Latest news with #SteveGriggs
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Lightning leave FanDuel, enter new media agreement with Scripps Sports
The Tampa Bay Lightning announced on Wednesday that the team has entered a multi-year media rights agreement with Scripps Sports. The new agreement will make The E.W. Scripps the official television home of the Lightning, giving them the rights to air all preseason, regular season and first round playoff games which are not allocated to national broadcasts. The partnership will make it easier for fans all across Tampa Bay to have access to Lightning games free of charge at the start of the 2025-26 season. 'We're excited to announce Scripps Sports as the new media partner of the Tampa Bay Lightning,' said Vinik Sports Group CEO Steve Griggs. 'A world-class fan experience starts with access — and fans have made it clear they want it to be easier to find and watch our games. This partnership delivers on that. 'We're looking forward to working with Brian Lawlor and the Scripps Sports team to expand our reach and bring the excitement of Lightning hockey to more homes across Tampa Bay. We're also incredibly grateful to Steve Tello and the FanDuel Sports team for their partnership and the many unforgettable moments we've shared.' Scripps, which owns ABC Action News also plans to launch a second full-power local station serving the Tampa-St. Petersburg area that will be the broadcast home of the Lightning. That station will be branded 'The Spot - Tampa Bay 66' and will launch locally on July 1, featuring news and entertainment programming. If you're outside the Tampa Bay area and want to tune in, programming info will be made available prior to the start of the 2025-26 season. If you want to stay updated, you can log in here: 'The Tampa Bay Lightning are one of the best teams in the NHL and Bolts fans deserve easy access to all their games via cable, satellite, free over-the-air and streaming,' said Brian Lawlor, President of Scripps Sports. 'The complement of broadcast television and streaming guarantees that fans can follow the games from their living room or wherever they are in their busy lives. We look forward to sharing many winning moments with one of the league's most loyal fan bases.' 'We are honored to power the streaming experience for the Lightning and expand our support for the NHL and now seven of its teams,' said ViewLift CEO Rick Allen. 'We will make it easy for Bolts fans to stream games through their existing Lightning mobile apps and new apps on far more devices, helping the Lightning bring on-ice action and behind-the-scenes information and experiences to fans of all ages, at home or on the move.' The Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers and Utah Mammoth have recently entered similar media agreements.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NHL's Lightning Bolt to Scripps Sports, ViewLift for Local Games
The Tampa Bay Lightning is the latest sports team to offer games to fans through free over-the-air television. The three-time Stanley Cup champions have signed a multiyear local broadcast agreement with Scripps Sports. Except for nationally televised games, all regular season games and the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs will be shown on WXPX-TV (Channel 66), Scripps' Ion Television affiliate station. Advertisement More from On July 1, WXPX will be rebranded as 'The Spot – Tampa 66,' and it will continue to broadcast news and entertainment programs alongside Lightning telecasts. Steve Griggs, the team's CEO and vice chairman, said the challenges faced by RSNs had little to do with their decision. Instead, he said, Tampa Bay wants to prioritize local reach. 'We continue to do our research on our fans about what's important to them,' Griggs said in a phone interview. 'Access was the key to watching our games, and we wanted to create something that had no barriers, that is free and easy for all of our fans to watch across Tampa Bay.' Advertisement Griggs also connected with his two of his counterparts—Florida Panthers CEO Matt Caldwell and Las Vegas Golden Knights CEO Kerry Bubolz—to learn how those teams made the switch to Scripps Sports and local streaming TV. 'We've had conversations over the last year about their ability to expand their audience and what they did with their DTC platform,' he said. 'If you're looking at those three teams, you're talking about the teams that have won the Stanley Cup in the most recent years. We're always trying to do bigger and better things and being able to lean on those two guys was part of our process.' Scripps and the Lightning will also work with ViewLift to launch a direct-to-consumer streaming service that will make Tampa Bay the first NHL franchise to integrate live game streaming into its existing team app. Other teams have created separate platforms for live streaming. With 2.14 million TV households, the Tampa/St. Petersburg media market is the 12th-largest in the U.S., as counted by Nielsen (via Sports Media Watch). The Lightning's footprint extends beyond its immediate metro area across Central and North Florida, with their games also shown in the Orlando (1.84 million TV households) and Jacksonville (799,000 TV households) markets. Advertisement The new local rights deal brings an end to the Lightning's 35-year relationship with FanDuel Sports Network Sun and its various incarnations. Lightning games had been broadcasted on the network since the franchise debuted in 1992, and it remained with FanDuel throughout the bankruptcy saga of Diamond Sports Group, now Main Street Sports Group. Tampa Bay joins the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers, Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth as NHL teams carried by Scripps' local affiliate stations. The Lightning will also pad ViewLift's roster, which recently added New England Sports Network (NESN). Shifting their broadcasts to Scripps and ViewLift is the latest move as it relates to the business of the Bolts. In October, Jeff Vinik sold the majority share of the franchise to a group of investors led by Blue Owl Capital founders Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz at a valuation of $1.8 billion, which ranks 11th in Sportico's NHL franchise valuations. Ostrover and Lipschultz were set to pay for the 54% stake within a year of the October announcement. Additionally, the Lightning signed a multiyear agreement with stadium management firm Oak View Group last month to take on food and hospitality at Amalie Arena, the team's longtime home. Amalie becomes the first arena primarily for an NHL team to be managed by OVG's hospitality division. Advertisement Best of Sign up for Sportico's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tampa Bay Lightning, Scripps Sports partner on multi-year agreement to air National Hockey League team's games
TAMPA BAY, Fla. and CINCINNATI , May 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tampa Bay Lightning have entered into a multi-year media rights agreement with Scripps Sports, which will make it easier than ever for fans throughout the Tampa Bay area to watch Lightning hockey games for free beginning with the start of the 2025-26 NHL season this fall. This new agreement allows The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) to produce and distribute all preseason, regular season and first-round playoff Lightning games that are not allocated exclusively to national broadcasts. Scripps, which owns WFTS-ABC Action News serving the Tampa television market, plans to launch a second full-power local station serving the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, WXPX-TV, which will be the broadcast home of the Lightning. That station will be branded "The Spot – Tampa Bay 66" and will launch locally on July 1, featuring news and entertainment programming in addition to all locally produced Lightning games. Scripps is in discussions with cable and satellite distributors to ensure Lightning games on The Spot will be available on cable, satellite as well as over-the-air television. In addition to the local TV broadcasts, the Lightning and Scripps Sports will be introducing a new, direct-to-consumer experience where Bolts fans can livestream games within the Lightning app throughout the Bolts' broadcast territory, powered by ViewLift. More details on the streaming experience will be made available prior to the start of the 2025-26 season. "The Tampa Bay Lightning are one of the best teams in the NHL, and Bolts fans deserve easy access to all their games via cable, satellite, free over-the-air and streaming," said Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports. "The complement of broadcast television and streaming guarantees that fans can follow the games from their living room or wherever they are in their busy lives. We look forward to sharing many winning moments with one of the league's most loyal fan bases." "We're excited to announce Scripps Sports as the new media partner of the Tampa Bay Lightning," said Vinik Sports Group CEO Steve Griggs. "A world-class fan experience starts with access — and fans have made it clear they want it to be easier to find and watch our games. This partnership delivers on that. We're looking forward to working with Brian Lawlor and the Scripps Sports team to expand our reach and bring the excitement of Lightning hockey to more homes across Tampa Bay. We're also incredibly grateful to Steve Tello and the FanDuel Sports team for their partnership and the many unforgettable moments we've shared." "We are honored to power the streaming experience for the Lightning and expand our support for the NHL and now seven of its teams," said ViewLift CEO Rick Allen. "We will make it easy for Bolts fans to stream games through their existing Lightning mobile apps and new apps on far more devices, helping the Lightning bring on-ice action and behind-the-scenes information and experiences to fans of all ages, at home or on the move." In the NHL, Scripps Sports also has similar media rights agreements with the Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers and Utah Mammoth. Media contacts: Scripps Sports: Jim Weiss, 770.722.2142, Brian Breseman, 813.301.6871, bbreseman@ Mahesh Kumar, About Scripps SportsScripps Sports serves professional and college sports leagues, conferences and teams with local market depth and national broadcast reach. Scripps Sports currently has partnerships with the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2024 Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, the 2023 Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights, the Utah Mammoth, the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA and the NCAA's Big Sky Conference. Scripps Sports is a division of The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP), a Fortune 1000 American media company. About the Lightning and Vinik Sports GroupVinik Sports Group (VSG) is an entity established by Jeff Vinik to manage the three-time Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning (2004, 2020, 2021) of the National Hockey League and hold the leasehold rights to AMALIE Arena, the 19,092-seat downtown Tampa home in which the team plays its games. The venue opened in 1996 and became AMALIE Arena in September 2014 when the family-owned, Tampa Bay-based AMALIE Oil Company partnered with Vinik and the Lightning. Since 2010, Vinik has led a complete brand and business transformation of the Lightning and the arena, featuring a mostly private renovation of the publicly owned facility. Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz joined the expanded ownership group of Vinik Sports Group in 2024, alongside Arctos, which initially joined in 2021. In addition to owning the Lightning and managing AMALIE Arena, Vinik Sports Group, through TBSE, manages the Yuengling Center on the campus at the University of South Florida. About ViewLiftViewLift is a technology company providing digital solutions for content owners, with particular expertise in live and on-demand video distribution. With proprietary cloud-based technology, ViewLift powers digital platforms for sports, media, and entertainment brands worldwide. Its services include content management, multi-platform distribution, real-time analytics, viewer engagement tools, and flexible monetization models (AVOD, SVOD, TVOD, and hybrid models). ViewLift enables content owners to maximize audience engagement and revenue through a seamless, scalable streaming experience. ViewLift's sports clients include the National Hockey League, 14 US top professional sports teams; LIV Golf; five Regional Sports Networks; the Professional Fighters League; and the World Racing Group. The company's media clients include NBC; TEGNA; and Kroenke Sports & Entertainment's MOTV. For more information about ViewLift, visit View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE The E.W. Scripps Company Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
02-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Vibrant Downtown Tampa, Amalie Arena Ready For Women's Final Four
The 2025 NCAA Women's basketball Final Four will be held in Tampa at Amalie Arena on April 4 & 6. Options were sparse in downtown Tampa when it came to celebrating North Dakota's Frozen Four championship game victory over Quinnipiac in 2016. A restaurant and bar that was across the street from Amalie Arena was bursting by the seams as the Fighting Hawks' faithful enjoyed their team's first national title in 16 years. 'It was the only place they could go and there were shipping containers serving as makeshift bars,' recalled Steve Griggs, chief executive officer and vice chairman of the Vinik Sports Group (VSG), which operates the Lightning and Amalie Arena, among other properties. When Griggs leaves his Amalie Arena office today, he walks out into an environment that is light years removed from even immediately prior to the pandemic, let alone 2016. 'To where we are at today with five-star hotels, restaurants, bars and retail, the riverwalk by the arena, it all comes together and makes it a sense of place that people want to be a part of,' he said. Plenty of basketball fans descend upon downtown Tampa this weekend with UConn, South Carolina, UCLA and USC competing in the NCAA women's Final Four. It is the fourth time Tampa will host the event, which is the most of any city. Basketball leads the way when it comes to the immense growth of women's sports. 'The trajectory that it has been on has been phenomenal,' said Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission. 'Each time that we have served as host we have seen the growth of both the sport and the event on full display. In the past few years, the level of popularity with the sport has been phenomenal.' It is phenomenal what has happened with Tampa's downtown district, which rapidly grew, and continues to grow, into a destination for top-tier sporting events along with tens of thousands of fans. There were things to do prior to the development of Water Street. The riverwalk, museums, convention center and parks hosting concerts, community events and other activities have attracted locals and visitors for a number of years. What downtown Tampa did not have was a livable and walkable district with many forms of entertainment and shopping ranging from grocery stores to high-end retail. That changed in a monumental way, and rather quickly. While the pandemic shut down much daily activity, construction was humming along and with little interruption on the Water Street Tampa project, so named in 2017 when Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and a development group he partnered with began to turn a vision into a reality. Frankly, in many ways, and especially the arena district, Tampa will look like a new city to those who took in the 2019 women's Final Four, when Baylor won its third and most recent title with an 82-81 thriller over Notre Dame. 'When people come back this weekend, they will see a $2 billion development that's come out of the ground and is activated,' said Griggs. 'We have created a walkable city that is next to the arena with hotels and restaurants. When you create a development or district outside your arena it really creates a sense of place for the event that is going on. So, the women's Final Four is going to take over not only the arena, but the entire Water Street district and you are going to feel it.' TAMPA: Baylor celebrate their NCAA championship following an 82-81 win over the Notre Dame Fighting ... More Irish at Amalie Arena on April 7, 2019 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by) Higgins could not agree more. Fans supporting Baylor and UConn, which also participated in the 2019 Final Four, who made the trip to Tampa six years ago will experience a far more appealing and convenient environment from which there will be an unmistakable high level of energy will radiate. 'For the fans that have not been here since 2019, I don't think they will recognize us,' said Higgins. 'It's a community that's transformed and I think back in 2019 we were really under construction on a variety of levels. Water Street did not exist and now it feels like a totally different community.' As in 2019 and with events that took place before and have taken place since, one thing has not changed. 'What has not changed is how (visitors) make the city (vibrant) and how we are going to roll out the red carpet to make them all feel at home,' he said. 'Hopefully, memories are created that will last a lifetime.' The home of the three-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning opened for the 1996-97 season. Fifteen years later, $62 million in improvements began to be implemented over a two-year period. Several upgrades have taken place since the pandemic at a venue that hosts about 150 events per year, including digital signage outside and around the building's perimeter that allows the NCAA and the like to, as Griggs put it, 'own the event.' Thunder Alley, a popular gathering location immediately outside Amalie Arena's main fan entrance, always seems to have a new feature or two with every NHL season and major event. Inside, suites and clubs have been refurbished. Indeed, nobody is sitting still when it comes to making sure fans have been treated very well. And they keep coming back. 'All of that creates a fan experience that is important to out-of-town visitors and people that come to NCAA events,' said Griggs. 'All of those things are being done to make sure this building, even though it is a 1996 building, feels fresh and new all of the time.' UConn, Baylor, South Carolina and UCLA are the participants in the 2025 Women's basketball Final ... More Four. It will be the fourth women's hoops Final Four at Tampa's Amalie Arena. Because of that, Amalie Arena not only remains in the game, so to speak, but is at the top of the list when it comes to desirable venues to host an NCAA championship. This year being Tampa's fourth women's hoops Final Four underscores that point. 'I think we have a reputation nationally of being able to execute and doing it in a world class manor,' said Griggs. 'The game presentation and our guest experience, how we treat people, is tops in the NHL. That is also transcendent to all of the other events we have in this venue be it a concert, the Final Four, the Frozen Four. The execution behind the scenes and the execution the fans see, is second to none and we carry that throughout the industry.' Even with the Water Street development, the effort of city and county officials, the Tampa Bay Sport Commission and VSG, little would matter unless there is not just cooperation, but synergy among all concerned. That is especially the case with commission and VSG as they work side by side, and often several months if not years in advance, to attract major events. 'There is no better partner than Vinik Sports Group and Steve Griggs and the entire team there,' said Higgins. 'They are a world-class organization that has been the ultimate partner time and time again. They are a huge reason why this is our fourth women's Final Four and why we have had three Frozen Fours and two women's volleyball championships. They do things at such a high level and they really help make sure these events not only come here, but keep coming back.'
