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Coronavirus and Sports

NWSL Spirit Owner: League Was "Nimble" In Crafting Comeback

The NWSL will resume play June 27 with the Challenge Cup tournament format at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah, and Washington Spirit Owner Steve Baldwin cited the league's "size" as the reason it is able to be the first in U.S. pro team sports to come back. Baldwin on "The Bond" podcast with Octagon's David Schwab said, “We have nine teams. We have, give or take, 250 players, and because of that we should be more nimble, more responsive, have a greater velocity than other pro sports leagues. That worked for us in getting this done.” Baldwin noted NWSL was undergoing a leadership change when the pandemic struck, and it was new Commissioner Lisa Baird's "first or second day" on the job when "this stuff hit, so she got thrown in front of a fire hose of things that she had to deal with.” Baldwin: “Throughout the process, Lisa stayed connected with our players’ association, the players and the league to make sure they were aware of everything that was going on.” Baldwin added Utah was selected as the host state because “it’s had a low level of incidents of coronavirus." He said, "We have venues and hotels that we can really contain and manage" ("The Bond," 5/29).

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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