Adidas reports a big fourth-quarter loss, the WTA takes on minority investment and Fox tops the regular-season most watched list for college basketball.
Adidas reports a big fourth-quarter loss, the WTA takes on minority investment and Fox tops the regular-season most watched list for college basketball.
Congratulations to all the winners of s BJ's Sports Business Awards Tech. As the hardware was handed out last night in New York City as part of s BJ Tech Week, the rest of the event continues today and the program will focus on four themes, digital content innovation, fan experience, technology, venue operations, technology, and how athlete performance tech drives revenue. It's not too late to grab a virtual pass and watch the event. For more information and to register, go to sports business journal.com. Good morning. It's Wednesday, March 8th, and this is your s BJ Morning Buzz cast. I'm David Albright, filling in for a Mad Corp. Adidas reported a big fourth quarter loss and slashed its dividend after the costly termination of its partnership with Kanye West Yeezy brand. Back in October, the company posted a fourth quarter operating loss of 763 million and a net loss from continuing operations of 508 million.
Adidas is projecting a full year operating loss of 738 million in 2023, marking its first annual loss in 31 years. New Adidas, c e o Bjorn Golden said in the statement Wednesday that 2023 will be a transition year as the company looks to reduce inventories and lower discounts in order to return to profitability. In 2024, the WT A confirmed on Tuesday the sale of a 20% stake to C V C capital partners in a deal that values the organization at 750 million. According to Skyport, the strategic partnership, which has been under discussion for close to two years, will involve the establishment of a new company overseeing broadcasting and marketing operations. C VC's investment will aim to accelerate the commercial opportunities. Sources said that W T A C E O, Steve Simon would become chairman of the new commercial entity, provisionally named WTA a Ventures with a C E O appointed in the coming months.
The transaction has been approved by the WTA a's various councils as well as its board. C V C will also invest in marketing the sports top players more effectively as well as new digital platforms. The deal represents one of the most significant investments in elites women's sports. To date, U USA basketball has agreed with the Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi to host three exhibition games in the city, featuring the men's national basketball teams from United States, Germany, and Greece. The USA Basketball Showcase Abu Dhabi will take place in August and mark the first time the US men's national team has played in the United Arab Emirates. The exhibition series will serve as a warmup for the 2023 FIBA Men's World Cup, which kicks off just days later with games hosted across Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The top finishers at the World Cup will qualify for the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris.
Fox had the most watched game during the regular season for the first time since it began airing college basketball. That's according to R Austin Carp coming on the heels of the Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, and its 26 million viewers on Christmas Day. DePaul versus Creighton certainly benefited from the timing, the broadcast window and the circumstances, and delivered an audience of 2.99 million viewers. Duke, U N C on February 4th. Finished at number two with 2.85 million viewers while it rematched this past Saturday drew 2.6 million to finish it. Number three, neither Duke nor U N C entered either game as a ranked team. Rounding out the top five this season, were a pair of Big 10 games on CBS B s Michigan State, Indiana. On January 22nd, drew 2.25 million and Michigan, Indiana. This past Sunday drew 2.21 million viewers among the 15 most watched games this season, Kentucky led the way with five appearances.
Its Best was against Michigan State on November 15th. On S P N, the Spartans Blue Devils and Tar Heels each had three in the top 15. ESPN N led all networks with seven games in the top 15 while CBS b s had seven and Fox had two. Speaking of a ratings play, Amazon Prime video will provide free access to the NFL's first Black Friday game, which is expected to kick off at 3:00 PM Eastern on November 24th. Pregame coverage for the Black Friday game will be live and onsite within the host stadium. Karissa Thompson will host the pre-game show along with Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Richard Sherman, Andrew Whitworth, Taylor Rooks, and Michael Smith, Al Michaels, Kirk Herb Street and Kayleigh Harton will cover the Enfield action action. We'll find out who's playing in the game when the N F NFL announces the schedule later this year. Haynes brand and champion struck an exclusive apparel deal with UCLA to design, manufacture, and distribute Bruin's fan wear at mass retail.
The collection includes apparel for men, women and youth, starting in 2024 in advance of the Bruin's transition to the Big 10 U C L A joins 30 schools with exclusive mass retail agreements with Haynes brands, including Michigan, Clemson, and Penn State Champion. Brand Apparel has been a fixture in UCLA's campus bookstores for decades. UCLA's licensing agent C L C manage the competitive bid process. We'll close on a programming note in the wake of ESPN's executive reorg podcast hosts Andrew Marcian and John Aran look into the future of espn, including a 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 announcer 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 cast for a Wednesday. I hope everyone has a great day and we'll see you back here tomorrow morning.