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Afternoon Edition

January 17, 2025

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Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are expected to collectively receive just about every vote for the 2024 NFL MVP award. Their Ravens and Bills, respectively, face off Sunday in a hugely anticipated playoff game, so we went through history to deduce how many millions might watch.

— Colin Salao [[link removed]] and Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]

Could Lamar Jackson–Josh Allen MVP Showdown Make History? [[link removed]]

Rich Barnes-Imagn Images

Sunday night’s divisional round features one of the most highly anticipated quarterback duels in recent history.

Josh Allen and the Bills host Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in a face-off between this season’s top two MVP candidates. Both teams are also the AFC’s top contenders attempting to thwart the Chiefs from securing the first three-peat in the Super Bowl era. Sunday’s winner has a potential AFC championship date with Kansas City, which is heavily favored against the Texans on Saturday.

While Sunday’s game does not feature the Chiefs, Cowboys, or Lions— the NFL’s three biggest viewership draws [[link removed]] this year—recent history shows playoff battles between two of the league’s best signal-callers bring in big viewership numbers.

Here are some examples since the beginning of this decade:

Chiefs vs. Ravens, 2024 AFC championship: Last year’s game between Jackson and Patrick Mahomes—the previous two MVP winners—was the most-watched AFC title game with 55.5 million average viewers [[link removed]]. Chiefs vs. Bills, 2024 AFC divisional: A week earlier, Mahomes defeated Allen in what was the most-watched divisional game of all time [[link removed]] with more than 50 million viewers. There was intrigue built up from two other playoff meetings since 2021, including the controversial overtime finish in the 2022 divisional round, which drew 42.7 million viewers on CBS. Bengals vs. Chiefs, 2023 AFC championship: The showdown between Mahomes and Joe Burrow drew 53.1 million viewers, which was then the most-watched NFL championship game [[link removed]] in five years. It was up 11% from the battle between the same two teams in the AFC championship the year before. Buccaneers vs. Packers, 2021 NFC championship: It’s hard to believe that just four years ago, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady played for a shot to make the Super Bowl. Their duel drew 44.8 million viewers on Fox, which at the time was the most-watched NFC title game in four years [[link removed]].

It’s important to note that Nielsen, which provides the ratings and viewership for these games, only started including nationwide out-of-home viewership in its tally in mid-2021, which may explain some of the inflated viewership figures.

There is one additional sobering caveat: Most of the top duels featured Mahomes and the Chiefs. The Bills and Ravens last faced off in the playoffs in the 2021 divisional round, which drew 27.1 million viewers, the least-watched divisional game since 2009 [[link removed]], according to Sports Media Watch.

Australian Open Upsets Signal New Era in Men’s Tennis [[link removed]]

Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

If Rafael Nadal’s retirement [[link removed]] in November wasn’t a sign of the changing times in tennis, then the early rounds of the Australian Open certainly are.

With the clock about to strike 3 a.m. on Friday in Melbourne, Learner Tien, a 19-year-old from California, clinched a five-set win over No. 5 Daniil Medvedev. Tien became the third teenager this week to knock out a top-10 player following upsets by Brazilian João Fonseca, 18, and Czech Jakub Menšík, 19, over No. 9 Andrey Rublev and No. 6 Casper Ruud, respectively, in the second round.

Tien, who turned pro in 2023, has already earned about $264,000 by reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open, which has a total purse of nearly $60 million [[link removed]]. The No. 121–ranked player had about $729,000 in career earnings [[link removed]] before the tournament.

Fonseca and Menšík were eliminated in the third round, but they will each go home with about $182,000. Menšík, who turned pro in 2022 and is ranked No. 48 in the world, amassed about $1.6 million before this tournament—the most coming from a third-round appearance at last year’s US Open, which earned him $215,000 [[link removed]].

Fonseca, who turned pro last year, is more comparable to Tien. He is ranked No. 112 and had under $850,000 in career earnings before his upset in Melbourne. Like Menšík, his best payday came last year via a third-round appearance at the US Open.

Djokovic Complaints

World No. 7 Novak Djokovic, the last active member of the Big Three, has advanced to the fourth round of the tournament as he chases a record 25th Grand Slam. But the 37-year-old has aired out some concerns in Melbourne following his last two matches.

On Wednesday, he complained about the tournament’s new coaching pods [[link removed].]—which allow players to have on-court conversations with their coaches in the middle of the match—because one of his chats was picked up by the television broadcast. He believes there could be a lack of privacy here.

Then, on Friday, Djokovic, who was barred from Australia in 2022 after choosing not to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, criticized the crowd in Melbourne [[link removed]].

“A few people here and there [overstepped],” the Serbian said after his three-set win over Tomáš Macháč. “I understand you have a few drinks more, and then you get into it. … I tried to tolerate it, but then at one point I had to respond.”

Raducanu Alive, Osaka Out

On the women’s side, Emma Raducanu advanced to the third round for the first time in the Australian Open, just the second time the 22-year-old has made it past the second round in a Grand Slam since her win at the 2021 US Open. The British star has struggled with injuries over the last few years and was even unable to play a warmup tournament before playing at Melbourne Park due to a back muscle strain.

Naomi Osaka, another Grand Slam winner who has struggled with injuries over the last few years, bowed out of her third-round match against Belinda Bencic due to an abdominal muscle strain.

Despite the injury issues, Osaka and Raducanu were tied for No. 6 on Forbes’ highest-paid female athletes list of 2024 [[link removed]] with $12.9 million in earnings—though less than $1 million came from on-court earnings.

SPONSORED BY TICKPICK

CFP Clash Sets Records

The Buckeyes [[link removed]] and Fighting Irish [[link removed]] survived and thrived through the newly expanded College Football Playoff. They won their opening games on campus, knocked out the top two seeds in the quarterfinals, and won semifinal matchups in late, dramatic fashion.

According to TickPick [[link removed]], this is the most expensive CFP national championship [[link removed]] on record, with an average purchase price of $2,637—36% more expensive than last season’s Michigan-Washington game ($1,934).

The demand set by these two fan bases is palpable. The cheapest ticket sold by TickPick for the national championship before the semifinals cost $1,573. The morning after Notre Dame beat Penn State, the get-in price was $2,036 (29% more expensive). The morning after Ohio State beat Texas, the get-in price jumped again to $2,208.

For more ticketing trends and insights, check out our Big Ticket Trend Report [[link removed]], presented by TickPick, and get $15 off your first purchase [[link removed]] of $99+ with code FOS15.

EVENT

Front Office Sports and Excel Sports Management are partnering to gather the biggest names in sports, entertainment, and media for an unforgettable day out on the golf course ahead of the Big Game.

Learn more [[link removed]] about The Breakfast Ball—an ultra-high-end Celebrity Pro-Am golf tournament with official partners Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and Tommy John.

Unrivaled’s Bold Business Plan for Women’s Basketball Debuts in Miami

Unrivaled Basketball

MEDLEY, Fla. — The vision for a lucrative, U.S.-based women’s basketball calendar will finally be put to the test Friday, when Unrivaled debuts its inaugural season.

The new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart kicks off an eight-week season Friday night with two games that will air on TNT at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Collier and Stewart created the league to fix a common issue for professional women’s players: the need to travel abroad during the offseason to supplement their WNBA incomes. They aren’t the first to try—Athletes Unlimited wooed several of the WNBA’s top talents to Nashville for its fourth season this winter—but they are the first to combine big investment, a major media-rights deal, and dozens of the sport’s biggest stars.

“I think honestly, success, we’ve already accomplished that,” Collier of the league’s Lunar Owls Basketball Club said Thursday at Unrivaled’s media day.

Unrivaled announced a media-rights agreement with TNT [[link removed]] in October, reportedly a three-year deal with a three-year option that could bring the total to about $100 million. The league doubled down on its TV strategy by committing to an 850-person capacity arena [[link removed]], making it so their players could have the game court and practice courts, workout facilities, recovery areas, makeup rooms, childcare [[link removed]], meals, and a content studio all in one complex [[link removed]].

So far, players seem to be loving Unrivaled and its amenities, none more loudly than Angel Reese [[link removed]]. She even created custom Reebok shoes for her new team [[link removed]]. Several players said they’re excited for a change of pace from their cold-weather WNBA markets. “ I’m trying to go to the beach as much as I can,” Lexie Hull, who plays for Rose Basketball Club, said Thursday.

All players have equity in the league, and the total salary pool is more than $8 million, making the average Unrivaled salary more than $220,000. In the WNBA last season, about 20 players out of the 144-person league had a base salary worth more than $200,000 [[link removed]].

Because the arena is so small, tickets aren’t cheap. Resale tickets on the league’s official website through Ticketmaster on Friday morning started at $425 for opening night. Later in the season, the get-in resale price is $120 for some games, and $375 for others.

For more on the debut of Unrivaled, you can read Margaret Fleming’s full story here [[link removed]].

SPONSORED BY UNITED FOOTBALL LEAGUE

The FOS Interview With UFL President Russ Brandon

In the newest FOS Interview [[link removed]], Front Office Sports editor-in-chief Dan Roberts sits down with United Football League president and CEO Russ Brandon to review the spring football league’s inaugural season post-merger of XFL and USFL [[link removed]]. They talk ratings, learnings, and future growth—as well as Russ’s view as a former NFL front office executive on private equity and how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped the UFL [[link removed]].

Status Report Four Up

Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Dawn Staley ⬆ South Carolina announced a contract extension for the women’s basketball coach that will run through 2030. The deal starts at $4 million—making her the highest-paid coach in women’s hoops history [[link removed]]—and includes a $500,000 signing bonus and annual increases of $250,000. Staley has led the Gamecocks to three national championships.

Fox ⬆ Tom Brady’s agent, Don Yee, told Sports Business Journal [[link removed]] that he intends to finish his 10-year, $375 million contract with the network. Brady’s future in the broadcasting booth has been questioned [[link removed]] since he acquired an ownership stake in the Raiders [[link removed]] last year. He is in the first year of the Fox contract.

Erling Haaland ⬆ Manchester City’s star striker signed a record-breaking nine-and-a-half-year deal that will keep him with the club until 2034. Read more [[link removed]] about the details of the contract from FOS reporter Alex Schiffer.

Dolphins ⬆ The NFL’s slate of international games continues to take shape [[link removed]] as the league announced Friday that Miami will serve as the host team of the first game in Madrid next season. The game will be played in Bernabéu Stadium, the home of Real Madrid’s men’s soccer club, which has a capacity of more than 78,000.

Conversation Starters Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh visited the LAFD base camp in the Palisades to thank first responders battling the wildfires. Take a look [[link removed]]. Danielle Collins was booed by the crowd after knocking out hometown favorite Destanee Aiava at the Australian Open. The American responded to the fans during her postgame interview. Watch it here [[link removed]]. The Chicago Plan Commission approved the United Center Joint Venture’s 1901 Project, a 57-acre development around the home arena of the Bulls and Blackhawks. Check out [[link removed]] the renderings. Editors’ Picks Roger Goodell Keeps Beating the Drum for 18-Game NFL Season [[link removed]]by Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]]The NFL season expanded to 17 games in 2021. Pat McAfee Was Unsure About ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ Return. It Broke Records [[link removed]]by Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]]“GameDay” averaged 2.2 million viewers, the most in the show’s 38-year history. PGA Tour Moves $20M Tournament Out of Los Angeles Due to Fires [[link removed]]by David Rumsey [[link removed]]The $20 million tournament will still be played in February. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Written by Colin Salao [[link removed]], Margaret Fleming [[link removed]] Edited by Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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