Women’s golf is set to be a major part of the USGA’s upcoming media rights negotiations. … Viewership is up for the Indianapolis 500, and so is the prize money. … The basketball and sports broadcasting communities lose a legend. … Front Office Sports Today explores the wild world of youth hoops. … And we look back at a pivotal moment in MLB history.
—David Rumsey and Eric Fisher
|
|
|
|
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
|
Nelly Korda (above, right) comes into the U.S. Women’s Open, which begins Thursday, seeking her second major championship of the year and seventh victory overall this season on the LPGA Tour. The American superstar, 25, has won six of the eight tournaments she’s played in 2024.
NBC Sports will air the U.S. Women’s Open, which could be another step in Korda’s historic season. What is the broadcaster paying for the tournament’s rights? That’s complicated. The United States Golf Association owns and operates a variety of championships, like the U.S. Open, for both men and women. Traditionally, it has sold all of its media rights together in one package. The current contract, which NBC took over from Fox in 2019, is worth $1.1 billion over 12 years and expires in ’26.
With interest still rising in women’s sports as a whole, could the USGA capitalize on the moment and strike separate deals for its men’s and women’s events? “It’s possible,” Jon Podany, the organization’s chief commercial officer, tells Front Office Sports. “But we kind of like the family of championships being associated with one or two networks.”
USGA CEO Mike Whan didn’t want to speculate about the upcoming media-rights negotiations when asked by FOS. But neither he nor Podany would completely rule out the idea of a broadcaster swooping in for the U.S. Women’s Open alone. “We’ll explore the best coverage and financial value—we’ve got to look at all those factors,” Podany says. “So, I suppose it’s possible if somebody really wanted to focus on women.”
The Next Big Women’s Sport?
This U.S. Women’s Open will look to ride the momentum around Korda to try to top last year’s audience, which was the tournament’s highest since 2014. Sunday’s final round averaged 1.58 million viewers on NBC as golf fans watched the action unfold from iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links. This year’s tournament takes place in Pennsylvania at Lancaster Country Club, which has hosted one previous U.S. Women’s Open.
Korda’s run comes at a pivotal time for women’s sports in general, as basketball and soccer, in particular, continue to explode in popularity and ink lucrative media-rights deals. For independent leagues like the NWSL, that meant signing a landmark $240 million set of agreements. But for others like the WNBA, which is owned by the NBA, broadcast deals are more complicated as some are tied to their male counterparts.
If the USGA does opt to keep all of its inventory in the same package, Podany doesn’t think it would announce an assigned value to the women’s championships as the NCAA and ESPN did—women’s March Madness is valued at $65 million annually in the eight-year, $920 million extension signed earlier this year. But he did note that the men’s U.S. Open represents only about 50–55% of the USGA’s gross rating points, a metric commonly used to measure value in media ad buying.
|
|
|
|
Despite torrential downpours, lightning, and a four-hour delay to the start of the 2024 Indianapolis 500, the 108th running of the iconic race still generated a record purse for the third year in a row and a solid boost in TV viewership.
The event paid a total purse of $18.456 million, up by 8% from a year ago, and race winner Josef Newgarden (above) of Team Penske earned $4.288 million of that as he became the first repeat Indy 500 champion since 2002. The back-to-back titles prompted a $440,000 rollover bonus that is part of that $4.288 million purse win.
This year’s Indy 500, meanwhile, also generated an average audience of 5.344 million across NBC Sports platforms, up 8% from last year and up 10% from the year before, according to preliminary figures released Monday by the network, which is battling to maintain its IndyCar Series media rights. Final measurements will be released on Wednesday.
Those results provided a strong coda to what had previously been a difficult day for Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials managing the severe weather. At the worst of it late Sunday morning, IMS officials evacuated the grandstands and encouraged fans to implement personal safety plans, an advisory heeded to varying degrees. IMS then lifted a local blackout on broadcast coverage of the race, despite those grandstands not selling out—normally part of the parameters of maintaining the blackout policy.
No ‘Double’ for Larson
The Indy 500 delay, however, did have another consequence as NASCAR star Kyle Larson, currently No. 3 in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, missed out his intent to race in both Indianapolis and the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte on the same day, known among race fans as “The Double.” Larson finished in 18th in the Indy 500, earning him rookie of the year honors there and a total prize of $178,000. But after his late departure from Indiana and further rain in Charlotte, he never was able to drive in the later event as that race was called early with 151 laps left.
The driver intends to attempt the rare ‘Double’—only pursued fully over the years by four other drivers—again, if possible.
“What I thought could be one of the best days of my life quickly turned into one of the most disappointing ones I’ve ever experienced,” Larson said Monday in a lengthy social media post. “I hope it’s not the last opportunity to try the Double, but if it is I guess it was memorable.”
|
|
|
|
|
“Truly one of a kind.”
—NBA commissioner Adam Silver, on Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton (above), who passed away Monday at the age of 71. Walton’s playing career alone is something to marvel at: The No. 1 draft pick in 1974 won two NBA Finals during his career and was league MVP in 1978. But after that, the charismatic athlete became a rousing success in the broadcast booth, calling basketball games as an analyst for several networks, including CBS, NBC, and ESPN, as well teams like the Clippers and Kings.
|
|
|
Apparel and sneaker companies have quietly become the major funders of youth basketball, creating a constellation of independent entities sourcing NBA talent for their own purposes. Mike Nicoll, director of the documentary The Spoils, joins the show to describe the basketball leagues and academies he spent years chronicling.
🎧 Watch, listen, and subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify, and YouTube.
|
|
|
On this day 56 years ago: Major League Baseball’s American League moved to split itself into two divisions with an extra playoff round, beginning with the 1969 season, marking perhaps the largest reorganization of its competitive structure since its founding more than 67 years earlier. Far from a simple recalibration, the move was many years and moves in the making. More closely preceding the vote to create two divisions, Charles Finley (above, on mule) received approval to move the A’s from Kansas City to Oakland, the AL granted a new franchise to the Missouri city to fill the void, and then added another team to Seattle (the Pilots, later relocating to become the Milwaukee Brewers) to reach an even 12 teams.
The National League, which operated then with a great deal of autonomy from the AL, and vice versa, initially resisted such a move, with league president Warren Giles saying, “We don’t believe in a playoff system because of the tradition and history of baseball.” But as the NL similarly added new franchises in San Diego and Montreal to start play in 1969, pressure to follow suit quickly grew, and by July ’68, the NL also agreed to a divisional format with the extra playoff round.
Divisional anomalies in baseball were a defining feature—and source of heated debate—from the start, and for decades after that. The White Sox and Twins complained about being grouped with West Coast teams two time zones away. The Braves similarly were placed in the NL West with three California-based clubs. Divisional groupings colored every subsequent expansion decision. Even today, the Rangers and Astros are two time zones removed from the rest of the AL West. That’s helped fuel continued speculation about a potential radical alignment in the future to eight four-team divisions, similar to the NFL.
|
|
- Rafael Nadal has likely played in his final match at the French Open. After losing in the first round, the tennis legend addressed the fans at Roland Garros. Listen here.
- On the final day of the Pac-12’s baseball tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., the conference held a $5 everything-must-go sale for leftover apparel. Check out what was available.
- The NBA salary cap can increase by as much as 10% each year. See what the league is projecting next season.
|
|
 | For the past decade, the commissioner has been playing chess, not checkers. |
 | Commercialization of college sports has never been more evident than this week. |
 | Lionel Messi won’t play in Saturday’s match against the Whitecaps. |
|
|
