July 23, 2024

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A potential expansion of the NFL regular season is taking center stage as training camps begin in many markets. … Comcast is enjoying a banner sports week with the Paris Olympics and return of NBA rights, but its latest earnings report highlights issues elsewhere in the company. … The WNBA smashes another league record, this time with its All-Star Game. … Plus: More on MLS, Reddit, the Vikings, and NFL coverage.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], and Colin Salao [[link removed]]

NFL’s Push for 18-Game Season Gains Traction, but Players Have Demands [[link removed]]

Sam Greene/Cincinnati Enquirer

The idea of an 18-game NFL regular season is gaining steam, even though the 2024 NFL season will be just the fourth since the league expanded from 16 to 17 games.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association have had “high-level discussions” about the idea of adding an additional game to the league’s regular-season calendar, according to The Washington Post [[link removed]].

NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell said the two sides have spoken about adding an additional game but have yet to begin formal negotiations. Howell said he will need to discuss the idea with players during their next meetings, but the extra game could take effect before the end of the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires after the 2030 season.

Team owners have long wanted an 18-game schedule, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made his strongest public push for the idea yet during various media appearances at draft weekend in Detroit. “I’m not a fan of the preseason,” Goodell said [[link removed]], while touring the benefits of exchanging one of the three exhibition games for a meaningful one.

Howell said that before making a decision, several factors need to be “fleshed out,” including economic, health, and safety considerations.

More Rest, Please

When discussing a theoretical 18-game season, the obvious compromise is to reduce the number of preseason games from three to two. Goodell said in an owners meeting in May that he thinks that’s a “fair trade.”

Goodell hasn’t said the league would automatically add a second bye week—which several star players have suggested as their request if the 18-game schedule were to be implemented.

“It’s going to get to 18 games at some point, right?” 49ers tight end George Kittle said [[link removed]] on The Rich Eisen Show. And the five-time Pro-Bowler is ready to negotiate. “I’m totally fine with that, just give us two byes,” he added.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (above) echoes that sentiment. “Gotta have two bye weeks,” he said [[link removed]] on Pardon My Take when asked about expanding to 18 games. Burrow also pitched an idea for a league-wide bye week roughly two-thirds of the way through the season that would include an all-star weekend of events in place of the season-ending Pro Bowl. “I think it’d be cool.”

‘Only a Matter of Time’

Would getting to 18 games really be as simple as the owners agreeing to add a second bye week, though? “The fact that Joe Burrow is even talking about the 18 games, to me, it just seems like there’s a momentum to this,” ESPN insider Adam Schefter said [[link removed]] on The Pat McAfee Show. “I don’t think it’s real right now, but it’s only a matter of time before it does get real.”

In addition to the current CBA expiring after the 2030 season, the NFL has the ability to opt out [[link removed]] of its $110 billion media-rights deals at the end of the decade. Combining a new, longer NFL season with fresh broadcast bids could be too much of a potential revenue hike for the league to pass up.

Comcast Scores With NBA Deal and Olympics, but Financial Issues Brew [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

NBC Sports and its parent company, Comcast, are in the midst of one of the greatest sports weeks in company history between the return of NBA media rights and Friday’s start of the Paris Olympics. But a new quarterly earnings report also detailed a series of headwinds that Comcast is now facing.

In a Tuesday call with financial analysts, Comcast confirmed its 11-year rights deal with the NBA, preceding any sort of official announcement from the league, or even the formal conclusion of the increasingly fraught rights process [[link removed]]. Those rights for NBC Sports, known as the NBA’s “B” package, include All-Star [[link removed]] weekend, regular-season and early-round playoff inventory, a conference final every other year, and WNBA rights, among other assets, and are estimated at $2.5 billion annually.

“Much like our long-standing relationships with the NFL and the Olympics, we look forward to putting the weight of our entire company behind our partnership with the NBA for decades to come,” said Comcast president Mike Cavanagh.

The Return of ‘Roundball Rock’

Cavanagh also said that the matching currently being attempted by TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is not expected to impact NBC Sports, as that effort is targeted at Amazon’s separate “C” package with the NBA. The return of the league to NBC Sports, recalling the 1990s glory days [[link removed]] highlighted in part by the celebrated “Roundball Rock” theme song, is also seen by Comcast as something that “completes our year-round calendar for sports” while delivering young audiences.

“We are uniquely able to drive strong value with the NBA in multiple ways,” Cavanagh said. “First, by growing ad sales [and] selling NBA ad inventory with the rest of our marquee programming. Second, by acquiring and monetizing subscribers both on linear and Peacock. And third, by optimizing NBCUniversal programming investment across sports, entertainment, and news.”

Financial Issues

Comcast’s sports-related highlights, however, were joined by a set of less bullish results for the company. During the second quarter, Comcast posted a 2.7% decline in revenue to $29.7 billion, a 7.5% drop in net income to $3.9 billion, a surprising retreat in Peacock subscribers from 34 million in the first quarter [[link removed]] to 33 million in the latest period, and losses in both cable and broadband subscribers.

Among the issues were weaknesses in Comcast’s movie studio and theme-park businesses.

There were other signs of improvement for Peacock, though, as revenue for the streamer increased 28% from the comparable period last year to $1 billion, and an adjusted loss of $348 million, a sharp improvement from a loss of $651 million in 2023’s second quarter.

“The competitive environment remains intense, but it’s stable. It’s sort of no worse, no better than we’ve seen over the past couple of quarters,” said Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong. “I think that’s the starting point. … The same things that were headwinds in the second quarter largely become tailwinds in the third quarter.”

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Starting July 26, catch stars like André-Pierre Gignac, Chicharito, Hany Mukhtar, and Héctor Herrera in action, and watch every match live as Liga MX and MLS teams face off from the group stage to the grand finale.

With every game available on every screen, MLS Season Pass on Apple TV is your ultimate destination for all the action. Don’t miss a moment—catch every exciting play, goal, and victory in one place.

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ONE BIG FIG A Dub for the W

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

3.44 million

Average number of viewers for Saturday’s 2024 WNBA All-Star Game that aired on ABC, according to The Athletic [[link removed]]. That figure is four times as many as the 850,000 viewers who watched last year’s game, and it crushed the previous All-Star Game viewership record of 1.44 million set in 2003, also a Saturday game that aired on ABC. This year’s game is also the most-watched WNBA telecast on ESPN networks, and it is the third most-watched WNBA telecast of all time, behind only two games from WNBA’s opening weekend in 1997, according to Sports Media Watch [[link removed]].

The All-Star Game breaking a viewership record felt like a foregone conclusion given the WNBA’s trajectory [[link removed]] this season—and considering that the contest featured two of the league’s biggest draws, rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, as teammates for the first time. But the game was also worth watching [[link removed]] as the format of pitting Team USA’s Olympic roster against a group of WNBA stars who were essentially snubbed from the game made for one of the most competitive all-star exhibitions in recent memory across all sports.

STATUS REPORT Three Up, One Push

Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports

MLS ⬆ Attendance has hit record levels for the league at it enters its All-Star break. The league announced it has averaged 23,194 fans per game this season including 153 sellouts, which are both midseason records. The numbers are not exactly shocking considering it’s compared to a pre–Lionel Messi era—the soccer legend made his MLS debut July 21, 2023—though they are added proof of the boost provided by the superstar.

Reddit ⬆ Sports are now a focus for the social media forum as the company announced [[link removed]] deals with the NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA Tour, and NASCAR. The partnerships will bring more sports highlights and other special content onto Reddit, which it says will “enhance community experience” while also “enabling advertisers to align with expanded fan content.” Reddit went public March 21, and its stock is up about 35% in just four months.

Vikings ⬆ Minnesota has created plans to honor Khyree Jackson, the team’s 2024 fourth-round pick who was killed in a car accident just two months after he was drafted. The plans include paying out $20,000 in funeral expenses, giving his signing bonus worth nearly $830,000 to his estate, and keeping his jersey No. 31 unused this season.

NFL coverage ⬆⬇ An NFL rule bars the Raiders from publicly promoting its training camp in Southern California because it is within 75 miles of SoFi Stadium, home of the Rams and Chargers. The same rule applies to the Saints, though the Raiders would have garnered a swell of attention given its history in the state. However, the Cowboys are also holding training camp in SoCal (above), and the rule does not apply to them because the team has held most of its training camps during the 1970s in Thousand Oaks before moving to Oxnard in 2001, well before the Rams and Chargers opened SoFi in 2020, according to ProFootballTalk [[link removed]].

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS EVENTS

Scripps Sports’ Lawlor Set to Join

Tuned In [[link removed]], Front Office Sports’ media franchise, led by senior media reporter Mike McCarthy, appears across FOS platforms through editorial coverage, social storytelling, and newsletter segments.

On Sept. 10, Tuned In will come to life as a one-day event in New York City with the biggest newsmakers in sports media.

The daylong event will feature intimate discussions with leaders within the sports media space—ranging from athletes and on-air talent, to media moguls and league executives who are instrumental in shaping the future of how fans view sports.

Our first session will feature Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports. Check out the full lineup for the event and request to attend here [[link removed]].

Conversation Starters The Heat will receive special 20th-anniversary championship rings for winning the NBA Summer League. Check it out [[link removed]]. Netflix announced new releases for its Untold docuseries, which includes the murder of NFL QB Steve McNair [[link removed]] and Connor Stalions’s side [[link removed]] of Michigan’s sign-stealing controversy. The Clearwater Threshers, the Single-A affiliate of the Phillies, have a 13-year-old bat dog who is retiring after six years with the team. Take a look [[link removed]] at Layla as she received her final bat. Editors’ Picks DraftKings Sells VSiN Back to Musburgers Amid Gambling’s Original Content Retreat [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]DraftKings bought VSiN in 2021 for $70 million. Premier League, LaLiga, Unions to FIFA: There Are Too Many Games [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]Soccer groups say FIFA has abandoned player welfare by chasing profits. Adidas–Bella Hadid Olympics Campaign Controversy: Everything to Know [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]Adidas navigates the fallout from a campaign commemorating the 1972 Munich Olympics. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by Colin Salao [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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