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Late Wednesday, a report indicated that LeBron James’s business partner Maverick Carter was involved in an effort to launch an international basketball league, with billions of dollars of investment sought. FOS can report that LeBron himself is not involved with the effort, which has been described to us as “F1 for basketball.” Here’s what we know.
—Daniel Roberts, A.J. Perez, David Rumsey, Eric Fisher, and Colin Salao
Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports
A report about an expensive effort to launch a new international basketball league made waves late Wednesday. Bloomberg reported that a group of investors advised by Maverick Carter, a childhood friend and longtime business partner of LeBron James, has tapped UBS and Evercore to raise up to $5 billion to set up a new international league “to rival the National Basketball Association,” in Bloomberg’s phrasing.
Multiple sources tell Front Office Sports that the league does not want to compete with the NBA and is aiming to be “an F1 for basketball.”
As FOS also reported, James himself is not involved in the effort—though Carter’s role will certainly lead many to assume that James has his hands in it behind the scenes, or could eventually take an active role.
The international league, taking a page from the books of other recent shorter-season spectacles in golf, racing, and women’s basketball, plans to play its games in eight cities and spend just two weeks in each city, with Singapore on the list of destinations, FOS sources said.
The NBA’s viewership was a hotly contested topic through the first two months of this season, as the league’s TV ratings dipped by as much as 18% from last year, and 26% for ESPN games. But a very strong Christmas Day slate shrunk that deficit to 3% (and led to a 5% increase in ESPN viewership), more comparable with the 2.2% year-over-year drop also registered by the NFL this year for its regular season.
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The contentious situation surrounding plans for a new Browns stadium has escalated to the point that the NFL franchise and the city of Cleveland are suing each other over where the team will call home.
This week, the city filed a lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, seeking to enforce the Modell Law, which states that a pro team in Ohio playing in a publicly supported stadium cannot move without giving the city in question six months’ notice and an opportunity to buy the franchise. The city had previously sent a formal notice to the team announcing its intent.
In October, the Browns kicked off the legal fight by filing a federal lawsuit against the city of Cleveland, seeking clarity about the Modell Law, colloquially named for late former Browns owner Art Modell.
Now, the countersuits will play out as the Browns push forward with their desire to abandon their downtown open-air stadium and build a $2.4 billion dome in suburban Brook Park. That plan has already received pushback from local officials, and the team will have issues getting its wish of roughly $1.2 billion in public funding.
Earlier this month, Jimmy and Dee Haslam, who own the Browns, officially executed a clause to purchase 176 acres of land in Brook Park, where they intend to build the stadium complex.
Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb has previously said that he and his staff would be ready to reengage talks with the Haslams about stadium options downtown if they change their minds. “Our door is not closed,” Bibb said.
The Browns are heading into the offseason with the second overall pick in April’s NFL Draft (along with eight more picks), but a complicated and expensive situation surrounding quarterback Deshaun Watson.
The 29-year-old, who signed a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract in 2022, recently re-ruptured his Achilles after tearing it during the season. He’s also coming off a third straight disappointing season in Cleveland and is still owed $92 million over the next two years. Watson led the NFL in passing in 2020 with 4,823 yards.
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The regional broadcasting options for many MLB clubs this offseason have gone back and forth between Main Street Sports, the former Diamond Sports Group that’s made a remarkable comeback, and MLB’s in-house model for production and distribution.
The Rangers, in a notable twist, have opted for an entirely different, third route: the digital-first Victory+. The club and Victory+ owner A Parent Media Co. Inc. struck a multiyear deal that will bring local Rangers games to the direct-to-consumer streaming service.
Texas had previously been with Main Street Sports, before the conclusion of its bankruptcy reorganization and subsequent name change, but said last fall it definitely would not return to the regional sports network operator.
The new agreement involves the Rangers going to a service that began last summer with the neighboring Stars of the NHL, another team formerly tied to DSG. Victory+ also has rights deals with the Ducks and Red Bull. It’s certainly a more uncertain course than either returning to Main Street Sports or the league-run option, but it also perhaps gives the Rangers more direct control over their local media future.
“Victory+ has proven itself over the past few months as a reliable streaming home for several professional sports teams, and we feel Rangers fans will enjoy the familiarity, convenience, and simplicity of the service,” said Rangers president of business operations and COO Neil Leibman.
Full broadcast details for the Rangers are still being developed, and they could also involve separate deals for supplemental linear coverage in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. To that end, the team called the Victory+ pact “the first element of the Rangers’ effort to provide fans with multiple viewing options for game broadcasts in 2025.” Victory+, however, is now selling full-season passes to stream Rangers games, including some spring training contests, for $100.
The Rangers deal also extends a radical reshaping of the local sports media situation in Dallas. In addition to the Stars’ shift, the NBA’s Mavericks also are no longer with Main Street Sports, and they are streaming their games through MavsTV while broadcasting them over the air on Tegna stations throughout the region.
Palm Beach Post
The TV ratings for TGL got a boost from Tiger Woods, the new indoor golf league’s cofounder, playing in the competition’s second match Tuesday night.
ESPN drew one million viewers for Los Angeles Golf Club’s dominant 12–1 victory over Jupiter Links Golf Club, the latter of which Woods is a player and co-owner. That’s up 9% from TGL’s debut match last week, which drew 919,000 viewers.
Los Angeles–Jupiter Links ran over its scheduled two-hour TV window, forcing the Miami-Duke men’s basketball game to tip off on ESPNews at roughly 9:10 p.m. ET. The TGL action broadcast began at 7 p.m. ET, but the first shot wasn’t hit until about 7:12 p.m.
TGL matches play all 15 holes for season-ending tiebreaker purposes, even when the match outcome has been decided. Tuesday night’s match finished around 9:18 p.m. and ESPN, which has a multiyear rights deal with TGL, switched over to Miami-Duke about 60 seconds later, when there was 15:12 left in the first quarter of the eventual 89–54 Blue Devils win over the Hurricanes.
“Hopefully people tuned in for the entire broadcast,” Woods said after the match. “We’ve got some Duke fans that stuck around,” said Max Homa, also a member of Jupiter Links.
Despite the lopsided outcome, the typically ultra-competitive Woods was in good spirits following the defeat. “It’s about entertaining,” he said. “We had a laugh.”
“This is unique,” Woods added. “This is something that golf has never seen before—to have an arena like this.” The 1,500-seat SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., was sold out again Tuesday night, and the crowd leaned in favor of Jupiter Links, sending occasional jeers and boos toward Los Angeles.
Next Tuesday, New York Golf Club plays Atlanta Drive Golf Club, and on Jan. 27 Woods and Jupiter Links return to action against Boston Common Golf Club, as fellow TFL cofounder Rory McIlroy makes his league debut.
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