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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

⚾ Fox using remote broadcasters for the first MLB games of the season in Japan left a sour taste once again.

🎰 theScore founder John Levy had some blunt words for Penn’s partnership with ESPN Bet. The Canadian sports media company preceded ESPN and Barstool in having their own deal with Penn.

⬆️ ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro has reportedly made it known that he is not interested in succeeding Bob Iger as Disney CEO.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

100 to 1

The PGA Tour outrated LIV Golf by a 100-1 margin this weekend. Yes, you read that correctly. 100-1.

It was a big weekend for the tour with the unofficial fifth major, the Players Championship, taking place at TPC Sawgrass. And with Rory McIlroy in contention and leading a packed leaderboard, final round coverage drew 3.6 million viewers. This came even though there was a weather delay that pushed the event into the NCAA Tournament Selection Show and the result was still in doubt with McIlroy and J.J. Spaun needing a Monday morning playoff. McIlroy won the playoff the following day and it even drew an astounding 1.5 million viewers at 9 AM on the east coast.

As for LIV, it saw just 34,000 viewers on late Saturday night, early Sunday morning on FS1. Sure, the timeslot is brutal. But LIV can’t lean on that explanation alone. ESPN’s Formula 1 coverage for the season opening race in Australia at a similar timeslot received a record 1.1 million viewers for the race.

Whatever you make about the current state of professional golf, this is the kind of blowout that we’ve never seen the likes before of in sports media. LIV Golf has been supported by an unlimited sovereign wealth fund in their mission to be a disruptor and advance the interests of the Saudi government to become a worldwide sports and business power. They have spent billions of dollars attracting some of golf’s biggest stars, play at the best courses all over the world, and have tried to revolutionize the sport into a more television friendly product. And the gap between the PGA Tour and LIV isn’t shrinking, it’s growing.

It’s ironic because in the days leading up to the tournament, PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan was spreading out the olive branches and committing to do whatever he could to promote reunification. As we stated in last week’s A Block, he and tour leader Adam Scott sent vastly different messages about the prospects of a PGA Tour-LIV merger and the size of the obstacles still in its path.

But while everyone has assumed the PGA Tour would eventually have to bend its will to cut a deal with the Saudis and their bottomless war chest… is that really the case? It’s hard to imagine LIV getting any stronger than here. They have major winners, a television deal with Fox, and now multiple years of brand equity. And they couldn’t even beat an episode of Bassmaster: The Cast on the same network.

Given PGA Tour ratings are making a comeback and the success of TGL as an alternative, maybe it’s time for the tour to play a little more hardball with this talk of reunification with LIV.

🌟 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Stephen A. Smith is sending a clear message that politicians should stay out of sports. Sports people in politics is obviously a different story.

The NCAA is launching a new ad campaign to coincide with the NCAA Tournament aimed at trying to encourage sports bettors not to harass or abuse athletes online after losing a bet.

Everyone is excited for this year’s edition of March Madness! Everyone that is except for Dan Shaughnessy. And maybe Phil Mushnick. It’s too bad they already missed our first buzzer beater, though.

🔦 IN THE SPOTLIGHT ☀️

Ellyn Briggs takes a deep dive into the flood of new upstart sports leagues that have launched over the last few years. From ratings data to brand support and media deals, which ones are built to last? And which ones may serve as cautionary tales?

✍️ AROUND AA ✍️

🎙️ Dan Le Batard is openly wondering whether sports can function without fans in attendance in the future… and not because of a global pandemic.

🏀 Both the men’s and women’s selection shows drew strong ratings for CBS and ESPN respectively.

🏈 With no end to his free agent drama in sight, have NFL insiders given up on Aaron Rodgers?

🏀 Denver Nuggets fans are not happy with Tim Bontemps over comments about Nikola Jokic taking a night off.

🏎️ It sure sounds like NASCAR driver Kyle Busch has a future in broadcasting if he ever wants one after his racing career is over.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

Women’s sports boom keeps booming

While it hasn’t gotten quite as much press to start 2025 as it has in 2024, the women’s sports boom is showing no signs of slowing down.

We can start with women’s college basketball, which drew record ratings last year thanks to Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes. With Clark now in the WNBA, the professional league saw incredible viewership throughout the 2024 season. But the college game is still making great strides as well. In addition to strong viewership for the regular season and selection show, ad rates are still going through the roof.

And, of course, it’s not just basketball. Nearly every facet of women’s sports has seen growth, from college athletics to professional sports, from softball to volleyball and gymnastics, and the spawn of new sports leagues to the pop culture comeback of the Olympics.

And now a study from Deloitte says that now is the time to build on short-term growth with long-term investment. Although there is much more to the study, Deloitte projects $2.35 billion in revenue from women’s sports in 2025. It was just $692 million in 2022.

If you’re in sports media and you haven’t gotten on board the women’s sports train in some form or fashion, it’s definitely time to do so.