Another name enters the Commanders bidding; T’Wolves co-owner Marc Lore touts his new ticket service; and Bill Duffy’s NBA agency is acquired by WME Sports.
Another name enters the Commanders bidding; T’Wolves co-owner Marc Lore touts his new ticket service; and Bill Duffy’s NBA agency is acquired by WME Sports.
I am a couple of days late on this because I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of legalized betting on WWE, which is apparently in talks with state gambling regulators in Colorado and Michigan to legalize betting on high profile matches. As reported by CNBC sources said that WWE is working with the accounting firm EY to secure scripted match results in hopes it will convince regulators there's no chance of the results leaking to the public. Apparently WWE executives have cited Oscar's betting as a template to convince regulators that gambling on scripted matches is safe. Last time I checked, it's not like there's a shortage of things on which to place a wager. Good morning. It's Friday, March 10th. This is your SBJ morning buzz cast. I'm David Albright filling in for Abe Madkour.
Billionaire Mitchell Rales has joined 76ers and Devil's owner Josh Harris's group interested in purchasing the Commanders from Daniel Snyder. The addition of Rales strengthens the group's bid considerably as Snyder considers a possible sale of the franchise. Harris visited the Commander's training facility in Ashburn, Virginia as part of the bidding process. The Harris Group is one of three known potential buyers. A source said that Snyder and the Commanders have communicated to the NFL's team owners that there are multiple bidders for the franchise whom the owners in the league will love, and that the sale price is looking good. But some owners remain wary that the sale will be complicated because Snyder wants to be indemnified against future legal liability and costs by either the buyer or fellow N F L team owners and the League Timberwolves co-owner Mark Lori opened up about jump his new ticketing and fan experience company he founded with Alex Rodriguez on Thursday during the final session of s BJ Tech Week in New York, making it clear he wants to change how business is done.
Jump, which recently raised 20 million in new funds, aims to sell seats even after games have started allowing fans to buy more premium offerings if those original ticket holders leave the venue. The idea is that any open seat around an arena would always be filled by definition because the price would keep dropping until somebody jumped there. Lori explained. Lori wants jumped to give fans more options at home too, like augmented reality and dynamic announcing to see complete coverage from s BJ Tech Week log onto sports business journal.com. WME Sports, which had previously acquired a stake in N B A agent Bill Duffy's BDA Sports Management announced Thursday it has signed a deal to acquire all of it. Duffy who had been working in partnership with WME Sports will join the agency as head of basketball once the deal closes. Duffy founded BDA Sports Management in 1998 and has represented 30 N B A lottery draft picks and 44 N B A All-star selections.
The agency currently represents 40 N B A players. WME Sports initially formed a partnership with B D A and Duffy when it bought a minority stake in the firm back in December of 2020. U S A pickleball has relocated its national championships, the world's biggest pickleball tournament from Indian Well's Tennis Garden, where it's been hosted since 2018 to the Brookhaven Country Club outside Dallas. The event will now be able to host over 3,500 players, a 50% increase over prior capacity in Indian Wells and U S A pickleball estimates total event attendance of 25,000. The national governing body has also agreed to a new partnership with the P P A tour, which will present the national championships and provide operational and logistical support for the event. Three P P a tour events will now serve as qualifiers for the U S USA Pickleball National Championships. The agreement has no impact on USA Pickle Ball's existing relationship with the A P P tour, which runs five national championship qualifier events, consider ESPN's.
Carl Rava, big fan of MLBs new rules and implementations. I loved literally everything about it. He said after calling a game with a pitch clock last week quote, I love the pace. The first pitch swinging the aggressiveness. I saw balls go for hits that would be outs and years past. Ravage told RJ Wilson that after calling two spring training games, he felt there were no real issues with the clock. No violations with this engagements, just a whole bunch of runs, a whole bunch of hits. One game was under three hours and it would've taken between three and a half and four hours last year. Producers are also figuring out how to best present the pitch clock on screen and ESPN head to the immediate right of the scoreboard on the screen next to the pitch count during spring training. So far, ESPN Vice President of production, Phil Orland, said his team had something different planned originally, but went for this solution for spring training.
To read more of the interview, check out the s BJ Unpacks newsletter. We'll close on a programming note, the wake of ESPN's executive reorg podcast host Andrew Marcian and John Aran look into the future of espn, including the discussion of when ESPN will make its main channel available to cord cutters via streaming. The hosts also dissect MLBs move to create a local media department and talk about what that means for the R S N business. ESPN's, N B A analyst, Doris Burke joins this week as the big get and discusses how she got into the announcing business, her big break, and the announcers she listened to growing up. You can download and listen to the marcian and Iran Sports Media podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And that's your s BJ Morning Buzz for Friday. Hope everyone has a great day and even better weekend, and we'll see you back here Monday morning.