The A's have "scrapped their traditional season-ticket format and are introducing a more flexible system in which fans will have options for every home game." Memberships to the A's Access program "will go on sale" Friday morning. Members will receive "general admission access to every game, a reserved seat plan and additional benefits" including half-price concessions, 25% off merchandise and "upgrade credits for games not included in a reserved ticket plan." Fans buying the A’s Access plan for '19 "will get first crack at 2018 postseason tickets." The A’s are "averaging 17,903 fans per game, lower" than every MLB team "except the Rays and Marlins" (SFCHRONICLE.com, 7/30).

Meanwhile, the A's today will celebrate late radio announcer Bill King by "airing a commercial-free broadcast of the game against the Blue Jays." Ken Korach, who wrote a book about King, "will call the game alongside his radio partner Vince Controneo and A's legend Ray Fosse." This comes "almost exactly one year" after King posthumously received the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball HOF (957THEGAME.com, 7/26).

The Capitals' practice space is being "renamed the MedStar Capitals Iceplex thanks to an expanded 10-year partnership between the healthcare company and Monumental Sports & Entertainment." The announcement was part of a "larger announcement that MedStar Health now owns the naming rights" for all Monumental Sports training facilities. The new building in Southeast DC for the Wizards, Mystics and G League Capital City Go-Go will be "named the MedStar Wizards Performance Center." Also, the facility used by NBA 2K League team Wizards District Gaming becomes MedStar Wizards District Gaming Studio (NBCSPORTSWASHINGTON.com, 7/30).

ESPN is moving Matthew Berry’s daily fantasy football show to ESPN+ this year, with the first episode posting this afternoon. Berry’s “The Fantasy Show” will have a similar look-and-feel on ESPN+ as it did last year on ESPN2. This season, Berry says the show has the freedom of running longer than the 21-minute format it had to keep on linear TV. “With ESPN+, there are no limits on time,” Berry said. “This year, if there’s a particularly big news day we can do a deep dive on that story.”

Berry also said the on-demand nature of ESPN+ will be an advantage, especially in the preseason when it will devote shows to each position. “It will be helpful if your draft is tomorrow; and it will remain helpful if your draft is in three weeks,” Berry said.

NBC today announced that 10 star NFL players will appear in versions of the musical intro to "Sunday Night Football." The NFLers will appear alongside Carrie Underwood in performance of the opening theme song for "SNF" for the '18 season (NBC Sports).

Download the NBC

NBC Sports Group is partnering with Snapchat on "Premier League: Extra Time," a new EPL-focused weekly original show that will debut exclusively on Snapchat’s Discover page at the start of the league's '18-19 season. Each Monday in-season, the show will feature a recap of the weekend’s matches. A preview of the show will air on Snapchat on Thursday, Aug. 9, with the first official episode posting on Monday, Aug. 13. "Premier League: Extra Time" will be hosted by TYT Sports soccer analyst Francis Maxwell (NBC Sports).

A-B InBev's Natural Light brand, which sponsors NASCAR driver Chris Buescher's No. 37 car, has launched a new campaign that will paint one fan's resume on the ride for the Monster Energy Cup Series South Point 400 in Las Vegas (THE DAILY).

The Coyotes have inked a multiyear extension with Fanatics, which will continue to operate retail stores and kiosks throughout Gila River Arena. Fanatics also provides e-commerce services for the team through its NHL league-wide partnership (Coyotes).

Ohio-based Bob Evans Restaurants has partnered with Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer, who will serve as the chain's first-ever "Head Breakfast Coach" to help launch the new "Everything Breakfast" offering (Bob Evans Restaurants).

Fila has extended its sponsorship agreement with the WTA/ATP Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati to be held Aug. 11-19 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center (Fila).

Baton Rouge-based Marucci Sports has inked a deal to become the official baseball equipment provider to LSU (Marucci Sports).

Bojangles' new NFL Panthers-themed Big Bo Box is available for a limited time at participating restaurants in North Carolina and South Carolina (Bojangles).

Bojangles

"I honestly can’t say Ted was rooting for me to do it" -- Baseball HOFer Rod Carew, on the late Ted Williams when Carew famously flirted with a .400 batting average in the summer of '77 (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/30).

"Still to this day, I see some kid from a college program or the NFL getting hit with a four-week suspension for smoking pot, and I'm like, 'What an idiot. Oh, wait a minute. I'm in that industry'" -- Former Oklahoma State assistant football coach Brian Yauger, on co-founding Lemonhaze, a marketing and events company for the cannabis industry (ESPN.com, 7/30).

“Baseball has a real issue to address here that doesn’t just have to do with social media faux pas. ... This is a cultural problem, not just one of guys who should be scrubbing their accounts” -- ESPN’s Clinton Yates, on old, insensitive tweets from Braves P Sean Newcomb and Nationals SS Trea Turner surfacing recently (“OTL,” ESPN, 7/30).

Some personal news: I’m starting a new and exciting company that deletes old shitty tweets for athletes who can’t remember all the racisms, sexisms and homophobias they did on the internets as young precocious 21 year olds. Investors welcome.

— Robert Klemko (@RobertKlemko) July 30, 2018

Ted Leonsis says Dwight Howard's reputation as a headache is 'media generated.' Apparently all those teams that go rid of him in spite of his remarkable talent were run by people in the media business, right?

— John Feinstein (@JFeinsteinBooks) July 30, 2018

Teams should not have to compete with the sanctioning body for sponsors. They want to be involved in the sport? How about paying a race team's bills instead of mailing checks to NASCAR Plaza?

— Frank Velat (@FrankVelat) July 30, 2018

My new favorite pastime (not really) is reading national media make sweeping statements about the Bills then fight with the fans who respond, and then the back-and-forths. Ahhhhh, training camp.

— Sal Capaccio 🏈 (@SalSports) July 30, 2018

If you see a tweet we will not want to miss, send it to us at editorial@sportsbusinessdaily.com.

A segment for this past weekend's UFC on Fox event in Calgary featured fighters Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier trying their hand at a bobsled run on the course from the '88 Olympics.

$1.8M -- Charitable impact generated for New York/New Jersey charities from last year’s PGA Tour Northern Trust Open, a record for the tournament (Northern Trust Open).