Good morning, all and happy Friday!
Have you noticed? What’s old is new again, when it comes to sports on television. I break it down in the above commentary.
Here are some other thoughts on a Friday in late August:
Did I read that correctly? Just one month remaining of summer? Asking for a friend.
A Louisiana judge’s ruling that college football players, who are working out in NFL training camps, can return to play college football has the sports world in a tizzy. You have situations where a player in an NFL training camp, might decide to leave and return to playing college football, where he can make more money. But here is the deal. As loud as the outcry maybe, the fact is most fans and alumni do not care. College football season begins next week and the TV ratings will once again be through the roof. The stadiums will be filled. The bands will play loudly and the pageantry of college football will be dominant. So as much as there may be moral implications, the games and bands will play on, because the fans want the games and networks want the money the games generate. It’s no more complicated that that.
Have you ever heard of Arctos? Neither have I. It is a private equity firm and it is investing big time in sports teams. Reports are they are about to purchase a 10% stake in the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. I do not have a problem with that, but I do have a problem that they already have an ownership share in the Chargers, Bills and Browns. That is wrong. Dead wrong. Worse, they can buy ownership into two more teams. The NFL has a rule where an entity can purchase a stake in six franchises. The NFL should have a rule whereby an entity can purchase a stake in one franchise; period!
My hunch is these NFL teams are going to end joint practices if they are going to continue to have fights. Giants-Dolphins and Cowboys-Saints were the latest joint practices where fights broke out. According ESPN’s Ian Rappaport, the NFL fined the Cowboys and Saints each $500,000 for their fights.
The LA Lakers sell for $12.5B and the Seattle Seahawks for $9.6B? I know the sale prices for these major league franchises are beyond comprehension, but I still find it hard to believe that any NFL team would sell for nearly $3B less than an NBA team, even an NBA franchise as renowned as the Lakers.
Word is the Yankees Aaron Judge has started swinging off a tee. Judge has not played in a game since May 30. Yankees DH Giancarlo Stanton has not played in a game since April 24. I get that it’s tough to compare eras, but it seems to me Mickey Mantle used to return from a pulled muscle within a couple of weeks or less. It’s a different era, I guess.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you so much for being a subscriber and have a fantastic Friday!
DAN
