The SBD/SBJ editorial staff compiled the top sports business stories of '14, in no particular order. Today, we present five of them.
GOODELL UNDER FIRE: Ray Rice and Roger Goodell may forever be connected for reasons neither would have hoped for. The commissioner’s bungling of Rice’s punishment for striking his then-fiancee shook the NFL like no crisis before, especially when video of the act surfaced. Out of the crisis came a new appreciation for the horrors of domestic violence and a new policy at the NFL, but also a weakened commissioner.
RUSSIA’S BIG MOMENT: Construction came down to the wire, but Russia delivered on the Winter Games, spending $51B to essentially build an Olympic city from scratch. The events in Sochi went off without a hitch, but questions remain about their long-term legacy. Organizers aimed to reveal a new Russia to the world, but much of that goodwill was extinguished quicker than the Olympic flame, as the country faced international scrutiny over its role in Ukraine.
U.S. GETS ITS SOCCER KICKS: From watch parties to television viewership, the U.S. stayed captivated with the World Cup, providing a wide cultural embrace. ESPN and Univision posted record ratings and viewership for the event, and soccer dominated the conversation on social media and around the water cooler. While the debate lingered on whether the event will translate to more general acceptance for soccer in the U.S., the nation showed that for at least a few weeks in the summer, it was ready to play along.
A SOCIETY ALWAYS ON THE RECORD: Donald Sterling’s racially charged comments, captured on tape and made public by TMZ, forced the longtime owner of the Clippers to sell his team and touched off a debate throughout sports centering around race. Then, in early September as a Sterling aftershock, Hawks Managing Partner Bruce Levenson self-reported to the NBA a racially charged e-mail while announcing that he would sell his majority interest in the franchise.
GOING OVER THE TOP: A year that started with no significant over-the-top sports services now has seemingly every sports media company testing the concept. WWE Network launched in February. There’s NFL Now, which launched over the summer. 120 Sports engineered a summer launch as well with MLB, NASCAR, the NBA and NHL as content partners. And there’s ESPN, which doesn’t have a service up and running yet, but has been amassing OTT rights through its NBA and MLS deals during the year.
