February 20, 2024

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After the financial success of Peacock’s exclusive NFL game, Comcast is ready for NBC Sports’ next big revenue driver: the Olympics. … Cleveland’s professional soccer hopes are growing. … What’s the shelf life for the NHL Stadium Series? … Why Caitlin Clark isn’t costing Iowa boosters a dime. … And how an American brewing giant once saved a city’s baseball team.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]]

Comcast CEO on the Paris Olympics, NFL Streaming, and NBA Rights [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

There is certainly no shortage of pressing issues in front of Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.

Already trying to steer the nation’s largest cable carrier through a period of massive media disruption and cord-cutting, Roberts is also playing a central role as NBCUniversal seeks a revival of the Olympic movement (and fan interest in it) after record-low ratings for both Tokyo in 2021 and Beijing the following year—an effort that has been challenged by months of complications in France (but that are now perhaps easing [[link removed]]).

NBCUniversal’s Peacock, meanwhile, recently set a U.S. online record [[link removed]] for a livestreamed event last month with an average audience of 23 million for an NFL playoff game. The service and Comcast overall have notably been left out [[link removed]] of a recent, sports-oriented streaming joint venture [[link removed]] among ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, and the NFL wild-card game is now shifting [[link removed]] to Amazon. But Peacock is seeing a further boost [[link removed]] from the record-setting exploits of college basketball phenom Caitlin Clark.

Roberts spoke with Front Office Sports following Comcast’s recent Converge event in which the company unveiled a series of new technologies, including a new internet router capable of supporting hundreds of devices and using artificial intelligence to self-heal its own network. Below are excerpts from the conversation, some of which have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

The last two Olympics have been highly challenged between the COVID-19 pandemic and record-low ratings. How do you see Paris setting a different course for Comcast’s and NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Olympics, particularly in light of some operational issues in France?

We’re super excited. I’ve been over there several times. I’ve had the privilege of meeting with the mayor, president, and prime minister, and the whole country is galvanized to make this the big, post-COVID return to the Olympic stage. Will there be controversies? Inevitably. Will there be global conflict? Inevitably. There always is. But the Olympics is that opportunity for 17 days to put your arms down and celebrate humanity, and that was the original concept. So while that is a lofty goal, I really hope and believe that could happen for Paris.

They’re super excited to do this differently, such as bringing athletes down the Seine for the opening ceremony. That’s going to be an immersive experience and really cool. We were showing demonstrations of beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower and equestrian at Versailles. So everything we’re hoping for, we’re just keeping our fingers crossed.

What have been your subsequent impressions of the exclusive NFL game on Peacock, and what do you see as its impact?

It exceeded every expectation that we had, both technically and the impact to Peacock. It reinforced our strategy, and I was proud that the company was the leader in taking the internet to the biggest day it ever had in the U.S. That doesn’t happen every day in your career. That was a galvanizing moment for the entire company. To say we’re going to have the biggest day in American internet history, that didn’t happen by accident.

We asked the NFL to trust us and pitched the concept to Roger Goodell and his team. We then had to make sure the whole internet was ready, and I personally spoke to everybody from Amazon Web Services to AT&T to Verizon to Charter, and everybody in our engineering team did the same with Akamai and everybody else in the whole online bandwidth ecosystem.

It had to work. And if it didn’t, all everybody was going to remember was that it was your game. But the fact it did work—the credit goes to a whole lot of people and not just Comcast. We took the risk, and I think it will show that Peacock got what it hoped for and then some. One way or another, sports is coming to streaming. And one way or another, our company is best positioned to participate in that. While we don’t have answers to every question, I think this is a really good thing, net, for our company.

What is the latest on your efforts to regain NBA rights?

Nothing new on the NBA. But we’re always interested in acquiring great content, and the NBA certainly offers great content.

NHL Sets Attendance Records With MetLife Stadium Series Games [[link removed]]

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Sixteen years into the NHL’s run of outdoor games, the league is still breaking new ground.

The NHL drew a crowd of 70,328 on Saturday for Devils-Flyers, the first of a two-day run of Stadium Series games at MetLife Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Giants and Jets. The attendance was the largest in 13 Stadium Series games dating to ’14. The record, however, would only stand for about 18 hours as Sunday’s Rangers-Islanders game then drew 79,690, the third-largest crowd in NHL history, as the league reopened a chunk of lower-bowl seats that was blocked off on Saturday for a pregame Jonas Brothers concert.

Only two prior Winter Classics—the 2014 game at Michigan Stadium and the ’20 event at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas—have featured bigger crowds for the NHL.

The weekend success at the gate now sets the stage for another historic attendance total next year as the league also unveiled plans for the 2025 Stadium Series game, which will feature the Red Wings playing the Blue Jackets at Ohio Stadium. Representing a hockey version of arguably college football’s top rivalry, the matchup is set to become just the second NHL game to top 100,000 in attendance, joining that ’14 Winter Classic at the Big House. Next year’s Stadium Series contest will join the ’25 Winter Classic, which will return to Wrigley Field in Chicago for Blackhawks-Blues.

The NHL started its outdoor play in 2008 with the first Winter Classic in Buffalo, and the event has since mushroomed into that New Year’s Day tradition, plus the supplemental Stadium Series and the Heritage Classic in Canada. Overall, the league has played 41 outdoor games, drawing a total of 2.1 million, and there are no signs of waning enthusiasm for the concept.

Fans actively tailgated before both Stadium Series games at MetLife Stadium, and three of the four participating teams arrived at the facility in various themes to help herald the occasion: the Devils in Sopranos-style tracksuits and gold chains, the Flyers in Rocky-inspired gray sweatsuits, and the Rangers in New York fire and police department hockey jerseys, along with actual uniformed officers and firefighters.

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TIME CAPSULE Feb. 20, 1953: In the Cards for Busch

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

On this day 71 years ago: Anheuser-Busch Inc. bought the St. Louis Cardinals for $3.75 million, beating out ownership groups who wanted to move the franchise to Houston or Milwaukee. For decades, the Cardinals had competed with the city’s other MLB team, the Browns. But after the 1953 season, the Browns were sold and moved to Maryland, becoming the Baltimore Orioles. The St. Louis–based brewery would own the Cardinals for 42 years before selling the club to its current ownership group, headed up by Bill DeWitt Jr., for $147 million.

ONE BIG FIG Bargain for Boosters

Iowa City Press-Citizen

$0

Amount of money Iowa star Caitlin Clark has received from boosters, as reported by The Wall Street Journal [[link removed]] on Friday. Clark, who now tops the NCAA women’s basketball career scoring list with 3,569 points after scoring a career-best 49 against Michigan on Thursday night, “hasn’t taken a dime” from the Swarm, Iowa’s main name, image, and likeness collective. According to the WSJ, the Swarm brings in about $4 million to $5 million per year for Hawkeyes athletes.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY NWSL in Cleveland?

Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

In the latest episode of Front Office Sports Today we delve into the highs and lows of the NBA All-Star weekend, raising some questions about the league’s future. We explore the Chicago White Sox’ bid for public funding and Lionel Messi’s upcoming season debut—likely under replacement referees. Plus: a conversation with the people spearheading the NWSL’s potential arrival in Cleveland.

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

Conversation Starters The Pac-12 has appointed [[link removed]] Teresa Gould as its new commissioner, replacing George Kliavkoff, effective March 1. Gould will be the first woman to serve as commissioner of an Autonomy 5 conference. Before Caitlin Clark, another woman topped [[link removed]] the record books: Lynette Woodard. The former Kansas Jayhawks star scored 3,649 points from 1977 to ’81—but the NCAA didn’t recognize women’s basketball until ’82. The NBA has unveiled [[link removed]] NB-AI, which will allow fans to activate “movie mode” and watch live games animated like popular films. Oracle leads the global stadium tech revolution, enhancing fan experiences with a focus on year-round engagement and loyalty. Learn more [[link removed]] about how its in-stadium solutions promise a future where every aspect of venue operation is refined, maximizing fan per cap spend.* Editors’ Picks Pushback From NHLPA, Local Unions Could Kill Coyotes’ Last Chance in Arizona [[link removed]]by A.J. Perez [[link removed]]Closed lines of communication and a holdup over a new land parcel are prolonging an ugly stadium situation. Sabrina-Steph Wasn’t the ‘Battle of the Sexes’—But It Was Part of the Bigger War [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]The competition could play a factor in increasing the WNBA’s media value. Celebrity Owners, International Ambitions, and $7B Media Deals: Welcome to the New NASCAR [[link removed]]by David Rumsey [[link removed]]NASCAR boldly keeps pace with the increasingly competitive sports and entertainment world. DISCLAIMER

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