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Welcome back to The Varsity, where, yes, it feels like we’re in the middle of the NFL
season—even though we’re supposed to be nearing the climax of the NBA and NHL playoffs.
Pod alert: Jerry Silbowitz, UTA’s co-head of sports media, rejoins the Varsity podcast this weekend to break down the latest trends for on-air talent and how the creator economy is affecting the sports business. Also, I received a tremendous amount of positive feedback about yesterday’s episode: SC Holdings co-founder and managing partner
Jason Stein offered his view of the sports business through a P.E. lens. We’re only in the earliest stages of the full-blown professionalization of amateur sports, from the NCAA downward. For those interested, Jon Kelly is prepared to negotiate N.I.L. deals for the 12U Montclair Bulldogs travel baseball team. Anyway, listen here and
here.
Speaking of the pod, we’re starting to develop some real-life karma—the opposite of the Madden curse. Less than two months after his first appearance on The Varsity, ESPN promoted Mike
Foss to replace Dave Roberts as executive vice president and executive editor of sports news and entertainment. Yes, I take full credit.
In today’s private email, available exclusively to Inner Circle members, I survey the scenes at Fox and NBC, with less than a month to go before the first World Cup on North American soil in more than 30 years. Yes, the headlines have been bad, and FIFA has a habit of stepping on every rake on the pitch. But everyone connected
to the sport is still bullish on the power of the games to transcend all that—and make a ton of money. Upgrade to the Inner Circle here if you haven’t already. (And email Fritz@puck.news if you encounter any issues in the process.)
Also mentioned in this issue: Gianni Infantino,
Mike Davis, Lane Kiffin, Andrew Giuliani, Jeff Miller, Egon Durban, Tammy Baldwin, Mike Johnson, Joni Ernst, Mikie Sherrill, Maria Cantwell, Debbie Dingell, David Attenborough, Chuck Schumer, and more…
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The World Cup’s descent on North America has been greeted by the typical grab bag
of micro-scandals and preemptive complaints. In their private group chats, though, top industry executives don’t really care—they’ve seen this film before, and they’re convinced they are about to make stacks of cash.
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On Tuesday, a crowd of Beltway power players—including House Speaker Mike
Johnson, Sen. Joni Ernst, Sen. Maria Cantwell, and Rep. Debbie Dingell—gathered on the rooftop of a D.C. office building for Fox Sports’s World Cup kickoff party. Andrew Giuliani, the head of the White House World Cup Task Force, grabbed the mic and enthusiastically told the crowd that “this is gonna be such an incredible story, and not just of the incredible successes that happen on the field.” He added that he expects
his role to fade into the background when the tournament starts on June 11.
Perhaps it was a moment of wishful thinking. The tournament starts in one month, and so far, Giuliani’s role has been very much in the foreground—and there’s no sign that’s going to change anytime soon. The World Cup has been besieged by a stream of bad press over the past several months, repeatedly dinged for everything from exorbitant ticket prices and slower-than-expected ticket sales to travel
concerns and ICE enforcement.
And yet, in both public and private, network executives share an unshakeable belief that...
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Puck founding partner Matt Belloni takes you inside the business of Hollywood, using exclusive reporting and insight
to explain the backstories on everything from Marvel movies to the streaming wars.
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Ace media reporter Dylan Byers brings readers into the C-suite as he chronicles the biggest stories in the industry:
the future of cable news in the streaming era, the transformation of legacy publishers, the tech giants remaking the market, and all the egos involved.
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