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People and Pop Culture

This Week's Newsmakers: NHL Hockey Returns To Winnipeg After 15-Year Hiatus

THE DAILY each Friday offers our take on the performances over the past week of people and entities in sports business. Here are this week's newsmakers:

WIN: WINNIPEG -- The NHL returns to The Peg for the first time since the Jets left for Phoenix prior to the '96-97 season as True North Sports & Entertainment finalizes a deal to purchase the Thrashers and move them north of the border for next season. The new ownership group, locally respected and brimming with cash, is already seeing success with Winnipeg fans, with 4,170 making season-ticket commitments on the first two days of an exclusive pre-sale. Hockey never played well in the cluttered Atlanta sports landscape, particularly with apathetic ownership, and there is no denying that the NHL will now be Winnipeg's crown jewel.

LOSE: OHIO STATE -- The Buckeyes athletic department is hit hard this week with the resignation of football coach JIM TRESSEL amid a flurry of allegations against the program and players. The coach's downfall gets national coverage with a cover story in SI this week, adding insult to injury for one of the stalwart programs of college sports. While the NCAA continues investigating the school for other issues of noncompliance and improper benefits, one has to believe looming penalties against the program could lead to some dark days in Columbus.

DRAW: INDYCAR -- The open-wheel racing series is coming off one of the most memorable finishes in the 100-year history of the Indianapolis 500 as DAN WHELDON captures his second Borg-Warner Trophy after rookie J.R. HILDEBRAND hits the wall on the final turn of the race. The gregarious and stylish Wheldon would be a natural for IndyCar to put in the forefront of its marketing for the remainder of the season, but Indy is the only race in which Wheldon is currently scheduled to appear. Also, while the Indy 500 sees a jump in ratings, it will have to wait longer than normal to capitalize, as an extra week was put into the schedule this year for the follow-up race.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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