. Now, the city is looking to tap into many of the same stadium-related revenue streams to renovate the 16-year-old ballpark.

D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson introduced a bill on Tuesday that would create the Ballpark Maintenance Fund, which would establish a dedicated revenue stream to pay for stadium upgrades and repairs. The new fund would be supported by existing taxes that also pay for the construction bonds such as a sales tax on purchases at the ballpark, as well as rent paid by the Washington Nationals.

“We made a commitment to the team [that] we would build the stadium and we would maintain it, and we just don’t need these stories about deferred maintenance and failing scoreboards,” Mendelson told The Washington Post [[link removed]]. “So let’s provide a certain path that we’re going to maintain our facility.”

The developing effort carries a thematic similarity to the situation [[link removed]] surrounding U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, another publicly owned facility that was paid off years early and is now the subject of a new request for public funds.

Proactive Stance

The D.C. effort also shows a much more proactive strategy to get in front of a local sports facility-related situation, compared to what is now happening with Ted Leonsis and his Monumental Sports and Entertainment. The D.C. Council has offered Leonsis $500 million in public funds to upgrade Capital One Arena, but that overture has arrived on the heels of his announced intent [[link removed]] to build a $2 billion project in Alexandria, Va., with a new arena and mixed-use development for the Washington Wizards and Capitals.

Dedicated funding for Nationals Park improvements could also help jumpstart the lagging [[link removed]] process by the Lerner family to sell all or part of the Nationals. That process also received a boost with the recent settlement [[link removed]] involving a local media rights term and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, and Leonsis is seen as the likely buyer of the Nationals.

Conversation Starters In 2017, a University of Florida football player gave away his cleats to a young fan. Six years later, the two were reunited in Baltimore. Check it out [[link removed]]. The Rose Bowl was the most-watched [[link removed]] playoff semifinal since the CFP’s first iteration a decade ago. An average of 27.2 million viewers tuned in for the Alabama-Michigan matchup. Ever wondered what staring at an NFL defense looks like from a quarterback’s vantage point? Hard Knocks provided a look inside [[link removed]] Miami Dolphins signal caller Tua Tagovailoa’s helmet cam. Join the Action

Front Office Sports is partnering with Splash Sports to bring you an NBA Tiers Contest [[link removed]] for an action-packed Sunday slate of games including the battle of L.A., the new-look Toronto Raptors and more!

Accumulate fantasy points for your player selections and have a chance at being one of three cash prize recipients! Sign up before games begin at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 7.

ENTER HERE [[link removed]]

Editor’s Picks In the CFP Championship, Washington Represents the Conference It Helped Destroy [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]This summer, Washington agreed to leave the Pac-12 and even led a legal defense against the conference’s two remaining schools. TV Land: CFP Committee Got It Right. And Fox Mounting Massive Rights Bid? [[link removed]]by Michael McCarthy [[link removed]]After all that criticism of the CFP selection committee, a Michigan-Alabama insta-classic proves they made the right call—for TV viewers, at least. Lawyers for Brett Favre to Depose Former Mississippi Governor [[link removed]]by A.J. Perez [[link removed]]Favre’s legal team seeks to establish Phil Bryant’s culpability in the alleged welfare scheme. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by David Rumsey [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Peter Richman [[link removed]], Adam Duerson [[link removed]]

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