| From | Front Office Sports <[email protected]> |
| Subject | Youth and Big Money at Wimbledon |
| Date | July 1, 2024 11:24 AM |
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July 1, 2024
Read in Browser [[link removed]]
POWERED BY
Wimbledon begins today as the All England Club ushers in more prize money and younger players. … An upstart women’s soccer league is hopeful to find its footing alongside the NWSL. … Steph Curry makes another venture into the golf business. … Front Office Sports Today explores the NFL’s next steps after losing the Sunday Ticket trial. … And we look back at the beginnings of the country’s most popular sports radio station.
— David Rumsey [[link removed]] and Eric Fisher [[link removed]]
Wimbledon’s New Era: Big Money and a Youth Movement [[link removed]]
Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
A youthful new era is rapidly emerging at the 147-year-old Wimbledon, one destined to shake up one of the most tradition-bound events in not only tennis, but all of sports.
The major begins Monday in London, but many of its former champions and established stars are either absent or participating in a limited capacity. Two-time Wimbledon winner and 22-time major champion Rafael Nadal is skipping the tournament to prepare for the Paris Olympics [[link removed]]. Novak Djokovic, a seven-time Wimbledon champion and last year’s runner-up, is still formally in the draw [[link removed]], but how effective he’ll be is still an open question after recent surgery for a torn meniscus in his right knee. A similar situation surrounds Andy Murray, another two-time Wimbledon winner but dealing with a back injury, and he’s waiting until Monday to decide whether to compete in singles.
Spotlighting this year’s field instead is a rising wave of young stars including 2023 Wimbledon men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz (21 years old), top men’s seed Jannik Sinner (22), and top women’s players Iga Świątek (23), Coco Gauff (20), and Qinwen Zheng (21).
New Money and Maybe New Facilities
This year’s Wimbledon also has a new monetary look as the All England Club raised [[link removed]] the prize money fund by 11.9% to a record $64 million. Last year’s 8% bump [[link removed]] in Wimbledon prize money helped prompt similar increases at the other three tennis majors, and is fueled in part by still-rising fan demand for tournament tickets.
“Interest in attending Wimbledon has never been greater, with unprecedented demand for tickets through our public ballot and corporate hospitality,” said Deborah Jevans, All England Club chair.
The All England Club, meanwhile, is still attempting to pursue a dramatic, $250 million enlargement [[link removed]] of its facility. Local officials have shown concern about the effort—several years in the making—to build a new, 8,000-seat stadium and 39 additional courts, but the matter is now in front of the office of London mayor Sadiq Khan in what remains a divisive local issue [[link removed]] politically.
“I’m all for expanding. It’s bumper-to-bumper crowded when you walk into Wimbledon,” said Chris Evert, Tennis Hall of Famer and an ESPN broadcaster. “I definitely think that all the Grand Slams are going to continue [to pursue expansion]. It’s not going to stop now. I mean, whatever will suit the spectators, because they’re really the most important people in this whole thing, what makes it easier, more comfortable, more doable for them to roam around.”
Bristol Focus
ESPN’s “First Ball to Last Ball” coverage of the tournament will span more than 240 hours across the network and several other Disney-owned platforms.
The network’s coverage includes the addition of recently retired star player John Isner and the currently inactive Nick Kyrgios as guest commentators, something also advancing the theme of changing on-court talent at Wimbledon. Kyrgios, a finalist at this tournament two years ago, will also appear in the BBC’s event coverage.
New Media-Rights Deal for NWSL Challenger Comes With a Caveat [[link removed]]
The Greenville News
With the NWSL on pace [[link removed]] for another record year midway through this season, a potential rival pro women’s soccer league—at least some see it that way—is just six weeks away from launching.
In February, the USL Super League received the same Division I sanctioning [[link removed]] from the U.S. Soccer Federation that the NWSL has. Last month, the upstart competition completed its next major step: a national media-rights deal with Peacock. While the pact doesn’t compare to the reach or financial impact of the NWSL’s $240 million deals [[link removed]], it does give the new women’s league a streaming platform with more than 30 million subscribers and the muscle of a major media company in NBCUniversal.
The rights deal is not a traditional one, though, and comes with an intriguing caveat. Front Office Sports spoke with key officials involved in its creation to break down the expanding pro women’s soccer landscape.
How Much Is It Worth?
Creating revenue will be key for the USL Super League, which is launching with eight clubs and lists eight more potential expansion markets on its website.
While specific financial details of the Peacock deal weren’t revealed, an NBCU executive admitted it’s not a standard contract. “If you’re in the USL’s shoes, with a startup league, it’s not necessarily the easiest thing in the world to get a major media company excited about a traditional rights arrangement,” says Will McIntosh, the president of NBC Sports Next, which is a technology division of the media giant that led talks with the USL.
That’s why the two parties got creative. In addition to USL Super League streaming on Peacock—or perhaps in exchange for—there’s another element to the deal. Broadcasts from pre-professional competitions USL League Two and USL W League will appear on SportsEngine Play, an NBC-owned streaming service that until now has aired only youth sports.
“There was this opportunity for the USL to be a big anchor partner for SportsEngine Play, as we’re building it,” McIntosh explains. “At the same time, they had a need for a major media partner and streaming platform like Peacock for their professional endeavors.”
So, is Peacock paying for the USL rights? Yes and no. “The USL will end up benefiting tremendously economically from this,” says McIntosh. “It won’t necessarily look like a typical rights arrangement because the value is coming from a variety of places.”
There were multiple parties interested in acquiring the USL Super League rights, according to Court Jeske, the USL’s chief commercial officer. The top two USL men’s leagues have broadcast deals with ESPN and CBS. In addition to the Peacock distribution, Jeske says that Super League clubs “will have the ability to have select matches highlighted with local linear partners.”
The NWSL Question
“We don’t really look at it compared to NWSL,” Jeske says of the USL’s long-term strategy for its new women’s league. But the comparisons are unavoidable.
When the USL Super League launches in mid-August, it will run alongside the NWSL for about two and a half months before the latter’s championship game in early November. Operating on the traditional fall-to-spring international soccer calendar, the upstart league will have its own spot over the winter, before the NWSL restarts in March.
“It’s undoubtable that they’re gonna be viewed as competitors over time,” McIntosh says. But both he and Jeske are bullish on the belief that there’s enough talent in the U.S. to support two women’s leagues, and until now not enough playing opportunities. Soon, we’ll see if that hypothesis is true.
SPONSORED BY CHAMPS SPORTS
Soccer Sport Styles
From footwear shaped by soccer to apparel and accessories inspired by it, Champs Sports [[link removed]] is the destination for styles that look as good on the field as they do beyond it.
Adidas Sambas [[link removed]]. Soccer tops. Tiro Pants. Champs Sports has you covered with a must-have lineup that embodies the culture of soccer [[link removed]]. Grab the looks that are right for you and show your love for the iconic sport from wherever.
Don’t just watch soccer; wear it with Champs Sports’ selection of sport styles. Find them in store or online [[link removed]].
FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY The Long View on the NFL Sunday Ticket Suit
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The $4.7 billion judgment against the NFL could have long-term impacts on the league, but first the NFL will appeal the decision, possibly up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Andrew Brandt, executive director of Villanova’s Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law, joins the show to explain how the decision could disrupt the parity the NFL has worked so hard to uphold.
🎧 Watch, listen, and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Google [[link removed]], Spotify [[link removed]], and YouTube [[link removed]].
ONE BIG FIG Get a Grip
Reno Gazette Journal
8,200
Number of limited-edition grip kits [[link removed]] that Warriors star Steph Curry (above) is releasing with Golf Pride as part of his latest business venture in the sport. Curry, an avid golfer off the basketball court, is an investor [[link removed]] in The Bay Golf Club, one of six teams in TGL, the league from Tiger Woods that just received a $500 million valuation [[link removed]]. He’s also played in two editions of “ The Match [[link removed]],” and last summer won [[link removed]] the American Century Championship celebrity tournament.
Priced at $250 each, sales of the grip kits will benefit Underrated Golf, the organization Curry founded to promote equity and access to the sport, alongside his support [[link removed]] of HBCU golf programs. For Golf Pride, a fairly niche brand for non-golfers, it’s an opportunity to increase visibility with one of the biggest stars in sports.
“We definitely don’t see this as a one-and-done thing,” James Ledford, the company’s president, tells Front Office Sports. He may have a good reason to be bullish on working with Curry again: “To be honest, the partnership came together pretty seamlessly because Steph was already playing our grip,” Ledford says. “So he knew our product, even though we didn’t know him.”
TIME CAPSULE July 1, 1987: First-Time Caller, Long-Term Impact
Peter Ackerman, Asbury Park Press
On this day 37 years ago: WFAN in New York began a 24-hour sports-talk radio format, the first of its kind in the U.S., ushering in a deeply influential programming shift across both the radio and television industries. Building materially on several decades of increasingly popular sports-talk programming across the country, the arrival of WFAN’s all-sports focus played a meaningful role in the accelerated rise in prominence for many pro leagues through the late 1980s and ’90s. The station’s top talent such as “Mike and Mad Dog” hosts Mike Francesca (above) and Chris Russo became major stars, and one can draw a direct line from WFAN’s rise to the opinion-based focus of much of ESPN’s current daytime programming, as well as the outsized power [[link removed]] of Stephen A. Smith.
The sports-talk radio boom has continued into the digital realm with the genre’s entire presence across the $25 billion podcast industry [[link removed].] also having a lineage back to WFAN—which maintains a dominant local presence to this day. But that influence and market impact hasn’t insulated WFAN’s corporate parent, Audacy, from broader difficulties. The Philadelphia-based company filed [[link removed]] for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, and it is now seeking [[link removed]] to emerge in a new ownership structure controlled by billionaire George Soros.
FRONT OFFICE SPORTS EVENTS
From Fireside to Courtside
Summer is officially in full swing and Front Office Sports is headed to the Hamptons. On Aug. 2, Huddle in the Hamptons [[link removed]] will bring together business leaders in sports, entertainment, technology, and media for an afternoon of panels, networking, and racket sports.
The perfect way to spend a summer Friday, this invite-only event will begin with a series of fireside chats and conclude with a pickleball tournament.
To become a partner or learn more about the event, visit our website [[link removed]].
Conversation Starters For Sunday’s game against the Indiana Fever, get-in ticket prices for the Phoenix Mercury increased [[link removed]] by about 150% from their usual rate. The Lake County Captains, the High-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, have introduced the Roto-Rooter Toilet Row, with tickets priced around $16 per toilet. Check it out [[link removed]]. Think you can make a dynasty out of a small school? We’re giving away two copies of the highly anticipated EA Sports College Football 25 video game. Enter here [[link removed]] for a chance to win. See rules here [[link removed]]. Editors’ Picks As Conference Realignment Becomes Official, the Power 5 Era Is Over [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]It’s yet another indicator that college sports have become more commercialized. The Dysfunctional Family Affair That Poisoned Arizona Coyotes [[link removed]]by A.J. Perez [[link removed]]An absent Alex Meruelo left a power vacuum for his inexperienced son. What Does the Landmark NFL Sunday Ticket Verdict Mean for Fans? [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]Not much, yet. 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]], David Rumsey [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]
If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here [[link removed]].
Update your preferences [link removed] / Unsubscribe [link removed]
Copyright © 2024 Front Office Sports. All rights reserved.
460 Park Avenue South, 7th Floor, New York NY, 10016
Read in Browser [[link removed]]
POWERED BY
Wimbledon begins today as the All England Club ushers in more prize money and younger players. … An upstart women’s soccer league is hopeful to find its footing alongside the NWSL. … Steph Curry makes another venture into the golf business. … Front Office Sports Today explores the NFL’s next steps after losing the Sunday Ticket trial. … And we look back at the beginnings of the country’s most popular sports radio station.
— David Rumsey [[link removed]] and Eric Fisher [[link removed]]
Wimbledon’s New Era: Big Money and a Youth Movement [[link removed]]
Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
A youthful new era is rapidly emerging at the 147-year-old Wimbledon, one destined to shake up one of the most tradition-bound events in not only tennis, but all of sports.
The major begins Monday in London, but many of its former champions and established stars are either absent or participating in a limited capacity. Two-time Wimbledon winner and 22-time major champion Rafael Nadal is skipping the tournament to prepare for the Paris Olympics [[link removed]]. Novak Djokovic, a seven-time Wimbledon champion and last year’s runner-up, is still formally in the draw [[link removed]], but how effective he’ll be is still an open question after recent surgery for a torn meniscus in his right knee. A similar situation surrounds Andy Murray, another two-time Wimbledon winner but dealing with a back injury, and he’s waiting until Monday to decide whether to compete in singles.
Spotlighting this year’s field instead is a rising wave of young stars including 2023 Wimbledon men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz (21 years old), top men’s seed Jannik Sinner (22), and top women’s players Iga Świątek (23), Coco Gauff (20), and Qinwen Zheng (21).
New Money and Maybe New Facilities
This year’s Wimbledon also has a new monetary look as the All England Club raised [[link removed]] the prize money fund by 11.9% to a record $64 million. Last year’s 8% bump [[link removed]] in Wimbledon prize money helped prompt similar increases at the other three tennis majors, and is fueled in part by still-rising fan demand for tournament tickets.
“Interest in attending Wimbledon has never been greater, with unprecedented demand for tickets through our public ballot and corporate hospitality,” said Deborah Jevans, All England Club chair.
The All England Club, meanwhile, is still attempting to pursue a dramatic, $250 million enlargement [[link removed]] of its facility. Local officials have shown concern about the effort—several years in the making—to build a new, 8,000-seat stadium and 39 additional courts, but the matter is now in front of the office of London mayor Sadiq Khan in what remains a divisive local issue [[link removed]] politically.
“I’m all for expanding. It’s bumper-to-bumper crowded when you walk into Wimbledon,” said Chris Evert, Tennis Hall of Famer and an ESPN broadcaster. “I definitely think that all the Grand Slams are going to continue [to pursue expansion]. It’s not going to stop now. I mean, whatever will suit the spectators, because they’re really the most important people in this whole thing, what makes it easier, more comfortable, more doable for them to roam around.”
Bristol Focus
ESPN’s “First Ball to Last Ball” coverage of the tournament will span more than 240 hours across the network and several other Disney-owned platforms.
The network’s coverage includes the addition of recently retired star player John Isner and the currently inactive Nick Kyrgios as guest commentators, something also advancing the theme of changing on-court talent at Wimbledon. Kyrgios, a finalist at this tournament two years ago, will also appear in the BBC’s event coverage.
New Media-Rights Deal for NWSL Challenger Comes With a Caveat [[link removed]]
The Greenville News
With the NWSL on pace [[link removed]] for another record year midway through this season, a potential rival pro women’s soccer league—at least some see it that way—is just six weeks away from launching.
In February, the USL Super League received the same Division I sanctioning [[link removed]] from the U.S. Soccer Federation that the NWSL has. Last month, the upstart competition completed its next major step: a national media-rights deal with Peacock. While the pact doesn’t compare to the reach or financial impact of the NWSL’s $240 million deals [[link removed]], it does give the new women’s league a streaming platform with more than 30 million subscribers and the muscle of a major media company in NBCUniversal.
The rights deal is not a traditional one, though, and comes with an intriguing caveat. Front Office Sports spoke with key officials involved in its creation to break down the expanding pro women’s soccer landscape.
How Much Is It Worth?
Creating revenue will be key for the USL Super League, which is launching with eight clubs and lists eight more potential expansion markets on its website.
While specific financial details of the Peacock deal weren’t revealed, an NBCU executive admitted it’s not a standard contract. “If you’re in the USL’s shoes, with a startup league, it’s not necessarily the easiest thing in the world to get a major media company excited about a traditional rights arrangement,” says Will McIntosh, the president of NBC Sports Next, which is a technology division of the media giant that led talks with the USL.
That’s why the two parties got creative. In addition to USL Super League streaming on Peacock—or perhaps in exchange for—there’s another element to the deal. Broadcasts from pre-professional competitions USL League Two and USL W League will appear on SportsEngine Play, an NBC-owned streaming service that until now has aired only youth sports.
“There was this opportunity for the USL to be a big anchor partner for SportsEngine Play, as we’re building it,” McIntosh explains. “At the same time, they had a need for a major media partner and streaming platform like Peacock for their professional endeavors.”
So, is Peacock paying for the USL rights? Yes and no. “The USL will end up benefiting tremendously economically from this,” says McIntosh. “It won’t necessarily look like a typical rights arrangement because the value is coming from a variety of places.”
There were multiple parties interested in acquiring the USL Super League rights, according to Court Jeske, the USL’s chief commercial officer. The top two USL men’s leagues have broadcast deals with ESPN and CBS. In addition to the Peacock distribution, Jeske says that Super League clubs “will have the ability to have select matches highlighted with local linear partners.”
The NWSL Question
“We don’t really look at it compared to NWSL,” Jeske says of the USL’s long-term strategy for its new women’s league. But the comparisons are unavoidable.
When the USL Super League launches in mid-August, it will run alongside the NWSL for about two and a half months before the latter’s championship game in early November. Operating on the traditional fall-to-spring international soccer calendar, the upstart league will have its own spot over the winter, before the NWSL restarts in March.
“It’s undoubtable that they’re gonna be viewed as competitors over time,” McIntosh says. But both he and Jeske are bullish on the belief that there’s enough talent in the U.S. to support two women’s leagues, and until now not enough playing opportunities. Soon, we’ll see if that hypothesis is true.
SPONSORED BY CHAMPS SPORTS
Soccer Sport Styles
From footwear shaped by soccer to apparel and accessories inspired by it, Champs Sports [[link removed]] is the destination for styles that look as good on the field as they do beyond it.
Adidas Sambas [[link removed]]. Soccer tops. Tiro Pants. Champs Sports has you covered with a must-have lineup that embodies the culture of soccer [[link removed]]. Grab the looks that are right for you and show your love for the iconic sport from wherever.
Don’t just watch soccer; wear it with Champs Sports’ selection of sport styles. Find them in store or online [[link removed]].
FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY The Long View on the NFL Sunday Ticket Suit
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The $4.7 billion judgment against the NFL could have long-term impacts on the league, but first the NFL will appeal the decision, possibly up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Andrew Brandt, executive director of Villanova’s Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law, joins the show to explain how the decision could disrupt the parity the NFL has worked so hard to uphold.
🎧 Watch, listen, and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Google [[link removed]], Spotify [[link removed]], and YouTube [[link removed]].
ONE BIG FIG Get a Grip
Reno Gazette Journal
8,200
Number of limited-edition grip kits [[link removed]] that Warriors star Steph Curry (above) is releasing with Golf Pride as part of his latest business venture in the sport. Curry, an avid golfer off the basketball court, is an investor [[link removed]] in The Bay Golf Club, one of six teams in TGL, the league from Tiger Woods that just received a $500 million valuation [[link removed]]. He’s also played in two editions of “ The Match [[link removed]],” and last summer won [[link removed]] the American Century Championship celebrity tournament.
Priced at $250 each, sales of the grip kits will benefit Underrated Golf, the organization Curry founded to promote equity and access to the sport, alongside his support [[link removed]] of HBCU golf programs. For Golf Pride, a fairly niche brand for non-golfers, it’s an opportunity to increase visibility with one of the biggest stars in sports.
“We definitely don’t see this as a one-and-done thing,” James Ledford, the company’s president, tells Front Office Sports. He may have a good reason to be bullish on working with Curry again: “To be honest, the partnership came together pretty seamlessly because Steph was already playing our grip,” Ledford says. “So he knew our product, even though we didn’t know him.”
TIME CAPSULE July 1, 1987: First-Time Caller, Long-Term Impact
Peter Ackerman, Asbury Park Press
On this day 37 years ago: WFAN in New York began a 24-hour sports-talk radio format, the first of its kind in the U.S., ushering in a deeply influential programming shift across both the radio and television industries. Building materially on several decades of increasingly popular sports-talk programming across the country, the arrival of WFAN’s all-sports focus played a meaningful role in the accelerated rise in prominence for many pro leagues through the late 1980s and ’90s. The station’s top talent such as “Mike and Mad Dog” hosts Mike Francesca (above) and Chris Russo became major stars, and one can draw a direct line from WFAN’s rise to the opinion-based focus of much of ESPN’s current daytime programming, as well as the outsized power [[link removed]] of Stephen A. Smith.
The sports-talk radio boom has continued into the digital realm with the genre’s entire presence across the $25 billion podcast industry [[link removed].] also having a lineage back to WFAN—which maintains a dominant local presence to this day. But that influence and market impact hasn’t insulated WFAN’s corporate parent, Audacy, from broader difficulties. The Philadelphia-based company filed [[link removed]] for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, and it is now seeking [[link removed]] to emerge in a new ownership structure controlled by billionaire George Soros.
FRONT OFFICE SPORTS EVENTS
From Fireside to Courtside
Summer is officially in full swing and Front Office Sports is headed to the Hamptons. On Aug. 2, Huddle in the Hamptons [[link removed]] will bring together business leaders in sports, entertainment, technology, and media for an afternoon of panels, networking, and racket sports.
The perfect way to spend a summer Friday, this invite-only event will begin with a series of fireside chats and conclude with a pickleball tournament.
To become a partner or learn more about the event, visit our website [[link removed]].
Conversation Starters For Sunday’s game against the Indiana Fever, get-in ticket prices for the Phoenix Mercury increased [[link removed]] by about 150% from their usual rate. The Lake County Captains, the High-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, have introduced the Roto-Rooter Toilet Row, with tickets priced around $16 per toilet. Check it out [[link removed]]. Think you can make a dynasty out of a small school? We’re giving away two copies of the highly anticipated EA Sports College Football 25 video game. Enter here [[link removed]] for a chance to win. See rules here [[link removed]]. Editors’ Picks As Conference Realignment Becomes Official, the Power 5 Era Is Over [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]It’s yet another indicator that college sports have become more commercialized. The Dysfunctional Family Affair That Poisoned Arizona Coyotes [[link removed]]by A.J. Perez [[link removed]]An absent Alex Meruelo left a power vacuum for his inexperienced son. What Does the Landmark NFL Sunday Ticket Verdict Mean for Fans? [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]Not much, yet. 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]], David Rumsey [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]
If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here [[link removed]].
Update your preferences [link removed] / Unsubscribe [link removed]
Copyright © 2024 Front Office Sports. All rights reserved.
460 Park Avenue South, 7th Floor, New York NY, 10016
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