Adam Silver questions the RSN business, Ted Leonsis sees more public money coming to sports and Mercedes continues with FTX branding on its F1 cars.
Adam Silver questions the RSN business, Ted Leonsis sees more public money coming to sports and Mercedes continues with FTX branding on its F1 cars.
Let's start off by wishing a Happy Veteran's Day. To all those who have served our country and have helped to preserve our freedoms, there's no way one day can adequately express an appropriate level of gratitude. But let's try to take a moment today and thank a veteran family, friend, or otherwise for all they've done and continue to do to allow the rest of us to lead the lives we choose. Good morning. It's Friday, November 11th. This is your SJ Morning buzz cast. I'm David Albright filling in for a Mad Corps after meeting with suspended guard Kyrie Irving. This week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday at s BJ's Deal Makers Conference in Washington, DC that based on what Irving told him directly, he is certain that Irving is not antisemitic. Silver said that in this situation, a big difference exists, at least initially between saying certain things and linking to a film, but only in that moment because context and intent do become important.
When reporters asked Irving questions about the Twitter link, Silver said Irving in a way was that frankly unsatisfactorily to virtually everyone unable to adequately explain how it got there, what it meant to him to unequivocally denounce any form of antisemitism. On a related note, Nike co-founder Phil Knight on Thursday said the brands deal with Irving is likely over, and I told CNBC of the partnership that is currently suspended. I would doubt that we would go back, but I don't know for sure. Knight said Irving stepped over the line. It's kind of that simple and he made some statements that we just can't abide by. Back to Silver's appearance at s BJ's Deal Makers event and this time on the NBA business front, the commissioner said that there is no doubt local media markets are distressed as it pertains to Sinclair and RSNs. Adding that the model is no longer serving its purpose.
Silver said it's really not working for anyone right now. There is going to have to be a reordering of some sort with the Bronco selling for 4.65 billion earlier this year and speculation that the commanders would fetch even more monumental sports and entertainment. Chair and CEO Ted Leonsis said on the s bj deal maker stage that the meteoric rise in sports franchise valuations will result in more publicly traded companies getting involved in sports. Leonian said that the lu of sports' recurring revenues, predictability and stability will attract investors. There is an inevitability if you connect the dots to what's happening in our industry. Leon said we have to be much more sophisticated as financial operators building enterprises, taking other people's money now not taking it for granted and finding a way to show that we can increase value and get liquidity to some of these investments. The NFL's racial hiring grade dips slightly, but its gender hiring grade improved significantly, which raised its overall diversity hiring score.
According to a report issued Thursday by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, the NFL received an overall diversity hiring grade of B the same as last year. The league's gender grade improved from c plus to a B and its racial hiring grade remained the same at a b plus. Among the highlights of the report, the NFL received an a plus for racial hiring of assistant coaches as the percentage of assistant coaches of color increased from 40.9% in 2021 to 42.9% in 2022 and all time high for the nfl. The report set the league received a C grade for gender hiring of head coaches. The percentage of people of color who are NFL head coaches increased from 15.6% last year to 18.8%. This year. The NFL received an F as its racial diversity grade for team owners and a d plus as its gender diversity grade for team owners.
The Mercedes F1 team has now suspended its relationship with FTX and the crypto exchanges branding will no longer appear on the team's cars and other assets. This weekend in Brazil, this is a reversal for the team which originally told s Spj and other media outlets yesterday that it was planning to display the logos at this weekend's Penn Ultimate Race. The reason for the quick about face is unclear and the FTX situation continues to develop. Go to sports business journal.com for further updates on this story. Citi, a new Notre Dame global sponsor will have its name on the city Shamrock Classic, which pits the Irish Women's basketball team against Cal on Saturday in St. Louis. It will mark the first ever live broadcast of a women's college basketball game on NBC and Peacock reports on Michael Smith, an all female announcing crew of Zora Stevenson, LA China, Robinson, and ISIS Young will announce the game title sponsor.
Citi will be joined by additional partners, Coca-Cola, Dessan Guinness, and Ascension Notre Dame Global Partnerships, a joint venture between Legends and Jmi Sports facilitated the partnership between City and Notre Dame. Intersport has helped Notre Dame Global's partnerships manage all basketball event operations while the St. Louis Sports Commission helped facilitate the event on the ground in St. Louis. We'll close on a programming note as Kyrie Irving hasn't just created problems for the Brooklyn Nets, the NBA and his sponsors, it's affecting Amazon too. Andrew Marsh, Shannon, John Iran breakdown the fallout it's having on every stakeholder. In this week's edition of The Marsh, Shannon ran Sports Media podcast duo also analyzes the 2022 MLB season's media performance on platforms like Apple TV plus Peacock and Amazon. Since streaming's already on their minds, they look at Netflix's future in sports and the next Apple MLS deal, this week's big get is sideline reporter Aaron Andrews. She goes over her career and how working at Fox differs from espn. You can listen to the Marsh Shannon, Iran Sports Media podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and that's your SJ morning buzz cast for Friday. I hope everyone has a great day and even better weekend, and we'll see you back here Monday morning.