September 7, 2024

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Good morning. The NFL is back and so is college football, but I’ve got tennis on the brain. It says a lot that even amid the fall football frenzy, the US Open is getting so much attention and buzz. And yet, the most memes I’ve seen were about the night when a certain retired player came to watch. Read on and let me know your thoughts ([email protected]) in time for our next mailbag.

Oh, and if you’ve somehow missed all the excitement across our social media channels, Tuesday is our inaugural Tuned In live summit in New York. It’s a whole day focused on sports media, and we’ve got the top folks from ESPN, NBC, Roku, Scripps, TelevisaUnivision, and YouTube to talk about it. You can still get a ticket here [[link removed]] (use promo code SOC2024), and make sure you’re subscribed [[link removed]] to our newly launched Tuned In newsletter.

— Dan Roberts [[link removed]], FOS EIC

Roger Federer Rules Men’s Tennis, Even in Retirement [[link removed]]

Mike Frey-Imagn Images

By every metric, this has been the biggest US Open ever.

The prize pool is up 15% from last year [[link removed]] to $75 million, the largest for any tennis event in history; the individual prize for the men’s and women’s winner is up 20% from last year to $3.6 million apiece; the Honey Deuce signature cocktail price is up a buck to $23 [[link removed]] and generated nearly $10 million in sales last year; TV ratings are expected to set a new record. ESPN just announced it has re-upped to broadcast the US Open through 2037 [[link removed]]. And so many firsts on the court! It’s the first time an American man is in the final since 2009; if Jessica Pegula wins, it’ll be the first time an American woman has won in back-to-back years since Serena Williams three-peated from 2012 to 2014. And no matter who wins on the men’s side, it’ll be the first year since 2002 that no tennis major is won by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, or Roger Federer (above).

That brings me to Federer. Even amid all the excitement over the players who are in this year’s tournament, I saw more memes on my Twitter timeline from when Federer went to the Open on Tuesday night [[link removed]] than from any other moment. Frances Tiafoe gushed over having Federer in the building [[link removed]]: “The way he looked in the suite was the same way he looked when he was playing. No sweating, tee is ironed and perfect, it’s like, what’s up with this dude, man? Hair perfect … what a guy, what a legend … everyone embraces him wherever he goes, he’s such an icon.”

Indeed, Federer retired two years ago, the same month as Serena Williams, and the star power of both is completely undiminished. Djokovic and Nadal have won more majors and thus earned more on the court than Federer’s 20 titles and $130.5 million [[link removed]] (according to Spotrac data), but it is Federer who, it seems to this fan, remains the face of the men’s sport.

Federer’s Second Career

Next up on his calendar, Federer will head to Berlin in two weeks for the Laver Cup, the indoor competition he cofounded in 2017 with his longtime agent, Tony Godsick. This will be Federer’s second Laver Cup since retiring, but his role is hardly diminished.

“I always tell sponsors, he’s actually probably more valuable now that he’s not playing,” Godsick told me in an extensive interview this week in our FOS studio in New York, “because he actually has time to spend with their customers, and do interviews, and welcome the players.” That sponsor list is as premium as it gets: Rolex, Mercedes, UBS, Uniqlo, On, and Wilson.

No Nike on that list, you’ll notice. Federer’s 24-year relationship with Nike ended in 2018. I remember covering his move to Uniqlo at the time and being somewhat stunned he ended up with the Japanese fast-fashion retailer.

Godsick told me more about how it happened: “The contract was coming to an end. What do you do with a 36-year-old soon-to-be-retired athlete? I tried to convince them you can do a lot.”

Nike didn’t think so. Godsick found Uniqlo because Federer is truly into fashion. He traveled to Japan to meet Tadashi Yanai of Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, and got an offer. Nike “decided they didn’t want to match,” Godsick said. In 2019, Federer was able to add a deal with On because Uniqlo doesn’t make shoes, so the On deal wasn’t competitive with Uniqlo. Last month, On reported a year-over-year 28% sales bump [[link removed]] for its second quarter and cited tennis as a huge part of the growth.

Godsick was an investor in On, and says the founders would always ask him over the years whether there was any way On could ever do something with Federer, and Godsick would say, “No, he’s with Nike; he’ll be with Nike forever.” (Both On and Federer are Swiss.)

Until he wasn’t. And sure, it’s been six years since then, and Nike has a massive portfolio of some of the biggest stars in every sport. Nike isn’t likely bemoaning its loss of Federer in the athlete lineup. But Mike Nakajima, the former tennis director of Nike, is quoted in the 2023 book The Roger Federer Effect railing [[link removed]], “That should never have happened. For us to let somebody like that go, it’s an atrocity. Roger Federer belonged with Nike for the rest of his career.”

That take looks more and more correct as Federer continues to shine in retirement. Nike blew it.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS EVENTS

3 Reasons You Can’t Miss Tuned In

Join Front Office Sports on Sept. 10 in NYC as we bring to life our inaugural Tuned In [[link removed]] sports media summit.

Led by senior media reporter Mike McCarthy, Tuned In will feature engaging 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.

Why attend?

Hear exclusive conversations with representatives from ESPN, NBCUniversal, Roku, Scripps Sports, Improbable Media, TelevisaUnivision, and YouTube. Explore emerging topics from sports betting and athletes-turned-media moguls, to streaming, media rights, and more. Participate in elite networking with like-minded individuals across the sports landscape.

Space is limited! Register now [[link removed]] to secure your spot.

Good Week / Bad Week WNBA’s Bright Future, FSU Struggles

Kamil Krzaczynski/Imagn Images

Good week for:

WNBA ⬆ Despite a 1–8 start to the regular season, Caitlin Clark (above) and the Indiana Fever clinched a playoff berth Tuesday after losses by the Chicago Sky and Atlanta Dream. Clark’s postseason debut bodes well for viewership as she has been featured in 18 of the 21 games that have garnered more than one million viewers this season.

The league is also expected to add a 15th franchise by 2026 [[link removed]], according to The Rose Garden Report. The team will be based in Portland, and an official announcement is expected next week. It would be the third expansion team announced by the WNBA in the past 12 months.

Diamond Sports Group ⬆ The Bally Sports parent company, which is navigating bankruptcy, received an important boost Thursday as it closed in on a deal with Amazon. The retail and streaming giant will take control of much of DSG’s content, which involves 27 teams from the NBA, NHL, and MLB.

Bad week for:

DirecTV subscribers ⬇ The stalemate between DirecTV and Disney has left paying customers blacked out of ESPN networks, which aired Week 1 of college football and the US Open. DirecTV, the third-ranked U.S. pay-TV distributor, is standing its ground, and CFO Ray Carpenter said the company is looking for a solution that will bring the company and its customers “long-term sustainability.” [[link removed]] The looming question is whether both sides can come to an agreement before Sept. 9 [[link removed]], the season debut of Monday Night Football.

Florida State ⬇ The Seminoles have begun the season 0–2 following a 28–13 loss Monday to Boston College. FSU started out ranked No. 10, and it is just the third team since 1989 to go from the top 10 to unranked [[link removed]] in the first AP poll. Following the rough start, The Athletic revealed the Noles had a $12 million NIL (name, image, and likeness) budget for the year [[link removed]]. The school’s lawsuit against the ACC [[link removed]] also looms over its season.

You Might Have Missed Northwestern’s Savvy Planning, Year 2 of Taylor Swift

Margaret Fleming

Northwestern football kicked off a new season in its temporary home on the Evanston lakefront. The venue holds only 12,000 people—a stark contrast to the 47,000 seats of the recently demolished Ryan Field. But club executives tell FOS’s Margaret Fleming [[link removed]], who was at the game, they’re bringing in more revenue [[link removed]] than ever. For the NFL, the Taylor Swift effect continues. And it’s only growing, especially in Kansas City. Swift, who was at Thursday’s opening win over the Ravens, is expected to attend more games this year. Chiefs president Mark Donovan tells FOS’s David Rumsey [[link removed]] that the team has a plan to handle the mania [[link removed]]—and it’s ready to “welcome her with open arms.” Yet another exclusive streamer will enter the NFL broadcasting landscape this season: Netflix will air two Christmas Day games. The viewing landscape will be more fragmented than ever, so FOS’s Alex Schiffer [[link removed]] breaks down where to find streaming games [[link removed]]. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Written by Daniel Roberts [[link removed]], Colin Salao [[link removed]], Meredith Turits [[link removed]] Edited by Lisa Scherzer [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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