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Pat McAfee Ponders Future With WWE, College GameDay, FanDuel

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Pat McAfee continued to share some insight on what he’s been thinking about while on vacation from his daily YouTube sports talk show, evaluating the different deals and partnerships the media star has in place presently.

McAfee appeared on WWE TV last month at the Royal Rumble in San Antonio, his first appearance since stepping away from the announce table on SmackDown last summer to go join College GameDay. But in a note posted on both Pat’s Twitter and Instagram on Wednesday, he asked what the future held in the wrestling promotion. This considering his first child will be born in the next few months and that the company is for sale.

“I LOVE it but, they’re allegedly gonna be sold, who’s buying them? Do I want to work/make money for those people?” McAfee wrote.

McAfee also made it sound like his future on GameDay is up in the air at the moment, but he was thrilled with what he was able to do in his role on the show.

“No long term deal in place but, I enjoyed the workload that came with being a part of one of the most iconic shows in the history of sports,” McAfee said. “I think we had the greatest year it’s had in like 2 decades or something ratings wise…f–king WILD.”

Pat also touched on the business relationship he has with FanDuel, which he’s currently in year two of a four-year, $120 million contract.

“We and the new group of FD execs don’t necessarily have the same philosophical views on stuff, nothing but love for them, they are doing their thing but, certainly a different way of operating these days,” he said.

McAfee continued to report that overall things business-wise are on the up and up, and that he’s being sued by Brett Favre for defamation.

SiriusXM Sets Spring Training Coverage

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SiriusXM Sets Spring Training Coverage

SiriusXM MLB Radio is ready to hit the road to spring training.

On Wednesday, SiriusXM revealed details of its 2023 Spring Training Tour, which will provide listeners with in-depth coverage from all 30 camps. The tour will run from February 23-March 11.

Additionally, the network is going to be getting fans ready for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, reporting on Team USA’s preparations for the tournament.

One-hour shows will present listeners with player interviews, manager conversations and executive appearances at each stop on the tour.

Jim Bowden, Jim Duquette, Steve Phillips, David Aardsma, kevin Frandsen, Chris Gimenez, Eduardo perez, Xavier Scruggs, Ryan Spilborghs, Jenny Cavnar, Mike Ferrin and Dani Wexelman are all going to be hosting throughout the tour.

The first stop will be the San Francisco Giants camp in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 23. The Spring Training Tour broadcast will air at 7 p.m.

The network will visit the defending World Series champion Houston Astros in West Palm Beat, Florida on February 25, airing the show at 5 p.m.

The final stop will be the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida on March 11. Show time is 7 p.m.

The 2023 MLB regular season begins on March 30.

Duane Kuiper Wants Retired Umpire on Giants Radio Call

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San Francisco Giants play-by-play man Duane Kuiper wishes baseball had something the NFL has incorporated into game broadcasts – an official in the booth.

Talking to Brian Murphy and Paulie Mac on KNBR Wednesday morning, Kuiper said having a voice that can interpret for the viewer some of the new rules implemented into MLB this season would be an immense help.

“I want a retired umpire in our booth so I can say to him after an umpire makes a call, one of these new rules calls, where I can say to him, ‘Hey! What the hell is going on down there?'” Kuiper said. “And then they would explain everything so I don’t have to. That’s what I want.”

One suggestion was that former umpire Ed Montague could be considered as that Mike Pereira-type rules analyst. Kuiper joked that Montague likely couldn’t do the job.

“I’ll bet Eddie Montague doesn’t know half the new rules to be honest with you,” he said. “He would have to prove to me that he knows them in and out.”

Giants spring training games in Arizona begin this weekend, and Kuiper and NBC Sports Bay Area will be calling their first contest of 2023 on Saturday. Kuiper said he and Mike Krukow would do the best they could to make sure they’re up to speed on new rules involving the pitch clock and defensive shifts, but asked that the audience be patient as they get going this season.

“We’re just gonna try to not make it an issue, but have everybody understand that this is all new to us too,” Kuiper said.

Mike Florio: LeSean McCoy’s Problem With Eric Bienemy is Personal

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Former Kansas City Chiefs running back LeSean McCoy has been the subject of criticism since a recent string of comments about new Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy.

McCoy said Monday on SPEAK on FS1 that Bienemy was given too much credit for the Chiefs offensive success en route to a Super Bowl title, adding that he didn’t see the value Bienemy brings to the nation’s capital.

In an appearance on The PM Team with Poni & Mueller on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio weighed in saying it was clear McCoy was just lashing out because of how his own tenure as a Chief under Bienemy played out.

“It’s personal. He’s got sour grapes,” Florio said. “He’s mad about his experience in Kansas City. The fact that multiple other receivers have come out and refuted him I think says everything. The fact that Tyreek Hill, who’s disgruntled about the way things ended in Kansas City, is on Bienemy’s side in this is also very telling.”

Florio also said that McCoy is in the minority in questioning Bienemy’s credentials as a coordinator.

“It’s one guy who had a bad experience with the Chiefs. That’s what Andy Reid said last May when McCoy got after Bienemy,” he said. “This isn’t the first time he’s gotten after Bienemy. So this is a persistent thing, and I think he just has an ax to grind. And it’s good that other guys on the team are coming out and saying it.”

“And it’s great that Tyreek Hill is saying it, because he doesn’t have a reason to say anything nice about the Chiefs or Bienemy at this point because it didn’t end well for him in Kansas City,” Florio added.

McCoy did wish Bienemy well in Washington and said he was rooting for him as a Black coach.

Major League Baseball Creates Economic Reform Council to Assess Local Media Rights Model

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Major League Baseball Creates Economic Reform Council to Assess Local Media Rights Model

It is widely assumed that Diamond Sports Group will be filing for bankruptcy after the company missed a payment to its largest creditor last week. The company owns the 19 Bally Sports regional sports networks. Those networks control the local broadcast rights for 14 Major League Baseball teams.

As a result of the speculation, Major League Baseball has formed an economic reform committee. It is charged with assessing the long-term financial health of baseball.

Commissioner Rob Manfred says that it may behoove the league not to rely on teams’ local media rights deals so heavily.

“We’ve got to find a new model,” he said to The Athletic. “Maybe we ought to be driving the boat, what that model looks like.”

Major League Baseball has been dealing with major revenue and spending disparities between its teams for years. Some team owners have favored implementing a salary cap for a while. Short of that, Manfred believes rethinking broadcasting contracts could be part of the solution.

“We have businesses that are literally not similar in terms of the overall revenue that they’re generating,” he said. “And to the extent that you could find a new distribution model that actually helped on that disparity side, that would be the daily double. So people are having conversations that haven’t been had in baseball, and it’s really been owners talking to owners, which is a good thing.”

Manfred said that the committee was not created specifically to address what may or may not happen with the Bally Sports networks, but it was a significant motivation. It is made up of team owners.

Dan Le Batard: Nick Wright is the Best of ‘the Evolution of Gasbags’

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Compliments from Dan Le Batard sound a little strange. That certainly was the case on Wednesday as he complimented Nick Wright for what he thought was a fair and smart take on why NBA players do not value the All-Star Game or the regular season.

Le Batard said he was astonished and delighted by “the greasy ascent into gasbaggery stardom of Nick Wright”. He said that nothing about Wright is manicured for television and that makes him unique in the sports media.

“I am saying he’s a guy on television that you would find at the horse track proudly,” Le Batard said of Wright. “Proudly at the horse track. He is not trying to clean up to be whatever your version of television is. He doesn’t mind crazy hair. He is going to do it on force of personality. It is actually artistic to watch.”

Nick Wright has never shied away from discussing issues others may want to dance around. It is a level of authenticity that Le Batard says he appreciates.

“He is proudly a gambler and proudly a crazy person and proudly doing some of the better work in this field in the evolution of gasbags as a young man.”

He ended his commentary on Wright by noting that the person least surprised by the FS1 host’s success is probably Wright himself.

“He is a grinder and he makes good stuff and he makes good points. His substance is very strong and he knows how to make people mad and agitate. His hustle has been fascinating to watch from Kansas City when he was promising us as a young man and a radio gasbag that he would get here.”

WFAN Tabs Justin Shackil to Replace Sweeny Murti on Yankees Beat

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After the departure of Sweeny Murti last month, WFAN is looking to Justin Shackil as his replacement.

The 36-year-old Shackil is in the final stages of a contract negotiation with the Audacy-owned station, The New York Post reports.

Shackil has worked as a host and reporter for YES Network and also hosts a podcast for Jomboy Media.

Shackil would call roughly 25 games this season for WFAN under the agreement. 85-year-old John Sterling originally planned to scale back his schedule as the Yankees primary radio play-by-play announcer last season, but the American League home run chase by Aaron Judge altered those plants.

WFAN was in need of a steady fill-in game caller for its Yankees coverage. Previously, Brendan Burke and Ryan Ruocco had filled in, but with both seeing their national profiles with TNT and ESPN grow, Shackil is a natural to step into the booth.

Murti worked as the station’s Yankees beat reporter since 2001.

2023 NBA All-Star Game Hits Record Low Ratings

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2023 NBA All-Star Game Hits Record Low Ratings

The game was not competitive, but even if it had been, people may not have been interested. It is hard to know what positives the NBA can take away from the All-Star Game in Salt Lake City last weekend.

The game continued an unfortunate trend for the NBA, setting new record lows for ratings and viewers. The game averaged a 2.2 rating across TNT and TBS. That is a 29% drop from 2022.

An average audience of less than 4.6 million also represents a drop. It is down 27% from last year. It is also significantly lower than 2021, which saw the smallest audience ever to that point, with an average of under 6 million tuning in.

There was also bad news on Saturday night. The audience for the NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night festivities also experienced a major drop. Ratings fell 19% from 2022. This year’s Saturday night ratings were the lowest the event has drawn in over two decades.

Plenty of explanations are available for the continued ratings drop. The game is not interesting, this year’s game was missing LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo for much of the action and missing Steph Curry entirely, and the Daytona 500 delivered more than 8 million viewers. The explanations don’t solve the bigger problem though.

For years, the Pro Bowl was seen as an inconsequential exhibition game that wasn’t valued by either the players or the fans. The NFL decided to overhaul the proceedings. Whether or not it is now a better product is subjective, but it did outdraw the NBA All-Star Game this year.

Might that be something the NBA considers when evaluating the future of All-Star Weekend?

Justin Myers: Getting Eyeballs on Pac-12 Has Been A Problem Long Before Apple Deal

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Justin Myers: Getting Eyeballs on Pac-12 Has Been A Problem Long Before Apple Deal

Apple is viewed as the leader to land the upcoming Pac-12 television rights, and while that might be viewed as a problem for the conference as moving to a strictly streaming-based model would be ahead of its time for the average college football viewer. Rip City Radio 620 morning host Justin Myers says it’s been a problem for the conference for decades.

“Outside of the West Coast, especially here in Portland and in Oregon, everyone has to have some sort of cable outlet because that’s how you get Pac-12 Network and that’s how you get the Blazers on TV,” Myers said. “Whereas every other sports bar, at every hotel bar, every airport bar across this big giant country of ours, they all have DirecTV. So nobody is walking in and watching Pac-12 Network, even if there’s a pretty good game in the Pac-12. It’s just not available.

“Now you take that and now you add it to a streaming service on your phone. I know bars were already struggling to get Thursday Night Football on, and I know YouTube TV is going to have Sunday Ticket so maybe that changes the mentality, but it is a significant thing. If you can’t get Washington and Utah in an absolute barn burner in the middle of the country … that’s just eyeballs lost on your conference, which has been a problem since putting games on cable and satellite has become a thing.”

A potential deal between Apple and the Pac-12 would reportedly feature the streaming platform holding the rights to all of the conference’s games. Through the 2022 season, the Big 12 has been the only Power 5 conference to air a portion of its games on a streaming platform, with the conference airing games sporadically on ESPN+. The Big Ten reportedly turned down an offer from Amazon Prime Video due to its apprehension of offering a large package of streaming exclusive games. However, its deal with NBC Sports is expected to offer some games airing exclusively on Peacock.

The Pac-12’s current deal with ESPN and FOX Sports — who are reportedly described as being “lukewarm” on re-signing with the conference — runs through the conclusion of the 2023 football season.

Apple Viewed As Leader For Pac-12 Rights

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Apple Viewed As Leader For Pac-12 Rights

With ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, and Fox Sports reportedly passing on the upcoming television rights package for the Pac-12, Apple has entered the fray.

According to a report from The New York Post, Apple as viewed as the leader in the clubhouse for the Pac-12 rights. Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff could present a proposal from the streaming platform to member schools over the course of the coming days.

In the potential deal, Apple would expect to hold the rights to all of the conference’s broadcasts.

Kliavkoff has been outspoken in his belief that the conference will secure a rights deal in the same neighborhood or even larger than that of the Big 12. That contract between the league, FOX Sports, and ESPN will pay each member school roughly $31 million per year after the six-year contract was struck in October of last year.

A deal with the Pac-12 would be a continuation of Apple’s foray into the sports landscape. It currently broadcasts a Friday Night Baseball package of MLB games. Apple was also long considered the front-runner to secure the NFL Sunday Ticket package that ultimately went to YouTube. The streaming platform is also set to embark on a 10-year, $2.5 billion contract with Major League Soccer that gives Apple the global rights to all the league’s contests.

The Pac-12’s current television rights deal with FOX Sports and ESPN runs through the conclusion of the 2023 season.

Spokespeople for both the Pac-12 and Apple declined to comment on the potential deal.

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