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Morning Edition

February 14, 2025

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The Daytona 500 ignites NASCAR’s first year of a $7.7 billion media-rights windfall. An antitrust lawsuit from 23XI owner Michael Jordan, however, casts a shadow over the campaign as the motorsports world undergoes swift changes.

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

NASCAR’s New Media Deals Launch As Michael Jordan’s Lawsuit Looms [[link removed]]

Matt Stamey-Imagn Images

The 2025 NASCAR season begins Sunday at the Daytona 500 with a big change, and one major outstanding issue, off the track.

On a positive note, NASCAR is entering the first season of new seven-year, $7.7 billion media-rights deals [[link removed]]. On the flip side, the season begins with an unsettled antitrust lawsuit from two teams, including one owned by Michael Jordan.

Also in 2025, NASCAR will race in a new country and launch an in-season tournament as the sport looks to continue its push into the mainstream [[link removed]].

Watch List

Fox will air Sunday’s Daytona 500 as it traditionally does, but the rest of the NASCAR schedule will look a little different on TV this year:

Fox or FS1 will carry the season’s first 14 races. Amazon Prime Video makes its Cup Series debut on Memorial Day weekend at the Coca-Cola 600—NASCAR’s longest race. The streamer gets five races. TNT Sports makes its debut around the Atlanta race on June 28, beginning its five-race stretch through July. NBC Sports will air the final 14 races, including the playoffs.

Meanwhile, The CW has taken over rights to the second-tier Xfinity Series, which typically races on Saturdays, and was previously split between Fox Sports and NBC Sports.

Off-Track Drama

As the NASCAR world descends upon Daytona International Speedway, two teams—Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports—are beginning the season as uncharted members [[link removed]] as their antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR plays out in court.

Last year, the teams were the only two not to sign NASCAR’s new charter agreement, instead suing the sanctioning body, arguing for a larger share of annual revenue distribution. 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick was one of four drivers to make it to the NASCAR Cup Series championship race last season, which was ultimately won by Joey Logano [[link removed]].

The New NASCAR

This summer, NASCAR will hold a Cup Series race outside of the U.S. for the first time in its modern history. Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez will host the race June 15 [[link removed]].

On June 28 in Atlanta, NASCAR’s debut 32-driver in-season tournament [[link removed]] will begin. Over five races, qualified drivers will not only be racing for that event’s trophy but will also be paired head-to-head with another driver, based on seeding determined from finishes in the prior three races.

The in-season tournament winner will take home a $1 million prize.

Caitlin Clark Effect: Lasting Impact on Women’s College Hoops Viewership? [[link removed]]

South Bend Tribune

With the Super Bowl in the rearview, the sports calendar now shifts to March Madness. While the men’s tournament has traditionally been the main attraction, the women’s game sprung into focus after last year’s championship game outdrew the men’s by more than four million viewers [[link removed]].

Caitlin Clark was undoubtedly the biggest part of that growth, together with the rest of the 2024 WNBA draft class that included Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. But while there will be clear viewership drops in the NCAA with the departure of Clark, there also appears to be a lasting net positive effect.

So far this year, viewership of NCAA women’s basketball games on ESPN platforms is averaging 234,000, down 18% versus the same point last year. However, it is up 17% relative to the 2022–2023 season, Clark’s junior year.

Fox is averaging 699,000 viewers for its games this year, down 24% versus last year, but up 4% over the 2022–2023 season and 18% over the 2021–2022 season.

This trend is similar to Clark’s effect in the WNBA. The two playoff games with the Indiana Fever averaged 2.2 million viewers, though the entire postseason averaged just 1.1 million. However, that overall number is still up 139% versus total playoff viewership from the previous year [[link removed].].

Last year’s NCAA tournament turned more eyes toward other stars who stayed in college, in particular UConn’s Paige Bueckers. The Final Four game between the Huskies and Hawkeyes averaged 14.2 million viewers, which nearly matched the viewership of the men’s championship game.

USC’s JuJu Watkins also rose to prominence last year as a star freshman despite not facing Clark in the tournament. This year’s most-watched women’s college basketball game was on Dec. 21 between Bueckers’s Huskies and Watkins’s Trojans, which averaged 2.22 million viewers on Fox. It’s the second-most-watched women’s college basketball game ever on Fox.

The most-watched game was last year between Iowa and Ohio State (3.39 million viewers) when Clark broke the NCAA’s all-time scoring record for both men and women.

UConn has been in two of the five most-watched NCAA games this year on ESPN. At least one of South Carolina and LSU, both schools that were also in the path of Iowa and have established themselves as powerhouses in the college game, were involved in the other three games.

WNBA Next Steps

Bueckers is widely projected to be selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the Dallas Wings in the 2025 WNBA draft. The combo guard is one of the leading names in the late midseason top 20 list for the Wooden Award [[link removed]]. Other potential 2025 draftees included on the list are Kentucky’s Georgia Amoore and TCU’s Hailey Van Lith.

Though March Madness is around the corner, these names will be in the pros in about three months due to the odd women’s basketball calendar. Last year’s WNBA draft was just eight days after the national title game, and the start of the season was a month later.

One player who won’t be in the 2025 WNBA draft is UCLA’s Lauren Betts [[link removed]]. The 6-foot-7 center is the star of the No. 1 team in the nation and could have been a top-five pick this year. But she confirmed late last week that she’ll return for her senior season with the Bruins.

“College is the best years of your life, and so I don’t think I’d ever give that up,” Betts said.

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Dallas Teams Ditch RSNs for New Models. Will Others Follow? [[link removed]]

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

It’s no secret that all sports media is radically changing and at an accelerating rate. Perhaps nowhere is that more true than in the Dallas–Fort Worth area.

The Metroplex in Texas has seen every major local pro team dramatically shift its regional broadcasting model with the exception of the Cowboys—which like every other NFL team have their media rights controlled at the league level.

The WNBA’s Wings are the latest in the growing trend of pursuing alternate broadcast models, striking a deal with KFAA-TV, a local Tegna-owned television station, to show over the air every game not designated for national broadcast. The agreement joins a series of others in Dallas in the last seven months, including:

Rangers: The MLB team parted ways with regional sports network operator Main Street Sports [[link removed]], formerly Diamond Sports Group, and instead formed its own local media venture [[link removed]], Rangers Sports Network. The effort will distribute games through a series of cable and over-the-air deals, as well as through the upstart streaming platform Victory+ [[link removed]]. Stars: The NHL team was the first locally to break away from the traditional RSN model, splitting from DSG and aligning last summer with Victory+. Mavericks: The NBA team is currently dealing with the fallout [[link removed]] of its highly unpopular trade of Luka Dončić to the Lakers. Its games, however, are also shown locally on KFAA, as well as streamed on MavsTV, after a similar departure from DSG.

Each of the efforts serves as a key example of a fast-growing industry and consumer embrace of streaming, despite massive amounts of market fragmentation [[link removed]], as well as over-the-air television [[link removed]] for sports broadcasting.

Underlying Strategy

In many ways, the Dallas area is a perfect test market to see how a nontraditional effort in local sports media performs. In the latest U.S. media-market rankings from Nielsen, Dallas–Fort Worth elevated to fourth, rising from a prior No. 5 slot and now trailing only New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

The Texas locale, as a result, has overtaken Philadelphia as the largest U.S. market with only one local team in each of the major men’s pro sports leagues. That situation allows for simpler evaluation and monetization of each team’s affinity and viewership without the neighboring presence of a competing franchise.

Each of the men’s teams, except the Cowboys, also has a track record of recent competitive success with the Rangers winning the 2023 World Series, the Mavericks advancing to the 2024 NBA Finals, and the Stars reaching the Western Conference finals each of the last two seasons.

The Wings, meanwhile, were the WNBA’s second-worst team last year but reached the playoffs each of the prior three seasons. More importantly, the franchise is now poised for a big uptick in fan interest by holding the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft [[link removed]]—a selection expected to be UConn star Paige Bueckers—and is planning to relocate downtown next year to a renovated Dallas Memorial Auditorium.

To that end, KFAA president and general manager Carolyn Mungo called the Wings “the perfect next addition to our growing roster of sports broadcasts.”

EXCLUSIVE

NBC Eyes Scott Hanson for Host Role

NBC is negotiating with NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson, whose contract with NFL Media expired after the season. The new role would see Hanson host Gold Zone for the 2026 Winter Olympics and possibly the 2028 Summer Olympics. He could also contribute to Sunday Night Football coverage. You can read Michael McCarthy’s full story here [[link removed]].

For all the latest news and insights on the world of sports media, subscribe to the twice-weekly “Tuned In” newsletter here [[link removed]].

LOUD AND CLEAR Sparking Intrigue

Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

“I’ve been treated better than I’ve ever been as a WNBA player.”

—Kelsey Plum, the newest Los Angeles Sparks star said during an introductory press conference Wednesday. The guard was traded to the Sparks from the Las Vegas Aces last month [[link removed]].

Plum’s comments have been perceived as an underhanded jab at the Aces, the only franchise Plum has played for. She was drafted by Las Vegas with the No. 1 pick in 2017 when the team was still the San Antonio Stars and won titles in 2022 and 2023. Read more [[link removed]] about Plum’s comments from Front Office Sports reporter Colin Salao.

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Editors’ Picks Saquon Barkley Chides Eagles Fans for Booing Taylor Swift: ‘Only Helping’ [[link removed]]by Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]]Barkley made the comments in an interview with Howard Stern on SiriusXM. Billie Jean King: ‘Billionaires, Not Millionaires’ Are Fueling Women’s Sports Boom [[link removed]]by Jeff Benson [[link removed]]Billie Jean King wants more women involved in team ownership, too. Vice TV Signs BYB Bare Knuckle Boxing Amid Surprising Sports Pivot [[link removed]]by Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]]Vice Media Group filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Question of the Day

Do you plan on watching the Daytona 500?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Thursday’s result: 31% of respondents said an alcohol ban would sway them against attending a sporting event.

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