February 2, 2024

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An audacious plan to not only bring sports doping into the open but turn it into a defining feature of competition is drawing billionaire support. … Diamond Sports Group begins to answer questions about its 2024 MLB plans with a trio of team deals. … The Vision Pro is Apple’s latest buzzed-about device, and although sports leagues are keenly interested, questions persist. … Big dollars are at stake this weekend across multiple sports. … Plus: More on Fenway Sports Group, Brock Purdy, MLS team valuations, the San Francisco 49ers, and NFL field conditions.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

An Olympics With Doping? Big Money Is Backing Controversial Start-Up [[link removed]]

Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY NETWORK

One of the most powerful billionaires in the world is now advancing one of the most controversial ideas to hit the sports industry in years.

Peter Thiel—the cofounder of PayPal, a key early backer in Facebook, and more recently an entrepreneur, investor, and political activist—is throwing his weight and part of his estimated $6.2 billion fortune [[link removed]] behind the Enhanced Games [[link removed]], a start-up multisport competition in which athletes are actively encouraged to use performance-enhancing drugs. Thiel is joined in the Enhanced Games seed round—reportedly in the high seven-figure range—by several other venture capital titans, including Apeiron Investment Group’s Christian Angermayer, whose own net worth reaches [[link removed]] $1 billion, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan.

The audacious concept—once just a Saturday Night Live skit [[link removed]]—behind the Enhanced Games: There is a significant gap between the number of athletes who say [[link removed]] they use PEDs and the number actually caught in testing. Rather than continue on that path, why not bring all use out into the open, and champion those drugs to test the boundaries of human performance and help counter the effects of aging?

“The Enhanced Games is renovating the Olympic model for the 21st century,” said Aron D’Souza, Enhanced Games president. “In the era of accelerating technological and scientific change, the world needs a sporting event that embraces the future, particularly advances in medical science.”

The effort will feature competition in combat sports, gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and weightlifting. But serious questions persist. Like any other start-up sports league, the Enhanced Games will be entering an already-crowded market for fans’ time and attention. The business plan calls for competing at Division I college facilities, as opposed to building new infrastructure.

Most directly, though, the Enhanced Games will be challenging both existing laws around drug use, as well as cultural standards that govern much of sports. Before the funding, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart told [[link removed]] CNN he found the Enhanced Games to be “farcical … likely illegal in many states,” and “a dangerous clown show, not real sport.”

Notably, the Enhanced Games’ announcement of its seed funding round arrives just days after the Court of Arbitration for Sport found [[link removed]] Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva guilty of doping.

DSG Strikes One-Year Deals With Guardians, Twins, Rangers [[link removed]]

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

The long-awaited answers from Diamond Sports Group on its plans for the 2024 MLB season are finally beginning to emerge, as the bankrupt Bally Sports parent has struck one-year rights deals with the Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins, and defending World Series champion Texas Rangers.

While the regional sports network operator’s other plans in baseball for 2024 remain uncertain, the new deals give an initial dose of clarity for the upcoming season. The new agreements do not include streaming rights, but are modified to involve lower fees than what the teams had previously been receiving. Diamond said the changes will allow them to “profitably broadcast” the three teams through the end of the 2024 MLB season.

The Rangers previously received about $110 million per year in a deal running to 2034, but the new pact will bring an earlier expectation. That situation is similar to the one for the Guardians, who were receiving about $55 million with the deal stretching to ’27. The Twins, meanwhile, saw their prior DSG pact [[link removed]], worth $54.8 million last year, expire with the end of the ’23 season.

A U.S. bankruptcy court in Texas is set to hold a hearing Feb. 9 on a motion to approve the agreements.

“We are pleased to have reached [an] agreement with the Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins, and Texas Rangers that work for all parties and enable us to continue delivering high-quality, live game broadcasts on Bally Sports to dedicated fans through the 2024 season,” DSG said.

The plan for 2025 and beyond, however, remains quite uncertain. The latest pacts arrive as DSG—not long ago thought to be headed toward dissolution—is now attempting to revive itself through a three-pronged recovery plan [[link removed]] that includes a large-scale refinancing of its debt, the arrival of Amazon as both a distributor of Bally Sports content and a post-bankruptcy investor [[link removed]], and a settlement of a legal dispute with corporate parent Sinclair Inc.

It is not yet known how MLB—or the NBA and NHL, for that matter—officially stand on that plan, as it would supersede prior deals in which the leagues were set later this year to regain local team rights held by DSG.

SPONSORED BY CISCO

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Reserve [[link removed]] your spot now and join us on Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. ET for a conversation about how cybersecurity is shaping the future of sports.

Leagues Embrace Apple’s Mixed-Reality Device But Raise Questions [[link removed]]

Major League Baseball

Apple is taking another big technology swing, introducing Friday its new mixed-reality headset [[link removed]], the $3,499 Vision Pro. And not surprisingly, several sports leagues have quickly moved to build apps for the headset and take advantage of this new platform, which seeks to advance the notion of “spatial computing.” But arriving right along with the excitement are a series of pressing questions.

MLB, the NBA, and the PGA Tour were among the leagues to be first movers on a device that allows immersive digital media to be integrated with the real world—a fundamental difference from the more isolating nature of most virtual-reality applications.

Sports offerings within the Vision Pro will include live and archival games in 4K resolution, interactive statistics, and three-dimensional enhanced data visualizations—all controlled with eye tracking, speech recognition, and hand gestures.

“The performance of new devices like this simply unlocks a new set of experiences that become possible,” Jamie Leece, MLB senior vice president of games and VR, tells Front Office Sports. “The Vision Pro is so much more powerful than devices that have come before, and has given us more horsepower to do greater things.”

Despite the Vision Pro’s ability to blend actual and virtual realities in a single experience, the technology still encounters many of the same issues that have hampered sports in VR for years, notably a conflict with the social interaction that is inherent to watching live games. Many of the leagues already active on Vision Pro are working on synchronized experiences in which two headset users who are geographically separated can watch a live game together. But group-viewing of games in a real-world setting will still be challenged with the Vision Pro, and not just because of the high price point.

“If you and I were together in the same space and wanted to watch anything, baseball or otherwise, I don’t know if we’d make the choice of both putting a headset on, even if we were fortunate to have two Vision Pros,” Leece says.

STATUS REPORT Four Up, One Down

Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Brock Purdy ⬆ Mr. Irrelevant signed a national endorsement deal with Toyota, the first player to do so since the brand became the league’s official auto partner in October. It’s a fitting partnership for the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback, who drives a Toyota Sequoia SUV [[link removed]].

Fenway Sports Group ⬆ Theo Epstein is rejoining the entity as a minority owner and part-time adviser. After helping the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs win championships as general manager and president, he’s been a consultant for the league working on rule changes like the pitch clock.

MLS ⬆ Two MLS teams, LAFC and Inter Miami, have hit the billion-dollar mark, according to Forbes [[link removed]]. L.A. Galaxy is not far behind, valued at $95 million. It’s a big milestone for the blossoming league.

49ers Interns ⬆ All aboard: San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York announced all personnel, from front office staff down to the interns, will fly to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl.

NFL and NFLPA ⬇ A joint NFL and players association committee found noncontact lower body injuries happened about the same amount on grass and synthetic turf in the 2023 season, per ESPN [[link removed]]. The union stressed that one season doesn’t provide enough data, and players for years have told the NFL that they “overwhelmingly” prefer grass fields.

WEEKEND PRIZE POOL Bowling for Dollars

Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

Starting today, Front Office Sports will tee up every weekend sporting slate with a ledger of the purses and prize pools at stake. Here’s what’s up for grabs this weekend:

Pro Bowl Games

When: Thursday and Sunday Winners: $88,000 per player, up from $84,000 last year Losers: $44,000 per player, up from $42,000

NHL All-Star Game

When: Friday and Saturday Winner of 12-player skills competition: $1 million Goalie with the most saves: $100,000

LIV Golf Mayakoba

When: Friday through Sunday Total purse: $25 million First place (individual): $4 million Winning team: $3 million Conversation Starters After former Jacksonville Jaguars employee Amit Patel pleaded guilty to stealing $22.2 million using the team’s virtual credit card program (about $20 million of which he lost on daily fantasy and sports bets), the Jaguars asked FanDuel to reimburse them, per ESPN [[link removed]], and were denied. The NHL, NHLPA, and IIHF have announced [[link removed]] plans for NHL players to participate in the 2026 and ’30 Winter Games, which would allow NHL players to compete on the Olympic stage for the first time since 2014. The SEC and Big Ten are forming [[link removed]] a joint advisory group of university presidents, chancellors, and athletics directors to address significant challenges facing college athletics. SPONSORED BY AUTOTRADER Welcome to The Business of Football, where cutting-edge strategies and high-value partnerships converge. Explore transformative deals and strategic maneuvers as our analysis guides you through the intersection of football and business for a nuanced understanding of the game outside the lines. Taylor Swift Effect? Super Bowl To See Three Health and Beauty Brand Ads [[link removed]]by Michael McCarthy [[link removed]]Three new ad spots target female consumers or prominently feature women. I Bet You Think About Me: Swift a Focal Point in Super Bowl Prop Bets [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]The pop star is becoming a part of the game’s prop bet market. Tuned In: Tom Brady Confirms Start As No. 1 Fox Analyst Alongside Kevin Burkhardt [[link removed]]by Michael McCarthy [[link removed]]Brady tells Front Office Sports that he’ll join Fox this fall as lead analyst but will not form a three-person booth with Greg Olsen. 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]], Margaret Fleming [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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