Game Changers and Athlos fete women in sports; A’s play final game in Oakland; Nuggets and Avs to broadcast some games over the air.
SBJ Morning Buzzcast
SBJ Morning Buzzcast: September 27, 2024
Happy Friday to you all! This is your Morning Buzzcast for September 27th. I'm Joel DeMere behind the mic following a day of celebration of women in sports in New York City, both with SBJ's game changers and the launch of Alexis O'Hannion's Affmos Women's Track Series. But it was also a day of sadness in Oakland where the A's played their final game in the Colosseum. Playing changers was once again a powerful event. I had the opportunity to attend Wednesday's award ceremony and reception and the support was strong as part of a standing room-only crowd at the back of a full ballroom. It was a particular pleasure to meet in person with three outstanding sports executives I had the privilege of writing about for the issue. Major League Baseball's April Brown, The Atlanta Braves, Hannah Baysinger and the San Francisco Giants Sara Groff. Yesterday's content featured Nicole Lynn, the president of football operations for Clutch Sports Group, who negotiated Jalen Hertz record deal, telling her story to Bonnie Bernstein on stage and emphasizing the importance of not covering, not hiding her true self in order to conform. "I'm going to show up every single day as myself," she said, "I'm not going to try to blend in even in the most uncomfortable moments. Because if I don't cover, then the next black girl that comes with me with the natural hair is able to clearly walk through the path that I blazed, which was wonderful advice she gave herself." That session, along with the annual favorite advice to my younger self, career insights from past game-changers, was another gripping panel. And some news was made on stage as well, with Verizon and the NFL touting a new program called "Behind the Lens," in which the Verizon-created platform will mentor young women who want to pursue careers and content creation on the other side of the camera, such as in photography, videography, social media, or as correspondence. This will shadow professionals at marquee events like the suitable and NFL draft, while starting with the NFL, Verizon intends to expand to other league partners, such as the NHL and NASCAR. Later yesterday evening, Atholos debuted its first Women's Professional Track event on Randall's Island, offering winners $60,000, which is twice the prize of money offered at the current Diamond League finals, and a Tiffany Crown, Alexis O'Hannion, my fellow UVA Class of 2005 graduate, I should note, was able to attract several Olympians, as well as some other big names, both in the crowd and on the track. Track legends Justin Gatlin and Gail Deavers were there, flavor-flave was there, Megan Thee Stallion performed, and had wide distribution on media. It was streamed live on X, YouTube, ESPN+, Dezone, and on the World Athletics website. American Gabby Thomas ended up finishing second, running out of gas in the last 50 meters, but it was a strong showing overall and promises to be a wonderful event in the years to come. Out West, the Oakland, and soon-to-be Sacramento A's, played the Texas Rangers, playing its final game in the East Bay City that it had called home since 1968, during which time it won four World Series titles, and revolutionized the sport through its analytical approach. There's this book called Moneyball, perhaps you've heard of, but I digress. It was a somber occasion witnessed by a sell-out crowd of 46,889. That's roughly double what the A's drew for an entire four-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays last month, but at least they went out with a 3-2 victory, although to be clear, there was no real winning on this day. A once-proud fan base is losing a once-celebrated franchise, a few notables from the past of the A's came, Barry Zito saying the anthem, Dave Stewart and Rick Henderson, throughout ceremonial first pitches, and to be clear, the Coliseum was a very imperfect home ballpark to put it diplomatically. I'm a lifelong East Coast resident, but had the opportunity to attend three games across a span of 23 years. With my brother and extended family back in 1995, I'll always remember that it was the day Dave Stewart announced his retirement. And then with college friends in 2002, it was part of a sport techie conference in 2018. The first two were both on Dollar Ticket Day. One of them even had Dollar Hot Dog Day made for a very inexpensive trip out to the park. And on that last visit in 2018, I do remember food trucks outside and the treehouse bar and left field, but those pale compared to some of the amenities offered at more modern ballparks. We'll see what comes of plans in Vegas. And there will be plenty of time to discuss that A's future in Sacramento and Las Vegas, some other time. But for now, I just feel bad for my colleague, Jason Wilson, my good friend, Mark Kuregg, my cousins who grew up not far away, and all others who loved that team and learned baseball through that franchise. Obviously, the A's have moved before from Philadelphia to Kansas City and then Oakland, and let's hope they'll soon find a permanent home and endeavor to earn the trust of a new fan base. As A's radio voice Ken Krak signed off, he said it best, "The memories will last forever. May those memories be a blessing." In other news across the sports world yesterday, cranky sports and entertainment announced that select nuggets and avalanche games would air over the air on a pair of Tenga-owned stations in Denver. It'll be about 20 games for each team, essentially a game of the week. That will enable more fans to see the local teams in the wake of an ongoing standoff between Comcast and Altitude, the local regional sports network owned and operated by cranky. NASCAR announced that it would join Speedway Motorsports and make Ticketmaster its official ticketing partner. That'll bring some consolidation to the marketplace and enable a more consistent experience for fans, who previously had to search across a number of ticketing sites, depending on the race. The TKO group announced it had reached a $375 million settlement in one of two anti-trust lawsuits UFC was facing. In the Lee vs Zufa case, former fighters claim that UFC paid fighters less than they deserved and damaged other MMA promoters in the process. A judge will need to certify the settlement, the Nevada federal judge rejected a previous offer of $335 million in July. And lastly, I was able to watch a decent amount of the Zeta global AI event in New York City yesterday that included Simone Biles appearing and Shaquille O'Neal, the big Aristotle, although perhaps he should be the big AI. He discussed how he's using it in some of his businesses, particularly in some of his consumer facing businesses. He also revealed that he's taking remote classes from LSU to pursue a master's degree in sports psychology, so maybe he'll be the big doctor by the time we're all said and done. Thanks for listening today. Have a great weekend. This is Joel Amir for the BuzzCast, signing off. [music]