November 4, 2022

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After getting a taste of team ownership with his Hulu-starring Wrexham AFC, Ryan Reynolds is looking [[link removed]] closer to home for his next team. The Vancouver native is interested in keeping the NHL’s Senators in Ottawa should they hit the open market — but he might need more partners to match the Sens’ $550 million valuation.

MLS Cup Final Features Star-Studded Ownership Groups [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

On Saturday, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant will be pitted against his team’s owner, Joseph Tsai, in the Major League Soccer Cup final.

The Philadelphia Union, part-owned by Durant, will take on Los Angeles FC, whose star-studded ownership group includes Tsai.

Durant bought 5% of the team with an option to double his stake at a valuation above $325 million, according [[link removed]] to team majority owner Jay Sugarman.LAFC’s managing owners are Riot Games co-founder Brandon Beck, Apollo Global Management senior partner Larry Berg, and Ares Management co-founder Bennett Rosenthal.The team’s stakeholders also include Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Mia Hamm Garciaparra, Nomar Garciaparra, Will Ferrell, and many others with ties to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Golden State Warriors, and private equity firms.

The game will take place at LAFC’s $350 million Banc of California Stadium, which opened in 2018. The facility will soon need a new name: Banc of California reportedly paid $20 million to shorten [[link removed]] its $100 million, 15-year naming rights deal signed in 2016.

Parking Prohibited

LAFC fans attending the game will face a unique situation: Parking at the stadium is prohibited because the lot is reserved for the Cal-USC football game at the neighboring Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The team will run shuttles from Dodgers Stadium to the 22,000-capacity Banc of California Stadium.

NASCAR Races Back With 4% TV Growth in 2022 [[link removed]]

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

NASCAR is poised to wrap up its 2022 season this weekend after a bounce-back year in TV viewership.

Heading into Sunday’s NBC Sports coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway, the motorsport averaged 3,031,000 million viewers over 37 races this season.

That’s up 4% from an average of 2,912,000 viewers over the same period last season.

Drivers Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, and Christopher Bell will all be in contention on Sunday for the title, which has a total purse [[link removed]] of $10,542,284.

NASCAR’s TV performance hasn’t slowed down with this season.

FOX Sports averaged 3.7 million viewers in the first half of the season — up 8% from 2021. NASCAR experienced its highest viewership since 2017 during that same time period. NBC shifted some of its NASCAR races to USA Network after shutting down NBCSN.

NBC’s coverage of the Cup Series title begins at 3 p.m. ET, and the broadcast team will include race analysts Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte; play-by-play announcer Rick Allen; and studio analysts Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty, and Brad Daugherty.

NASCAR Still Beats Formula 1

NASCAR has been watching rival Formula 1’s growth in the U.S, but it still out-rates F1 by a large margin TV-wise.

Competing head-to-head on Oct. 23, NBC’s coverage of the NASCAR’s Homestead race averaged 2.31 million viewers compared to 1.11 million for ABC’s telecast of F1’s U.S. Grand Prix.

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Under Armour Rebounds With $1.57B Quarter [[link removed]]

Under Armour

Under Armour got back on track for the second quarter after lackluster results earlier this fiscal year.

The athletic apparel and equipment retailer generated [[link removed]] $1.57 billion in revenue in fiscal Q2 2023, which ended Sept. 30. That’s a 2% increase year-over-year, surpassing Wall Street estimates [[link removed]] of $1.55 billion.

Apparel revenue reached $1 billion, a 1.9% increase year-over-year.Footwear generated $375 million in revenue, up from $329 million in Q2 2022.At the end of Q2 2023, Under Armour had $854 million in cash and cash equivalents.The company repurchased $25 million of Class C common stock during the quarter.

Despite the results, Under Armour anticipates continued uncertainty due to inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions. As a result, it lowered its full-year revenue guidance to “grow at a low-single-digit percentage rate” instead of projected 5%-7% growth.

End of an Era

Last year, Under Armour ended [[link removed]] its on-field licensing contract with the NFL as it restructured its business to focus on being “a performance brand.”

The terminated deal barred Under Armour’s logo from being worn or displayed on the field during NFL regular-season and playoff games.

In May, Under Armour reached a settlement [[link removed]] with UCLA after it ended a 15-year, $280 million sponsorship deal, for which it has to pay the latter $67.5 million.

Under Armour has also cut ties with Cal on a 10-year, $85 million deal and with Cincinnati on a 10-year, $50 million deal for which it paid $9.75 million to exit.

WWE Reports Record Third Quarter Under New Leadership [[link removed]]

Dylan Azari / USA TODAY NETWORK

WWE slipped a chokehold of recent controversy to score record results in Q3 2022.

The Connecticut-based company posted [[link removed]] $304.6 million in revenue in Q3, a 19% increase year-over-year. The record results were driven by WWE’s domestic live events, which included “Extreme Rules,” “SummerSlam,” and “Money in the Bank.”

The events were the most viewed in their histories with respective year-over-year increases of 36%, 20%, and 17% on NBCUniversal’s Peacock.

Media revenue reached $233 million during the quarter, a 15% uptick year-over-year.Revenue from live events was $35.2 million, up from 28 million in Q3 2021.Operating income reached $58.9 million, an 8% decrease year-over-year.Free cash flow was $3.5 million during the quarter, down from $44.8 million behind an increase in capital expenditures.

In July, longtime WWE CEO and chairman Vince McMahon retired [[link removed]] following allegations of sexual harassment, infidelity, and hush-money settlements.

His daughter Stephanie McMahon and former WWE president and CRO Nick Khan took over as co-CEOs. An investigation by WWE cost the promotion $19.4 million in 2022.

Creating Opportunity

In 2021, WWE created an NIL program called “Next In Line” — a pathway for college athletes to secure full-time contracts with the promotion upon graduation. WWE bolstered the program in October with the launch [[link removed]] of an NIL recruiting tour called WWE Campus Rush.

The tour will visit eight FBS schools, starting with the University of Mississippi and ending with Penn State.

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Are You One of The Best Employers in Sports?

Whether it’s great leadership, focus on diversity, equity and inclusion or commitment to employee wellbeing, the Front Office Sports Best Employers in Sports Award [[link removed]]recognizes organizations who do right by their employees.

How do we determine who wins the award? We don’t — employees do! The award is based entirely on anonymous survey results from sports industry professionals.

Responses will be evaluated in collaboration with our primary research partner, Canvs [[link removed]], using patented AI technology free from all subjectivity and human bias. There is no word count limit and you can even use slang, text abbreviations, sarcasm or emojis to complete the survey.

The 2022 employee survey is now open through November 28. Take the survey [[link removed]] and tell us why your organization should make the cut.

Today's Action

NCAA

07:00 PM

Duke (-365) at Boston College (+300)

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NBA

10:00 PM

Trail Blazers (+360) at Suns (-450)

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NCAA

07:00 PM

Massachusetts (+530) at UConn (-730)

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*All times are EST unless otherwise noted.

*Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See [[link removed]] for details.

Conversation Starters During the Gee v. NCAA trial, top CTE expert and NFL senior advisor Dr. Robert Cantu said that the NCAA isn’t doing enough to teach [[link removed]] football players about concussions. Amazon believes Thursday was the first time in the history of “Thursday Night Football” that NFL and MLB teams from the same opposing [[link removed]] cities played on both “TNF” and in the World Series on the same night. NBA Top Shot and NFL ALL DAY maker Dapper Labs is cutting [[link removed]] its workforce by 22% — roughly 130 people — in response to the market shift away from NFTs and other digital assets. In our latest webinar, Front Office Sports sat down with representatives from the NBA and the Buffalo Bills to discuss how artificial intelligence technology can help sports organizations boost fan engagement in video content. Watch [[link removed]] on demand now!* DISCLAIMER

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Question Of The Day

Do you plan on watching any college basketball games this season?

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Thursday’s Answer

52% of respondents prefer to shop online and 48% prefer to shop in-person.

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