November 5, 2024

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After months of debate and record spending, sports are on the ballot this year. Missouri voters will weigh in on sports betting, changes to college sports are in play, and several candidates with athletic backgrounds are running for office. We break down some key races and sports-related items on ballots across the country.

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

On the Ballot: Sports Betting, Former Athletes Impacting the 2024 Election [[link removed]]

Desert Sun

Sports are hardly the primary issue on the ballot for this year’s election, particularly given the many other consequential matters at stake. But there are still several notable sports-related measures and figures going before voters this year.

Amid an election that includes the American presidency, 33 U.S. Senate seats, and the entire House of Representatives [[link removed]], key choices on various local ballots involving sports in some way include:

Missouri sports betting: Voters in the Show Me State will consider whether to legalize sports betting there. If approved, the activity will be legal in 39 states and the District of Columbia, growing further from just in Nevada before a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2018. More than $40 million has been poured into the Missouri campaign—a record for a ballot measure in the state—and nearly all of that has come from FanDuel and DraftKings, the two most dominant entities nationally in sports betting. The measure also has support from all of the major pro sports teams in St. Louis and Kansas City. Sports betting has also been legal in neighboring Kansas for more than two years, heightening the pressure on Missouri to act. A U.S. Senate seat in Texas: Democratic challenger Colin Allred, a current congressman and former NFL linebacker with the Titans, is facing Republican incumbent Ted Cruz. Initial polling has favored Cruz by about four points, and Democrats have not won a statewide election in Texas in 30 years. But the race is believed to have tightened in recent weeks [[link removed]] and is now widely seen as a potentially key indicator of broader voter sentiments. Allred’s NFL background has been a frequent topic in both campaigns [[link removed]]. A U.S. Senate seat in California: Former Dodgers superstar and Republican nominee Steve Garvey is going up against current Congressman and Democratic nominee Adam Schiff. This race is not really a contest in deep-blue California, and Schiff has held a lead of more than 20 points in pre-election polling—allowing him to travel out of state in recent weeks to campaign instead for other Democratic candidates. Garvey, however, also showed up Monday on a separate ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Classic Baseball Era Committee [[link removed]]. A selection will be made Dec. 8, and other figures there include pitching legend Tommy John [[link removed]]. A U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota: Royce White, a pro basketball player and now a far-right politician, is competing against incumbent Democrat Amy Klobuchar. White briefly appeared in the NBA in 2014, also competed in the NBA G League and National Basketball League of Canada, and is still part of the Big3 3-on-3 league [[link removed]]. But as Klobuchar is popular in Minnesota and White has embraced several extreme conspiracy theories [[link removed]], this race, too, is not close and she holds a solid polling lead in double-digit percentages. College sports: More indirectly than the other races above—but almost certainly more far-reaching—the overall makeup of Congress following this election will have a significant bearing on the entire notion of amateurism [[link removed]] in college athletics and whether athletes are classified as employees. Control of both the U.S. Senate and House—determined on a state-by-state and district-by-district level—will also reshape the leadership of key panels such as the Senate Commerce Committee that will dictate the flow of bills related to college sports.

Separate from the sports-related ballot measures, game broadcasts have also been a highly fertile area of recent political advertising—to the point where Fox Corp. CEO and executive chair Lachlan Murdoch apologized Monday [[link removed]] for the heavy intrusions into college and pro football games.

ESPN’s Jason Kelce Avoids Discipline After Viral Fan Confrontation [[link removed]]

Denny Medley-Imagn Images

The dust continues to settle from Jason Kelce’s viral confrontation with a fan at Penn State on Saturday.

ESPN is not punishing Kelce, who joined the cast of Monday Night Countdown this season [[link removed]], for slamming a fan’s phone to the ground after the male student used a homophobic slur to instigate the situation. Kelce then used the same slur in his reaction, which was caught on multiple videos that circulated throughout social media.

Kelce had appeared on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning. He waited to address the situation publicly for the first time at the top of Monday night’s show ahead of the Buccaneers-Chiefs Monday Night Football game at Arrowhead Stadium.

“I’m not happy with anything that took place,” Kelce said in his minute-long explanation on ESPN [[link removed]]. “I’m not proud of it. And in a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate, and I just don’t think that’s a productive thing. … I try to treat people with common decency and respect, even though I fell short this week. I’m going to do that moving forward and continue to do that.”

Kelce is expected to address the situation further on his weekly podcast, New Heights, which will be released Wednesday. “I don’t think this is the platform to go into more detail,” he said Monday on ESPN. Kelce was spotted in Taylor Swift’s suite at Arrowhead Stadium during Monday night’s game, as his brother, Travis, caught 14 passes for 100 yards in the Chiefs’ 30–24 overtime victory.

In the past, other former high-profile ESPN personalities like Bill Simmons, Colin Cowherd, and Jemele Hill have been suspended for various actions and comments made on ESPN airwaves and social media.

Penn State police are investigating the incident [[link removed]], according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. An officer “observed a visitor damaging personal property,” per the crime logs.

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Sorry, Sacramento: Your MLB Team Will Only Be Known As the Athletics [[link removed]]

Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

Very little about the ongoing relocation saga of the A’s has been normal, and that now certainly applies to the club’s preferred naming during its planned three-year interim stay in Sacramento.

The MLB club issued a set of “brand transition guidelines” this week in which it made the radical decision to drop any geographic signifier from its name while it plays the 2025–2027 seasons at Sutter Health Park. The franchise said it now prefers to be called the Athletics on a first reference and A’s on subsequent ones. Abbreviations for box scores and listings such as league standings will refer to the team as “ATH,” instead of a reference to a city or state.

The shift was teased this past summer [[link removed]] when the league’s release of the 2025 regular-season schedule also listed the A’s as “ATH” without a geographic signifier. But the team’s latest step shows the further depths to which the franchise is committed to being known this way—and also spotlights the team’s current itinerant nature. After an emotional farewell in September in Oakland [[link removed]], the A’s intend to move in 2028 to Las Vegas, where demolition recently occurred at the planned ballpark site [[link removed]].

Even other major pro teams that have gone without a traditional nickname, even temporarily, such as the NHL’s Utah Hockey Club [[link removed]] or the NFL’s Washington Football Team before they became the Commanders, still led their franchise identity with a place name.

Local Issues

The A’s, MLB, and MLB Players Association all continue to make various preparations for the 2025 season at Sutter Health Park—also the home of the Giants’ top minor-league affiliate, where extreme summer temperatures have been a serious issue.

The three parties recently agreed to maintain a grass field there [[link removed]], and newly issued game times for next year show the A’s playing 60 of 81 home games at night [[link removed]] in an attempt to mitigate the heat effects. But union leader Tony Clark said during the World Series [[link removed]] that the team playing in a minor-league ballpark still presents many complications.

“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done,” Clark said of the Sacramento situation. “It’s taken a while to polish some of the rough edges. We’ve been able to move forward on some of that, but any way you bake it, it’s making the best of what is a very challenging situation.”

LOUD AND CLEAR Accelerated Timeline

The Indianapolis Star

“Playing against her, I would say I felt like her teams always had the best scouts against us.”

— Caitlin Clark said to ESPN [[link removed]] about Stephanie White, who was introduced as the new head coach of the Indiana Fever [[link removed]] during a press conference Monday. White coached the Connecticut Sun to a first-round win over Indiana in the first round of the 2024 WNBA playoffs.

The 2023 Coach of the Year joins a team with added expectations given the immediate success of Clark and fellow All-Star Aliyah Boston, both of whom were present at the introductory press conference. Team president Kelly Krauskopf said a key reason for hiring White was due to the team’s “accelerated” timeline.

White will need to also manage the spotlight that comes with joining a Caitlin Clark–led squad. The Fever topped the league in attendance last season with an average of 17,035 fans, about 4,000 more than any other team. Ninety percent of the team’s regular-season games in 2024 aired on national television [[link removed]] and drove record viewership for the WNBA [[link removed]].

STATUS REPORT Two Up, Two Down

York Daily Record

Washington–Penn State ⬆ Saturday night’s Big Ten matchup streaming exclusively on Peacock will be the first college football broadcast to also air live at IMAX locations throughout the country. The move from NBC Sports continues the recent trend of putting live sports at immersive venues like Cosm [[link removed]].

Old Trafford ⬇ A survey of 50,000 Manchester United fans [[link removed]] shows that a majority prefer for the Premier League club to build a new stadium, instead of renovating the 114-year-old venue.

Women’s World Cup ⬆ FIFA has launched the bidding process for U.S. media rights to the 2027 tournament (Brazil) and 2031 event, which many believe will be played in the States. This is the first time the Women’s World Cup is being sold on its own in the U.S. Recent editions have been broadcast by Fox Sports, as part of the network’s overarching FIFA deal that includes the men’s World Cup. Media companies have until Dec. 3 to submit bids.

Jets ⬇ The NFL has opted to flex New York’s Nov. 17 matchup against the Colts out of Sunday Night Football, in favor of that week’s Bengals-Chargers game. The Jets (3–6) have already played in five prime-time broadcasts this season [[link removed]], including last week’s victory over the Texans on Thursday night.

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Conversation Starters The University of North Florida men’s basketball team upset the University of South Carolina, 74–71, on Monday. The Gamecocks paid the Ospreys $95,000 to play in their season opener [[link removed]]. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he would “personally love” an NBA team in Mexico City. Learn more [[link removed]] on the topic from Front Office Sports Today host Owen Poindexter. The World Series viewership had been in decline over the last decade, but the 15.8 million average viewers of this year’s Dodgers-Yankees series changed the trend. Take a look [[link removed]]. Editors’ Picks Not So Fast: PGA Tour–LIV Merger Not Done Yet [[link removed]]by Ed Malyon [[link removed]] and David Rumsey [[link removed]]Multiple industry sources say reports of professional golf’s unification are premature. [[link removed]] Influencer Matt Choi DQ’d and Banned From New York City Marathon [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]Several people with Choi rode e-bikes and filmed him on the course. Due to Rule Change, NCAA Sports Will Be in Action on Election Day [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]On Nov. 5 this year, NCAA sports will not go dark. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], Colin Salao [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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