SBJ Morning Buzzcast
SBJ Morning Buzzcast: July 16, 2024
(upbeat music) Let me know what you think as Major League Baseball All-Stars are center stage in Arlington, Texas this week. And this is your morning buzzcast for Tuesday, July 16th. Good morning. I made mad court with the NBA Board of Governors set to vote today, Tuesday, on the league's proposed new media deals. Nick's owner, Jimmy Dolan, is proving to be a constant thorn in the side of NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the league office. We know that there has been no love loss between the two over the past few years and Dolan continued his criticism of the league in a letter that was obtained by ESPN Monday night where he criticized a number of things from the NBA's revenue sharing policies to a possible 8% league office cut of the new $74 billion media deal and a TV and streaming approach that makes regional sports networks unviable. Dolan has been a consistent critic of the league's revenue sharing policy. And remember, he resigned from his positions on the league's finance and media committees. He also filed suit against the Raptors and questioned the objectivity of Adam Silver. So in the letter to the league office, he said the NBA's approach is trying to be like the NFL, which he says cuts the power of local markets for national scale. He writes to fellow owners, quote, "Your only revenue concern will be the sale of tickets "and what color next year's jersey will be." Don't worry, because due to revenue pooling, you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure, end quote, i.e. that is a reference to the NFL's parody. He criticizes the approach of taking down successful franchises and redistributing money to the less successful. He is also critical of putting more games on national broadcasters, which of course means fewer games and less revenue on MSG sports, which is owned and operated by Madison Square Garden. The bottom line is Jim Dolan is an outlier. He may publicly say things that other owners may feel and agree with, but he doesn't have enough support to change the outcome of today's vote or have enough advocates who will echo his comments. Let's move on, the news and storylines from Copa America really only get worse with news that the president of the Columbia football federation and his son are facing battery charges on an official after being arrested at Hard Rock Stadium following the Copa America final on Sunday night. The two are accused of having an altercation, trying to get on the pitch after the match and the bottom line of the event right now, 27 people arrested Sunday night, 55 people ejected from Sunday's final, not a good look. So we will move on to the next news cycle, but the legacy of Copa America 24 isn't very positive. There was a lot of criticism of event organizers over the marketing of the event, pitch conditions, ticket prices, attendance, and of course, there was the poor performance by the US men's national team. So there is a lot of pressure on FIFA, US soccer and US organizers to get this right in two years. Many hoped this Copa America event would set the foundation to spur the game forward towards 2026, but if anything, it leaves more questions about just how ready and prepared we are for the World Cup in just two short years. Let's shift to college sports. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey met the media on Monday, said he isn't thinking about adding more members to the conference despite talk and rumors of Clemson and Florida State interested in leaving the ACC for the SEC. He said, Sankey said, that he's focused on the 16 schools in the conference and that he's not a recruiter and not involved in recruitment. Sankey also took a few shots seemingly at other conferences, saying that the SEC has kept its focus on a region of the country and has not made schools travel coast to coast. Sankey said, quote, we know who we are. We're the one conference at this level where the name still means something, the southeastern part of the United States, end quote. So I took that as a pretty interesting dig at other conferences. I'm sure other conferences were listening. I'm not sure they appreciated Sankey's point of view, but it's out there. Meanwhile, he said SEC media days will be returning to Atlanta next July. Atlanta has hosted the event in 2018 and 22. Remember the event was at Nashville last year. Prior to, remember, SEC media days from 1985 to 2017, they were held in either Birmingham, Alabama or Hoover, Alabama before the conference began to move it around and you see just the growing footprint of the SEC. While we're on college, let's talk about more technology on college football sidelines. Last week, the big 12 announced that for the first time in NCAA history, Microsoft Surface Tablets would be on the football sidelines for all conference members this season. Teams could have up to 18 tablets for use in the coaching booth, sideline and locker room. Now the SEC and the ACC are following suit. They both announced partnerships with Apple to have iPads on the sidelines this season. Remember, the NFL has been doing this for years. Now the NCAA and conferences following suit. You know, we're less than two weeks out from the opening ceremony in Paris. All eyes are on a peaceful, well organized Olympic games and the French government has reportedly looked to address homeless immigrants in Paris. The New York Times reported that the government has put thousands of homeless immigrants on buses and sent them out of Paris before the games. This is reportedly because the Olympic Village was built in one of the poorer suburbs of Paris with thousands of people living in street camps and shelters and so a government official indicated that the Paris government has moved roughly 5,000 immigrants out of the city. Now they deny it's connected to the Olympics but it's not hard to draw the line between the government wanting to show the best of Paris and to make sure the area around the Olympic Village is safe, secure and does just that. Meanwhile, as you prepare for the Paris Games, please read Rachel Aksen's cover story in this week's SBJ as she reports out that the Paris Games really give the Olympic movement a chance to move beyond recent struggles and embrace a new vision for the world's biggest sporting event amid the great grandeur of Paris. Meanwhile, Rachel also profiles USOP CEO Sarah Hershlin. It's a great read and it shows how in Hershlin's six years, she has really transformed that organization, led it through one crisis after another and the organization is poised for great success in Paris. I do think everything's aligning for the US teams to perform very well in Paris and finally will end on people in the news. Changes are coming to playfly sports as the four-year-old company has made some executive moves. The company's founder, Mike Schreiber, will shift from CEO to executive chairman. Craig Sloan will step up from president to CEO. So playfly right now has four business divisions, media, properties, technology and global partnerships and over the course of its four years, the Pennsylvania-based company has been one of the fastest growing companies in all of sports business. They have completed more than 10 acquisitions and its employee base has expanded to more than a thousand staffers. It's really quite incredible growth. So now with Schreiber and Sloan moving to different positions, both feel these moves are more aligned with their background. Mike Schreiber has long been focused on deal-making and M&A. Craig Sloan is a well-regarded leader and operator. So they will not backfill Craig Sloan's president role and playfly said it will continue to focus on the college space, local media rights, expansion internationally, and their technical offerings to sports entities around the world. So again, playfly continues to grow pretty quickly and now has made some changes to its executive ranks. And so that is your morning buzzcast. For Tuesday, July 16th, I'm Ape Madcore. Thanks for listening to The Buzzscast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Wednesday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)