The hits are still coming for the streaming joint venture between ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, which is still four months away, at minimum, from its intended public debut.

With the much-discussed project already facing continued questions from sports leagues, a U.S. Justice Department inquiry on antitrust grounds, a lawsuit from FuboTV, and tempered expectations from Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, two high-powered Congressmen are the latest to pile on the still-nascent effort.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) have written a letter to Murdoch, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and WBD CEO David Zaslav, demanding answers to 19 questions regarding the details of how the forthcoming service will present itself to both consumers and leagues. Within the extensive series of questions is a broad concern by the two legislators that the streaming product will create a series of negative effects across the industry. The pair have set an April 30 deadline for a response, which they also intend to have sent to the Justice Department. 

“Without more complete information about the pricing, intent, and organization of this new venture, we are concerned that this consolidation will result in higher prices for consumers and less fair licensing terms for upstream sports league and downstream video distributors,” Nadler and Castro said.

The letter highlights what is still a growing confusion around the streaming alliance—nicknamed “Hulu for Sports” or “Spulu”—depending on the party speaking. Some have dismissed the venture as largely a non-event and something not appealing to many fans, since it will leave out roughly half of NFL games, the Olympics, and a significant amount of college sports, men’s pro soccer, golf, tennis, and horse racing, among other sports, given the lack of involvement by CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon, and Apple. The service also still lacks a formal name, pricing, or a definitive working agreement among the three partners. 

Others, such as Nadler and Castro, similar to FuboTV and the Justice Department, are taking a different approach and are raising concerns about squeezing out various entities through consolidated and anticompetitive market power.

“As programmers, your companies exert tremendous influence over pricing across the live TV ecosystem,” the lawmakers said.

The Masters is over but there’s already another major championship about to tee off. The best golfers in the women’s game are gathering just outside Houston for the Chevron Championship, which starts Thursday morning and is the first of the sport’s five annual major championships.

Yes, five, not the four that the men’s game plays. Why? Let’s take a look.

Major Feel

What makes a tournament a major championship? World rankings points and money. Winning a major earns a golfer 100 points, while no other event on the LPGA Tour, or any other circuit, hands out more than 62 to its champion. Pending any further increases, the five majors will award a combined $45.4 million to its participants; that’s almost 37% of the LPGA’s $123.25 million total prize pot currently planned in 2024.

This year, the order of the majors is:

• The Chevron Championship, April 18-21 
• U.S. Women’s Open, May 30-June 2 
• Women’s PGA Championship, June 20-23
• The Evian Championship, July 11-14 
• Women’s Open, Aug. 15-18

The More the Merrier

In 2013, the Evian Championship was added as the fifth major in women’s golf. While some purists would argue that’s one too many, it actually has brought a welcomed synergy to the sport. Since then, the women’s game has become a little more unified with the men’s and continues to see more financial investments.

Each of the top five stakeholders in women’s golf is closely aligned with one of the majors: LPGA (Chevron), USGA (U.S. Women’s Open), PGA of America (Women’s PGA Championship), Ladies European Tour (Evian), and the R&A (Women’s Open). The USGA, PGA of America, and R&A, in particular, are taking more women’s majors to courses traditionally reserved for their men’s championships, like Pebble Beach, Baltusrol, and St Andrews.

Notably, there is no women’s professional tournament played at Augusta National, home of the most popular men’s major. Ahead of the Masters, club chairman Fred Ridley effectively shot down the idea of holding a women’s Masters, saying it would be “very difficult” to hold another annual tournament in addition to the Masters and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. 

How About Five in a Row?

Nelly Korda (above), the No. 1-ranked women’s golfer, comes into the first major of the year having won her last four starts. (That’s an even hotter streak than Masters champ Scottie Scheffler is on.) If the 25-year-old American wins this week, she’ll pocket $1.2 million—the same amount she’s made from her four wins this year combined. Now, that’s major.

It’s a little easier to buy a few wins in professional basketball than it is in a sport like, say, football. And last summer, one NBA team handed out the most expensive head coach contract in league history while another received a landmark investment for major American sports franchises. And the results? Historically bad performances on the court and the two worst records during the regular season, which ended on Sunday.

After the Pistons finished the 2022–23 season with the NBA’s worst record, Detroit owner Tom Gore opened up his wallet to bring in Monty Williams, who signed a six-year, $78.5 million contract that at the time was the largest for an NBA coach. (The Spurs’ Greg Popovich and the Heat’s Eric Spoelstra have since passed Williams’s deal in total value.) Meanwhile, the Wizards’ parent company, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, sold a 5% minority stake in the organization to the Qatar Investment Authority last offseason for $200 million, representing the first time a sovereign wealth fund had invested in a franchise from one of the top four U.S. leagues.

But as the playoffs get underway, Detroit and Washington are staring up at the rest of the league. The Pistons again finished with the worst record in the NBA, at 14-68, which is tied for the 12th-worst win percentage in league history. The Wizards were only one win better at 15-67, the worst season in franchise history. 

Time to Reinvest?

Along the way, Detroit endured the longest losing streak in NBA history (which actually led to some positive business for one local vendor) and is now searching for a new president of basketball operations to oversee general manager Troy Weaver and the pricey Williams. 

In Washington, D.C., as the Wizards lost game after game, owner Ted Leonsis tried, unsuccessfully, to move the team, as well as his Washington Capitals, to a new $2 billion arena in Alexandria, Va. In the end, Monumental reached a deal with D.C. officials to stay and renovate Capital One Arena, and the Wizards are searching for a new head coach after Wes Unseld Jr., who was said to be making $7 million per season, was fired just a few months after the team picked up his fourth-year option for the 2024–25 season.