New York is once again a focus of the baseball universe, a development arriving after the high-spending Yankees and Mets have both overcome more than a year of disappointment, but also one that could raise viewership issues in the World Series.

The Yankees clinched a berth Thursday in the American League Championship Series, finishing off the Royals in the Division Series in four games. That win came just a day after the Mets’ four-game National League Division Series victory over the Phillies, setting up LCS berths for the two teams in the same season for the first time since 2000 and just the third time in the 55 years of MLB’s divisional format. 

On the surface, the playoff advancements for the Mets and Yankees represent a simple flexing of financial might as the teams are No. 1 and 2 in MLB player payroll this year, with the Mets coming in at nearly $318 million and the Yankees at $309 million. But each has underachieved recently relative to that spending.

Last year, the Mets sagged to a 75–87 finish, and high hopes raised by an MLB record $344 million Opening Day payroll led to a trade deadline selloff of several notable players. This season’s Mets began with a 22–33 record before a furious on-field turnaround that was complemented by several pop culture intersections that became viral sensations, such as McDonald’s mascot Grimace and infielder Jose Iglesias’s song “OMG.”

The Yankees, meanwhile, missed last year’s postseason with an 82–80 record, and even this year’s run to the AL East division title contained plenty of doubt while the Yankees played all of June, July, and August—representing nearly half the season—as essentially a .500 team.

“This hopefully is not the end of the road for us, and we expect more,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the series-clinching win over the Royals. “But you’ve got to savor these times, too, because to get down to the final four here … I feel like we’re playing well, like we’re pretty well-rounded. We’re not perfect by any means, but I’ll take our chances.”

Blast From the Past

As the Yankees and Mets now will be half of that final four for MLB, they are waiting on their LCS opponents. The Padres and Dodgers will play a deciding Game 5 in their NL Division Series on Friday to face the Mets, while the Tigers and Guardians will do the same on Saturday on the AL side to earn a matchup against the Yankees.

The prospect of a Subway Series Fall Classic, however, recalls the widespread angst—outside of New York—that met the 2000 World Series involving the two teams. The five-game win by the Yankees, while heavy with on-field drama, averaged 18.1 million viewers. The number would be considered massive today, as there is a very different media landscape now than what existed then. But the viewership was a 24% drop from the year before and the worst figure for the World Series, as large swaths of the western U.S. had little interest in the inter-borough matchup. 

It would be another five years before audiences for the event shrank as low as what occurred in 2000.

“This has been a difficult year for a lot of us,” then-Fox Sports president Ed Goren said after that World Series.

The 2024 MLB season, however, has contained much more momentum for the league and its rights holders, including attendance growth and initial viewership increases for the Division Series. Fox Sports in particular said Thursday that its coverage of the NL Division Series has produced its best totals for that round in the last decade, and another robust figure is anticipated Friday, in part due to the presence of Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani in a deciding game. 

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced crucial changes to the league’s playoff format at a press conference Thursday before Game 1 of the 2024 Finals. 

Starting next season, the WNBA Finals will expand from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven series with a 2-2-1-1-1 structure in which the higher-seeded team would host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7—akin to the NBA.

The league is also changing its three-game first-round series to a 1-1-1 structure, where the higher-seeded team would host Games 1 and 3. The change follows criticism of the odd first-round structure the league instituted in 2022 where the higher-seeded team hosts the first two games—meaning they could close out the series without playing a road game.

That structure was installed because the WNBA did not have charter flights available to teams before this season. The league announced charter flights would be available to all teams just a week before the season, but the short turnaround and the monthlong Olympic break made it difficult to also introduce the sweeping playoff format changes.

“We have contemplated both these changes since the pandemic. We would have done it in the current year, but with the Olympic break this year, it wasn’t possible. But now that we have charters throughout the season and playoffs, it’s feasible,” Engelbert said.

Expansion Hopefuls

The WNBA has already announced three expansion teams that will join the league over the next two seasons, bringing its total to 15. But the league’s goal is to add a 16th team by 2028—and Engelbert said the league’s received interest from around 10 to 12 cities.

“The good news is we have a lot of demand from many cities. I’d say 10 or so, maybe even plus at this point, because I think the more people are watching the WNBA and seeing what we’re growing here … they see the economic impact of having a WNBA team in their city, the role model in the community these players represent,” Engelbert said.

The commissioner’s response came to a question about the potential of Philadelphia being named the expansion team. Philadelphia’s mayor and the 76ers organization have expressed an interest in becoming the league’s 16th team. 

Engelbert said Philadelphia is “on the list” of cities the league is evaluating.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey are not in favor of the two new super-league proposals involving private equity in college football. 

The commissioners shared their thoughts with a group of reporters Thursday, following a two-day meeting in Nashville. The rendezvous—a first of its kind between the two richest and most powerful leagues in college sports—was an extension of a joint advisory committee formed by the Big Ten and SEC in February. The commissioners, athletic directors, and legal counsel were in attendance. 

Nothing was decided, they told reporters, though the commissioners made it clear they have no interest in exploring Project Rudy and the College Student Football League, the two proposals made public over the last two weeks. Both would involve private equity firms and bring outside stakeholders into the college football governance structure.

“I have yet to see a single thing in any plan that I’ve learned details about that contains things that we couldn’t do ourselves and our [Power 4] colleagues as well,” Petitti said. “At the end of the day, there’s a strong commitment that you have the ability to do all of this ourselves.”

If Petitti and Sankey aren’t on board, the projects probably have no legs.

The leagues also discussed other major issues facing college sports, including NCAA governance, the looming House v. NCAA settlement, and a potential scheduling partnership. 

Sankey has insisted the summit between the Big Ten and SEC is not an indication the two leagues are trying to make unilateral decisions for the future of college sports without involving other colleagues, especially those in the Big 12 and ACC. 

When Front Office Sports asked Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark about the meetings, and specifically about a potential scheduling partnership, he seemed unconcerned. “I don’t wake up thinking about the Big Ten and the SEC,” he said.