February 24, 2023
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Major League Soccer’s 28th season kicks off Saturday with lots of changes — a new team, a new playoff format, and more. Senior writer Owen Poindexter breaks it all down in the latest episode of Front Office Sports Today.
Listen and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Google [[link removed]], and Spotify [[link removed]].
Markets Sports Whiff During Warner Bros. Discovery’s Poor Quarter [[link removed]]
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Sports might be a sore subject for Warner Bros. Discovery right now.
The company reported [[link removed]] $11.01 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, falling short of analysts’ estimates of $11.36 billion.
The company’s TV networks segment, which includes Discovery, TNT, TBS, CNN, TLC, and Eurosport, fell [[link removed]] 6% to around $5.5 billion, partially attributed to major sporting events taking place on other networks — including the men’s World Cup, NFL, and college football.
Advertising revenue fell 14%.
Warner Bros. Discovery posted a loss of $2.1 billion for the three months ending Dec. 31 and ended with $49.5 billion in gross debt.
In November, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports cut [[link removed]] more than 10% of its workforce, affecting around 700 employees across Turner Sports, Bleacher Report, and the company’s studio operations.
An NBA Block
During the quarter — and a month after Turner Sports’ TNT extended [[link removed]] contracts of all four members of TNT’s “Inside the NBA” — Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said the company will take a “ disciplined [[link removed]]” approach to NBA media negotiations, adding: “We don’t have to have the NBA.”
TNT currently has a deal with the league that runs through the 2024-25 season. Combined with ESPN, the deals total [[link removed]] $24 billion.
Earlier this month, the NBA All-Star Game had its worst-ever viewership, with an average [[link removed]] of 4.6 million viewers across TNT and TBS — a 27% year-over-year decline and a 22% drop from the previous low of 5.9 million in 2021.
Law Judge Gives Saudis Deadline to File Brief in LIV-PGA Tour Case [[link removed]]
Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Saudi Arabia has until Tuesday to file an amicus brief in federal court that lays out the sovereign immunity arguments as to why the country’s Public Investment Fund and its governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan do not have to comply with the PGA Tour’s subpoenas.
Judge Beth Labson Freeman set the deadline in a Friday hearing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Freeman didn’t alter the January 2024 trial date in the civil antitrust case between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour.
A lawyer representing the Saudi government filed a three-page letter [[link removed]] on Thursday requesting the amicus brief, a filing from somebody not part of a case to voice support for one side that is more typical in arguments before the Supreme Court.
The letter arrived in the court docket a week after Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen ruled [[link removed]] that PIF and Al-Rumayyan were subject to the PGA Tour’s discovery requests that include depositions of PIF officials. In her ruling, van Keulen wrote PIF’s “conduct in founding, funding, overseeing, and operating” LIV Golf falls outside a sovereign entity’s commercial activity exception.
Van Keulen noted [[link removed]] in her decision that lawyers representing PIF “have not presented evidence that Saudi Arabia has expressed an interest in the outcome of the current disputes.”
“All of a sudden, we get a letter because they read [van Keulen’s] order and said, ‘Whoops. We forgot to tell you if this really matters to us,’” Freeman said during the hearing. “It falls a little bit on deaf ears.”
PRESENTED BY PITCHBOOK
A Business Born From Community
After 20 years of playing beach volleyball professionally, Kerri Walsh Jennings [[link removed]] stepped away from the pro tour in 2019. Not because the five-time Olympian and three-time gold medalist lost a love for the game, but rather because she thought it needed changing.
Walsh Jennings wanted to broaden the game and bring more people to the sport by highlighting all it encompasses – nutrition, wellness routines, and the overall lifestyle. That’s why in 2019, she and her husband launched p1440, a company dedicated to providing resources for aspiring athletes, coaches, and all interested in living a life of intention.
In the latest episode of Driven with Michelle Wie West [[link removed]], in partnership with PitchBook, learn more about Walsh Jennings’ journey to becoming an entrepreneur, the importance of the people around you, and more.
Watch the full episode [[link removed]].
Media Brady’s Sports Media Company Lays Off Workers, Closes Division [[link removed]]
ABC
The “dumb money era” is over for podcasting companies like Tom Brady and Michael Strahan’s Religion of Sports, according [[link removed]] to the New York Times.
Battered by the twin threats of an economic recession and a weakening ad market, once high-flying podcasting startups are increasingly laying off staffers.
Founded by Brady, Strahan, and Gotham Chopra in 2018, Religion of Sports came out of the gate fast with six new shows. But the company recently did an about-face, laying off podcast employees and shuttering its audio division.
The celebrity-based media startup is not alone.
Spotify reduced its podcast staff in January for the third time in five months. Chief content officer Dawn Ostroff has resigned.
“The dumb money era is over,” podcast strategist Eric Nuzum told the New York Times. “People had been throwing money at things just to see if they could get in and scale up audience quickly, but now everyone’s being a little bit more conservative.”
But don’t cry for Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion who recently announced his retirement from the NFL.
This week, SiriusXM announced a multiyear extension of Brady’s “Let’s Go” podcast with Jim Gray and former All-Pro receiver Larry Fitzgerald.
In 2024, Brady will step in [[link removed]] as Fox Sports’ No. 1 game analyst as part of a 10-year, $375 million deal.
Conversation Starters The NCAA handed down a ruling [[link removed]] against the University of Miami women’s basketball team in the first NIL infractions case. Hurricanes coach Katie Meier was sanctioned because she “facilitated” a meeting between booster John Ruiz and top NIL earners Haley and Hanna Cavinder. Tiger Woods tied for 45th at the Genesis Invitational, but his participation proved [[link removed]] a TV boon for CBS Sports and Golf Channel. Luke Kennard is reportedly [[link removed]] selling his Southern California home after recently being traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.
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Virtual Reality 🤝 Sports
Is virtual reality the next big thing in sports? Quite possibly.
Together with Meta, our latest free course, Metaverse Essentials: Building the Future [[link removed]], dives deep into the ever-evolving connection between sports and the metaverse, exploring where we are today and what the future holds.
Check out the final lesson [[link removed]] of the course, Virtual Reality: Sports & Fitness, where Meta’s Director of Sports Creator Partnerships Kevin Cote sits down with an all-star panel of leaders from X Games, Rezzil, GOLF+, and FitXR to discuss how virtual reality will transform the way sports are played, viewed, and experienced.
Earn your digitally verified badge today! Register now [[link removed]].
What to Watch
The Oklahoma City Thunder (28-30) take on the Phoenix Suns (32-28) on Friday at Footprint Center.
How to Watch: 10 p.m. ET on ESPN
Betting Odds: Suns -7 || ML -280 || O/U 231
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