Beyond the ‘Swing-Off,' an innovative yet simple plan to solve MLB's TV problems

New York Times

5 days ago

Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic's weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe here.)
Name-dropped today: Rob Manfred, Ken Rosenthal, Andrew Marchand, Cal 'Big Dumper' Raleigh, Patrick Zalupski, Mario Lemieux, TravisMathew, Cole Palmer, Gianni Infantino, Caitlin Clark, JuJu Watkins, Laurent Mekies, Bill Ackman, Scottie Scheffler, Paul Finebaum, UNO(!) and more. Let's go:
A smart way for MLB to move forward on TV
How fascinating, novel and fun was last night's MLB All-Star Game and a game-ending 'Home Run Swing-Off?' My colleague Ken Rosenthal just published the definitive reporting on it.
It was a healthy sign of innovation, which had, in Ken's words, players 'as giddy as Little Leaguers.' Which is important because, elsewhere, MLB has a couple of pretty glaring issues with its larger TV strategy, including:
In honor of the All-Star Break, my colleague Andrew Marchand — who is as tapped into media dealmaking and MLB's planning as anyone in the world — took a step back and laid out a brilliant plan for commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB's long-term media strategy that emphasizes accessibility, premium inventory and fan-friendly common sense.
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Really encourage you to read the entire thing (MLB executives will!), but what I love about it is that in addition to creating exclusive, NFL-style national weekend inventory and building on MLB's smart 'event'-level ideating, he keeps the local option simple and available:
One service, any locally broadcast game, available anywhere around the country and through every streaming platform, all for one reasonable monthly fee. (There is more, but that's the gist.)
MoneyCall regulars know: The sports media landscape is only getting more complicated. Marchand's clear, clever plan is to make the national pastime universal. Again: Read it here.
Big talkers from the sports-business industry…
Other current obsessions: The upcoming marketing surge for HR Derby champ Cal 'Big Dumper' Raleigh (more on that later) … Bill Ackman tennis snark … Mario Lemieux reacquiring the Penguins … the limited-edition TravisMathew Guinness golf shoe … Cole Palmer's branding moment …
Was the Club World Cup a success?
Chelsea won big (including $114.6M of the $1B distributed), but — for better or worse — the biggest winner was arguably FIFA boss Gianni Infantino.
But I wanted an expert take, so I connected with my colleague Adam Crafton, who covered the event closely all month and wrote the definitive story on Chelsea's championship. His reply:
'The Club World Cup was a qualified success. I would say that it will, without doubt, be sold by Infantino as a, to quote him, 'huge, huge, huge success.'
'It's not so difficult to make that argument: In terms of top-line numbers: $2.1 billion revenue … over 80,000 in attendance for the final … 16 games with over 60,000 attendance, and the $1 billion broadcast deal.
'There are far broader questions about whether the tournament was as successful as it could have been, though, including around plunging ticket prices and Saudi ties to the broadcast and sponsorship deals, among other potential issues.
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'So there's a lot of questions about how replicable the success is. The revenue needs to be this high or even bigger next time around, because the clubs have huge demands in terms of prize money in order to be here.
'FIFA will sell it as a success. That doesn't really make it a success, though. I think that will be decided in future editions.'
Ratings Watch: 5.73M
That's the number of viewers for the MLB Home Run Derby, up 5 percent from last year (but down from '23, '22 and '21). Can MLB capitalize on the 'Big Dumper' Effect?
Data Point: 46.2 percent
When 39 WNBA players were anonymously polled by The Athletic, nearly half said that Caitlin Clark would NOT be the face of the league in five years.
Who else could it be? JuJu Watkins? (Maybe.) Paige Bueckers? (Possibly.) There is a seeming disconnect between WNBA players and the legion of fans driving the league's growth (most notably reflected in how CC's peers voted for the All-Star Game).
BTW: Clark is supposed to headline both the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC) and the 3-point contest (Friday at 8 p.m. ET, ESPN), whose winner will get a (surprisingly paltry?) $2,575 from the league, but an additional $60K from Aflac.
BUT! Clark's groin injury last night adds glaring question marks to the league's marquee event — being held in Indianapolis — both literally and figuratively built around Clark's popularity. Assuming everyone will do everything possible for her to participate.
Name to Know: Laurent Mekies
Red Bull F1's post-Christian Horner era starts now, led by a former engineer.
Runner-up: Portland Fire
That's the 'everything old is new again' name of Portland's WNBA franchise, launching in 2026. (Better belated branding than never!)
Brand of the Week: UNO
Take your family's favorite game night pastime and put it in a Las Vegas casino. That's the debut of UNO at The Palms, a viral gimmick being held this weekend. (Alas, entry is tightly limited and no money is involved.)
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Runner-up: Puma, re-upping its kit deal with Man City, the largest in the Premier League and worth upwards of a billion dollars over the decade-plus it will run.
What I'm Watching: NFL Flag Championships
Boys' 14U championship Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on ABC, followed by girls' HS championship at 5 p.m. I'm beyond bullish on the future of flag football in the U.S. (As TV programming, it's a work in progress, but the investment being made by the NFL — not to mention private equity firms — is massive.)
Phrase to Know: 'Valid business purposes'
That is the three-word rationale that the College Sports Commission and its NIL Go platform are using to squash deals for college athletes run through collectives. The language is vague and flimsy, which also means that it is going to get picked apart by collectives' and athletes' lawyers.
Related: Postscript to last week's MoneyCall lead, on Texas Tech's twist on 'Moneyball' for the new era of college football. Only fair to give Big 12 coaches their say on the topic.
Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute:
'(Golf) is one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.'
Did you catch Scottie Scheffler's intense, thoughtful monologue earlier this week? Let my colleague Brendan Quinn take you through it.
Two more:
(1) The definitive profile of legendary SEC college football yakker Paul Finebaum.
(2) Bruce Feldman with the most heart-warming story about sports media you'll read this summer.
Back next Wednesday! With no MLB on TV today, I know there is at least one minute in your day to forward MoneyCall to a couple friends or colleagues! And, as always, give a (free!) try to all The Athletic's other newsletters.