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Welcome to Yahoo Finance Sports Report, a unique look at the business of sports brought to you by Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports. I’m your host, Joe Pompeiano, and I’m here to coach you through the financial game. We’ll look beyond the headlines, analyze all the latest sports news, the teams, trades, and billion dollar deals. So you and your portfolio will win big. Let’s huddle up and get right into it.We’re kicking off this week with POM’s Playbook, where I take a look at some of the biggest headlines in sports that you and your portfolio need to know. First up, I’m talking about a new potential streaming exclusive game in the NFL. The athletic reported last week that Google owned YouTube is quote a heavy favorite to stream an exclusive NFL game this coming season.The potential matchup would be Week one’s Friday night game, an international game in Sao Paulo, Brazil between the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs. Now, YouTube TV is currently in the middle of a seven-year, $14 billion media rights deal with the league for NFL Sunday Ticket, the NFL’s subscription product for out of market games. However, unlike Sunday Ticket, this Friday night game would be available for free globally on YouTube. Streaming a regular season game on YouTube would be another move from the.Fail to broaden its digital viewership offering just as it is done with places like Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, ESPN Plus, and Netflix for select games. Streaming a game on YouTube also enables the NFL to better reach younger audiences while also lining their pockets with some extra cash. Last season, Peacock paid $105 million to exclusively stream the Friday night international game in Brazil, featuring the Eagles and the Packers, and it’s expected that Google’s YouTube would pay a similar.for the exclusive streaming rights to this year’s Friday night game too. Next, I’m talking about another piece of streaming news related to ESPN. Earlier this week, the Athletic reported that the Rich Eisen Show will be coming to ESPN’s new direct to consumer streaming service this fall, which will simply be called ESPN to reduce any confusion from consumers. Eisen’s popular talk show is set to leave Roku after 3 years, and the move will see Eisen return to ESPN for the first time in 22 years after he left the network.In 2003 to join NFL Network. Now, while financial details are still unknown, we do know that Eisen’s deal will be a licensing deal. So Rich Eisen will still own the show and retain editorial control, similar to the 5 year, $85 million licensing deal ESPN signed for the Pat McAfee show. And while the Rich Eisen Show is anticipated to air in its typical noon to 3 p.m. Eastern time slot, the same time slot as the Pat McAfee show, Eisen’s show will be a streaming only compliment to McAfee.That means the show will not air on ESPN’s Linear networks and will only be available on the new ESPN streaming service, ESPN Plus and Disney Plus 2. Bringing the Rich Eisen Show on the ESPN streaming platform is another sign that the network is banking on big name talent to drive subscriptions to its new DTC streaming service. Keeping Eisen as a streaming-only talent will help ESPN push new subscribers to its streaming offerings while also upholding the value of its cable bundle for pay TV subscribers.Let’s finish out with surprising NBA announcement from NBC. Last Monday, NBC announced that basketball legend Michael Jordan is joining the network as a special contributor to its NBA coverage starting this fall. This will be the first major media partnership for Jordan since he retired from the NBA in 2003.However, Jordan was unable to cover the NBA for the past 20+ years due to his previous front office role with the Washington Wizards, and of course his ownership stake in the Charlotte Hornets, which he sold the gay Plotkin and Rick Schnall in 2023 at a $3 billion valuation, while also retaining a limited stake in the team.Now, while it’s currently unclear what exactly his special contributor title will look like, a person familiar with the deal told CNBC that Jordan will not be a regular in the lineup, but will appear throughout the season, end quote. And it’s not like Jordan needs the money. According to Sportico, Jordan has earned $4.15 billion in inflation adjusted earnings throughout hisAthletic and business career. However, given that NBC has canceled multiple scripted shows over the past 3 years, the network is clearly making the NBA the focal point of its TV programming starting this fall. And now NBC is calling on the greatest basketball player of all time to help support its 11 year, $27 billion broadcast deal with the NBA.This week for the deeper dive, where I give you a play by play analysis of news in the sports world. The next significance to your bottom line, we’re talking about the upcoming WNBA season.The WNBA season tipped off yesterday, and it will be a pivotal year for the business of the W, which saw records for TV ratings and attendance in 2024. The league will also see a new rookie sensation debut and former UConn superstar Paige Beckers and a new expansion team in the Golden State Valkys, which became the first WNBA team ever to sell 10,000 season tickets. But of course, all eyes are on the sophomore season of Caitlyn Clark, who has already become the face of the WNBA. The 202.4 WNBA Rookie of the Year was a massive boon for the league and its growth. Last season, the WNBA averaged 657,000 viewers during the regular season, a 30% increase from 2023. But what’s even crazier is that Clark’s Indiana Fever games averaged 1.19 million viewers compared to the 394,000 average viewers for every other WNBA game last year, a 200% difference. And the WNBA clearly noticed Clark’s viewership draw as 40.One of the Indiana Fever’s 44 games this year will be nationally televised or streamed, including the Fever’s opening night game against Angel Rees in the Chicago Sky that airs at 30 p.m. Eastern time on ABC today. Now, the WNBA was able to capitalize on the momentum, its league-wide boon, and Clark’s superstardom by signing an 11-year, $2.2 billion meteor rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime, and NBC that starts with the 2026 season. The $200 million annual deal is worth 6 times more than theWNBA’s current broadcast deal with ESPN and the league can earn even more media rights revenue from additional deals with other TV partners. However, while the WNBA is surely happy with its new deals, its media rights money will be a point of discussion for its upcoming labor negotiations with its players association. As we’ve discussed on this show before, the WNBA’s Players Association opted out of its current collective bargaining agreement with the WNBA this past October to negotiate a new CBA for the 2026 season and.Beyond WNBA players have made it clear that they desire higher salaries, a softer salary cap, a higher share of revenue, and expanded player benefits from the league. But this will surely be a tough negotiation. The WNBA, while seeing massive growth, is still struggling financially. According to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, the WNBA has lost an average of over $10 billion per year since its founding in 1996, and the Washington Post reported that the league lost over $40 million last year alone.However, WNBA players are ready to capitalize on the league’s economic boom, and executive director Terry Carmichael Jackson hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a lockout if a new deal can’t be reached in time. So as you enjoy this WNBA season, keep October 31st circled on your calendar as a new CBA must be signed by Halloween to prevent a work stoppage. But whether a new deal is in place by then or not, one thing is clear, a new era for the WNBA’s beginning in the league’s business will never look the same.We’ve made it to the one on one, a conversation where I get to break down news and sports with a key player in the industry. This week we’re talking to Rich Kleinman, the co-founder and CEO of Boardroom and 35V. Rich, thank you so much for joining me. Uh, the first thing I want to talk about today is that Boardroom recently announced a partnership with Yahoo Sports. Can you just explain to us a little bit about what that is and what you guys are going to be doing together?
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Yeah, I mean, I think as part of our growth strategy, it’s about finding aligned partners and creating mutually beneficial partnerships, and this checks that box in every way. So the idea for us is to create a destination on Yahoo Sports where all of our content will live, and then the flagship kind of product out of this partnership will be a new show that I will create called Network, um, that we’ll do in partnership with Yahoo. And, and we’re excited about this. Obviously, Yahoo bringsIncredible reach for us, I think we bring a different level of access and a different level of conversation to the platform. And you know from our early conversations with Ryan, we saw the future of partnership kind of growing and catapulting each other as like part of the natural trajectory.
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Yeah, and boardroom has obviously been around for a number of years now, and it’s had tremendous growth. I mean, I remember having conversations with you several years ago and it felt like you guys were doing a lot of different things and it feels now like you’ve really honed in on your expertise. So I’d love to just hear more about where you think sports media is in general, but also how Boardroom has sort of evolved as a media company since its founding.
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Yeah, I mean, I think that there was a lot of learning along the way. What we did feel very strongly about was that what the brand represented and the space that we wanted to storytell from was going to continue to grow. And that was that intersection of sports and business and entertainment in a in a place that you’ve been able to thrive. Um.And you know, and what I’ve been able to see is as, as we’ve grown, what we’ve realized is this is a very saturated landscape, uh, media in general, but sports media. And there’s so many different platforms, there’s so many different influencers, so much conversation, so much optionality, that the one thing I think the consumer was looking for is a little bit of a trust factor and a little bit of familiarity.So for us it was about being consistent in building products, creating moments and events, and storytelling from the perspective of Boardroom, having people understand what Boardroom was and what our brand was, and sometimes that meant small steps along the way, sometimes that meant swinging and missing at some things, and then it was trying certain things that I did think grew the brand.But that we didn’t necessarily want to repeat. So by doing all that, we were able to identify what it was that really represented the brand and then grew it from there. But I think what you see and the reason why people are connecting with our brand is that we’ve been very consistent. We’ve kept our foot on the gas, and it’s always been brand first. So what you remember about everything we do is the name boardroom. And I think that’s important as you try to connect with the consumer when there’s just so much out there for you to consume.
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Yeah, Boardroom is such a good name. I’ve always thought that it just fits so perfectly, but what do you think is sort of the future when it comes to the type of media that you guys will produce, but others will as well? Is it sort of the print things you guys are doing, uh, with the magazine covers and the exclusive interviews? Is it more newsletter stuff? Is it podcast and video content that you’re gonna be launching with Yahoo here? Just talk me through kind of how you think the content itself will evolve over the coming years.
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Yeah, I’m actually excited for that because I think it’s a combination of all of it. I think now that we’ve identified what the brand is, it allows us internally to build new content products to take more chances. And as long as the brand is front and center and it is rooted in what the brand is about, we could try to experiment with different content products. So we will continue our newsletter business, we will continue to do more short form video.Um, I’ll be putting out an actual print magazine in the future as well. I think that as a utility as part of the overall brand, it has value. It won’t be our core driver of business, but I think it’ll be an incredible marketing tool, and I think it’ll also create a different um perception of what the brand is, and I’m, I’m excited about creating that product.Um, but it really will be a, a great mix of all of it. I don’t think there’s one thing that we’re necessarily known for. I think our newsletter talks to a certain audience and has a certain voice, um, you know, the audio space isn’t something that we’ve really dove into, but a lot of our video is available on an audio feed. And I’ll also be looking at more long form content that will license the third parties, you know, I think there’s more stories.Um, documentary and film that we can look to create now that the brand has been established.
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Yeah, it feels like as the company has gotten bigger, you guys are really thriving in, in multiple different areas, which is probably important as you continue to expand. But for anyone just joining, we’re here with Rich Kleinman, the co-founder and CEO of Boardroom and 35V. Rich, you have partnered with Kevin Durant on, on these businesses.Right when the media side and the investing side and it sort of created this nice flywheel here where you guys have distribution on the media side, but you’re also making a number of investments as well through 35V over the last decade, but I imagine continuing into the future as well. What is exciting to you right now on the investing side?Um,
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I, I love looking at consumer products that have proven concept, um, that are in a growth stage thatUm, are looking to us for a bit of strategy, uh, looking to us to utilize the platform we built to help add value, um, and looking to us to kind of align appropriate talent where necessary, um, and then also like, you know, sports and sports adjacent. I still really excited about that category, I think.You know, obviously, we’ve been able to invest, um, allocations in some professional sports teams, both emerging teams and leagues, but also more established like in the MLS and with PSG, but I, I think there’s a lot of cool businesses that are adjacent to sports that are exciting for us. So I, I, I would say that, you know, the consumer space, the sports space, and also, you know, as, as these sports franchises and you did an incredible take on this.are looking at developing real estate in and around their arena and and these worlds that they’re creating. I think there’s some great opportunities in real estate and hospitality that we’ll look to and that I think are also like rooted in sports. So therefore we can see the connection forus.
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All right, we’ve got to take a quick break, but we’ll be back with more of my conversation with Rich Kleinman.Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Sports Report. I’m your host, Joe Pompeano. I’m here with Rich Kleinman, the co-founder and CEO of Boardroom and 358. Let’s talk about the NBA. Obviously, you have a lot of experience in and around the NBA over the last several decades. You’ve sort of seen the league transform, uh, during that time period, but there’s been a lot of chatter about the league, specifically, it feels like over the last couple of years, at the beginning of this year, I mean, there was a lot of people talking about the ratings and everything was down and everyone was saying that the league was uh kind of going away or fading.But it seems like that has sort of turned around over the last few months. I mean, ratings end of the year, uh, essentially flat, if not up a little bit year over year, and the NBA playoffs, specifically this postseason have been tremendous. I mean, the ratings are great, but the games themselves have been really good as well. What is your overall feedback and just kind of 30,000 ft view on the state of the NBA today?
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Yeah, I mean, I personally, I’m biased, I guess, cause I, I personally feel like the NBA, you know, is as entertaining as ever. I think they’ve got a crop of great new young stars, which I think could have been a concern, as Steph and LeBron and KD and these guys have gotten older, but when you see Ant and and Wembayama and a lot of these young stars coming into their own, you know, you know, the league is in a good place from that standpoint. Yeah, I think thatWhat’s happening is the consumer behavior has changed, so you hear a lot of this chatter throughout the early parts of the season, and I just think that that has a lot to do with the the length of the season, the idea that as much as you try and creating these like in-season tournaments, which I do think work well, um, there’s just not the same level of anticipation. The stakes aren’t as high earlier in the season. I think that thatTunes out some consumers, but also just creates shatter, right? Because you have a sport that in general the media around the sport, not all of it, but a lot of it is very negative and divisive. Um, and I think that hopefully with NBC and Amazon taking over, they have an opportunity to change the conversation and change the tone of the conversation, but because of that, it allows this kind of culture of of debate and this culture ofNegative conversation at times. So, you get this combination earlier in the season where the games aren’t as exciting to consumers because there’s 82 games and, you know, our society just needs this instant gratification now and needs to feel these stakes, right? Like, think about the NFL and UFC, these moments are so important each and every week, and there’s so few of them that the scarcity does such a good job of connecting with the consumer. So now you’re talking about game 13 and the NBA season.And you can get games everywhere now, so a national TV game doesn’t hold the same weight. And then you have this landscape of negative chatter around the sport to begin with, so then you start hearing more and more of it. Now, what do we talk about? We talk about ratings, or is the league in a bad place. But what you see happen once the playoffs come around is like, there is nothing like the NBA. There is nothing like these athletes and the entertainment of the NBA. You saw it at the Garden the other day. I mean, there’s nothing like that. So,You know, I think it’s an amazing place. I think that you’ll always have to figure out earlier in the season, how to create a bit more of excitement. Um, but it’s culturally so relevant and has such an impact around the world. It has such an influence on culture in general, like the NBA culture.Influences cross sector in so many ways that I think it’s hard to necessarily see it as going down in any way. It just has to kind of be reimagined earlier in the season a bit, I think, to to connect with the consumer in the same way that it does later on in the season and into the playoffs.
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And the last question I have for you, I want to quickly get your thoughts on Michael Jordan joining NBC’s broadcast. This was announced earlier this week, and I think it shocked a lot of people because he’s sort of been on the background for the last number of years. He was obviously a team owner and in the front office of some other organizations, so he couldn’t always do media, but now he’s popping out. He doesn’t need the money like maybe some.People do it for, it seems like he maybe just wants to have a little bit of fun and get his voice out there. What is your expectation how maybe he can change that conversation from going from former players who are a little bit negative about the league to potentially him, who is widely known as as sort of the goat of basketball. Uh, do you think that has the opportunity to change that, uh, conversation a little bit?
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Well, yes, and the idea of it really was mind blowing. I mean, I was so surprised to hear that. I can’t even begin to imagine what role he’ll take and how that will show up, but obviously I’m tuned in, right? It’s Michael Jordan. Um, you know, I, I think maybe I could see a world in which like he’s doing interviews or conversations andWith only like some of the most elite athletes, right? Like you hold Michael for the elite athletes, or just getting his take in studio on certain things would be just mind blow for the consumer. You just never heard this. Just the awe of seeing him on air, I think will have such a great impact, but it’s an amazing, amazing get, um, I think we’ll all be tuned into it.Um, again, like I said, it’s surprising, but obviously this is Michael Jordan, right? Like the king of culture in a lot of ways. And, um, you know, if he’s really bought in, and this is something that he wants to do, I would imagine that anything he does, he’s gonna be great at it. I couldn’t imagine him doing something if he felt like it would be bad for him or his brand, right? He’s very thoughtful in that way.So, you know, I think this will be a must-see television, um, but I’m very interested to see how and what form this comes to life.
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Yeah, I saw some people, uh, likening it to Tom Brady, but it feels even much higher than that, right? Because Brady had just retired. He was very visible. This is Michael Jordan. We haven’t really heard from him publicly over the last couple of decades and now he’s going to be giving his opinion. So to your point, I think it’s going to be must-see TV, but we’ll have to see when that comes. Rich, thank you so much for joining us today.
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Thank you for having me. You know, I’m a fan and I always love coming on and talking to you, bro.
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The clock is winding down here, but we have just enough time for some final buzz. So let’s talk about MLB rivalry weekend. Now, you may have noticed that MLB schedule this weekend features the league’s biggest geographical rivalries. I’m talking Mets versus Yankees, Cubs versus White Sox, Astros versus Rangers, and more. Well, that schedule was by design for Major League Baseball as the league is holding its first ever rivalry weekend.MLB’s inaugural rivalry weekend will feature 15 geographic rivalry matchups across the league this weekend. Now, I will say that some of these rivalries feel a bit forced, given their ties to each team’s location and or history. For example, the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles are close in proximity for their rivalry Beltway series. Yes, but the two franchises haven’t had much bad blood with each other, orThe type of fire seen in the crosstown series like the Yankees and Mets or the Cubs and White Sox. The Atlanta Braves are also playing the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park this weekend, and I don’t know about you, but it feels like a little bit of a stretch to call this series a rivalry just because the Braves played in Boston from 1871 to 1952. All criticism aside, it’s clear that MLB is using rivalry weekend as a way to drum up extra interest in its.Regular season games and I will be curious to see how the TV ratings shake out from rivalry weekend and how MLB could react as a result. Remember, MLB’s national media rights deals all expire after 2028, and the league is also seeking to add in local rights from 2/3 of its teams to create a bundled meteor rights package for potential bidders. With all of this inventory available, MLB can maximize its rights fees by signing.A variety of broadcast packages similar to the NBA’s recent $76 billion media rights deals or the NFL’s $110 billion package. So it’s feasible that MLB could create a rivalry weekend package as part of its new media rights deals coming in 2029. However, the viewership data has to back up the idea. So we’ll see how this year’s rivalry weekend influences MLB’s media rights negotiations into the future.We’re all out of time, so it’s officially game over for this week. Thank you so much to Rich and for all of you for joining us. Please make sure to scan the QR code below to follow Yahoo Finance podcast for more videos and expert insights and catch us every Saturday wherever you get your podcast. I’m your host, Joe Pompeano. See you next time.
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This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services.