January 25, 2024

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The Los Angeles Chargers’ hiring of Jim Harbaugh shakes up the local pro sports scene in a major way. … Comcast turns its attention to keeping the influx of new Peacock subscribers following a history-making exclusive stream of an NFL wild card game. … MLS reportedly blocks a potential big-money player transfer from FC Dallas to the Russian Premier League. … Plus: More on the latest news surrounding LIV Golf, the NWSL, sports betting in North Carolina, and a six-figure fantasy sports betting scandal.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

Charged Up: L.A.’s Other NFL Team Seeks Spotlight With Harbaugh Hire [[link removed]]

USA TODAY

One of the runts of the Los Angeles pro sports litter is making one of its biggest moves in franchise history, altering the shape of the local sports scene and the NFL in the process.

On Wednesday night, the L.A. Chargers completed a five-year agreement [[link removed]] to bring on Jim Harbaugh—fresh off his College Football Playoff championship run at Michigan—as its head coach, giving the Bolts a major jolt of energy aimed at resetting the team’s prospects both on and off the field.

The Chargers have struggled mightily in their seven seasons since relocating north from San Diego, reaching the playoffs just twice and perpetually existing in the long shadow of the much-more-popular L.A. Rams. That already-uneven dynamic—based in no small part on the teams’ sharing of SoFi Stadium, which is controlled by Rams owner Stan Kroenke—only grew further with the Rams’ triumph in Super Bowl LVI, two years ago.

In each of the six non-COVID seasons the Rams and Chargers have played together in L.A., the Rams have surpassed the Chargers in average attendance. Team valuations [[link removed]] tell a similar story, with the Rams’ $6.9 billion ranking third in the league, compared to the Chargers’ 25th-place ranking at $4.15 billion. The Rams’ annual revenue of $686 million and operating income of $125 million, according to Forbes estimates, also easily outdistance comparable figures of $518 million and $65 million for the Chargers.

But the Chargers now look to make all that ancient history with Harbaugh. “Who has it better than us?” team owner Dean Spanos asked in announcing the hiring, echoing Harbaugh’s recent catchphrase.

Mark Your Calendars

The hire immediately isolates an upcoming 2024 game between the Chargers and Baltimore Ravens as one of the biggest on the NFL’s schedule for next season. The Ravens—coached by Harbaugh’s older brother, John—will play the Chargers at SoFi Stadium, and the matchup will be highly coveted by each of the league’s rights holders as the NFL completes its schedule construction process this spring. That game will be a rematch of sorts of Super Bowl XLVII, in 2013, when the John-led Ravens beat a San Francisco 49ers team coached by Jim.

The arrival of Harbaugh additionally extends Los Angeles’s status as a hub for many of the most prominent figures in sports, with the title-winning coach joining local luminaries such as Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Matthew Stafford, and Anze Kopitar. Many of those stars, however, will not have coverage [[link removed]] on the road from the city’s newspaper of record, The Los Angeles Times, after a massive bloodletting at the outlet earlier this week.

Peacock, Fresh Off NFL Playoff Bump, Eyes Subscriber Retention [[link removed]]

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

First came the boom for Peacock and parent company Comcast from a history-making exclusive live stream of an NFL playoff game. Now comes the much harder task of keeping new subscribers.

The streaming platform’s coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs-Miami Dolphins wild-card game on Jan. 13 indeed generated a series of unprecedented results, including an average audience [[link removed]] of 23 million that was the largest online in U.S. history, and the addition of 2.8 million subscribers in the days leading up to the game, according to Antenna [[link removed]], representing the “single-biggest subscriber acquisition event” measured by the industry research firm.

Comcast furthered that optimism on Tuesday with quarterly results detailing an 11% rise in Peacock subscribers, to 31 million as of the end of 2023, compared to the prior quarter [[link removed]]. Peacock revenues reached $1 billion, up 52% from the comparable period a year ago, while adjusted losses improved by 16% to $825 million.

Please Don’t Go

But for company officials, a key priority is reducing churn among both those new customers and existing ones.

“At the scale we’ve gotten to, what’s important is to keep people engaged with the platform and all the content that’s there, not the wild-card game unto itself,” said Mike Cavanagh, Comcast’s president. “So the job always is to get more people in the door and get everybody that’s already in the door re-engaged.”

Early results suggest some progress there, as Cavanagh said there were “record levels” of hours viewed in the days immediately following the Chiefs-Dolphins game. Promotion is also beginning to ramp up for the upcoming Paris Olympics, which will be streamed extensively on Peacock and which are being eyed by Comcast as another key tool to increase subscribers and consumption on the platform.

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The Future of Fan Engagement Is Here

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Learn how [[link removed]] Oracle is powering the next frontier of fan engagement by bridging in-venue and out-of-venue touchpoints to help teams and venue operators understand fan behavior and unlock incremental revenue.

Nothing But Nyet: MLS Reportedly Nixes $13M Player Transfer to Russia [[link removed]]

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

MLS clubs aren’t accustomed to the $100 million-plus transfer fees that are commonplace in Europe. But every now and then an MLS side will sell a promising player for a substantial monetary prize.

With less than a month to go before the 2024 season, FC Dallas was reportedly closing in on what would have been one of the 10 most expensive outgoing transfers in MLS history—but the league stepped in. According to The Athletic [[link removed]], Dallas received a $13 million bid from the Russian Premier League club FC Spartak Moscow for Jesus Ferreira, and both the club and player were ready to move forward. MLS blocked the deal due to “risks for American business entities doing business with Russian entities,” per the report. (MLS is a single-entity league and can therefore prevent transfers.)

Ferreira, 23, has been a member of the USMNT since 2020, and he has been part of the FC Dallas organization since 2016. Last season, he scored 12 goals for Dallas in 27 appearances.

Sporting Politics

The hesitancy from MLS to allow one of its homegrown players to move to Russia comes in the aftermath of several complicated sporting situations involving a country that is still at war with Ukraine. Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s status as a Russian oligarch led the English Premier League to force his eventual $5.4 billion sale of the team in 2022 to a group led by American investor Todd Boehly, who is also a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

That same year, WNBA star Brittney Griner spent nearly 10 months in a Russian prison for possession of medical marijuana before being released as part of a prisoner swap. Since Griner’s release, very few [[link removed]] WNBA players have participated in Russia.

ONE BIG FIG Audience Spike

Atlanta Vibe

11,624

New U.S. attendance record for a professional volleyball match, set Wednesday night at the debut of the Pro Volleyball Federation, where the Atlanta Vibe defeated the hometown Omaha Supernovas at the CHI Center. Additionally, the volleyball-crazed state of Nebraska holds records for:

92,003 Attendance at any women’s sporting event: Nebraska-Omaha in Lincoln, last August. 255,953 Home attendance across a single season for a women’s NCAA team, set during that same 2023 season.

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150th Kentucky Derby–Thrills Await

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The 150th Kentucky Derby will take place on Saturday, May 4 on NBC and Peacock.

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STATUS REPORT Three Up, One Down

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

LIV GOLF⬆ Adrian Meronk, No. 39 in the world golf rankings, is reportedly set to join [[link removed]] LIV Golf ahead of the league’s 2024 season kicking off next week. Meronk, 30, hails from Poland and was the 2023 DP World Tour Player of the Year. Meanwhile, Tyrrell Hatton, ranked No. 16 in the world and a member of the 2023 European Ryder Cup team, is said to be “close” to joining LIV, as well, according to The Telegraph [[link removed]].

NWSL⬆ Fresh off new $240 million media rights deals signed at the end of last year, the NWSL rolled out its 2024 schedule Thursday. All games that won’t be shown on Amazon, CBS, ESPN, or Scripps Sports will be available free on NWSL+, the league’s new streaming service.

N.C. BETTORS⬆ Online sports gambling is finally set to begin [[link removed]] in North Carolina on March 11—one day before the ACC men’s basketball tournament begins and just in time for March Madness, which starts the following week. The state lottery commission voted unanimously in favor of the move.

SPORTSHUB⬇ The National Fantasy Football Championship, which is part of the SportsHub Games Network, had to fire [[link removed]] an employee who was involved in a cheating scandal surrounding a competition during the NFL playoffs that carried a first-place prize of $150,000.

Conversation Starters Nick Dunlap, the 20-year-old golfer who last week became the first amateur in 33 years to win on the PGA Tour, announced he is leaving Alabama and turning professional. Dunlap couldn’t accept [[link removed]] the $1.5 million winner’s check at The American Express, but he’ll be competing for a part of the $20 million purse at next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Omaha is getting a $60 million downtown stadium for Nebraska’s only pro soccer team, the USL1 club Union Omaha, which is part of a $300 million, 18-acre project [[link removed]] that is slated to open in Spring 2026. Budweiser is bringing back something really popular for its Super Bowl commercial this year. Check it out [[link removed]]. Editor’s Picks All the Money Involved in Jim Harbaugh’s NFL Move [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]Jim Harbaugh walked away from the biggest contract in college football. At Trial Over College Athlete Employment, Ins and Outs of Shoe Deals Take Center Stage [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]High-ranking USC employee claimed ignorance over a common D-I concept. The NFL Has Laid Out Its Policy On Players Gambling at the Vegas Super Bowl [[link removed]]by Daniel Kaplan [[link removed]]What are players—both in the game, and just visiting—allowed to do? 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]], David Rumsey [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Peter Richman [[link removed]], Adam Duerson [[link removed]]

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