May 6, 2024

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Happy Monday—the weekend was chock full of stunning wins, from Mystik Dan to Lando Norris, and an impressive debut from Caitlin Clark.

The New York City sports market is on the precipice of unlocking potential that hasn’t been seen in decades. … After a rough first quarter, ESPN Bet has a crucial summer ahead. … A Super Bowl–winning quarterback chats with Front Office Sports Today about the most pressing NFL issues. … College football has a new highest-paid head coach. … The U.S. Open is welcoming LIV players, if they can get in. … And it’s a sad anniversary for one former NHL locale.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]] and Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again: Knicks, Rangers Giving New York ’94 Vibes [[link removed]]

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

It’s almost like the spring of 1994 again at Madison Square Garden, and New York fans are responding in kind.

Both the NBA’s Knicks and NHL’s Rangers have reached the second round of their respective playoff series, the first time that has happened since 2013 and just the second since 1997. But even more than the mere synchronization of competitive teams, the Knicks are playing their best basketball in more than decade, fueling [[link removed]] a series of attendance and revenue gains for MSG Sports, while the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s best regular-season team this year.

If the teams’ respective postseason runs continue, it could echo the city’s famous period three decades ago, when the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years while the Knicks advanced to the NBA Finals, losing a hard-fought, seven-game series to the Rockets that was disrupted in part by coverage of the low-speed police chase [[link removed]] of O.J. Simpson. The Knicks and Rangers were both central parts of a celebrated 2010 ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, “June 17, 1994.”

Now, the Knicks will face the Pacers in the second round of the playoffs, with those two teams having battled in a particularly epic seven-game Eastern Conference finals in 1994. As Knicks fever is quickly rising, resale ticket prices are beginning at more than $300 for the first game of the series Monday at MSG, with most lower-bowl inventory costing at least twice that much.

MSG Return

The opening of the series with Indiana will be a homecoming after the Knicks’ fan support on the road helped prompt the 76ers to buy [[link removed]] their own tickets and donate them in order to prevent New York fans from accessing them.

“We feel we have the best fans in the world. They travel. They go with us wherever we go,” said [[link removed]] Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau after the team overcame that Philadelphia maneuver and clinched a six-game series win.

The Rangers, meanwhile, quickly dispatched the Capitals in a first-round sweep, and are now facing the Hurricanes, who were at one point the betting up favorite to win the Stanley Cup. Get-in pricing for the Rangers’ series opener Sunday at the Garden, a 4-3 New York victory, began at $250, with a similar near-doubling in price for lower-bowl seats.

The New York teams’ playoffs runs are also set to become a further boost for Knicks and Rangers owner James Dolan, already riding a high from the initial success of the Sphere in Las Vegas, which debuted [[link removed]] last fall as a jaw-dropping spectacle, was quickly embraced [[link removed]] by multiple sports properties, and has seen successful concert residencies from U2 and Phish.

On Thursday, MSG Sports reported fiscal third-quarter financials showing a 12% bump in revenue to $430 million and a 3% increase in adjusted operating income, fueled by the improved results of both teams.

“Our third-quarter results reflect solid operating performance across our business, driven by ongoing enthusiasm for the Knicks and Rangers,” Dolan said.

Can ESPN Bet Get on Solid Footing Before Football Season Kicks Off? [[link removed]]

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

ESPN Bet isn’t even six months old yet, but with the biggest sports gambling events of the first half of the year having yet to produce a major boost for the platform, a crucial summer lies ahead for the product and brand born out of a $2 billion partnership [[link removed]] between Disney and Penn Entertainment.

Last week, Penn’s stock tumbled more than 10% and, at one point reached a 52-week low, after the company missed analyst estimates in its most recent quarter, due in part to struggles by ESPN Bet, which saw lower-than-expected hold and spend per user.

“Admittedly, we have not been as tight and accurate with our financial forecasting in the early days of ESPN Bet,” Penn CEO Jay Snowden said during the company’s earnings call. With earnings from Penn’s online gaming segment coming in roughly $30 million lower than predicted, even ESPN personality Pat McAfee chimed in [[link removed]] on the poor performance: “Things going great here. … Not at all.”

The majority of the NBA and NHL playoffs still lie ahead, but the real indicator of success for ESPN Bet will come during its first full professional and college football seasons this fall. Can it use the next four months to get in prime position for a strong run around the NFL and the first season of an expanded 12-team College Football Playoff?

“ESPN Bet still has a tremendous amount of work to do, as do many sportsbook operators,” Chris Grove, a partner at research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, tells Front Office Sports. “The difference is that Penn appears to be the greatest distance from portability of all major operators, and it’s not clear that their shareholders have any more appetite for sustained losses. We’re certainly not seeing evidence of powerful momentum in the market share or revenue numbers.”

DraftKings and FanDuel Dominate

DraftKings and FanDuel remain the top dogs among U.S. sports betting operators, as they have since it became legal in 2018. Recent data [[link removed]] pegged FanDuel’s share of the American sports betting market at roughly 41% and DraftKings at 32%. ESPN Bet, which was estimated under 5%, needs to get 20% market share to satisfy expectations initially laid out by Disney and Penn.

On Tuesday morning, Disney will report its next quarterly earnings, and company CEO Bob Iger could shed more light on ESPN Bet’s performance and any change in outlook for this year.

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FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY Phil and Matt Simms on the Family Media Business

Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

He may be out after 26 years at CBS Sports, but Phil Simms says he is leaning into the “freedom” of the Simms Complete podcast he makes with his son Matt. The two join our show today to discuss how their familial bond creates a dynamic you don’t find on other pods, what they think of the potential for an 18-game NFL season, and why we shouldn’t sleep on the Jets, despite decades of evidence to the contrary.

🎧 Watch, listen, and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Google [[link removed]], Spotify [[link removed]], and YouTube [[link removed]].

ONE BIG FIG A No-Brainer

Online Athens

$13 million

Amount of money Georgia’s Kirby Smart will make annually, making him the highest-paid coach [[link removed]] in college football. The school just approved a 10-year, $130 million contract for Smart, who had been scheduled to earn $10.75 million this year. In 2022, after Georgia’s first national championship under Smart, the coach received a similar 10-year extension worth $112.5 million that also made him the highest-paid coach at the time.

LOUD AND CLEAR All Are Welcome

Stevens Point Journal

“If you’re good enough to get in, we welcome you with open arms.”

—USGA CEO Mike Whan (above), on the potential for LIV Golf players to earn a spot in next month’s U.S. Open through general qualifying. Many LIV players who once qualified for major championships via high world rankings no longer have an automatic entry. “There is a good chunk of LIV players and other major winners who are already in and have played since LIV started playing and we’re proud of that,” Whan said in an interview with Sports Illustrated [[link removed]]. This year, 35 LIV players are attempting to earn a spot the hard way. “We had players who went to qualify [last year] and got in and some went to qualify and didn’t. The same will be true this year.”

TIME CAPSULE May 6, 1997: Whalers Head South

James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

On this day 27 years ago: Hartford Whalers owner Peter Karmanos announced he was moving the team, Connecticut’s only major league sports franchise, to North Carolina. On one level, the decision was a fairly straightforward relocation, and just one of four in the NHL in the 1990s when including the Stars, Jets, and Nordiques. Karmanos, having unsuccessfully sought an NHL expansion franchise in St. Petersburg, Fla., before buying the Whalers, struggled with financial losses in Hartford, and political support for a new venue with taxpayer funding was lacking.

Despite the hard feelings in Hartford, the Whalers have thrived as the Hurricanes, winning a Stanley Cup in 2006, and efforts are underway [[link removed]] under current team owner Tom Dundon to redevelop the area around Raleigh’s PNC Arena.

But what was left behind is a whole other situation. Thanks in part to the distinctive, Peter Good–designed Whalers logo and the green-and-blue color scheme, throwback merchandise for the team is still quite popular, and the Hartford look remains part of the Hurricanes’ alternate jersey plans, most recently expanding [[link removed]] to white as Dundon has sought to build the team’s connection to its past.

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Conversation Starters Tramont Miles, a first-generation college graduate with double majors in criminal justice and psychology, has secretly served as South Carolina’s mascot, Cocky, for the past year, and this weekend marked his final appearance wearing the iconic yellow feet. Watch here [[link removed]]. Brett Yormark of the Big 12 has suggested [[link removed]] expanding the College Football Playoff to 14 teams and March Madness to 76 teams to provide more championship opportunities. The commissioner is confident in the Big 12’s ability to secure additional at-large spots. TNT may be left out of the NBA’s next multibillion-dollar media deal. Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Charles Barkley could potentially split up [[link removed]] as a result. Editors’ Picks Everything You Need to Know About the Coyotes’ Second Chance at NHL Life [[link removed]]by A.J. Perez [[link removed]]The clock is ticking in order to restart a Phoenix expansion team. Patrick Beverley Banned (Then Unbanned) From Future ESPN Appearances [[link removed]]by Michael McCarthy [[link removed]]ESPN decided not to book Beverley on shows like ‘First Take’ and ‘Get Up,’ then rolled back the move. Max Verstappen Is Unstoppable. Is That Hurting F1 With New American Fans? [[link removed]]by Bob Williams [[link removed]]Formula One could be facing an inevitable plateau in the United States. 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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