January 4, 2024

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Tom Brady won’t call an NFL game for Fox Sports for eight months, but right now it’s all anyone can talk about. … Barstool Sports appears to be shifting a key strategy in its new era. … The NWSL has a new record for a franchise sale. … And Cheez-Its are more valuable than Pop-Tarts, in college football bowl mania.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]]

Tom Brady Is Set for TV Debut This Fall. So What’s All the Talk About? [[link removed]]

Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports

Greg Olsen is heading into his final NFL regular-season broadcast as the top game analyst for Fox Sports. Next year, Tom Brady is scheduled to take over the No. 1 position as part of his 10-year, $375 million contract, despite ongoing speculation that the seven-time Super Bowl champion is not serious about his next gig.

With the move into the TV booth getting closer, more pundits are weighing in—including Brady himself. “I’ve got a big broadcasting job that’s going to start in September,” he said [[link removed]] on his Let’s Go! podcast this week. “I’m already working hard on trying to make sure I’m ready for that opportunity, and I’m prepared mentally and emotionally for that challenge.”

Devin McCourty, Brady’s former teammate with the New England Patriots, backed up that statement during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, saying people have told him that Brady has been studying and preparing for the broadcast booth.

Joe Buck, ESPN’s top NFL play-by-play announcer, who spent decades at Fox, said Brady has talked to intermediaries about working with him to get ready for his broadcasting debut. “Which I’m totally open to doing and would love to do,” Buck said [[link removed]] on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast.

Meanwhile, longtime sports broadcaster Bob Costas recently chimed in on the matter, saying Brady would be better suited for the studio. “The level of preparation to work a game and what it takes to get the hang of it, it’s just an easier fit in the studio,” Costas told the New York Post [[link removed]].

The Olsen Dilemma

Olsen will call Fox’s playoff games this month but his future after that is unclear. His partner, top Fox play-play-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, will likely be paired with Brady during the 2024 NFL season. Olsen, who celebrated Fox’s accomplishments in 2023 and said on X [[link removed]] that he is “ready to do it again” in 2024, has also noted that he would be interested [[link removed].] in interviewing for the head coaching vacancy at his former team, the Carolina Panthers.

Sources have told [[link removed]] Front Office Sports media reporter Michael McCarthy that Fox brass would be happy to get a season or two out of Brady “before he sails off into the ranks of NFL owners.” (Brady’s deal to acquire a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders remains up in the air). If Olsen were to slide back into the No. 2 game analyst slot for Fox, he could theoretically return to the main booth if Brady were to leave.

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🎙️ They Said What?

“This is like Mickey and Minnie Mouse slugging it out. You’ve got a possible fight between ABC and Jimmy Kimmel versus ESPN and The Pat McAfee Show. … They both make an estimated $15 million per year.”

—FOS senior writer Michael McCarthy on how the feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Aaron Rodgers could cause discord within the media giant. To hear more about the controversy, check out the latest episode of FOS Today.

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

The Big Bowl Season Winners: Snacks [[link removed]]

Jeremy Reper-USA TODAY Sports

A college football marketing audible made last spring continues to pay off handsomely for snack food giant Kellanova.

After the Dec. 28 Pop-Tarts Bowl became a viral sensation [[link removed]], breaking through the noise [[link removed]] of college football’s postseason and generating $12.1 million in immediate brand value for Pop-Tarts, sister brand Cheez-It topped that figure with the Jan. 1 Citrus Bowl.

Cheez-It generated between $13 million and $14.5 million in immediate brand value from its bowl game, according to Apex Marketing Group. Kellanova owns both Cheez-It and Pop-Tarts, and made the decision last May to have Pop-Tarts take on title sponsorship of the Dec. 28 bowl game held by Cheez-It for three years.

“This is a big win for Cheez-It and Kellanova. Had Cheez-It stayed where they were, they almost certainly would have generated a smaller number than what Pop-Tarts did,” Eric Smallwood, Apex Marketing president and CEO, tells Front Office Sports. “A lot of what Cheez-It did also wasn’t on the basis of social and digital media exposure, but instead from TV and the prominence of being on New Year’s Day.”

Twisting Path

This twin bill of Pop-Tarts and Cheez-It was not in the original plan for Kellanova. After vacation rental company Vrbo shifted its college football bowl game title sponsorship from the Citrus Bowl to the Fiesta Bowl in 2022, Cheez-It took on the Citrus Bowl rights, and then went through last year’s college football postseason sponsoring two Orlando-based bowl games in what it initially touted as “doubling up on the absurdly cheesy college football action.”

But months later, Kellanova shifted to include Pop-Tarts in its college football plans and set the path to create what was billed as the first-ever edible mascot in sports. The Cheez-It mascot in the Citrus Bowl then trolled its corporate counterpart, holding up a sign reading “Non-Edible Mascot.”

In essence, Kellanova got to have its cake and eat it, too—even though the company doesn’t own a cake brand.

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NWSL’s Portland Thorns Sell for Record $63M [[link removed]]

Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

The Portland Thorns have been sold for $63 million, a record price for the acquisition of an NWSL club.

Business moguls Lisa Bhathal Merage and her brother, Alex Bhathal, are buying the Thorns from Merritt Paulson, who has owned the women’s team since its inaugural season in 2013. Paulson is also the founder of the Portland Timbers, which entered MLS in 2011. The Bhathal family is also a minority owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and Sacramento River Cats (the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants).

The Bhathals operate RAJ Capital, which was formed in 2016 after the family sold its swimwear business. The Thorns will now fall under the RAJ Sports banner. Paulson will continue to own the Timbers, which were most recently valued [[link removed]] at $650 million by Forbes. In December 2022, Paulson announced his intention to sell the Thorns after allegations [[link removed]] arose of sexual misconduct by a former coach.

The Thorns will continue to play at Providence Park, which also houses the Timbers, and the Bhathals have committed to supporting the construction of a women’s soccer-specific training facility in Portland. The NWSL’s Kansas City Current, who opened an $18 million training facility in 2022, are set to open a new stadium in March 2024—the first in the U.S. [[link removed]] to be purposefully built for women’s professional sports.

By The Numbers

The previous record for NWSL acquisitions was $53 million paid by incoming ownership groups for expansion franchises in Boston and the Bay Area that will begin play this year. The Chicago Red Stars were sold for $35.5 million last year.

Further expansion is planned for 2026, but locations have not been selected and franchise fees have not been announced.

Is Barstool Backing Out of College Sports Events? [[link removed]]

Arizona Bowl/X

Since Barstool Sports’ ownership transition from PENN Entertainment back to founder and president Dave Portnoy in August, the company has been evaluating its content strategy and financial future.

Now, the new era may see the sports media brand reverse course on its strategy of sponsoring college sports events—namely the future of the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl looks to be up in the air. After Wyoming defeated Toledo 16-15 in this season’s game, Barstool personality Dan “Big Cat” Katz said it was unlikely that the partnership would continue. “Don’t think so unless something drastic changes,” he posted on X. “Was a lot of fun doing it but unless the financials drastically change on doing it that’s probably it.”

Barstool agreed to a multiyear naming rights deal in 2021, but that year’s edition of the Arizona Bowl was canceled after Boise State withdrew due to COVID-19 issues ahead of the game. Last year’s matchup was streamed on Barstool.tv but the 2023 game was shown on The CW. Barstool personalities provided commentary for both editions. Barstool did not reply to a request by Front Office Sports for comment.

Beyond the Arizona Bowl, the company has also sponsored the Barstool Sports Invitational, a four-team college basketball tournament, for the past two years. After November’s edition, Barstool president Dave Portnoy posted [[link removed]] on X: “That last game was the worst sporting event I’ve ever sat through and the end of the Barstool Invitational for good.”

Last summer, Barstool streamed a Korn Ferry Tour golf event that the PGA Tour called [[link removed]] a test for a potential “multi-event model” in 2024. There has not been an update on any long-term partnership.

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