January 4, 2024

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James Dolan and the Steinbrenner family working as business partners? A once-unthinkable scenario is now a reality. … There is still plenty of conflict, however, between the A’s and B’s in Oakland. … Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy has a rather pragmatic view on the team’s sign-stealing scandal. … And women’s college sports get a significant—and long overdue—financial boost through a $920 million rights deal between the NCAA and ESPN.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

Odd Couple: Dolan and Steinbrenners Forge Unlikely Streaming Alliance [[link removed]]

Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Strange times in the regional sports network business are making for strange bedfellows.

The YES Network and MSG Networks have completed a joint venture called Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment (GAME) that will seek to create a new revenue stream for both networks by offering digital content distribution services to third parties. Both YES and MSG operate direct-to-consumer streaming services, and they will be collaborating on a white-label digital platform similar to MLB’s successful BAMTech service, ultimately purchased by Disney for $3.8 billion. In other words, the technology and expertise behind MSG+ and the YES App will make its way to other services.

Such a partnership would have been unthinkable for most of the past two decades, as the two New York-area entities have battled regularly for regional supremacy among sports fans. Most specifically, the Steinbrenner family, which owns the New York Yankees and the largest share of YES, engaged in a bitter dispute in 2002-03 with James Dolan, now MSG’s executive chairman, over distribution of the RSN on Cablevision when the cable giant was owned by the Dolan family. Dolan also controls the New York Knicks and Rangers.

That YES-Cablevision battle ultimately involved multiple lawsuits, the New Jersey legislature, months of dueling advertisements and press releases, and no shortage of acrimony before it was resolved. Five years before that, George Steinbrenner reportedly had a deal to sell majority control of the Yankees to Cablevision before the pact broke down, largely over the future role of Steinbrenner, also helping set in motion the animosity between the two families.

But ongoing cord-cutting and generational change across the U.S. media landscape has encouraged an openness to new types of dealmaking, even as both the YES Network and MSG Networks are dealing from a relative position of strength, operating in the largest U.S. market with prominent teams and stable ownership.

“Any good business, including ours, always looks and will continue to look at opportunities to create value,” YES CEO Jon Litner tells Front Office Sports.

Future Pathway?

The YES-MSG deal is perhaps just as notable for what it doesn’t include: larger assets such as live game rights or joint distribution. But the formation of GAME does establish a pathway for potential future collaboration between the longtime rivals—such as a common streaming service combining live games for the Yankees, Knicks, Rangers, and New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, and Brooklyn Nets—if the venture performs well.

“We’re always open to exploring opportunities that make strategic sense for us,” says MSG Networks president and CEO Andrea Greenberg.

—FOS senior writer Michael McCarthy contributed to this report.

ANALYSIS

ESPN Secures 40 NCAA Championships With $920M Extension

The NCAA just tripled the price of its current media rights package with ESPN, as the two sides agreed to an eight-year, $920 million extension. “We didn’t do a renewal,” says Hillary Mandel, EVP and Head of the Americas for Media at IMG. “This is a reset.” That reset begins Sept. 1 and pays an average of $115 million per year, a significant bump from the current deal that averages $34 million per year for 29 championships.

Read more [[link removed]] from Front Office Sports reporter Amanda Christovich.

A’s To B’s: See Ya. Plans for Independent Baseball Game at Oakland Coliseum Nixed [[link removed]]

Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports

The Oakland A’s are on their way out of town, having received MLB’s approval [[link removed]] in November for their planned relocation to Las Vegas. But the club is still calling many of the shots at the publicly owned Oakland Coliseum.

The Oakland Ballers, an independent Pioneer League team that will begin [[link removed]] play this year in an effort to fill the local pro baseball void, have been denied by the A’s in their bid to participate in a special commemorative game at the Coliseum. The planned June 29 event was designed as a “celebration of Oakland’s baseball legacy,” adding to the Ballers’ primary schedule calling for games at Oakland’s Laney College.

The Ballers signed a license agreement with the Coliseum Authority and ASM Global, which operates the facility for the City of Oakland and Alameda County, to stage the game. But the A’s, who will be on the road in Arizona on the date in question, exercised their exclusive rights to play pro baseball at the Coliseum and squashed the Ballers’ plan.

“Our lease was signed, deposit paid, and the below promo video was ready to go,” the Ballers posted [[link removed]] on X. “Unfortunately, we’ve been informed that the A’s won’t let us play. We won’t give up and are working to find an alternative.”

The A’s said in a letter to ASM Global that “we are happy to work with the [Coliseum Authority] on other ways to celebrate and promote professional baseball in Oakland.”

Contract Uncertainty

The Ballers-A’s dispute arrives as the A’s continue to face their own uncertain future at the Coliseum. The club’s current lease agreement runs through the 2024 season, but questions [[link removed]] have lingered for months about where the A’s will play during the 2025-27 seasons while the planned Las Vegas ballpark is built. Those questions have been heightened by an increasingly toxic relationship [[link removed]] between the A’s and Oakland officials.

Meanwhile, the A’s are also facing rising scrutiny [[link removed]] about the status of newly created renderings for the Las Vegas ballpark. After an original set of drawings was acknowledged [[link removed]] by the team to be garbage, a Dec. 4 event was planned to reveal the new renderings. That event was postponed following the death of two Nevada state troopers in the line of duty, but a month later it has not been rescheduled.

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🗣️ LOUD AND CLEAR Sign Language

Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports

“We actually had to adapt because in 2020 or 2019, when Ohio State was stealing our signs, which is legal and they were doing it, we had to get up to the level that they were at, and we had to make it an even playing field.”

—Quarterback J.J. McCarthy, on how Michigan was trying to keep pace [[link removed]] with rival Ohio State, during a CFP teleconference on Wednesday. The Wolverines were ultimately punished for violating the Big Ten’s Sportsmanship Policy, suspending [[link removed]] coach Jim Harbaugh for the last three games of the 2023 regular season.

Conversation Starters Saudi Arabia’s sports supercity project, Qiddiya, has been relaunched and includes a $315 million stadium, a Formula 1 racetrack, 43 sports facilities, and more. Take a look [[link removed]]. The Indiana Pacers have become the first major U.S. pro sports franchise to debut a QR code-like jersey patch. Check it out [[link removed]]. EA Sports is reportedly planning to release an official update [[link removed]] on its College Football video game Monday, coinciding with the CFP title game between Washington and Michigan. 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.

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Editor’s Picks Feud Between Aaron Rodgers and Jimmy Kimmel Puts Disney/ESPN in a Bind [[link removed]]by Michael McCarthy [[link removed]] and A.J. Perez [[link removed]]Disney's leadership faces tough decisions as battle between top talents escalates. [[link removed]] 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. Tuned In: 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. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Peter Richman [[link removed]]

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