In Portland, Jamie Goldberg reports the '15 NWSL Championship game on Oct. 1 "will be played at Providence Park, the Portland Thorns' home field." The match will kick off at 6:30pm PT and be "broadcast nationally" on FS1. In past years, the NWSL championship game "has been played at the home field of the 'finalist with the most regular season points.'" The league made the decision before the start of the '15 season to "change the format to have the game be played at a pre-determined venue, but did not announce the rule change" until yesterday (Portland OREGONIAN, 8/18).
LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS: THE MMQB's Peter King noted after 17 preseason NFL games, the debut of the new 33-yard PAT "has been uneventful." Including the HOF Game and the full preseason schedule this past weekend, kickers have been successful on 55 of 57 attempts, a 97% rate. That percentage is "in line with what the average is for field goals in the low-30-yard-attempt area" (MMQB.SI.com, 8/16).
A LEAGUE OF THEIR DRONE: RSE Ventures co-Founder & CEO Matt Higgins said the new Drone Racing League “has all the makings of a sport in that you could see why sponsors would want to associate with it.” The league launched just a few months ago, but Higgins indicated that once "articles came out ... the attention has been inbound." Higgins: "We’ve heard from a number of different sponsors who say, ‘I want to get in early.’ It makes total sense because it’s great on TV and it’ll be great in an arena" (“Squawk Alley,” CNBC, 8/17).
