The New York Times Co. agreed to acquire digital sports news company The Athletic for $550 million, an acquisition that the legacy media company said will allow it to exceed its goal of reaching 10 million subscribers by 2025. The New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said on an investor call that The Athletic will continue to be available as a stand-alone subscription, and that the company plans to ultimately offer a subscription bundle including access to both The Times and The Athletic. (The Information)
The New York State Gaming Commission authorized four sportsbook operators - Caesars Entertainment Inc., DraftKings Inc., FanDuel Group and Rush Street Interactive Inc. - to launch online and mobile sports betting in the state beginning tomorrow at 9 a.m. New York will become the largest state to allow digital wagering since the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, and state officials have estimated that it could result in up to $500 million in annual tax revenues. (New York Daily News)
ESPN baseball analyst Alex Rodriguez will be joined by New York Yankees TV play-by-play announcer Michael Kay on a new alternate broadcast of 10 to 12 "Sunday Night Baseball" games during the 2022 season, sources said, an effort that is expected to be similar to the "Manningcast" the network launched as a simulcast of "Monday Night Football" last year. Rodriguez will reportedly relinquish his position in the regular Sunday night booth, which will now feature David Cone and Eduardo Perez as analysts, with Karl Ravech doing play-by-play. (New York Post)
NYT CEO: Athletic investment is a bet on subscriptions Sara Fischer, Axios
The Athletic has 1.2 million subscribers, making it "the fifth-largest English-language digital journalism provider by subscribers," Levien told investors. With nearly 8 million digital subscribers, The Times is the largest on that list.
FOX, CBS Nab Athletes Unlimited's Basketball Broadcast Rights Emily Caron, Sportico
Athletes Unlimited is adding basketball to its network of professional women's sports leagues later this month with a 30-game season slated to tip off in Las Vegas on Jan. 26, and now a pair of the league's television partners have signed on to broadcast 17 of the inaugural season's contests. Fox and CBS will tag-team coverage of the campaign, which will be headlined by WNBA star Natasha Cloud and a number of other current and former WNBA players.
ESPN's MegaCast coverage for the CFP championship includes Jimbo Fisher in the film room Jay Rigdon, Awful Announcing
The network released details today of their channel offerings, including the return of the Film Room channel. In the past that's been staffed by a variety of college head coaches, though this season it will instead be just one head coach and his own staff of assistants. That coach: Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher, the only coach to beat Alabama this season.
NFL Games Account for 75 of the 100 Most-Watched Broadcasts of 2021 Anthony Crupi, Sportico
In a year marked by a pair of ratings-hogging quadrennial events and a whole lot of Beltway intrigue, the NFL in 2021 effectively swallowed TV whole, accounting for 41 of the top 50 most-watched programs, and 75 of the top 100. In doing so, the league justified the huge rights-fee increases it brokered with its legacy partners.
NFL
Talk of Super Bowl site shuffle premature Ben Fischer, Sports Business Journal
Yesterday's double-barrel headline of the Grammys being postponed and Dallas' AT&T Stadium being considered as an alternative site for Super Bowl LVI ratcheted up the gossip to a 10: Could COVID critically damage another Super Bowl experience? Nobody I've spoken to with real-world preparation obligations thinks so.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers release Antonio Brown Adam Schefter and Jenna Laine, ESPN
Brown and attorney Sean Burstyn said Wednesday that the wide receiver told the Buccaneers he was too hurt to continue playing on an injured ankle, but coach Bruce Arians rebutted having any knowledge of the nature of his outburst, nor did he say Brown communicated to him or to the training staff that his ankle was bothering him.
Bills stadium deal approaching, despite no mention in Hochul address Jason Wolf and Tim O'Shei, Buffalo News
Gov. Kathy Hochul did not mention during her state of the state address Wednesday in Albany the ongoing negotiations about how much the public will help to finance a new $1.4 billion stadium for the Buffalo Bills. But all parties involved - the state, Erie County and the NFL team's representatives - have indicated they're approaching a deal, despite passing the Dec. 31 deadline long established by the Bills.
Sources: Populous Could Potentially Design 3 New NFL Stadiums Don Muret, VenuesNow
Populous, once the go-to firm for NFL stadium design in the 1990s and early 2000s, appears to be the leader in the clubhouse for the Bills, WFT and the Panthers projects, according to multiple sources. HOK is thought to be out front on the Bears project after designing the $100 million renovation of Halas Hall, the team's headquarters and practice facility in Lake Forest, Illinois.
NFL Agent Joel Segal Joins WME Sports Josh Goldberg, Sports Agent Blog
WME Sports announced the hire of NFL agent Joel Segal. Segal recently left SPORTFIVE (previously known as Lagardère) where he was CEO of the Americas. This past NFL Draft, Segal represented 14 players that were drafted including two first-round picks, Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and Cardinals linebacker Zaven Collins.
Football I simulated Tennessee at Georgia in College Football 25