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🏀 LeBron’s Last Dance. A documentary tracking LeBron James’ final NBA seasons is taking shape built on footage gathered from Andy Thompson, the same NBA Entertainment producer behind The Last Dance. Thompson has reportedly been a regular presence around James since at least the 2022-23 season.

🏈 Friday night’s alright. ESPN will reportedly pair college football analyst Jordan Rodgers with play-by-play voice Mike Monaco for the network’s Friday night ollege football package. Dana Boyle will serve as a sideline reporter. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that Chase Daniel would take Rodgers’ seat on SEC Nation, and Rodgers would move to an “elevated role.”

🏀 WNBA misses the mark. The WNBA issued a statement addressing the social media video posted to the league’s official account showing star players Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers appearing to make a wager on their upcoming game. The league says it “missed the mark” in an attempt to be lighthearted.

Read more of today’s top stories at Awful Announcing.

For practically its entire time in the American market, DAZN (pronounced da-zone) has been the streaming equivalent to the guy in the gym who only works out from the waist up. It looks like a major player as one of the most well-capitalized sports streamers in the world (thanks, Sir Len Blavatnik and Saudi Arabia!), but it has never put in the legwork to become anything more than a niche platform with a few boxing matches and Club World Cup games.

Over the past year, that has changed. DAZN has tried to break into the American market through the most base-level means available: local sports rights. And it appears DAZN will do just that.

Per a report earlier this week in Sports Business Journal, the London-based streamer is set to secure exclusive local broadcast rights for five NBA clubs that were formerly tied to the now-defunct FanDuel Sports Networks: the Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, and Memphis Grizzlies. The Timberwolves have formally announced a deal, while the other four teams will likely follow suit soon.

Additionally, DAZN will also overtake what is now known as the Gotham Sports app, a joint streaming venture between YES Network and MSG Networks that sells access to local broadcasts for seven New York-area franchises — the Yankees, Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Islanders, Devils, and Sabres. The streamer is also close to securing streaming-only arrangements with the Orlando Magic and “possibly” the Charlotte Hornets, with the Washington Wizards a possibility as well.

In all, DAZN’s streaming presence will include up to 10 NBA teams (one of which being the Knicks), the most-popular team in MLB, and four NHL teams. Not bad for a streamer whose current claim to fame in the U.S. might be Top Rank Boxing.

How DAZN plans to structure its local rights deals are pretty interesting. With the NBA looking to launch a centralized local streaming hub ahead of the 2027-28 season, DAZN will reportedly sign deals that are either one season in length or have mutual opt-out clauses following the upcoming season as teams demand the flexibility to join the league’s aggregated local rights solution when it launches. If DAZN or a team invokes an opt-out clause, it will reportedly pay a termination fee unless, in the team’s case, DAZN fails to meet certain performance metrics.

DAZN will reportedly pay “minimum guarantees” to the five teams selling their local rights exclusively to the platform. Those fees will range from $8 million to $20 million depending on market size, with additional upside via a revenue sharing model for advertising, over-the-air fees, and subscription fees once DAZN recoups its initial rights payments to the team. Some teams are also being offered equity in DAZN as part of these deals.

Of course, DAZN isn’t going through the trouble of courting all of these teams just to have rights for a year. The streamer wants to be the long-term home of the NBA’s future local broadcast hub and sees the upcoming season as a trial run of sorts. DAZN needs to prove to the NBA it can successfully distribute a full season of local broadcasts without any major hiccups if it wants to compete with ESPN and YouTube, two platforms that have already expressed interest in buying the NBA’s aggregated platform.

If DAZN can get through this next season unscathed, it will have quite the leg up on its competitors. The streamer could already be hosting one-third of NBA teams on its platform, including one of the league’s biggest draws, the Knicks. One of the major question marks for the NBA’s future streaming hub is whether it can convince glamour teams like the Knicks and Lakers to join the fold, thus foregoing opportunities to sell streaming rights independently for more money. The Knicks already being on the platform would solve at least part of that problem, even if they’re put on a different subscription tier or have a different revenue-share arrangement.

There’s also something to be said for the NBA trying to reduce friction in any local broadcast shakeup. The collapsing regional sports network business has already been confusing for fans to navigate in recent years, and if DAZN puts in a compelling bid after the upcoming season, the NBA could favor the option that keeps a large number of its teams on the same platform.

The NBA is reportedly seeking at least $1 billion annually for rights to its streaming hub. At the very least, DAZN’s successful entry into local NBA rights will add a third bidder for forthcoming hub, with each company having compelling reasons to get on board. That should bode well for the league’s ten-figure benchmark.

Karl Ravech is back from the dead (for now). The ESPN baseball broadcaster was laid off earlier this month, but will continue to call a few games for the network this summer. Ravech called Nationals-Braves for the network last night, but did not mention his impending departure.

Just days after FIFA made the bold announcement that it was set to create an investment vehicle, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), that would control the governing body’s commercial operations — including the sale of broadcast rights to events like the World Cup — and subsequently seek private investment in exchange for equity in FFE, FIFA’s grand enrichment plan is hitting considerable roadblocks.

On Thursday, both UEFA and CONCACAF released damning statements rejecting FIFA’s proposal, with UEFA going as far as saying its member nations would boycott FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, should the proposal go through. Together, UEFA and CONCACAF comprise 96 of FIFA’s 211 member nations. AFC, the confederation representing 46 Asian nations, has similarly condemned FIFA’s proposal.

With confederations representing over half of FIFA’s membership opposing the deal, the world awaits FIFA’s response.

One factor of FIFA’s proposal that has caused rancor among the opposing confederations is the hasty timeline the global governing body set for its approval. FIFA has demanded its member nations approve or reject the proposal just over 50 days after it was first presented to them. FIFA president Gianni Infantino doubled down earlier this week by threatening nations that did not approve of the deal with less funding. What’s the rush for FIFA?

Well, as has been outlined in previous reports, FIFA would like to capitalize on the success of this summer’s World Cup by taking broadcast rights for the next two World Cups — in 2030 and 2034 — to market in the coming months. If FFE is going to be the vehicle through which those broadcast rights are sold, FIFA would need to get that off the ground before it goes to market.

But now, with widespread opposition to FFE, the ball is now in FIFA’s court (or pitch).

There are a few ways this can go, and they’re all dependent on how committed FIFA is to making this happen in spite of the near-universal opposition the proposal faces. FIFA could simply give up on the idea, it can go the way of the European Super League, and its timeline for World Cup broadcast rights bidding can remain on track. FIFA could try and ram the proposal through on the backs of poorer nations who stand to benefit disproportionately from the additional revenue, though it’s unclear if that possibility remains feasible given many of these so-called “minnows” are members of UEFA, CONCACAF, and AFC. In this scenario, bidding for World Cup broadcast rights would almost certainly be delayed due to uncertainty in the market as confederations weigh boycotts. Or, FIFA can shelve its proposal for now, continue on its planned timeline for bringing World Cup broadcast rights to market, and then reengage the regional confederations at a later date with a modified plan that would include input from the likes of UEFA, CONCACAF, AFC, and other confederations.

Given the gusto of some of the statements against FIFA’s proposal, a way forward with the proposal in tact seems borderline untenable.

“Some things are simply too important to sell,” UEFA’s statement read. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”

CONCACAF questioned the supposed urgent need for private investment “following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history.”

Conventional wisdom would suggest Infantino, even in his infinite greed, wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize the golden goose that is the men’s World Cup. One major factor here is the upcoming FIFA presidential election in March 2027. Infantino had all but guaranteed his reelection following the success of the 2026 World Cup, but now could face potential opposition after angering membership. Pulling the proposal entirely could help preserve his spot on top of FIFA. But if he feels the damage is already done, and his presidency is now at risk, he might feel emboldened to resort to more extreme measures. One thing is for sure, it’s more difficult to enrich yourself when you aren’t the president of FIFA, so how this saga plays out might come down entirely to Infantino’s calculus on self-preservation.

Whatever the case, Infantino and FIFA have added a major wrinkle to when the next round of media rights bidding will occur for the next pair of World Cups.