March 4, 2024

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Netflix’s Full Swing series, back for Season 2, is big business for the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the stars on-screen. … Why creating a true sports stock market is so hard. … CFP expansion talks are showing who’s running the sport. … And a World Series champ details life beyond the baseball diamond.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]]

Another Round: Netflix Is Back With More LIV Golf–PGA Tour Drama [[link removed]]

Netflix

As uncertainty continues to cloud the PGA Tour’s future alongside rival LIV Golf, the second season of Netflix’s Full Swing docuseries is set to be released Wednesday, shedding new light on the tense relationships at the top of professional golf.

Season 2 wastes no time diving into the drama, documenting Rory McIlroy’s leadership in the PGA Tour’s fight against LIV and the league’s growing threat. Season 1 followed five golfers that would make the jump to LIV in 2022, but Dustin Johnson was the only one to return in full capacity. “We’ve established this precedent in Season 1 that we have this cast of characters, and it’s not necessarily all going to be from the PGA Tour,” executive producer Chad Mumm tells Front Office Sports. “So there really wasn’t a lot of debate about whether or not we would continue with a player like Dustin.”

Mumm wanted Brooks Koepka back, too, and although Koepka’s wife and swing coach appeased Netflix with on-camera sit-downs, the now five-time major champion did not. “We tried really hard to get Brooks to come and sit down for an interview for Season 2, and he was too busy winning a major,” Mumm says of the 2023 PGA Championship victor. “It would have been great to hear it in his own words.”

Behind the Scenes

Some of Mumm’s favorite interactions came between PGA Tour and LIV players at the Masters, which was the first gathering of golf’s feuding stars in eight months. And the exclusive golf club welcomed Netflix with open arms. “We get amazing access at the Masters,” says Mumm. “Augusta National has been incredible to us and to our crews. … We are able to get stuff that no one’s ever seen before. There’s a whole tour of the clubhouse with Tom Kim in his episode—those are spaces that haven’t really ever been filmed before.”

I’ll Drink to That

Among the Season 1 stars returning for an encore is Joel Dahmen, the 36-year-old PGA Tour journeyman with just one win in 2021, who initially thrilled Full Swing viewers with his against-the-grain antics, including downing a couple of adult beverages while trying to qualify for the U.S. Open.

“A lot of great opportunities came from it,” Dahmen says of the Netflix fame. “So I couldn’t really say no to Season 2.” Those new opportunities included a deal with sunglasses brand Knockaround as well as multiple alcohol-related paydays. Bushmills Irish Whiskey created an Arnold Palmer–like cocktail for Dahmen: Joel’s Juicy Lie. And The Finnish Long Drink brought Dahmen on as an ambassador.

Dahmen’s agent, Derek Bohlen of Range Sports, tells FOS that the golfer has been able to charge two to three times more for brand deals and paid time commitments than he did before Full Swing came out last year. “I think you could probably put 99% on Netflix,” Dahmen says of the increased interest.

Casting Call

Early in Full Swing production, Bohlen says he reached out to Mumm to pitch Dahmen. That cold call worked, but others had to wait their turn. “I really wanted to be on Season 1, and it didn’t work out,” says Keegan Bradley, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour and Full Swing newcomer. “And then I was, again, really lobbying to be on Season 2, and luckily I was chosen.”

“I would have meetings with [Mumm and Netflix] and tell them how much I would relish the opportunity,” Bradley adds. “And if I did get a chance, I would be a complete open book.” For others, that persistent attitude wasn’t needed. “They reached out to me first,” explains Kim, who won twice as a 20-year-old in 2022. “Obviously everyone wants to be on that show, and I was unfortunate enough that I got the invite.”

Kim, who’s already made more than $11 million on the Tour, says he’s just excited to see himself on the series: “To be honest, before the filming process began, I was excited for my episode to come out. I was looking forward to seeing it already, even though we hadn’t shot one minute of it.”

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Bear Market for Sacks and INTs? The Difficult Road of Sports Stock Markets [[link removed]]

Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

If there’s one truism of the sports industry, it’s that somebody at some point will again try to blend pro sports with elements of the stock market. And in nearly every instance, it’s been an uphill climb.

For more than 20 years, a series of different companies have sought to use either the on- or off-field performance of athletes and turn that into some version of an investment-grade asset. The approaches have varied, with some veering closer to the realm of traditional fantasy sports or sports betting, others existing as a repackaging of other celebrity brand investment vehicles.

But in every instance, the core idea is largely the same: take investment concepts core to Wall Street and combine them with the affinity fans have for sports.

The latest entrant is Vestible, which allows fans to buy and sell shares based on the future on-field earnings of college pro athletes. The Kansas-based startup has gained approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and it now plans a March 18 initial public offering centering on Broncos linebacker Baron Browning. Fans can buy shares priced at $10 tied to 1% of Browning’s salary income. The Denver linebacker, who keeps 80% of IPO funds, is currently in a rookie contract paying about $3.1 million this year, but he is set for a big pay bump in his next deal. Part of the hook here is for fans to get in on the ground floor, so to speak, on Browning’s upside.

Swings and Misses

Investors will receive monthly dividends, and they can buy and sell those shares. Vestible, however, is merely the latest in a long list of companies to try, without lasting success, some version of this idea. Among the company’s many predecessors:

ProTrade: The granddaddy of them all in this space. Created by Mike Kerns—former chief of staff to super agents Leigh Steinberg and Jeff Moorad—and Jeff Ma, part of the famed MIT blackjack team that beat Las Vegas at its own game, this company formed in 2004 as an online stock market of athletes. Unable to scale that operation, Kerns and Ma renamed the business in ’08 to Citizen Sports Network and shifted to a variety of social networking and fantasy-sports-oriented applications, ultimately leading to a successful sale to Yahoo! Today, Kerns is a partner at influential investment firm The Chernin Group, while Ma is an active entrepreneur, author, podcaster, and speaker. Fantex: Similar to Vestible but structured around endorsement income instead of on-field salary, this company sold shares between 2013 and ’16 before closing the following year. Mojo: Backed by Timberwolves owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, this athlete-oriented stock market also ventured [[link removed]] into sports betting and fantasy sports, but it sold or shut down much of its business late last year and is now focusing on back-end pricing support for other betting operators.

Plenty of others are still attempting similar concepts, including PredictionStrike, which raised $10 million last fall for its fantasy-sports stock market. But in virtually every prior instance, an inability to reach large swaths of casual fans has helped prove fatal.

TIME CAPSULE March 4, 1993: Award-Winning Night

ESPN Images

On this day 31 years ago: ESPN debuted its new awards program, the ESPYs. Inspired in part by top entertainment award programs such as the Oscars, the event seeks to recognize excellence in sports while also serving as a critical marketing extension for the network. The effort in many ways was years ahead of its time, foreshadowing an active push later by many other media organizations to create their own awards programs as critical sources of both revenue and brand-building. This first ESPYs, held at Madison Square Garden, carried a particularly dramatic tone as famed college basketball coach Jim Valvano, who had cancer and was ultimately less than two months from his death, gave his now iconic “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up” speech [[link removed]]. His remarks resonate deeply to this day, were chronicled last year in an ESPN documentary and, most critically, helped give rise to the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

The ESPYs still lives on as a critical annual tentpole for the Disney-owned media giant. More recently, ESPN has positioned the event in Los Angeles on the day after the MLB All-Star Game in July, typically one of the slowest days on the entire U.S. sports calendar, allowing the ESPYs to take on even more prominence.

ONE BIG FIG Who’s in Control?

James Lang-USA TODAY Sports

14

The latest number of teams being considered for the College Football Playoff. The continued discussion [[link removed]] about growing the tournament from 12 to as many as 16 teams beginning in 2026 is revealing quite a bit about the new power dynamics in the sport. One of the newly proposed formats would give the Big Ten and SEC three automatic bids, according to multiple reports, with the ACC and Big 12 getting two but Group of 5 schools getting just one. There would also be three at-large spots and room for Notre Dame. That would be a big shift from the 12-team format beginning this year that reserves automatic qualification for the champions of Power 4 and the highest-ranked Group of 5 team.

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FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY World Series Champ Has Stories to Tell

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sport

World Series winner Eric Hosmer has hung up his cleats and turns now toward a post-playing career: He and Anthony Seratelli (himself a former minor-leaguer and pro ballplayer in Japan) recently announced the launch of MoonBall Media, which they plan to focus on player-driven stories that put MLB on the same media playing field as the NFL and NBA. To hear how they intend to compete in a crowded storytelling landscape, check out the latest episode of the Front Office Sports Today podcast.

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

Conversation Starters Nike paid tribut [[link removed]]e to LeBron James after he made NBA history over the weekend by becoming the first player to score more than 40,000 career points. The Phillies’ Triple A team is seeking a bullpen catcher, and the position has actually been listed [[link removed]] on the job site Indeed. This season, Formula One teams are allowed to spend [[link removed]] up to $135 million on building and developing their cars. To celebrate Women’s History Month, Five Iron Golf is offering [[link removed]] complimentary golf for women every Wednesday in March at all U.S. locations. Editors’ Picks The Caitlin Clark Economy: Much More Than an Army of Traveling Young Girls [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]The economy surrounding No. 22 goes far beyond her biggest fans. Sheer Madness: What You Need to Know About MLB’s New Uniform Saga [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]MLB’s reworked uniforms have become a major source of spring training controversy. Football Is Finally Getting With the Times, Technologically Speaking [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]Helmet communications in college and first-down technology in NFL could be coming. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by David Rumsey [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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