July 10, 2024

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Drama rises further in the high-stakes auction of the NBA’s national media rights. … Manchester United’s on-field issues are now coupled with growing financial concerns. … What’s left of the Pac-12 Conference is holding a rather unusual football media day in Las Vegas. … Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav gives his support to the Paramount-Skydance merger as he arrives at the Sun Valley Conference. … Plus: More on Richard Seymour, the Paris Olympics, Dustin Johnson, and the Texans.

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

NBA Agrees to $76 Billion in Media-Rights Deals, but TNT Still Looms [[link removed]]

Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome back, “Roundball Rock.” Farewell, Inside the NBA?

The NBA has agreed to long-rumored media-rights deals with NBC, Amazon, and ESPN, The Athletic reported Wednesday [[link removed]].

The deals cover 11 years and are worth $76 billion in total, as has long been reported. According to The Athletic, though, TNT Sports may still try to use contractual language to keep its rights. At the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told reporters [[link removed]], “We have a matching right.” The Athletic wrote, “If Zaslav goes through with that, he is expected to target Amazon’s package.”

Right now, though, sources have told Front Office Sports that TNT has no contacts in front of it to match yet. At that point, Zaslav’s TNT will have roughly five days to match one of the offers—or wave the NBA goodbye after a 40-year relationship.

The new deals represent an enormous increase from the league’s agreements, which paid $2.7 billion annually. Starting in 2025–26, the league will broadcast games across ESPN—the lone incumbent outlet to retain its rights—along with NBC and Amazon, the latter of which is a streaming deal.

If the agreement does go through, TNT’s beloved Inside the NBA could be in jeopardy. Charles Barkley, the show’s star, has claimed he will retire [[link removed]] with the rights up in the air.

When the deals are finally complete—The Athletic reports that if TNT doesn’t exercise it rights, the deals could be formally announced before the Olympics begin July 26—Adam Silver will turn his attention toward expansion. Las Vegas and Seattle are long rumored to be markets on Silver’s radar. The enormous influx of revenue—more than double the previous agreement—will also benefit players, who receive 51% of basketball-related revenue per the collective bargaining agreement. The Athletic’s projections [[link removed]] have the maximum salary passing $100 million annually by the beginning of the next decade.

A Quote That Will Live in Infamy

The reported deals come two years after Zaslav infamously said, “We don’t have to have the NBA.” [[link removed]] Zaslav has since walked back the comments [[link removed]], but it will be another line on a résumé mostly marked by consistent cost-cutting [[link removed].].

Charles Barkley, TNT’s biggest star, blasted Zaslav [[link removed]] for his handling of the situation. He recently suggested that his production company could simply hire the cast of Inside and sell the show back to NBC or Amazon.

If Barkley doesn’t retire, he has a clause in his contract allowing him to test the market should WBD lose the NBA and will have a slew of suitors [[link removed]], while Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith could also have options elsewhere. Longtime host Ernie Johnson has deep ties to TNT, including his father, Ernie Sr., who also worked for the network, and would be the hardest to lure elsewhere; he may be contractually tied to WBD.

NBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, paid a pretty penny to reunite the network with the league, with a reported offer of $2.5 billion per year. NBC had the league’s premier package from 1990 to 2002, broadcasting Michael Jordan’s entire championship run with the Bulls. NBC has long been rumored to want back in on the NBA and has two natural broadcasters to assume the reins in Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle.

What Now for the WNBA?

The WNBA would also like to double its previous deal. Previous FOS reporting suggested that the WNBA could break off from the NBA and negotiate its own deal, but at the league’s draft in April [[link removed]], commissioner Cathy Engelbert kept her cards close to the vest.

“I think as you look at streamers who have a subscription model, the WNBA gives the NBA longer programming across the year,” Engelbert said. “I think Adam uses the quote of 320 [days]. … I actually think it’s more days. And there’s no other set of two sports leagues that can offer that live programming and sports to a streamer like that. I would say probably in that case we need the NBA because we have a smaller footprint with only 40 games, and it’s nice to go to market together.”

Man United Faces Financial Struggles After Worst Premier League Season [[link removed]]

Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports

Manchester United’s worst Premier League season since England’s top flight of men’s pro soccer reorganized in 1992 has now been followed by a meager quarterly earnings report, spotlighting the ongoing issues around the embattled organization.

The club said Wednesday it posted an operating loss of $85 million for the three months ending March 31, soaring exponentially beyond the comparable $6 million loss for the same period a year ago. The net loss similarly rose to $91.7 million from last year’s $7.2 million loss in the fiscal third quarter. Revenues, not surprisingly, lagged by 20% to $175.5 million.

Pitch Pains

The financial period in question does not account for the end of the 2023–24 season, one in which Manchester United finished [[link removed]] in eighth place, 31 standings points off the lead, and the club’s lowest placement since the Premier League was formed 32 years ago.

But the fallout from the club’s issues has already started, and may soon intensify, just months after British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe acquired [[link removed]] control over team operations. Among the recent developments for Manchester United:

The club formally hired Dan Ashworth as sporting director July 1, following an extended negotiation, with the former Newcastle United leader succeeding prior football director John Murtough. Two days later, Manchester United announced it would be starting [[link removed]'s%20decision%20to,club%20and%20make%20it%20sustainable.] a round of staff cuts in which about 250 positions would be eliminated. The move closely followed the end [[link removed]] of remote-based work at the club. The ongoing financial issues now raise the possibility of Manchester United falling into violation of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules [[link removed]] (PSR). The provisions allow for a $135 million total loss over three years, provided $115 million of that is backed by solid owner funding. Manchester United has lost nearly $350 million in the most recent PSR cycle, but a series of deductions will be made to account for spending on areas such as women’s soccer, youth development, community efforts, and infrastructure.

There are still some signs of hope, however, for Manchester United. The club is forecasting record revenue of about $847 million for the entirety of its fiscal 2024.

FSG Potentially Strikes Again

Fenway Sports Group, led by John Henry, is in active negotiations to acquire French soccer club Bordeaux. The parent organization of MLB’s Red Sox, the Premier League’s Liverpool, NHL’s Penguins, among other assets, and the lead entity in PGA Tour partner Strategic Sports Group [[link removed]], FSG would be advancing a growing trend of American entities acquiring European soccer clubs—particularly at lower levels—a movement it helped start.

Bordeaux, despite claiming six prior Ligue 1 titles, has more recently fallen on harder times, getting relegated after the 2021–22 season after finishing in last place. The team has competed for the last two years in Ligue 2.

“We are working, hand in hand with them, as part of the continuation of negotiations and due diligence,” Bordeaux said in a statement about the talks with FSG.

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Pac-12 Media Days Evolve into a Cocktail Party at the Bellagio [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Big 12’s expansion to 16 teams is one of the biggest reasons why the Pac-12 is becoming a two-team conference.

It was Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark’s cutthroat strategy around beating the Pac-12 to new media-rights deals with ESPN and Fox that led to last summer’s eight-team exodus from the 109-year-old league, including Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah joining the Big 12.

But despite the turmoil, if there’s any remaining tension between the two, Pac-12 leaders are biting their tongues.

What Happens in Vegas …

After the Big 12 wraps up its first supersized football media days [[link removed]] of this new era at Allegiant Stadium on Wednesday, the Pac-12, which is not changing its name for now, will host a small season-preview gathering at a ballroom a few miles up the Las Vegas Strip.

Dubbed “After Hours with the Beavs & Cougs” at the Bellagio, representatives from Washington State and Oregon State, as well as Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould, will try to make their case for future potential as the conference tries to rebuild [[link removed]]. Instead of the typical grand stages and lengthy pressers, the Pac-12 will be hosting a casual cocktail party Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. PT for reporters interested in the conference’s next steps.

It’s the latest unconventional move for the Pac-12, following a set of patchwork deals to piece together a viable sports schedule over the next two years. Oregon State and Washington State have a football scheduling alliance with the Mountain West Conference, and a media-rights deal [[link removed]] with The CW and Fox Sports. Most other sports will compete temporarily as affiliate members of the West Coast Conference.

Bowl Season Shuffle

The “zombie Pac-12” will live on in another way over the next two years, too. The 10 schools leaving the conference will still play in Pac-12 affiliated bowl games until those contracts expire after the 2025 college football season, according to The Action Network [[link removed]].

In 2026, there is expected to be a major reshuffling of bowl game affiliations in the aftermath of widespread conference realignment. On Tuesday, Yormark said he was confident that one game the Big 12 would end up being associated with is the Las Vegas Bowl, which in recent years has seen a Pac-12 school play one from the Big Ten or SEC. “We need to be here in Vegas,” he said.

LOUD AND CLEAR Sunny Thoughts From the Valley

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

“I think that’s good for the industry.”

—Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav (above), commenting on the newly struck Paramount Global–Skydance Media merger deal [[link removed]] worth more than $8 billion. Zaslav, battling his own corporate crises [[link removed]] amid large-scale media industry disruption and a potential loss of NBA rights, added it was a positive for the CBS Sports parent to be in “solid hands and having them funded.”

The executive’s remarks were made as he arrived at the annual Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, a high-level gathering that is also expected to draw industry titans such as Disney CEO Bob Iger, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Apple CEO Tim Cook, among many others. Zaslav further predicted that “over the next year or two, you’re going to see some real consolidation, whether that happens with companies buying each other or going after streaming together [[link removed]].”

STATUS REPORT Three Up, One Down

Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports

Richard Seymour ⬆ The Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman (above) is said to be joining Tom Brady’s bid for a minority ownership stake in the Raiders, according to ProFootballTalk [[link removed]]. Seymour played with Brady in New England and finished his career with the Raiders. The group, which will include other investors, would own 10.4% of Las Vegas, if the deal is approved by the NFL.

Paris Olympics ⬆ The Summer Games will be a testing ground for some interesting new technology, as flying taxis—large futuristic drones capable of transporting several people—have been authorized [[link removed]] for use on an experimental basis in France this month.

Dustin Johnson ⬆ The two-time major champion’s LIV Golf team, 4Aces GC, will be flying private with Magellan Jets thanks to a new deal with the luxury aviation company.

Texans ⬇ The team’s NRG Stadium has sustained some damage [[link removed]] to its retractable roof after Hurricane Beryl passed through Houston. A full assessment of the impairment will be conducted soon.

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