Something Only I Can See
When you're the only one who can see something, sometimes it feels as if you're in on a special secret. The hard part is getting anyone to believe your secret is real. In this episode, people try to show others what they see — including a woman with muscular dystrophy who believes she has the same condition as an Olympic athlete.
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26 minutes ago
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Can WNBA get even more eyes on Caitlin Clark? Yep, host a game at Lucas Oil or Wrigley Field
One of the buzzwords often heard in sports media today is 'eventize.' But the word is far from new. For instance, a 2004 New York Times Magazine piece on the explosion of DVDs as a marketing play reveals that 'eventize' is a word the writer has been hearing a lot around Los Angeles. From the piece: 'As in, 'We really need to eventize the hell out of this release. For the 'Star Wars' debut on DVD, that meant parties, paparazzi, robots and a red-carpet treatment that mimicked in miniature the fanfare accompanying a big-screen theatrical opening. A boffo event, in short.' The word pops up frequently these days when discussing Netflix's sports ambitions or a broadcaster's desire to make something feel big. The sports content marketplace is crowded and one way to separate yourself is making a broadcast feel like an event. That will be case this weekend in Indianapolis as the WNBA descends on the city for All-Star Weekend, even without Caitlin Clark participating in the event because of injury. The league made a smart move by anointing Napheesa Collier and Caitlin Clark team captains and having them select teams. That mini-event delivered a ton of earned media, which is always a bigger win than a paid marketing campaign. The most successful sports leagues steal ideas from other leagues — or simply use their might to swipe them — and here is where the WNBA should swipe from the NFL, NHL, MLB, college football and other leagues. The WNBA needs to 'eventize' more regular-season games, and a priority for the 2026 season should be using the popularity of Caitlin Clark by scheduling the Fever to play a game at either Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the Colts in Indianapolis, or a unique outdoor venue in the Midwest, such as Wrigley Field. (Clark is a lifelong Cubs fan.) The proof of concept already exists in a number of forms for women's sports: The Crossover at Kinnick (Stadium) was a preseason exhibition in 2023 between Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes and DePaul at the home stadium of Iowa football. The game set the global women's basketball single-game attendance record of 55,646. Two months earlier, Nebraska women's volleyball drew 92,003 fans to Memorial Stadium— home of the Cornhuskers' football team — to set the U.S. attendance record at a women's sporting event. When I interviewed former Iowa women's basketbal coach Lisa Bluder last March, she used the word 'magical' to describe being part of the The Crossover. 'We had 55,646 people show up, and there were women crying in the stands because this had been done for women's athletics,' Bluder said. 'Some of these women never got to play sports. They didn't have the opportunity. They were so excited and so emotional to see this happen for women.' These were creative ideas from people at those colleges, and they became unforgettable events. Are there issues that come with playing basketball outside? Of course. The weather needs to come through. But history suggests the positives outweigh the negatives if you can get scale, even if the game itself isn't great. Such an event will guarantee a new WNBA attendance record. The current one was set last September, when 20,711 watched the Fever and Mystics at Capital One Arena. If the Fever want to keep the game close to home, Lucas Oil Stadium has proven multiple times it can set up a basketball venue. The facility hosted the 2025 Midwest Regionals for the men's NCAA Tournament and will host the 2026 men's Final Four. (The Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board operates several facilities, including Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse and the Indiana Convention Center). In an email, CIB Executive Director Andy Mallon said that Lucas Oil Stadium can host approximately 72,000 for basketball depending upon the setup. 'We have more than 350 days when we are not hosting Indianapolis Colts home football games, so we offer ample opportunities to host non-NFL events,' Mallon said. To be clear, individual franchises are going to have to drive this idea. Per a league source, WNBA franchises can bring such venue ideas to the league for review, and approval is based on a number of factors including venue requirements. The WNBA can advocate for such an idea but ultimately two teams would have to be on board with everything that comes with such an event (travel, logistics, tickets, etc.) to get it done. Clark has proven to be a catalyst for teams changing arenas. We saw this again last week when the Dallas Wings announced they will move the Aug. 1 game against the Fever to American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. The game that was initially scheduled for College Park Center. The Across The Timeline website tracks WNBA data, and the Fever far and away outpace the rest of the league when it comes to away attendance. Any Fever opponent would obviously need incentivizing to play in an NFL or MLB stadium, but it would be massive publicity for both teams. Every one of the WNBA's media rights-holder partners would want the game, and it would easily have a shot at being the most-watched regular-season game of the year. 'I like the idea,' said ESPN WNBA analyst Rebecca Lobo. 'The W actually did something similar in 2008 when the Liberty played the Fever at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It would be pretty spectacular to see a massive venue full of W fans watching the Fever play. I think they could get a crowd close to what the game at Kinnick drew. Chicago or Dallas would be attractive opponents since Angel (Reese) and Paige (Bueckers) are big draws as well, especially against Caitlin. It would be a rare WNBA tailgating opportunity as well.' Lobo is correct, and as she notes, the history of 'eventized' WNBA games already includes the Fever: The Liberty and Fever played a regular-season outdoor game on July 19, 2008, at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the first non-tennis sporting event to take place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. (Game-time temperature was a steamy 87 degrees.) The game drew 19,393 to the then-23,226-seat stadium. Two years later, Los Angeles hosted Seattle at the 8,000-seat Home Depot Center's tennis stadium in Carson, Calif. (That game had some air quality issues given a fire at an auto scrap yard about six miles south of the Home Depot Center.) If you ask people within the sports business industry, most would jump on board with the idea because they understand eventizing is the currency of the moment. 'There is a whole concept in sports of creating bigger events and more spectacles,' said John Kosner, the former ESPN executive vice president for digital media, who now advises sports media and tech start-ups. 'Why is the NFL so big? Because it's weekly spectacle. What makes NASCAR unique? It's a spectacle.' Ed Desser, a former NBA media executive and the president of the consulting firm Desser Sports Media, said he would advise the WNBA to go beyond Indianapolis and Lucas Oil Stadium to take advantage of the Clark brand. 'I don't know that a regular-season game at Lucas Oil Stadium reaches the level needed to make it a spectacle,' Desser said. 'There are going to be lots of chances for those Indiana fans to to watch the Fever during the course of the season in Indianapolis, so is playing at the football stadium enough in order to be a bona fide spectacle, to make it really special? I think of the outdoor game the NHL did in Lake Tahoe. You just had this pristine, gorgeous backdrop. Now that made it a special occasion.' Clark and Aliyah Boston running a pick-and-roll at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort would be lovely but unlikely to happen. Lucas Oil Stadium, though, is very doable. When asked last Wednesday by The Indianapolis-based 'The Fan Morning Show' if the Fever would ever play a game at Lucas Oil Stadium — my colleague at The Athletic, James Boyd, who co-hosts the sports radio show and made the ask for this piece — Joey Graziano, the executive vice president of strategy and new business ventures at Pacers Sports & Entertainment, said: 'I'm really excited about bringing the Fever around the world. We've seen interest from Asia. We've seen interest from Australia. Teams wanting to make sure that the Fever have an opportunity to play in their market. Obviously, this year we played in Iowa. I think what we've seen from our team is that they're excited to be able to use the platform to get into new places. So, I wouldn't put anything past us.' Asked specifically about the prospect of hosting a WNBA game at Lucas Oil Stadium, the CIB's Mallon understandably was diplomatic. 'Gainbridge Fieldhouse is a premiere professional basketball venue — I would argue that it's the best in the country — and the Indiana Fever and their fans love being there,' Mallon said. 'While Lucas Oil Stadium has a terrific basketball resume with success hosting past Final Fours and 2024's NBA All-Star Saturday night, and we've been tapped to host the 2026 and 2029 men's Final Fours, we tip our hat to Gainbridge Fieldhouse when it comes to hosting Indiana's game.' History is a valuable tour guide, and Bluder said it herself: The Iowa Crossover was a magical day and one of the highlights of her five decades coaching career. Opportunity is knocking here for the WNBA and its franchises. Let's hope they grab it in 2026. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Indiana Fever, NFL, WNBA, Sports Business, Opinion, Culture 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
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CBS says Stephen Colbert's 'The Late Show' to end in May 2026
Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show", long a staple of late night US television, will end in 2026, the CBS network said Thursday, days after the comedian blasted parent company Paramount's $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump as "a big fat bribe". CBS said in a statement the cancellation was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night," and was "not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at (parent company) Paramount." "Next year will be our last season," the host announced on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Thursday to boos and shouts of disbelief. "The network will be ending the show in May (2026)." Paramount, CBS's parent company, reached its $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump this month in a lawsuit the entertainment giant described as meritless. Trump had sued Paramount for $20 billion last year, alleging that CBS News' "60 Minutes" program deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, in her favor. The company is seeking to close its $8 billion merger with the entertainment company Skydance, which needs federal government approval. Colbert said on Thursday the cancellation was not just the end of his show but the end of decades-old "The Late Show" franchise, which has been broadcast continuously on CBS since 1993. "I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away," he said. 'America deserves better' Trump's political opponents and other critics drew attention to the timing of the decision. "CBS canceled Colbert's show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump -- a deal that looks like bribery," Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on social media platform X. "America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons," Warren said. Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, who was on Colbert's show the night he announced it would be ending, said: "If Paramount and CBS ended the 'Late Show' for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better." Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who has his own late night program "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" for ABC, was among the celebrities that condemned CBS's decision. "Love you Stephen." CBS said in its Thursday statement it was "proud that Stephen called CBS home." "He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television," its statement said. Colbert, one of the most popular American comedians who made use of humor in his incisive political commentatary, succeeded David Letterman as the host of "The Late Show" in 2015. Before that Colbert was a regular on Comedy Central alongside fellow talk show host and political pundit Jon Stewart. The late-night television landscape has long been dominated by satirical comedy shows that blend entertainment with political commentary. For decades, programmes such as "The Late Show", "The Tonight Show," and "Late Night" have served as television touchstones, with hosts like Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman and more recently Colbert and Jimmy Fallon shaping public discourse through humour and celebrity interviews. abs/fox
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
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Seth Meyers Just Pinpointed MAGA's Deepest Dilemma Over The Epstein Files
Seth Meyers on Thursday offered a sharp explanation for the turmoil that's currently engulfing Donald Trump's most loyal base in the wake of the Epstein files controversy. Trump's 'most rabid supporters have to figure out a way to resolve the cognitive dissonance they're experiencing between their years demanding to see the Epstein files and their personal devotion to Donald Trump,' said the 'Late Night' comedian. Trump is facing growing anger from his supporters over his administration's refusal to make public files relating to the disgraced, late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who the president once considered a close friend. And 'the meltdown over the Epstein drama is the perfect window into the MAGA mindset,' Meyers said. 'The only two things holding them together were their devotion to the Trump cult and their conspiracy theories.' 'And now those two things are clashing, and we're watching them all deal with their cognitive dissonance in real time,' he added. Watch here: Related... Comedians Pull Off Brazen Epstein Prank Inside Trump Tower Gift Shop Gavin Newsom Exposes A Sketchy Detail In Trump's Epstein Denial Trump White House's 'Golden Age' POV Clip Triggers Massive Cringe Fest Online
