SBP Snack 7/1-7/7

Author

Alex Abrams
July 04, 2024

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Good Thursday Morning. Happy 4th of July from Chicago. I’ll be heading to Wrigley for the Cubs-Phillies game this afternoon — hard to think of a better way to spend the holiday. Hope everyone has a safe, happy 4th!

Bringing you an abbreviated, “snack size” version of SBP this week.

Five Interesting, Funny, and Touching Things that Happened in Sports This Week

#1: TNT’s new sports portfolio in an (assumed) post-NBA world

🗯️ My thought bubble: Warner Brothers Discovery is taking a “sum of the whole is better than the parts” approach to its post-NBA sports portfolio. It’s not the same as having a marquee, tier 1 property that fills six months of programming like the NBA, but the bet is that accumulating a series of lower cost events will help to stabilize any carriage fee concerns and ensure the company can start to chip away at that $40B debt load.

I personally don’t believe it’s the same and still think it is an existential blow for WBD’s cable division, but this is one of their best remaining moves, and maybe it helps to attract an acquirer for the cable business.

#2: Grimace, a utility infielder who’s also a pop star, and the surging Mets

#3: Another banner week for the WNBA

🗯️ My thought bubble: I’ve talked a lot about the increased viewership and attendance for the WNBA this year, but the jump in engagement for the All-Star voting caught my eye. It’s hard to tell exactly how many new people were involved in the voting process (usually individuals can vote multiple times in these types of systems), but the significant jump directionally shows the progress is league making.

The big test will be the staying power and remaining in the cultural narrative once the shine on this rookie class wears off.

#4 The gymnastics Olympic trials put up major numbers, and with Simone Biles leading the charge in Paris, NBC is expecting big things later this month

#5: German sax guy has been dominating the Euros

Until next time, sports fans!

-Alex