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☆ In Latest Gambling Scandal, Some See Glimpse of Sports’ Future
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-21 | by ( Kevin Draper | Tania Ganguli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bill Bradley, the basketball Hall of Famer and former United States senator known as a staunch opponent of legalized sports betting, was speaking about the topic back in January. But he might as well have been predicting the future. “Well there hasn’t been a scandal, yet,” he said, discussing how professional sports has become ever more entwined with the gambling industry in recent years. The league said Mr. Porter wagered money on his own team to lose, pretended to be hurt for betting purposes and shared confidential information with gamblers. competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport,” Adam Silver, the league’s commissioner, said in announcing Porter’s punishment.

Persons: Bill Bradley, ”, Jontay Porter, Porter wagered, Adam Silver Organizations: of Famer, United, National Basketball Association, Toronto Raptors Locations: United States

An Augusta National Golf Club green jacket hangs on the wall, and 81 televisions show the theatrics and athletic brilliance unfolding on the emerald grounds that host the Masters Tournament. Entrance to this particular sanctum, christened Map & Flag in a nod to the Masters’s storied logo, runs $17,000 per person for the week of golf’s first major tournament. And Map & Flag is not even perched on the 18th green. It is across the street from Augusta National. The hope is that refined appeals to deep-pocketed fans will result in over-the-top spending, bigger profits and lasting loyalty.

Organizations: Augusta National Golf, Augusta National Locations: Paris, Southern, Augusta

☆ Kansas City Grappled With Shootings Long Before the Super Bowl
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Kevin Draper | Julie Bosman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Across the country, Americans were shocked and horrified by the images on Wednesday from Kansas City, Mo., after shots were fired into a crowd of jubilant parade-goers celebrating the city’s Super Bowl win. To people intimately aware of the entrenched violence in Kansas City, the shooting was painfully familiar. There were 182 people killed in Kansas City last year, according to police data, surpassing a previous high in 2020. With a population of just over 500,000, Kansas City has one of the highest murder rates in the nation. Rosilyn Temple, who founded the Kansas City chapter of Mothers in Charge after her son, Antonio, was killed in 2011, was at the scene of two separate shootings on Tuesday, the night before the Super Bowl celebration.

Persons: Antonio Organizations: Kansas, Bowl, Kansas City Locations: Kansas City, Mo, Rosilyn, Kansas

Two teenagers were charged with resisting arrest and “gun-related” offenses in connection with a shooting that left one person dead and nearly two dozen others injured during a Super Bowl victory celebration in Kansas City, Mo., the authorities said on Friday. Additional charges are expected to be filed, according to a spokeswoman for the Office of the Juvenile Officer in Jackson County, Mo. The teenagers, who have not been publicly identified, remained in custody on Friday. The authorities have said that the shooting stemmed from a dispute among several people, and erupted on Wednesday afternoon outside the city’s Union Station, where thousands of Kansas City football fans were gathered for a rally. Twenty-two people were injured, and at least half of them were younger than 16, officials have said.

Organizations: Kansas City Locations: Kansas City, Mo, Jackson County, city’s

Investigators in Kansas City, Mo., were seeking help from the public as they searched on Thursday for answers in a shooting that upended the city’s Super Bowl victory celebration and left one person dead and at least 21 others wounded by gunfire. The shooting, which erupted on Wednesday afternoon as thousands of football fans had crowded into downtown Kansas City, sharply turned a day of revelry into one of chaos and confusion. Nine of them had suffered gunshot wounds, the authorities said. It was uncertain who was responsible for the shooting, which took place near the city’s Union Station, a hub that draws tourists to the city each year. By Wednesday night, three people had been detained, the Kansas City police chief said, but no charges had been announced, and officials said they were uncertain of the motive.

Organizations: Kansas City Locations: Kansas City, Mo, revelry, city’s

The victims of the shooting at a celebration for the Kansas City Chiefs on Wednesday included some of the team’s youngest fans. Eleven children, ages 6 to 15 years, were treated for injuries at Children’s Mercy, a hospital in Kansas City, Mo., said Stephanie Meyer, a senior vice president and chief nursing officer at the hospital. Nine of the children had gunshot wounds, she said, while the others had “incidental injuries.” None were in critical condition, and all were expected to recover. “The one word I would use to describe what we saw, and how they felt when they came to us,” she said of the children, “was fear.”

Persons: Stephanie Meyer, ”, “ Organizations: Kansas City Chiefs Locations: Kansas City, Mo

Fleeing after shots were fired near the Super Bowl victory celebration for the Chiefs in Kansas City, Mo., on Wednesday. The parade on Wednesday to celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory brought hundreds of thousands of people to the city’s streets, a sea of fans clad in the team’s trademark red. Only when fans started running — some of them took shelter under his hot dog tent — did he realize that a shooting was underway. Adrian Robinson had traveled to Kansas City from Gary, Ind., to sell T-shirts. Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, had also been downtown for the celebration.

Persons: Ian Johnson, Courtney Brown, “, ”, Adrian Robinson, Christopher Smith, Dominick Williams, Mr, Robinson, Zachary Dial, Quinton Lucas, ” Traci Angel, Colbi Edmonds Organizations: Chiefs, Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City, The New York Times, Union Station, Kansas Locations: Kansas City, Mo, Union, Independence, Kansas, Gary, Ind, Richmond

The biggest upcoming football event for many of the N.F.L. owners and business executives who will populate luxury boxes at the Super Bowl this weekend is not, perhaps surprisingly, the game. It actually won’t take place until six weeks later, in Orlando, Fla., when football executives gather for the National Football League’s annual meeting — an event that has particular significance this year. Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League have already relaxed their ownership rules. But the N.F.L.

Persons: Arthur Blank, Greg Penner Organizations: National Football, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Atlanta Falcons, Home Depot, Walmart, Denver Broncos Locations: Orlando, Fla, Florida

☆ Super Bowl Broadcast Is a Crossroads for CBS Sports
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( John Koblin | Kevin Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On the one hand, Sunday will be a joyous occasion for CBS Sports. The sports division will broadcast its 22nd Super Bowl, the most of any network. The storied CBS Sports division, the broadcasting home of marquee events like the Masters and March Madness, is confronting a wave of change. It all leaves CBS Sports facing a number of challenges — which company leaders say they can handle by sticking to what they know. “No matter what happens in the future to the company, sports will increasingly be more important each and every year,” Mr. McManus said.

Persons: Sean McManus, —, ” Mr, McManus Organizations: CBS Sports, CBS, Paramount, Southeastern Conference, Netflix

☆ What Sports Fans Need to Know About a New Streaming Service
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Kevin Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Discovery announced on Tuesday that they would join together and sell access to all of the sports they televise through a new streaming service. It will be available this fall, but many other details, like price or who would run the service, are not yet known. The subtext of the agreement — and of most decisions media companies make — is that the cable bundle is collapsing. Media companies know that young adults no longer sign up for cable, and that their best customers are also their oldest. So how do media companies get from where they are today to where they are going to be?

Organizations: Disney, Fox, Warner Bros . Discovery, Media Locations: United States

☆ Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Join Forces for Sports Streaming Service
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Benjamin Mullin | Kevin Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Tuesday, Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. The companies announced a streaming service that will feature games from the major professional leagues and college conferences, which they hope will attract sports fans who have abandoned cable. The service will offer streaming subscribers all the channels owned by those companies that show sports, like ESPN, TNT and FS1, but also ABC and Fox. Subscribers will have access to 14 channels in total, as well as ESPN’s existing streaming service, ESPN+. The price, name and executive team behind the service have not yet been determined.

Organizations: Disney, Fox, Warner Bros, Discovery, ESPN, TNT, ABC

☆ Sex Assault Claims Against McMahon Shadow a W.W.E. Trying to Move Forward
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Kevin Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was a bombastic end to one of the most consequential, and tumultuous, weeks in W.W.E.’s history. In the days between the Netflix deal and “Royal Rumble,” however, came a stark reminder of how sordid legal entanglements from the company’s recent past could reverberate in the present. employee, Janel Grant, sued Vince McMahon — the co-founder of what would become W.W.E. and the executive chairman of the board of TKO Group — and accused him of sexual assault and sex trafficking. Mr. McMahon called the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, a “vindictive distortion of the truth,” but on Friday he resigned from the TKO board.

Persons: Cody Rhodes, ”, Dwayne Johnson, —, Janel Grant, Vince McMahon, McMahon, Mr Organizations: Netflix Locations: W.W.E, U.S, Connecticut

☆ Vince McMahon Cuts W.W.E. Ties After Sex Trafficking Accusation
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Kevin Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Vince McMahon, the longtime chairman and former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, resigned from the board of W.W.E.’s parent company on Friday, one day after a former employee accused him of sexual assault and sex trafficking in a lawsuit. Mr. McMahon, 78, was the executive chairman of TKO Group, the parent company of W.W.E., where he no longer held a formal position. “He will no longer have a role with TKO Group Holdings or W.W.E.,” Mr. Khan wrote in the email, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, accuses Mr. McMahon of trafficking the employee, Janel Grant, as well as physically and emotionally abusing her. executive, and the company itself as defendants, says that Mr. McMahon and Mr. Laurinaitis had once taken turns raping Ms. Grant, among numerous other allegations.

Persons: Vince McMahon, McMahon, Nick Khan, “, ” Mr, Khan, Mr, Janel Grant, John Laurinaitis, Laurinaitis, Grant Organizations: World Wrestling Entertainment, The New York Times Locations: Connecticut

☆ The Sports Illustrated Cover, a Faded Canvas That Once Defined Sports
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Kevin Draper | Benjamin Mullin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Or it could have been the declaration that a 17-year-old LeBron James was “The Chosen One,” 20 months before he played in his first N.B.A. For sports fans of a certain age, the memory of running to the mailbox to see what was on the cover of the latest weekly issue of Sports Illustrated is indelible. “You would get that cover and you’d be like: ‘Man, this is what happened last week. But the road has been particularly rough for Sports Illustrated, with its shrinking staff and reduced print frequency. Last week, most of the employees were either laid off or told their employment would be uncertain after 90 days, leaving the publication’s future in flux.

Persons: Dwight Clark, LeBron James, “, ”, Nate Gordon Organizations: United States Olympic, San Francisco 49ers, Sports, Sports Illustrated, Players ’ Tribune Locations: “

The move came after the Arena Group, which publishes the magazine under a complicated management structure, had its license to operate the publication revoked. It was unclear whether Sports Illustrated would continue publishing, or whether its owner, Authentic Brands Group, would strike a new agreement with the Arena Group or find a new company to operate it. For decades, Sports Illustrated was a weekly bible for sports fans and a financial engine for the Time Inc. empire. Like many publications, the magazine had struggled to shift to the digital media world from print publishing. In 2019, the media conglomerate Meredith sold Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands Group, which is primarily a licensing company that acquires the rights to celebrity brands, for $110 million.

Persons: Meredith Organizations: Arena Group, Authentic Brands, Sports, Time Inc

Three years ago, journalists at Sports Illustrated were worried that the venerable magazine’s new owners and operators were drastically lowering its standards. On Monday, the science and technology publication Futurism reported that Sports Illustrated had published product reviews under fake author names with fake author biographies. “If true, these practices violate everything we believe in about journalism,” the union representing Sports Illustrated journalists said in a statement after the report was published. “We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers.”The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated under a complicated management structure, blamed a vendor, AdVon Commerce, for the situation. Sports Illustrated licenses product reviews from AdVon, and AdVon assured the Arena Group that “all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans,” said Rachael Fink, an Arena Group spokeswoman.

Persons: AdVon, ”, Rachael Fink, “ Organizations: Sports Illustrated, Sports, Group, AdVon Commerce, Arena Group

☆ Often Dismissed, Sideline Reporters Now Deal With Fabrication Fallout
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Jenny Vrentas | Kevin Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Young women just beginning careers in sports journalism asked one another in group chats if the kind of practice Ms. Thompson was describing was OK. Veteran journalists who have held prominent sideline reporting roles said they carefully crafted statements to post on social media, their impulse to defend their profession overriding their reluctance to criticize another woman. It is a role that centers on establishing trust with both the teams and leagues being covered and with the viewing audience. It is dismissed by some viewers, who say the questions asked of players and coaches are often banal, leading to generic answers. And for female sideline reporters, that disrespect can often be coupled with the sexist trope that the most important thing they can do on air is look good.

Persons: Charissa Thompson, Young, Thompson, Andrea Kremer Locations: N.F.L

But the action that will have longer-term ramifications for the league, and the media and entertainment landscape, is happening off the court. The companies holding the rights to show N.B.A. Discovery, the parent company of TNT — are collectively paying the league $24 billion over nine years for that privilege. Interest rates are high, Wall Street is demanding profitability over growth, and streaming has reconfigured the entertainment industry. The result of the N.B.A.’s negotiations will say a lot about the future of broadcast networks, the cable bundle, streaming services and the sports media ambitions of technology companies.

Persons: LeBron James, Nikola Jokic Organizations: Basketball, Disney, ESPN, ABC, Warner Bros, TNT

All of a sudden, after a single summer, the pink jersey is everywhere. Tor Southard was better placed than most, but even he was caught unaware. As Adidas’s senior director for soccer in North America, he had been receiving emails from colleagues for nearly a year asking if the company’s biggest star, Lionel Messi, would be joining Inter Miami, also a client of Adidas. As far as he knew, it was just a rumor. Like the rest of the planet, Southard learned it was true only on June 7, the day Messi announced his intentions in a rare interview with two Spanish news outlets.

Persons: Tor Southard, Adidas’s, Lionel Messi, Messi Organizations: Inter Miami, Adidas Locations: Buenos Aires, Bangkok, England, Southeast Asia, North America

☆ Kansas Newspaper Is Talk of Town, and Not Just for Getting Raided
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Kevin Draper | More About Kevin Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One person said The Marion County Record covered two recent deaths insensitively. Another said a handful of articles focused needlessly on a simple paperwork error that led to tax credits getting rejected. A third thought an opinion column harped too harshly on the poor quality of children’s letters to Santa Claus. The authorities seized computers and phones, in what they said was an investigation into identity theft and computer crimes. Reporters and television cameras have descended upon the town to cover the raids, which were roundly condemned by news organizations and free press advocates.

Persons: Santa, Eric Meyer Organizations: Marion County Record, Marion County Locations: Marion, Santa Claus, Flint Hills, Kansas

The Marion County Record, a newspaper in Kansas that the police raided last week, is getting its equipment back from local law enforcement, the county’s top prosecutor said on Wednesday. Joel Ensey, the Marion County attorney, said in a statement that there was insufficient evidence to justify the search of The Marion County Record and seizure of its journalists’ equipment. “As a result, I have submitted a proposed order asking the court to release the evidence seized,” he said. “I have asked local law enforcement to return the material seized to the owners of the property.”The police and county sheriff’s deputies raided the newspaper’s office, the home of its owner and editor and the home of a city councilwoman on Friday — collecting computers, cellphones and other materials. It is extremely rare for law enforcement authorities in the United States to search and seize the tools to produce journalism.

Persons: Joel Ensey, ”, “ Organizations: Marion County Locations: Marion, Kansas, Marion County, United States

ESPN has been Disney’s financial engine for nearly 30 years, powering the company through recessions, box office wipeouts and the pandemic. With its dual revenue stream — fees from cable subscribers and advertising — the sports juggernaut continues to earn billions of dollars for Disney. In the first six months of the 2023 fiscal year, Disney’s cable networks division, which is anchored by ESPN and its spinoff channels, generated $14 billion in revenue and $3 billion in profit. Disney is now exploring a once-unthinkable sale of a stake in ESPN. Disney has held talks with the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball about taking a minority stake.

Persons: Century Fox, ESPN’s, Robert A, ” Organizations: ESPN, Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Century, CNBC, National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball

Infuriated after being blindsided by the PGA Tour’s pact with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, a band of leading golfers has won a series of concessions from the beleaguered circuit’s commissioner — including the elevation of Tiger Woods to the tour’s board — in a star-driven rebuke of the tour. The tour announced the changes on Tuesday, one day after dozens of top players wrote to Jay Monahan, the tour’s commissioner, and insisted on significant overhauls. The demands detailed in the Monday letter amounted to a dramatic effort to reclaim power over a circuit that got its modern start after a player rebellion in the late 1960s. The addition of Woods to the board, one of several changes agreed to by Monahan with a signed acknowledgment, would allow the players to outnumber six to five the independent board members, who come from the worlds of business and law. In addition, the players want to change the board’s rules to avoid a repeat of the negotiations with the Saudis, in which a handful of independent board members acted without the backing of players on the board.

Persons: Tiger Woods, Jay Monahan, Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Monahan Organizations: PGA Locations: Saudi

☆ Jonas Vingegaard Wins Tour de France Again After Vanquishing His Rival
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Kevin Draper | More About Kevin Draper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When Tadej Pogacar slipped behind Jonas Vingegaard on the Col de la Loze mountain pass through the Alps on Wednesday, eight kilometers and a world away from the top of the hot, punishing climb, it was only briefly unclear why. Pogacar’s own voice, over his team’s radio and broadcast on television during the Tour de France’s 17th stage, provided an immediate explanation for the rare sight of him being left behind like a mere mortal. “I’m dead.”It was an astonishing bit of television, a moment that will be replayed on every Tour broadcast for decades. Most of Pogacar’s teammates did not wait for him. Pogacar, the 24-year-old from Slovenia who usually rides with a smile on his face, perpetually unbothered, tufts of hair peeking out of his helmet, was gone.

Persons: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, “ I’m, ”, “, Pogacar’s Locations: la, Slovenia

ESPN has held talks with some of the most powerful leagues in professional sports, including the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, about taking a minority stake in its business. Disney’s chief executive, Robert A. Iger, said in a CNBC interview last week that the company was “looking for strategic partners” that could help ESPN with either distribution or content. “But we want to stay in the sports business,” said Mr. Iger, whose contract with Disney was recently extended through 2026. Selling a stake in ESPN could give Disney a cash infusion as it faces pricey renewals with sports leagues including the N.B.A., which is sure to demand a premium for the rights to show its games in the coming years. Hearst, the owner of magazines like Cosmopolitan and information services like Fitch Group, owns a minority stake in ESPN.

Persons: Robert A, ”, Iger, Hearst Organizations: ESPN, National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, Walt Disney Company, Disney, CNBC, Cosmopolitan, Fitch Group

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