CBS excited about Chiefs-Cowboys
What's up with WNBA?
Good morning, all! I hope your Thursday is off to a terrific start!
As the northeast continues to swelter in summer heat, it is in the words of the late Vin Scully “interesting to note” that it is 105 days to Thanksgiving Day. To be more precise it is 15 weeks. For CBS Thanksgiving cannot come soon enough. The network’s Thanksgiving Day game features the Kansas City Chiefs at the Dallas Cowboys.
Lets see. Kick-off is slated for 4:30. Most people will have consumed their Thanksgiving Day meal. Patrick Mahomes vs. Dak Prescott. Travis Kelce. Taylor Swift. The menu is ripe for a record, regular season NFL viewing audience, and no one knows that better than CBS Sports president and CEO David Berson. The CBS boss would not make a prediction on ratings but he did admit the Cowboys and Chiefs are the NFL’s two biggest “viewership drivers.”
The record audience for an NFL regular season game was Thanksgiving Day 2022, when 42M tuned in to watch the Giants at Dallas. Mark it down. Thanksgiving Day 2025 will break that record.
Here are some other stories that caught my eye for Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025:
Several reports indicate that Marc Lasry and the state of Connecticut have matched Steve Pagliuca’s offer to buy the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun for $325M but that the WNBA is playing hardball. As repeated often in this newsletter, the WNBA gets zip from the sale of a team, whereas it reaps tens of millions in an entry fee from an expansion team. Reports are the league does not want to approve the sale by the Mohegan Tribe to the Lasry group because of that. There is also word that the league would demand a transfer fee, if the franchise moved to let’s say Houston, supposedly next in line for an expansion team. But how could the league justify a transfer fee if the Sun moved from Uncasville to Hartford? That is why they are doing everything to set the Sun in Connecticut.
By the way the Pohlad family announced they are pulling the Minnesota Twins off the market. The franchise had been up for sale for months. The Pohlad’s did announce they will be taking on two minority investors. The announcement stunned many because the Twins unloaded 10 players at the trade deadline. Below is the announcement from the family:
The era of the multi-franchise owners continues. Tom Dundon, owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, has reached an agreement to buy the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers for $4B/
And as long as we are talking franchises, the Dallas Cowboys have been valued at $12.8B, according to Sportico, in case you’re interested in making an offer to Jerry Jones.
As always, thank you for subscribing and have an enjoyable Thursday.
DAN