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It's back---Sports News

TNmavol

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Jan 15, 2005
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Top Stories​

  • Fanatics Inc. agreed to purchase Topps Inc.'s trading card business for $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter, and the company is poised to immediately begin to manufacture and distribute cards licensed by MLB and the MLB Players Association. Topps had planned to go public in a blank-check merger deal that valued the company at over $1 billion until last August, when MLB and the MLBPA joined several other major leagues and unions in signing future licensing deals with Fanatics, rather than re-signing with incumbent partners like Topps. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • The Atlanta Hawks are the latest NBA team to sell a minority interest to a private equity firm, with Dyal HomeCourt Partners adding a 6 percent stake in the franchise to a portfolio that also includes equity in the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings. Hawks principal owner Tony Ressler was not a participant in the sale and will retain his majority interest in the team. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
  • MLB Network cut ties with prominent news-breaker Ken Rosenthal in a move that is reportedly believed to stem from the reporter's criticism of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred during the summer of 2020. Sources said Rosenthal, who confirmed the network's decision, was first kept off the league-owned cable channel for around three months following the publication of his columns at The Athletic in which he called out Manfred for his handling of a return to play amid the pandemic. (New York Post)

MEDIA
NFL explains Week 18 schedule
John Ourand, Sports Business Journal
When it comes to scheduling the NFL's final week of games, league executives always have settled on a Sunday night matchup first before working backwards and figuring out which games to put in the late Sunday afternoon window, according to NFL VP/Broadcasting Mike North. That strategy was complicated this year by the addition of two Saturday games that will be carried on ABC and ESPN.

Troy Aikman Talks Amazon Broadcasts, Team Ownership, and Raising Capital for His New Beer Line
Michael McCarthy, Front Office Sports
Troy Aikman is not afraid of challenges, overcoming a 1-15 record his first season with the Dallas Cowboys to win three Super Bowls and going from TV rookie to longest-tenured NFL game analyst. Now, as a possible move to Amazon Prime Video from Fox Sports looms, Aikman is taking on Bud Light with a new light beer called EIGHT.

CFP, ESPN, Twitter to Go Hot Off the Presses at College Football Championship Game
David Cohen, Adweek
The Twitter Tribune will be distributed after the title tilt Jan. 10 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and the @AlabamaFTBL, @CFBPlayoff, @ESPN and @GeorgiaFootball Twitter accounts all tweeted Jan. 1, encouraging fans of the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs to submit tweets with the #FrontPageTweets hashtag, cheering on their teams and rooting for them to prevail.

Insurance, mobile providers set pace across 2021 national TV ad spend
David Broughton, Sports Business Journal
GEICO and T-Mobile were the only brands to rank in the top 20 for national TV ad spending in 2021 across the NFL, NASCAR, NBA, NHL, MLB and MLS, per iSpot.tv data. GEICO led the way among all brands advertising on national MLB telecasts ($18.9 million) and NASCAR races ($7.1 million).

Picabo Street Among Olympians Profiled in New Peacock Documentaries Streaming Prior to the Winter Games
Addie Morfoot, Variety
In the run up to the 2022 Winter Beijing Olympic Games beginning on Feb. 4, NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock will debut three original documentaries about Olympic athletes. Lindsey Vonn, Tara Lipinski and Picabo Street are among the Olympic gold medalists involved in new docus titled "Meddling," "Picabo" and "American Rock Stars."

Live Sports Don't Just Keep Linear TV Afloat—They Boost Streaming, Too
Mollie Cahillane, Adweek
In 2018, the last time NBC aired the Super Bowl, some brands that bought linear Super Bowl ads opted not to purchase the corresponding digital inventory, said Dan Lovinger, evp of advertising sales for NBC Sports. But for next month's Super Bowl 56, he added, they have all committed to multiplatform buys.

Adam Schefter voiced himself on last night's episode of The Simpsons
Joe Lucia, Awful Announcing
If you watched last night's episode of The Simpsons on Fox instead of the blowout on Sunday Night Football, you probably noticed a familiar voice: ESPN's Adam Schefter. Schefter voiced himself in his NFL insider role, reporting on the whereabouts about the "brash young football prodigy" (named Grayson Mathers) in question.
COLLEGE SPORTS
Erick Harper will make $420,000 per year at UNLV
Tyler Bischoff, The Offensive
Harper's contract will run through June 30, 2026 and pay him $420,000 per year. When Desiree Reed-Francois signed a contract extension in 2021, it was going to pay her $420,000 per year through June 30, 2026 as well.

Commissioner George Kliavkoff on the state of Pac-12 football ('We're in the valley') and the strategies for a turnaround
Jon Wilner, The San Jose Mercury News
The Pac-12 commissioner's office has been a no-spin zone since George Kliavkoff took charge of the conference on July 1. That remained the case following the conclusion of his first football season — a ghastly four months that saw an unprecedented number of non-conference losses and a winless bowl season.

How Cristobal has been good for Miami Hurricanes business
Barry Jackson, Miami Herald
Newly hired head football coach Mario Cristobal has already has been very good for business. After Cristobal's hiring, UM sold 2000 new season tickets in the first week they went on sale last month, according to a Hurricanes spokesperson.

Used to the Coaching Carousel? Meet the QB Shuffle.
Ross Dellenger, Sports Illustrated
On Christmas Eve, Wyoming coach Craig Bohl posted a message on Twitter that many found flatly bizarre. In the tweet, Bohl revealed that his program needed a quarterback—for starters, an unusual approach—and that he planned to acquire that quarterback through the transfer portal or a junior college. It was a loud and public cry to the dozens of quarterbacks in the portal.

---Morning Consult
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