The world according to Jim:
• As the ever-avaricious college sports world continues to spin wildly – though the bizarre idea of Cal and Stanford in the Atlantic Coast Conference seemed to have died down as of Thursday morning – I can’t help but wonder if we might be seeing the beginning of the end of big-time, big-money intercollegiate athletics. After all, isn’t the serious sugar rush often followed by a crash? …
• The TV networks, primarily Fox and ESPN, have shaped the map to their liking. If you’re a ratings driver, you are in demand. If not, you’re unnecessary. (And if you are a graduate or a fan of Oregon State or Washington State, don’t you feel like your time and money and emotions through the years apparently have gone to waste?)
But what happens if the revenue stream dries up, which already might be happening? …
• ESPN, its cable reach shortened by the exodus of cord-cutters and a thinning bottom line forcing layoffs earlier this year, will eventually become strictly a streaming service and already is more selective about the items for which it will bid and what it will offer. Its deal announced this week with Penn Entertainment to create “ESPN Bet” might turn out to be necessary for survival.
Fox seems in better shape as a linear network, but its Fox Sports 1 and 2 cable networks have to have taken a subscribers/revenue hit as well. Turner Sports faces the same issues. Apple, Amazon and the other streaming services might increase their sports portfolios, but do you really want to pay for five or six different services to watch everything you’re interested in? …
• And as my colleague Mirjam Swanson noted in Thursday’s paper, networks and streamers are starting to feel the heat from shareholders to justify rights fees and programming acquisition costs.
So there almost certainly will come a time when those fees plunge, and the sort of offer that led to the demise of the Pac-12 last week might become standard: A streaming deal that includes incentives depending on subscription numbers and likely won’t have a “b,” as in billions. …
• We will repeat the question we asked a week or so ago: Did George Kliavkoff surpass Larry Scott as the worst commissioner in Pac-12 history?
The answer was uncertain then. But the media rights fiasco that broke up the league – by some accounts a total breakdown of communication and trust between the conference office and the presidents and chancellors – pretty well settled the issue. …
• Here’s a wild thought: Could Disney reinvent ESPN as an over-the-air medium, an all-sports sibling to ABC available on every TV in America as well as via laptops and tablets and phones? Would it work? Would there be enough local stations willing to give up daytime courtroom shows and “Law & Order” reruns to go all-sports with such a venerable brand, as well as enough advertising revenue to make it work? …
• Meanwhile, it will soon sink in that a coast-to-coast athletic conference only works with the team on campus that plays one day a week. So maybe UCLA’s Chip Kelly had the right idea: Make every Power Five football team independent, and return the other sports on campus to regionally sensible conferences. …
• Along those lines, as previously noted, we’re approaching a point where the promotion/relegation pyramid we proposed for football two years ago will be the only thing that makes sense. …
• There is a trend, throughout sports and especially at its highest levels, toward “controlling the message,” i.e. hindering if not obstructing independent reporting and steering fans toward the team’s own TV and radio outlets and website. There, not always but way too much of the time, seldom is heard a critical word, the commentators allow “we” or “us” – if not out-and-out rooting – to slip into their descriptions, and credibility suffers. (Somewhere in heaven, Vin Scully cringes.) …
• But the Baltimore Orioles took it to another level, and they’ve been rightly criticized for it from coast to coast, after benching TV play-by-play man Kevin Brown for reciting statistics about the team’s previous lack of success in Tampa Bay at the top of a broadcast, stats that came from the team’s own media notes.
Orioles broadcaster Kevin Brown has been suspended indefinitely for making these comments about the Orioles’ record against the Rays pic.twitter.com/uoSnReAI7S
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 7, 2023
The crazy thing? They weren’t even negative stats. They were meant to highlight how much better the Orioles are this year. Obviously, team CEO John Angelos doesn’t do nuance well. …
• But don’t take my word for it. Former colleague Kyle Goon, who is just as good as a columnist for his hometown Baltimore Banner as he was covering the Lakers for the Southern California News Group papers, effectively skewered the Orioles over this blunder. …
• Meanwhile, consider this from Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy the day after Mookie Betts’ grand slam in the Dodgers’ 13-7 win in San Diego: “I don’t know about you, but I think the whole Fenway experience was more fun when Mookie Betts was hitting grand slams for the Red Sox.”
Now consider that John Henry not only owns the Red Sox, but also the Globe. Give Shaughnessy credit, because that doesn’t stop him from going negative on team management when warranted. (Which, these days, is often.) …
• It’s five days after the USA’s elimination at the Women’s World Cup, and somehow Coach Vlatko Andonovski has not yet been relieved of his duties, which says either that we are a forgiving lot or U.S. Soccer is still scrambling for the funds to buy out the rest of his contract. In some countries, he might have been fired on the tarmac – before the flight home. …
• Which leads us to today’s reader participation segment: You supply the Lane Kiffin one-liner.
jalexander@scng.com
