Welcome to the 42nd media mailing for Athletics. Thank you for submitting your questions via the website and app. There were almost 100 questions, so this is the first part of the series.
(Note: Some questions have been edited for length.)
Why does Fox hate college football? –Brent W.
I see you share my feelings about having Urban Meyer as a sports television analyst. However, seriously, Fox, on a corporate level, doesn’t hate college football. Quite the contrary. Fox loves the revenue generated by college football and loves playing in the second most popular sport in the United States.
Fox Sports has invested significantly in the product over the past five years, including making the noon Eastern time window an important event for college football fans. He invested money in studio talent (whether you like that talent is another question) and operational resources to take his pregame show on the road. He Rece Davis was heavily sued for leaving ESPNa great college football game. Additionally, the Big Ten Network (of which Fox is a significant financial and operational partner) does excellent work on college football. This shows commitment to me.
Now, Fox Sports is heavily invested in the business of Big Ten football, so your feelings about the network’s coverage of college football probably match how you feel about this conference (which may be the genesis of this question). If you are an Ohio State fan, you’re understandably upset about the Buckeyes’ start times.
One very fair criticism of Fox is how the company and ESPN have inserted themselves into the realignment and consolidation of college football and planning. Full of Athleticscollege football writers I touched on this subject. Like most major networks that cover college football, in my opinion, they deify coaches far too much in their coverage.
However, they have invested a lot of money into the sport and employ a lot of people who care about it.
Exit Lakers salehow dangerous do you think it is for an owner to own two teams from two different professional leagues in the same city? The billionaire could hold the city hostage for tax breaks and/or infrastructure improvements around stadiums and/or new stadiums. -Brian S.
That’s a great question. I fervently oppose professional sports teams receiving welfare from taxpayers, and you can find me on social media at the time express my opposition to New York City hosted the Olympics when I lived there. However, homeowners in many cities know they have lawmakers and the public around a barrel because of the cultural importance of professional work franchise.
The Bills – a team I care deeply about as a former Buffalonian – are a perfect example. The stadium is financed in part by taxpayers, but the Pegula family holds the cards because nothing is more culturally important to Western New Yorkers than this football team. So, yes, Mark Walter has a ton of power in Los Angeles right now (although he would never move either team, given the loss of valuation, among other reasons).
What is the basis of the media’s fascination/obsession with Kevin Durant? Certainly he had a long and successful career, but I can’t think of any other player whose business demands and dissatisfaction with his situation are discussed so frequently by sports talking heads on television. -Brian W.
First, he is one of the greatest players in NBA history. That alone will give him plenty of coverage. He has been a dominant figure in the sport for two decades. He has played on high-profile teams, including Team USA. Much of the NBA’s media coverage is about trades, and Durant has been traded three times.
Anything related to Durant is easily monetized by sports speakers, especially those of a doubtful nature, and he was a target for some of the the biggest braggarts at ESPN and Fox Sports. One thing about Durant: I love that he claps on social media. He understands that the major sports media have used him in many ways, and he is one of the few athletes at this level to promote the game.
Which sport do you think leaves the most viewers on the table? How could they improve? — Matthew S.
Interesting question. Several sports and leagues come to mind. First, MLS leaves significant viewership on the table, given the Apple TV+ deal, but that was the tradeoff for Apple’s investment. (AthleticsIt is Anonymous survey of MLS executives suggests trade-off may not be worth it.) I think the College Football Playoff could improve if the quarterfinals and semifinals were played on weekends instead of weekdays. Women’s college basketball continues to leave viewers on the table by not airing a Sunday night title game in prime time on ABC.
I wonder if the NBA/NHL playoffs simply have too many games for the average fan. The season drags on too long. The world’s biggest televised sporting events are a one-match final (World Cup, Super Bowl, Champions League, ICC cricket). Could we see a single-game final for the NBA or NHL? -Aqeel H.
I would bet big money that we will never see this in America in our lifetime, and the simple answer is money. The NHL and NBA can’t generate the same crowds as the NFL during the regular season, so they need a significant inventory of playoff games to make the finances work. The appeal of these two sports for media companies lies in the prospect of the length of the playoffs and the sale of advertising during those games (or, in the case of a streamer, the sale of subscriptions). The NFL can hold a single-game championship because it can attract over 100 million viewers for the Super Bowl. Neither the NBA nor the NHL could be in an area code matching this one for a single-game title game.
Will NBCUniversal offer more Premier League games on Peacock now that other US and NBCU cable channels have moved to Versant? -Tim B.
It will remain largely unchanged, given the Premier League deal was finalized before the Versant. NBC Sports President Rick Cordella said they would fulfill their cable obligations.
I feel like you’ve developed a set of beliefs about how things should be done, and it’s difficult for you to consider other points of view. For example, Pat McAfee. You love how different he is, and you’ve fully bought into the deal he has with ESPN, and so you’re not willing to consider how wrong what he did with the rumor about the Mississippi student is. -Marc G.
I absolutely think McAfee and others amplified a false rumor, it was horrible, and Katie Strang told an important story above. With all due respect, your assessment of how I think about this issue is incorrect. I reflexively disagree with everything McAfee said or did. I admire the fact that he built an organic audience and struck a deal with a major sports media player whose content he controls. I also appreciate people who oppose the ESPN management machine because I saw on-air talent getting fucked.
There are nuances to all of this, and you can think of several things about a person or media company depending on the issue. Overview: If you’re interested in sports media, I recommend checking out as many different content sources as possible. Like art, cinema and many other things, opinion is subjective.
Los Angeles SportsCenter appears to have quietly died. I happened to attend the last show by chance. If there had been any PR that this was the last show, I must have missed it. Was it canned to save money? What happened to Linda Cohn and Stan Verrett? Linda was an ESPN loyalist for decades. -Richard T.
You may have missed it, but there was a lot of press on ESPN on ending its edition of “SportsCenter” in Los Angeles and moving production of the show to its headquarters in Bristol. This decision was entirely a question of economics. Verrett leaves ESPN this summer; Cohn is under contract with ESPN. I asked ESPN about its future duties and a spokesperson said, “That’s still being determined, but we should know soon.”
Will Fox provide any journalistic coverage of the US hosting the World Cup next year (e.g., covering topics such as travel bans on fans of certain countries), or should we expect the usual bland fanboy coverage? I appreciate Mike Tirico for his courage in discussing human rights issues during the 2022 Beijing Olympics while on NBC, but don’t expect the same at the World Cup. -Chris D.
Does Fox Sports do in-depth journalism when it comes to FIFA? Fox Sports strikes on these subjects during the World Cup? It took a few reports, but I was able to obtain a clip which should explain how the coverage will take place.
(Photo: John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
