Even in the heart of election season, sports was a critical revenue driver for Fox Corp.

The Fox Sports parent said it generated $3.56 billion in revenue during its fiscal first quarter, up 11% from the comparable period last year, with sports playing a significant role in that lift. The company in particular credited its “Summer of Soccer” coverage during the July to September period that included its airing of the UEFA Euros and Copa América tournaments and aided both advertising and sublicensing revenue. 

Both tournaments generated record-level audiences for U.S. English–language broadcasts. The previous year’s fiscal first quarter included the Women’s World Cup, but the United States team was eliminated in the round of 16.

Net income for Fox more than doubled from $407 million in last year’s comparable period to $827 million in the most recent quarter. That total easily beat analyst projections of $522 million, even as earnings were hit somewhat by higher sports programming expenses.

Of course, political advertising was also a major component of Fox’s revenues during the quarter, to the point that company executives acknowledged the heavy frequency of the ads during football coverage and its negative impact on viewers. That relentless placement owes to the fact that Election Day is Tuesday and the massive popularity of both college and pro football make those sports a particularly fertile environment for candidates to reach voters. 

“I apologize to anyone who was enjoying their football over the weekend and was bombarded with political ads,” Fox CEO and executive chair Lachlan Murdoch said during an earnings call with analysts. “Sports has been the beneficiary of national political advertising.”

Championship Event Talk

Fox Sports will be airing the NFL’s Super Bowl LIX in February, and not surprisingly, the company said advertising is already sold out at unprecedented levels. Even as pricing for Super Bowl advertising has largely flattened in recent years across multiple networks, spending for the upcoming game is more than $7 million per 30 seconds.

“We still have a pretty robust football calendar yet to come, culminating with our broadcast of Super Bowl LIX, where we are already sold out and at record pricing,” Murdoch said. 

Murdoch also highlighted during the earnings call the network’s performance during the recently concluded MLB postseason. That event fell outside the fiscal quarter in question but nonetheless generated across-the-board viewership increases, including the best World Series audience since 2017.

Still Backing Venu

The company, meanwhile, is still firmly supporting Venu Sports, the streaming alliance with ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery, even as it remains on hold amid a legal fight with Fubo. 

“We continue to believe that Venu is a tremendous pro-consumer, pro-competitive platform, and we are excited to launch it when we have the ability to do so,” Murdoch said. 

The 2024 NFL regular season will reach its halfway point Monday night, but the league’s dramatic—and expensive—coaching carousel is already in full swing.

The Saints fired Dennis Allen on Monday, becoming the second team to make a change midseason, following the Jets dismissing Robert Saleh last month. Allen was in the third season of a four-year contract he signed in 2022 after Sean Payton stepped down (before ultimately having his rights traded to the Broncos in 2023). The value of Allen’s deal is unknown, but head coach contracts typically pay at least $3 million or $4 million annually—and New Orleans will likely be on the hook for the remainder of his pay this season and the next one.

Allen was 18–25 as the Saints’ head coach, including this season’s 2–7 start. His last game was Sunday’s 23–22 loss to the Panthers, who had one win on the season coming in.

It’s the first midseason firing for the Saints since the franchise was purchased by Tom Benson in 1985. Gayle Benson has led the team since her husband died in 2018, and longtime EVP and GM Mickey Loomis will continue to run football operations.

Crunching the Numbers

New Orleans named special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi interim head coach, but will in all likelihood hire a new full-time coach after the season. Most pressing for the next leader will be the dire salary cap situation the Saints are in.

The Saints are currently $77 million over a projected $273 million salary cap for the 2025 NFL season—the highest in the league, according to Spotrac. That includes a team-high $51 million cap hit for quarterback Derek Carr, who is in the third season of a four-year, $150 million contract. Defensive end Cam Jordan has a $23.9 million dead cap hit, and it’s very possible he’ll retire before his age-36 campaign considering he’s collected two sacks since the start of the 2023 season.

Belichick Watch?

A second NFL head-coaching vacancy after just nine weeks of the season is a solemn reminder of the job’s high turnover rate. After last season, eight of the league’s 32 teams changed coaches.

Bill Belichick, whose 333 career wins (including playoffs) rank second to the late Don Shula’s 347, could be in line for a new job in 2025, after being fired by the Patriots in January and getting only one interview with the Falcons. The six-time Super Bowl–winning head coach is staying in the spotlight this fall, starring on the ManningCast, The Pat McAfee Show, Inside the NFL, and other media properties.

NCAA basketball returns Monday, highlighted by the debut of one of the most anticipated recruits in recent memory: Duke’s Cooper Flagg.

Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, is the best college prospect since Zion Williamson, who played for the Blue Devils in the 2018–2019 season, or Anthony Davis, the National Player of the Year in 2012. Over the summer, Flagg was the only amateur player invited to Team USA’s training camp for the Paris Olympics, and he was reportedly one of the stars of the select team that scrimmaged against the gold medal roster despite being the lone teenager.

The Maine native is already a trailblazer in the NIL (name, image, and likeness) space. Flagg’s $2.6 million NIL valuation leads all NCAA basketball players and is $500,000 more than the second-ranked player, according to On3. He secured a shoe deal with New Balance in August—despite Duke being a Nike school. The length of the deal is unclear, but it’s unlikely it would be just a one-year contract, meaning it will stretch into his NBA career.

Last week, Gatorade announced a partnership with Flagg making him the brand’s first men’s college basketball endorser. 

Bringing the Hype Back

The buzz surrounding men’s basketball dipped a bit over the last few years. Viewership for the men’s national championship game hit all-time lows for two years in a row, while the women’s title game smashed viewership records in back-to-back years, driven by the star power of Caitlin Clark. The former Iowa standout finished her NCAA career as the all-time scoring leader in Division I (across men’s and women’s basketball).

Several top U.S. prospects—like LaMelo Ball, Jalen Green, and Amen and Ausar Thompson—took alternative routes to the NBA to secure a salary before hitting the pro level. But the opportunities afforded by the NIL era have allowed prospects to take the college route and still earn six or even seven-digit paydays.

With Flagg and other projected top picks in the 2025 NBA draft like Rutgers duo Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey in the fold, expect more eyeballs and social media fodder around the NCAA men’s basketball division.

NCAA women’s basketball is looking to build on the momentum left behind by Clark and Angel Reese, with the projected 2025 WNBA draft class headlined by stars like UConn’s Paige Bueckers and USC’s JuJu Watkins. Read more about the beginning of the NCAA women’s college basketball season from Front Office Sports reporter Margaret Fleming.