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New York Times
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
With new deals, ‘Pay Per View' has lost by knockout. ‘Pay Per Month' has won
Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic's weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Was this column forwarded to you? Subscribe here to receive it in your email every Wednesday morning.) Name-dropped today: David Ellison, Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift, Scott Hanson, Villareal, Jon Gruden, Madeline Hill, Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, Jen Pawol, Ralph Russo and more. Let's go: The end of sports' pay-per-view era Pay-per-view (PPV) events — an old staple of sports TV, ranging from big boxing matches to monthly UFC spectacles to scripted annuities like WrestleMania — feels archaic when matched up with the strategic imperatives of the companies bidding for those broadcast rights, not to mention the event companies themselves. Advertisement Monday, UFC announced it is taking its 43 live events per year from ESPN+ to Paramount+ in a seven-year/$7.7 billion deal with Paramount (officially acquired by Skydance and its CEO David Ellison last week). The upshot: Pay-per-view has lost by knockout. Pay-per-month has won. Distributors would rather use UFC or WWE (or NFL or NBA or MLB or MLS or … or … or …) to get consumers to stick year-round while paying monthly (or, better yet, annually) instead of trying to get consumers to keep buying one-off events. To watch UFC previously, you had to have a monthly subscription to ESPN+ ($12/month) and still pay an $80-per-event fee to access each UFC event. The old annual total to watch every UFC event in a year: $1,184. In 2026, your Paramount+ monthly $8 (with ads) or $13 (ad-free-ish) subscription gets you access to all of the UFC events as part of your fee. That's now $96 for every UFC event over a year, plus the other content offered by Paramount+, which seems like a rare W for fans in the 'fans are paying too much for sports TV' era. This follows ESPN's announced deal with WWE last week to make all WWE 'premium live events' (such as WrestleMania and Summer Slam) part of the monthly $29.99 fee for ESPN's new direct-to-consumer service, launching August 21. (Although WWE has a long history of successful pay-per-view events, in WWE's previous media deal, those events had been available through Peacock's monthly paid subscription, anywhere from $6 to $12 per month. WWE also has a long-term deal with Netflix for its 'Raw' weekly live show, accessible as part of Netflix's monthly subscription fee, which ranges from $8 to $25 per month.) To be sure, streaming distributors still really want 'eventized' sports programming; they simply want to stack enough of those events all year to help keep subscribers from ever leaving. Advertisement From the perspective of TKO Holdings (which owns both UFC and WWE) or any other owner licensing IP, the wider distribution, lower barrier-to-access and succulent rights fees more than makes up the incremental PPV sales. Some smaller companies (like AEW) remain in the PPV business, but the model is otherwise on its way out. For more, my colleague Andrew Marchand has a must-read analysis of the state of play between the networks, the streamers and leagues. Big talkers from the sports business industry: 'College Football RedZone?' Mr. RedZone himself, Scott Hanson, is a big fan of the idea, but — as a massive RedZone fan myself — I laid out five reasons why the show's unique DNA makes it very challenging to replicate for college football. La Liga coming to the U.S.?: Imagine if the Texas-Georgia game on November 15 were moved from Athens, Georgia to Athens, Greece. How would Dawgs season-ticket holders react? Not well! That's a bit of the flavor of the sentiment among La Liga fans in Spain for the plan — approved this week by the Spanish Football Federation — to move the December regular-season league match between Villareal and Barcelona (top-five teams in La Liga in 2024-25) to Miami, the first time any European top-flight league match would be played outside Europe. It still requires UEFA and FIFA to take steps to give final approval, but Villareal supporters are livid, to say the least. (So is Real Madrid.) Villareal's president is pre-emptively offering free flights to the U.S. or huge rebates on supporter season tickets. What do you think? Cincinnati Open: Tennis' new 'Fifth Slam?' I love the ambition here, a model for any event that wants to crack an otherwise locked-in league landscape. (Unexpected power outages aren't a great start this week, but the point stands.) Advertisement Jon Gruden's lawsuit vs. the NFL can continue: Much more to come on this, with the biggest question being whether there is a number the league can offer to get the former Raiders coach to settle or if he is absolutely committed to getting Roger Goodell in a deposition. (Per ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr., the NFL will appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.) WNBA's sex-toy court-tossing imbroglio: It should not surprise you at all to learn that my colleague Ben Pickman traced it back to a crypto meme-coin promotion effort. The Oklahoma QB Venmo situation: John Mateer acknowledged the posts in his Venmo account referencing gambling but insisted they were inside jokes. Talk to any Gen Z person in your life about whether people joke around with Venmo entries, and you'll get a ton of examples. Obviously, the optics are terrible, but with Venmo, 'jk' is reasonable. More on this one if new reporting emerges. Other current obsessions: NBA schedule release … Premier League kit rankings … college football preseason polls (even if they don't impact the playoff) … Sunderland back in the Premier League … old-school print college football preview magazines … Travis Kelce x Taylor Swift podcast collab Dropping 7 p.m. ET tonight, the appearance of uber-star Taylor Swift on boyfriend Travis Kelce's already-popular podcast 'New Heights' is the sports-culture 'attention economy' crossover event of the summer… arguably the year… perhaps the century. How big is it? I defer to my new colleague, Madeline Hill of The Athletic's 'Sports Gossip Show' podcast, who wrote yesterday in her excellent Impersonal Foul newsletter: 'The hype around this viewing event feels like if the finales of Succession/Game of Thrones/Sopranos and the Oscars/Super Bowl all happened on the same night.' 'It surely will be the most-streamed podcast episode in history and probably one of the most-viewed YouTube videos in the platform's history.' Advertisement (Per FOS, the most-viewed podcast episode ever is from Thmanyah, a Saudi show that once hit 144 million views. For context, New Heights has 2.6M YouTube subscribers, 4.6M TikTok followers, 3M followers on Instagram and is currently the No. 1 show on Apple Podcasts. Taylor Swift's audience size is, of course, essentially infinite.) Hill is a longtime Swiftologist, and she gave valuable context: Other than a virtual appearance during the pandemic to promote 'evermore,' Swift has never done a pod, and now she's in-studio with Kelce — arguably the biggest celebrity couple in the world — and his brother Jason, including the formal announcement of her new 12th album. You might not be paying attention. You might not want to be paying attention. You might roll your eyes at the attention that inundates your feeds today, tonight, tomorrow and the rest of the week. But in an era of atomized attention, it is a fun return to a monoculture moment, with a sports star not quite at the very center of it, but sitting right next to the center and certainly on the screen. Quote of the Week 'You know, you guys have a lot of male sports fans who listen to your podcast, and I think we all know that if there's one thing that male sports fans want to see in their spaces and on their screens… is more of me.' — Taylor Swift, quipping on this morning's promo for her appearance on 'New Heights.' Branding: Tkachuk Bros. Being the cover on the upcoming NHL 26 video game is great, but can Matthew and Brady Tkachuk become the NHL's version of Travis and Jason Kelce? (Speaking of the Kelces, between T. Swift appearing on New Heights tonight and Travis on the cover of GQ this month, the Kelce Bros. remain the sports sibling gold standard.) Name to Know: Jen Pawol As my colleague Brett Ghiroli wrote, MLB needed Pawol to break the umpiring gender barrier last weekend, but Pawol deserved the opportunity. Advertisement What I'm Watching: Sports docs Currently: Hard Knocks: Bills (HBO) SEC: Any Given Saturday (Netflix) In the queue: The KC Chiefs one (8/14, ESPN+) The Dallas Cowboys one (8/19, Netflix) Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute: Inside sports' escalating stalking problem. (Part of a week-long series from The Athletic's Enterprise team.) Two more: (1) How beauty brands are activating within women's sports. (2) This delightful column from my colleague Ralph Russo, who ran the AP Top 25 college football media poll for years, and now finally is a voter himself. Back next Wednesday! MoneyCall's pay-per-view fee has been and always is 'FREE 99.' That's a great reason to please forward this to a couple friends or colleagues with your recommendation to subscribe! And, as always, give a (free!) try to all The Athletic's other newsletters. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
What are the 10 best sports movies of the 21st century? (Plus: MoneyCall wants yours!)
Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic's weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to receive MoneyCall in your email every Wednesday? Easy sign-up here.) Name-dropped today: Brad Pitt, Michele Kang, George Costanza, Joey Chestnut, Jason Kirk, Caitlin Clark, Ndamukong Suh, Red Panda, Bobby Bonilla and more. Let's go: The Top 10 Sports Movies of the 21st Century (and does 'F1: The Movie' reach the 21st century sports movie pantheon?) 'F1: The Movie' is a smash hit. Advertisement It had the biggest opening weekend (~$146M) of any movie in Brad Pitt's entire career, and it *just* missed knocking out 'Creed III' as the highest-grossing U.S. opening weekend for any sports movie ever. Why? As with TV's 'Drive to Survive,' F1 makes for the kind of glitzy visuals and hyper-aggressive soundscapes that prove popular in the summer, with a mega-marketing push from Apple. (Even the cars' tires are co-stars.) Two questions: 1) Will we see copycats, like we did with 'Drive to Survive?' If anything, 'F1' is a bit derivative of modern sports movies. Meanwhile, like DTS, F1's unique elements are hard to replicate with other sports. Given that opening-weekend showing, it shouldn't surprise you to hear that a sequel is in development. 2) Is it one of the best sports movies of the 21st century? Our two F1 reporters wouldn't go that far (and neither will I), but that question nicely coincides with The New York Times' buzzy 'Best Movies of the 21st Century' list. I picked mine just for sports movies, not listed in any particular order (and only features, not documentaries): (My hottest take of all: 2014's 'Whiplash' is really a sports movie — J.K. Simmons' Terence Fletcher is the scariest coach in movie history — and if you watch it that way, it takes the film to a new level.) Let's have some mid-summer fun: Pick your own 10 favorite sports movies of the 21st century here, then drop any unlisted personal favorites (or gripes about my list above) in the comments section below. WNBA to reach 18 teams in 2030. Plus: NCAA needs geography lessons Big talkers from the sports business industry: WNBA expansion mania: Adding Cleveland in 2028. Detroit in 2029. Philadelphia in 2030. That's on top of Golden State launching this season and Toronto and Portland launching next season. It's a lot. Here's the stat of the week: $50M: What Golden State and Toronto paid in expansion fees in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Advertisement $75M: What Portland paid in 2024. $250M: What the three ownership groups announced on Monday paid. That's 3X the fee from just a year ago! By the time those three new teams take the court, their team valuations could easily have doubled. The Valkyries, for example, were just valued at $500M by Sportico. (Related: How much of that jump from $75M to $250M can be attributed to the Caitlin Clark Effect? Anecdotally, I would say a lot. But don't take my speculative word for it: Get an amazing just-published deep-dive here from my colleagues Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant on Clark's billion-dollar value to the league.) MLB, ESPN renew talks: ESPN was never going to keep paying MLB $550M for its rights package, but after the initial tensions cooled off, both sides clearly see the value of talking through a path forward — MLB needs the additional national exposure, ESPN needs … the local game rights for its new streaming service? Club World Cup x weather: Zoom out — the bigger issue with the heat (and myriad storm delays) is what this foreshadows for the World Cup next summer, across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Pac-12 adds Texas State: The conference needed an eighth football team to remain FBS-eligible, and even the ninth-best major college football team in Texas is still giving your inaccurately named league a footprint in TEXAS. NHL, union sign new CBA: Expanding the regular season to 84 games got the headlines, but the end of the delightful (if possibly overhyped) emergency backup goalie ('EBUG') system is the quirky detail I'm lamenting. Other current obsessions: Michele Kang taking over managing Lyon (and signing Lily Johannes to the women's side!) … Randy Moss returning to ESPN … Al Hilal toppling Man City at the Club World Cup … Cadillac's F1 startup … NBA Draft fashion reviews … the George Costanza bobblehead bubble … Joey Chestnut back at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th … get well soon, Red Panda … How does an NFL legend think about business opportunties? The Athletic's newest podcast 'No Free Lunch,' hosted by football legend Ndamukong Suh, launched yesterday (check it out here). I had a few Qs for my new teammate Suh that he was nice enough to answer: What makes for a good podcast? It's about real, honest conversations — no filters, just raw truth and transparency. We want our guests' stories to be relatable to everyone, showing the human side of success and struggle. And most importantly, every episode should give you something valuable to learn for your own life. Advertisement What is a recent/current sports business storyline you find fascinating? The dynamic around the NFL's management council and player compensation is fascinating. Whether you call it collusion or strategic business, it's a prime example of maximizing profit by minimizing costs. Every business aims to widen that spread, and NFL owners are no different. Ultimately, though, the responsibility falls to the NFL Players Association. It's on them to be a strong, unified union and negotiate for better terms. At the end of the day, it's a business. Watch the first episode here: Data Point: 1,293,526 That's the number of WNBA All-Star votes Caitlin Clark got, the most any player has ever received (breaking her own record, set a year ago). AND YET! Clark was only the ninth-highest vote-getter *just among guards* from WNBA players themselves, highlighting the not-concerning-at-all disconnect between Clark's frenzied fan following and her complicated status with her peers. Ratings Watch: 534,000 That's the number of fans who tuned in for the NHL Draft on Friday night, up 6 percent from last year's Friday night draft, per SBJ's ratings guru Austin Karp. Brands of the Week Adidas, American Eagle, Battle Sports, Chipotle, DSW, Electronic Arts, Lululemon and Red Bull. As my colleague Jason Kirk noted in his must-read Until Saturday college football newsletter: 'Just some of the companies in the Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith business.' Bobby Bonilla Day tribute: $112,600,000 That's what the Milwaukee Bucks will pay Damian Lillard over the next five years not to play for the team, the largest the largest 'waive-and-stretch' deal in NBA history (and ironically announced ON Bobby Bonilla Day). Can you beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition? Today: Puzzle #282 Dan's time: 0:29 (Today's puzzle includes my favorite game of all time.) Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute: In a perfect postscript to last week's MoneyCall lead item about Cooper Flagg and New Balance, don't miss this behind-the-scenes reporting on how that deal went down. Two more: (1) The most fascinating case study in the business of college sports right now is … Sacramento State. (Free idea for the Pac-12: Charge Sac St. $10M a year to be in the league.) (2) Another smart column from my colleague Asli Pelit from her 'Down to Business' series on women's soccer, globally: Players as media companies. Back next Wednesday! Celebrate July 4th by texting this link to friends or colleagues asking for their 21st century sports movie recs. And, as always, give a (free!) try to MoneyCall and all The Athletic's other newsletters.
New York Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Why NFL schedule release day illustrates how the league owns the entire year
Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic's weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to receive it as an email every Wednesday? Subscribe here.) Name-dropped today: Pete Rose, Howard Katz, Michael Jordan, Cooper Flagg, Pope Leo XIV, Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichick, Claudio Cabrera, Malcolm Glazer and more. Let's go: NFL owns the calendar with schedule release day The No. 1, hands-down, license-to-Harvard Business School case study about how the business of the NFL has subsumed the sports calendar like a gridiron Galactus is tonight: 'schedule release day,' when a mere list of games launches millions of hours of reporting, consumption, podcasts, TV segments, social memes, betting action and more. How big is this day? Five dates that will be vastly more important to the NFL's business than your typical Sunday or Monday in the fall: The throughput? None of these massively anticipated, seismically strategic games are on the NFL's most traditional days of Sunday and Monday. Like today's schedule release day itself, the NFL wants to dominate the full calendar. ESPN launching … ESPN? Plus, the Mavericks' unbelievable fortune Big talkers from the sports business industry: Surge in national TV games: Mavs-Lakers on Xmas Day? Season ticket sales/renewals: Luka who? Sponsorship sales: Who's calling New Balance and AT&T? Jersey sales: I predict Flagg will lead the league. Other current obsessions: TNT's French Open 'Rouge Zone' coverage … Women's World Cup expanding to 48 teams in 2031 (matching the men in 2026) … Lilly Singh: Toronto Tempo 'Chief Hype Officer' … Old-is-new U.S. Soccer kits … Potential contenders to buy the Portland Trailblazers … and, of course, the newly breaking Pete Rose posthumous reinstatement to baseball situation … What happens when the pope backs your team? Pope Leo XIV being a sports fan — Chicago White Sox, Villanova basketball, tennis — has sparked a small frenzy of attention and opportunity. Topps' special release of a pope card shattered records; BreakingT's 'Daaa Pope' T-shirt sales have been 'brisk,' per a company source; and, of course, there's been an impact on sports gambling. Advertisement Arguably the biggest windfall goes to the Sox, which leaves me wondering: How does a team and its ecosystem of merchants even begin to navigate this kind of unexpected situation? My colleague Jon Greenberg has been looking into it — here is his reporting, and here is a key snippet, quoting the owner of a South Side store that specializes in Sox merch, now selling Pope Leo '14' jerseys, which are out-selling player jerseys for them: 'You know, it's one of those things where we have a business that allows us to customize a jersey and put a name and number on it. So why not? Think about it, there's what, over a billion followers in that faith, right? So people want a feel-good story and people want to be the first to do everything. It really wasn't my idea. I cannot take credit for it. I was just inspired, let's put it that way.' Read the whole thing here. Data Point: 38,423 The number of fans in Denver who came out last Saturday night to watch the Colorado Rockies get pummeled 21-0 by the San Diego Padres. Despite fielding a team this season that will challenge for Worst Team Ever, the Rockies are squarely in the middle of MLB attendance rankings. That is a testament to the incredible experience at Coors Field, best described by my colleague Cody Stavenhagen this way: 'If Wrigley Field exists as a timeless neighborhood bar, Coors Field thrives as a tranquil biergarten.' Will fans keep coming out despite the losing product? Quote of the Week 'She doesn't have anything to do with UNC football.' — Bill Belichick, on girlfriend Jordon Hudson, in an interview at an ACC event. Certainly less inflammatory than Hudson's original 'We're not talking about that.' Related: Hudson competed in Miss Maine USA last weekend and finished 'second runner-up' (that's third place, for non-pageant normies). My colleague Steve Buckley was on the scene. Advertisement What to Watch: 'Welcome to Wrexham' Premiering this week, Season 4 extends the most dramatic made-for-TV sports spectacle in the world — not-so-spoiler alert! — with Wrexham's third straight season ending in promotion. My colleague Richard Sutcliffe has the most essential review you'll find anywhere. This Week in Branding U.K. women's pro soccer organizing corporation 'Women's Professional Leagues Limited' is now 'Women's Super League Football,' a vast improvement. But the league needs more than spangle, says my colleague Megan Feringa. Plus! Only because it juuust missed our send time last Wednesday: Utah picks 'Mammoth': From name to logo to catchphrase ('Tusks up!'), phenomenal choices. Dan's branding grade: A-. Beat Dan in Connections Couldn't even finish this week. This is YOUR WEEK to top me! Play here. Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute: 'The double standards are real. The bias is real. But accountability matters, too. And invoking a real stereotype to excuse behavior cheapens the experience for those of us who must carry that stereotype with us every day, in spaces that won't give us the benefit of the doubt.' — my colleague Claudio Cabrera, in a must-read essay on Draymond Green and the Warriors star's rant on the 'angry Black man' trope last week. Three more reads worth your time: Understanding the Glazers. Our multi-part series on the pioneering, oft-frustrating Manchester United ownership of the Glazer family. Back next Wednesday! This week's challenge: Forward this to three friends or colleagues with your rec to sign up. (And signing up is totally free, as are all The Athletic's other newsletters, too.)
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why A'ja Wilson's new Nike ad is the best TV commercial of the year: MoneyCall
Why A'ja Wilson's new Nike ad is the best TV commercial of the year: MoneyCall Welcome back to MoneyCall, 's weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to get MoneyCall delivered to your email inbox every Wednesday morning? Subscribe here.) Name-dropped today: A'ja Wilson, Malia Obama, Caitlin Clark, Ahmed Fareed, Bill Belichick, Jordon Hudson, David Beckham, John Oliver and more. Let's go: Driving the Conversation The best sports TV ad of the year Nike has had some great TV ads over the years, especially around basketball. (I'm partial to the classic 'Li'l Penny' campaign, which was *checks notes* 30 years ago.) Advertisement The one that debuted last weekend for A'ja Wilson's first signature shoe (released yesterday, to sold-out status) is an instant classic. Directed by Malia Obama, the ad is a play on the old 'Miss Mary Mack' nursery rhyme hand-clap game and features some exceptional editing work. Watch: Some sample lyrics: A'ja Wilson's on top, top, top… Can't take her spot, spot, spot… She's a real one through, through, through… Always does what she'll do, do, do She won M-V-P, P, P One, two and three, three, three Her game is tea, tea, tea She made history, -ee, -ee And if you talk smack, smack, smack She's gonna clap back, back, back Her drip's elite, leet, leet It can't be beat, beat, beat Advertisement A close watch is rewarded: joyous visuals that pay homage to Black girlhood, look-up-from-your-phone catchy audio, a cameo from Dawn Staley and even a quick (and funny) scene set in Sunday church. During this surging era of women's basketball, do not discount the virtuous cycle between great players, great marketing and audience enthusiasm. History shows a great ad can help turn a star into a household name. Beyond Wilson's Nike ad, here is a snapshot of the standout marketing surrounding women's basketball just in the past 72 hours: Sunday: ESPN aired Caitlin Clark's return to Iowa for an Indiana Fever preseason game against the relatively anonymous Brazilian national team, and the TV ratings were jaw-dropping. Advertisement (And don't forget: Clark will be on national TV 41 times in the WNBA's 44-game regular season.) Monday: WNBA stars including Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Angel Reese were featured at the Met Gala. Tuesday: The Athletic's latest 'No Offseason' podcast episode dropped, focused on the launch of the WNBA's Golden State Valkyries. Every element — talent, marketing, fan engagement — becomes a part of the self-reinforcing flywheel. As the Wilson ad reminds us: This is more than just Clark, and reducing it to the 'Clark effect' ignores all these other signals and trends over the past 12-36 months, from historically strong TV ratings for the women's NCAA Tournament to startup basketball leagues like Unrivaled creating a new template for player benefits and fan access. Advertisement The WNBA's regular season doesn't start until a week from Friday, but the league and its wider ecosystem's innovative grasp on the attention economy is already locked in. Get Caught Up Soaring Derby viewership, plus NFL Draft heading to D.C. Everyone watched the Kentucky Derby: Saturday's broadcast brought in 17.7 million viewers, the largest audience for a Derby since 1989 and NBC's most-watched Derby ever. (Peacock streams, nearly a million, were up nearly 35 percent from last year.) That's a testament to the cultural hold the Derby has on the casual sports fan, but also a solid data point backing up an idea MoneyCall editor Jason Kirk brought up that we need more SHORT sporting events, in which you can leave the TV on for hours beforehand or tune in for just a quick burst of excitement. (Marquee events at the Olympics in the pool and gym floor come to mind.) Advertisement (The broadcast's standouts? Per my colleague Richard Deitsch, it included Ahmed Fareed, who filled in as host at the last minute for an ill Mike Tirico.) F1 in Miami: Great analysis of the state of F1 in the U.S. from The Pulse weekend crew of Alex Kirshner and Sam Settleman, bookended by the news that F1 and the Miami GP extended the race partnership through 2041. (Plus: Don't miss the last section of this newsletter!) NFL Draft coming to D.C. in 2027: Ovi 895, RFK Stadium 2.0, James Wood. D.C. continues to enjoy a sports hot streak over the past month, including the news Monday that the NFL will hold the 2027 draft in the nation's capital. If my prediction last week was that the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh will set new draft attendance records, I'll say now that D.C. in 2027 will be even higher. Advertisement Business of Bill Belichick, cont'd: My colleague David Ubben read through BB's new book (the one that triggered the hoopla a week ago) and thought it was … OK? Let's be real: After last week's frenzy, the biggest story around Belichick Inc. this week is this weekend's Miss Maine USA pageant, featuring Belichick's girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, as a contestant. (And presumptive favorite? Still waiting on a sportsbook to offer odds!) Other current obsessions: David Beckham joins me in the 50-something club (welcome!) … Related: Gen X enthusiasm for the return of NBC's 1990s NBA anthem 'Roundball Rock' … 76ers guard Jared McCain's new nail polish line … Skechers taken private at a ~$9.4B valuation … Youth-sports platform Unrivaled Sports gets $120M in investment, led by Dick's Sporting Goods … John Oliver's offer to re-brand a minor league baseball team … What I'm Wondering Questions stemming from Texas' roster spend Great reporting last week from my colleague Sam Khan Jr. about University of Texas boosters possibly spending up to $40M in NIL on the football roster for this upcoming season. Advertisement For comparison, MLB's Miami Marlins have a payroll reported to be $67.9M, and the minimum team salary floor across the entire NHL is $65M. The most notable comp: Ohio State's 2024 roster made a reported $20 million on the way to winning the CFP championship. Even if that's off by a few million, what Texas is reportedly doing is a seismic jump. I had a few questions for Khan about all this: With UT as atypical, obviously, what would be your educated guess of what an average Power 4 team will spend on football for the 2025 season? I think most Power 4 teams will spend somewhere between $13 million and $20 million. The elite, well-funded teams may live above that, perhaps in the $25 million to $30 million range. Even if the reported $35 million to $40 million estimate is accurate — I'm not certain that it is — it could just be a one-time thing, before the cap kicks in and third-party NIL deals fall under more scrutiny once the clearinghouse is established. Advertisement If/when the House settlement kicks in and every P4 team *starts* with a spending floor of up to $20M, what do you think the new budget norm looks like, combining school payments with booster NIL? I don't believe a $40 million roster spend will become typical. It's important to remember that, with this revenue-sharing cap, some schools are funding additional scholarships for other sports with it (for example, Georgia is allocating $2.5 million for that purpose). Most, but not all, of the revenue will be going toward football (Georgia is allocating 75 percent, which feels like a good baseline for most schools). So the 'floor' likely starts around $13 million for Power 4 programs that are fully funding the rev-share cap. How many years will it take to have a college football team with a $100M annual roster payroll? Maybe I'll sound naive, but I doubt we'll ever get there. Even if a team had a few star players with eight-figure contracts, it would take a lot to get the payroll to nine figures. Could we get to a $50 million payroll if someone wanted to build a super team? Maybe. But as long as these players can move freely from year to year and are signing one- or two-year deals, I think that will keep player salaries from getting too far above $10 million, if anyone even reaches that threshold. Grab Bag Happy Mother's Day to all the moms And especially my own mom, who was a Day 1 MoneyCall subscriber, and MoneyCall editor Torrey Hart. Advertisement Name to Know: Midge Purce The Gotham FC and U.S. women's national team player, 29, made her Broadway debut last Thursday in a cameo during 'Chicago.' More athlete-Broadway crossovers, please. This week in innovation NBC is planning to use AI to recreate the voice of longtime 'NBA on NBC' voiceover narrator Jim Fagan, who died in 2017. Almost all of the reaction I have seen is 'That's pretty creepy,' so we'll see if this makes it to October. (Torrey reminded me that back when NBC did this for the 2024 Olympics with Al Michaels' voice, 95.2 percent of fans polled by The Pulse hated the AI announcer idea — and Michaels is alive! The Pulse has a new poll today about the Fagan plan: Vote here.) Beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle #226 Time: 00:54 Great week for you to beat my time! Try the game here. Worth Your Time Lego built full-size F1 cars for the Miami GP last weekend, and my colleague Luke Smith had behind-the-scenes access to see how they pulled it off. Advertisement Two more reads worth your time: The Business of : Want to understand the strategy behind our newsletters, which just hit 5 million total subscribers? Read this interview our boss Chris Sprow did with The Drum. Is European soccer ready to embrace the championship ring? Back next Wednesday! This week's challenge: Hit that 'forward' button and send this to any mom or mom figure in your life with your rec to sign up to receive it (totally free, as are all 's other newsletters, too). This article originally appeared in The Athletic. WNBA, Sports Business, MoneyCall 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
11 questions (plus one answer) about Bill Belichick's future with UNC, Jordon Hudson
Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic's weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Don't miss a week: Get MoneyCall delivered to your email inbox every Wednesday morning. It's free. Easy sign-up here.) Name-dropped today: Jordon Hudson, Bill Belichick, the Jackson Five, Journalism (yes, that's a name), Bob Baffert, Ryan Reynolds, Shedeur Sanders, Stan Van Gundy, Jax Ulbrich (boooo!) and more. Let's go: Questions it's fair to have about Bill Belichick now It's been an exhausting 72 hours since the viral contretemps between Bill Belichick, his girlfriend Jordon Hudson and 'CBS Sunday Morning' host Tony Dokoupil over interview protocols. (ICYMI, the 24-year-old Hudson shut down a question posed to Belichick, 73, about how the couple met, though that information was already public.) Advertisement Layered on top of an already-awkward series of FOIA requests, social-media posts and general irk/ick/ehh, the moment yields more questions than answers about Belichick Inc. and its new joint venture, Brand Jordon: 1. At the time North Carolina inked Belichick to a $50 million deal to transform its football program, did the school realize it signed up for this? 2. Does UNC's sports information team find out about all this stuff when the rest of us do? 3. Why reject UNC being the subject of 'Hard Knocks' if things are going to be a reality show anyway? 4. Is this all just a Nathan Fielder-level marketing campaign to sell Belichick's new book, 'The Art of Winning'? 5. Is Hudson a lock to win Miss Maine USA in two weeks? 6. How many offers have there been from streaming services to do a documentary at the pageant? 7. Does 'we're not talking about this' get a trademark application like 'Do Your Job (Bill's Version)'? 8. Who was more of an internet main character this past weekend: Hudson on Sunday or Mel Kiper Jr. on Saturday? 9. How many games does Belichick need to win for everyone to find this quirky, not a distraction? 10. As my colleague Steve Buckley asked yesterday: Will any of this 'help get Belichick back on the radar for a head coaching job in the NFL?' 11. Have we reached Peak Awkward on this yet? My best answers as of now: 1. Probably not; 2. *Wince* presumably?; 3. New answers here; 4. They wish; 5. A sportsbook will have odds on this by the end of the week; 6. Over/under 2.5; 7. That would be really clever; 8. Hudson; 9. Nine wins; 10. As Buckley said, 'That's looking less likely'; 11. Not even close. Intrigued by the 'Hard Knocks' thing? New answers: Why did the deal for Belichick and UNC football to appear on HBO's insider show fall apart at the last minute? Brand-new exclusive reporting this morning from my colleagues Matt Baker, Andrew Marchand and Brendan Marks, including a trove of new documents acquired by The Athletic, helps get us closer to an answer on that question. Big talkers from the sports business industry: New Commanders stadium in D.C., plus Shedeur's (likely) record jersey sales NFL returning to D.C.: I grew up in the D.C. suburbs going to old RFK Stadium, not just for NFL games, but for original NASL 'Dips' games, the 1994 World Cup and my first concert ever (the epic Jackson Five Victory Tour!) Other than the symbolically and economically powerful return of the Commanders and a stadium within the borders of D.C., the single most interesting detail of the plan (pending its approval, of course) is that the facility will have a roof, allowing D.C. to host Super Bowls, Final Fours, WrestleMania, the biggest concerts and any mega-event that might be created after the stadium opens in 2030. Advertisement It's Kentucky Derby week: Horse racing has largely become a once-a-year sport for most sports fans, but Saturday's Derby is the 'once,' and it still retains its julep-infused aura. Don't miss this Dana O'Neil profile of legendary trainer Bob Baffert, who returns to the Derby after a three-year suspension he still hasn't quite reconciled. My Kentucky Derby picks Win: Journalism (3-1) Place: Publisher Show: Render Judgment Wrexham rolls onward (and upward): Among the most fascinating sports business stories of the 2020s is the one about two Hollywood pals, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, buying a distressed fifth-division UK football club, injecting it with investment (and attention) and earning promotion three consecutive years — now just one top-of-the-table season from reaching the Premier League. Definitely read this analysis of Wrexham's success this season. What is Wrexham now playing for? The best way to understand it is to read this breakdown of all the jaw-dropping financial benefits accruing to Leeds United for earning promotion this season from the second-division Championship to the top-flight Premiership. Shedeur Sanders' jersey sells big: No. 3 in sales among draftees, which I'm going to guess (with zero data) is a record for a fifth-round pick. Speaking of Shedeur: ICYMI, after Mel Kiper's umpteenth rant about Shedeur throughout the three days of the draft, I convened Andrew Marchand and Richard Deitsch to break down Kiper's breakdown. It was a really fascinating conversation. College sports prop bet ban coming? Individual player 'prop' bets — the ability to bet on the over or under for a single statistic by a player in a game — remain arguably THE biggest challenge for the college sports industry embracing sports gambling amid the erosion of competitive integrity. Keep an eye on this new licensing agreement between the NCAA and Genius Sports, which would put the kibosh on sports books offering player props on college games if they're using NCAA data. Advertisement Pac-12 (Pac-2) inks national TV deal: Shoutout to Pac-12 Conference commissioner Teresa Gould and Octagon for being able to turn a two-team league into a national TV deal across CBS, ESPN and The CW. It doesn't matter how much money is changing hands; this is a stop-gap before the league adds a half-dozen new teams next year and can attempt to increase its media rights. (Also, low-key, I am fascinated by The CW's strategy to roll up a hodgepodge of undervalued sports rights: Oregon State and Washington State football, ACC football and hoops, AVP volleyball, Grand Slam Track, WWE NXT and, most notably, NASCAR's Xfinity series, which is crushing in the ratings.) Second-division women's pro soccer: The NWSL intends to launch a second division. WPSL Pro wants to be in the second division. 'More is better,' or a cluttered quandary? Other current obsessions: NBA possibly adopting a 4 Nations-style All-Star format … Stan Van Gundy on Amazon's NBA broadcasts next season … 2026 NFL mock drafts … Sacramento State basketball GM Shaquille O'Neal … Why did Fanatics launch its first trading card store in London? The answer was in my colleague Andrew Mackie's coverage of the store's boisterous launch last Friday, including thousands there to see Lewis Hamilton help open the store. This quote from Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin stood out: 'In America, there's more than a thousand hobby shops. And when you look across the rest of the world, there's maybe a hundred stores. This is really about everyone who comes through and passes the store and open their minds to this.' Mackie made a great observation about the hobby's position: Fanatics' challenge is converting a nation where collectibles has only reached the mainstream through sticker book collections for the Premier League, UEFA and FIFA competitions since the 1970s, whereas trading cards have been collected in America dating back to the 1800s. To that end, the store is even selling some competitor products, like Pokémon and Panini cards. 'We're all about growing the industry,' Rubin said. Time for a lightning round. Comp of the Week: $4M vs. $4.3M That's 'compensation' AND 'comparison.' The former is what my colleague Chris Vannini estimates Texas QB Quinn Ewers would have gotten in NIL (at the very least) for a final college football season had he transferred elsewhere and not gone into the NFL Draft. Advertisement Instead, Ewers slid in the draft, to a seventh-round slot where he will make roughly $4.3M over four years. I was intrigued by the point made by our Texpert and CFB roster management reporter Sam Khan Jr. in his conversation with Vannini about Ewers' decision, noting Ewers financially 'did well for himself at Texas' and he 'doesn't think money was a huge motivating factor in the decision for him to go pro.' Runner-up 'comp': This week's eyebrow-raising MLB series between the dueling payrolls of the $476M Dodgers and $69M Marlins. Data Point: 600,000 The number of fans who made their way to the NFL Draft experience in Green Bay, Wis., the league's smallest market (population: 105,000). It was the second-highest total since the league started rotating locations a decade ago. (Prediction to file away: 2026 in Pittsburgh will top the record of 775,000 from 2024 in Detroit.) Related: 81,000. That's the number of fans who packed into Clemson's football stadium on Saturday to watch baseball's Savannah Bananas barnstormers. Arguably the No. 1 case study in sports business entrepreneurship. Save the Date: Wednesday, May 14 NFL schedule release day, which is always a fierce competition between 32 teams' social media squads to come up with the best video. (The announcement about this announcement came during the draft …) Name to Know: Jax Ulbrich There are 650-plus comments (!!!) on our news story about the perpetrator of the cruel, viral, mid-draft prank on Shedeur Sanders: the 21-year-old son of Falcons DC Jeff Ulbrich. Yikes. Ratings Point: NFL Draft Thu./Round 1: Up 11 percent from 2024. Fri./Rounds 2-3: Up 40 percent. Sat./Rounds 4-7: Most ever. They'll call it the 'Shedeur Effect.' Beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle #219 Time? :27 Try the game here! Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute: Bookend Jourdan Rodrigue's profile last week of 34-year-old Jaguars GM wunderkind James Gladstone with this fascinating behind-the-scenes story from Michael Silver, who was embedded in the Jaguars' draft room all weekend for an up-close look at the organizational transformation. Two more reads worth your time: (1) I am not the target audience (and neither is my colleague Stuart James), but the Baller League sure seems like foreshadowing for sports a decade from now. (2) How Atlanta is preparing (already) for the 2026 World Cup. Back next Wednesday! This week's challenge: Hit that 'forward' button and send this to a couple friends or colleagues with your rec to sign up to receive it (totally free, as are all The Athletic's other newsletters, too.)
