The Cardinals and the Cubs "split Major League Baseball’s second London Series" over the weekend, and the sounds around London Stadium yesterday "suggested a decent number of the 55,565 in attendance were genuinely invested in the sport." Players from both teams "emphasised the seriousness of MLB’s trip across the pond." MLB will be "evaluating if and how they can continue to stage games in London after the last scheduled series" in 2026 (London INDEPENDENT, 6/25).

England’s newspapers and tabloids "didn’t dedicate much space to MLB’s London Series over the weekend." Still, the London Series "drew over 54,000 each game," with an announced attendance of 54,662 on Saturday and 55,565 Sunday -- which "weren’t quite sellouts" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 6/25).

The weekend "offered everything sports watchers in Britain have come to expect" from visiting American major league events -- "a large crowd with considerable enthusiasm for the sport, but understandably limited emotional investment in the result." The crowd "seemed to consist of a good-natured cocktail of American tourists, baseball-curious sports fans and British baseball enthusiasts" (London GUARDIAN, 6/25).

The Cubs are "planning to launch an in-market, direct-to-consumer streaming service" for Marquee Sports Network after the All-Star break. Cubs President of Business Operations Crane Kenney said, "We’re aiming for July, sometime after the All-Star break, to bring a service for those who say I cut the cord, I don’t have Fubo -- which we are available on -- but I’d like to buy Marquee individually, just the channel, to see Cubs games." He added, "We’re taking our time to make sure this thing is exactly right. In terms of the quality of the program, the type of program, pricing, marketing, ease of access so it’s available on all devices." No specifics on pricing were given (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 6/25).

TGL

Fenway Sports Group is adding golf to its growing team ownership portfolio, landing the second franchise of TMRW Sports’ TGL golf league that will begin play in January. TGL recently announced L.A. Golf Club as its first team, and four more are expected to be confirmed before the end of the summer. FSG’s franchise will represent Boston and the New England region. The move to join TGL’s team ownership ranks was an easy decision, FSG Chair Tom Werner told SBJ on Friday. FSG Principal Owner John Henry was an early investor in TMRW, the company founded by Mike McCarley, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and both he and Werner have had an eye on working with the PGA Tour -- a partner of the TGL -- “for a long time,” Werner said.  

“We always thought that team golf was something that was exciting, and this idea by Mike and Tiger and Rory is really an innovative experience that’s going to combine technology with live action,” Werner said. “We think we can be additive. We think this team idea translates well to the passion that Boston sports fans have.” 

FSG will roll out a team name and identity later this summer as well as making decisions on staffing, though Werner noted Red Sox President & CEO Sam Kennedy and EVP/Chief Strategy Officer Dave Beeston would likely be involved in some form. Also still to be determined is where the team will be located in the Boston area. FSG had a group at the U.S. Open in L.A. recently to meet with owner Alexis Ohanian and his LAGC over lunch and dinner, McCarley said. “Alexis and his team bring a lot of expertise in building communities and FSG obviously has a lot of experience running teams,” McCarley told SBJ. “They bring a lot of different ideas to the table. Certainly, they’ll be competitive on the field of play but hopefully collaborative in the boardroom.” 

TGL has several additional team bids already in and has more than a dozen groups aiming to have theirs in by the end of the month. More team announcements are expected in July. Evolution Media Capital, the financial investment banking arm of CAA, is handling the team sale process. 

ESPN has obtained the broadcast rights to this summer’s FIBA World Cup 2023, SBJ has learned. Each of the tournament’s 92 games to be played in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia will be available on the ESPN App or across ESPN+ and ESPN2. According to sources, FIBA made it a priority to have the NBA's lead broadcast partner -- Disney-owned ESPN -- handle the telecasts for a second consecutive World Cup. From August 25 through the championship final on Sept. 10, ESPN+ will show 86 games, with six more airing exclusively on ESPN2.  

Team USA -- whose top players will reportedly be first-time NBA All-Stars Tyrese Haliburton and Anthony Edwards and 2022 Rooke of the Year Paolo Banchero -- will be featured in each of the first three ESPN2 broadcasts, including an Aug. 28 match-up against Greece and Giannis Antetokounmpo. The last three ESPN2 telecasts will likely be quarterfinal, semifinal and championship playoff games featuring Team USA if they advance that far, according to sources. All of the USA’s games on ESPN2 are expected to air live at 8:30pm in Asia, or 8:30am ET.  

Staged every four years, the FIBA World Cup 2023 could also potentially showcase the Spurs’ No. 1 overall pick from Thursday’s NBA draft -- France’s Victor Wembanyama. France plays its opening game on Aug. 25 against Canada on ESPN+ at 9:30am ET. NBA Finals MVP and Serbia native Nikola Jokic plays its first game on Aug. 28 vs. China. The 2019 World Cup in China, won by Spain and also televised by ESPN, set a global viewership record, largely because games were also disseminated to large audiences in the host country by CCTV. With roughly 140 foreign-born players currently in the NBA, the FIBA World Cup and Olympics are considered the two most anticipated international basketball events.   

The name of the Jaguars' stadium "could be changing" from TIAA Bank Field to EverBank Stadium by the time the team kicks off the regular season. A rep of the Jacksonville-based bank has sent a letter to Mayor Lenny Curry and Jaguars President Mark Lamping "requesting the name change." The change would "require filing legislation that City Council must approve." The switch would "return 'EverBank' to the name of the stadium," which debuted as the stadium's name in 2010. After TIAA bought EverBank, the stadium name changed to TIAA Bank Field in 2018. TIAA announced last November it was "selling substantially all of its interests" in the bank to new investors (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 6/25).

The empire of Underdog Venture Team is expanding. The marketing services agency, founded in early 2022 with a promise of greater diversity within a field that offers little, has been acquired by suburban Philadelphia private equity firm NewSpring Holdings. What will now be known as Underdog & Co. will have access to capital and a charter to acquire and assemble a sort of a new-age marketing shop, both in terms of its underlying mission of diversity and to create an agency that’s right for the recent changes buffeting sports.

One of those, of course, is the infusion of private-equity capital. Additionally, “the ante has been upped overall across marketing with a greater emphasis on real ROI,” said NewSpring partner Skip Maner, who has known Underdog Venture Team co-founder Dan Mannix since their college days at the Univ. of Richmond in the mid-1980s. “There’s also these big systemic changes, like the ways people consume sports, athletes as individual brands, the impact of NIL, and women in pro sports bringing change. That feels like great change and great opportunity, so we want to create the right company to take advantage of that as the world changes.”

It’s NewSpring’s first investment in the agency world and, tangentially, in sports. Prior acquisitions by the PE firm were in logistics, fintech, government services and IT services. The agreement, the initial contacts for which began with a LinkedIn message last November, was signed earlier this month. 

Mannix, who built experiential/event agency LeadDog Marketing from 1999 to 2016, selling it to CSM in 2016, said he expects to unveil acquisitions as soon as this fall. “We’re going to be very active with acquisitions,” he said. “The last company they did this with [in a different industry]made 13 acquisitions in 3½ years.” Mannix will serve as co-founder and managing partner of the new Underdog. David Nugent, the other co-founder of the original Underdog, will have a “significant equity stake” in the new Underdog & Co. 

Read more about the Underdog-NewSpring deal in this week's edition of Sports Business Journal.

Sponsorship measurement and valuation platform MVP Index has raised a $20M Series B led by Verance Capital. The Austin-based company measures sponsor asset valuations across video, audio and experiential channels, and its partners include Amazon, Apple, CAA, Endeavor, the Red Sox, the Cowboys, the NHL and the PGA Tour, among others. The newly raised capital will allow MVP to continue expanding, with a particular focus on product innovation and building out its sales and marketing efforts. The company previously raised a $7M Series A in 2016. Verance, which was founded by 2015 SBJ 40 Under 40 honoree Lyle Ayes, has recently been an active investor in sports and entertainment technology, earlier this year co-leading a $6M funding round for venue planning company OnePlan.

Alpine Racing CEO Laurent Rossi said the investments will "help Alpine's media and marketing strategy"Getty Images

Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who also own English soccer club Wrexham AFC, are "joining Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners in an investor group" taking a 24% equity stake in F1 team Alpine Racing. The $218.1M deal values England-based Alpine Racing at around $900M following the investment. Alec Scheiner, the co-founder and partner of Otro Capital, "will join" Alpine Racing's BOD. Alpine Racing SAS, the French entity that makes the team's power units, will "remain entirely owned by the carmaker" (REUTERS, 6/26). For Renault, the Alpine deal is "aimed at raising the visibility" of its Alpine electric vehicle line, as it pushes to have "more than half its sales in E.V.s by 2030" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/26).

Actor Michael B. Jordan is also a part of the investor group, while the Huntsman family and Main Street Advisors, the financial advisers to Lakers F LeBron James, "participated in Otro and RedBird’s investments." Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi said the investments will "help Alpine’s media and marketing strategy, which is essential to support our sporting performance over the long term," adding that the team would also "avail itself of the sports industry expertise of RedBird" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 6/26).

This week's SBJ cover story is the reveal of this year's "Forty Under 40" honorees. The Class of 2023 also includes four new members to the Hall of Fame, a distinction reserved only to those that have appeared on the list three times.

Those new members include Monumental Sports and Entertainment President Zach Leonsis, The Raine Group's Colin Neville, Riot Games COO of eSports Whalen Rozelle and MLB EVP of Baseball Ops Morgan Sword. The entire group will be recognized during an awards gala on Oct. 20 in Las Vegas (SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/26 issue).

• Bill Kenwright to remain chair of EPL side Everton.
• Tour de France targeting new fans with TikTok deal.
• Saudia Arabia withdraws joint 2030 World Cup bid.

Check your preferences to make sure you are getting all the SBJ editions you need to keep you informed.

Yesterday's NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 drew a "sold-out crowd exceeding 30,000 fans" at the Nashville Superspeedway. That is the "second sellout in the Ally 400’s three years" (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 6/25).

The INDIANAPOLIS STAR notes Middle East regimes are "creeping into U.S. sports leagues" and asks: "What could possibly go wrong?" It "started on the far side of the Atlantic Ocean, where we don’t pay attention because America First and all that, but now it’s here and at some point it’ll be too late." It was "easy to dismiss 'sportswashing' when it was happening over there, wherever that is, but now it has washed onto our shores like primordial ooze, and it will evolve, and if some of this dirty money ends up propping up our favorite NBA or NFL or MLB team, well, maybe we had something to do with it."

Also:

• Why the NFL's youngest agent is "obsessed with greatness."
• NASCAR in Chicago is the "epitome of a culture clash."

Thanks for the hospitality, Baltusrol! pic.twitter.com/1SK9k3ouqA

— KPMG Women's PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 25, 2023

All three of these guys will be on the draft floor as NHL GMs this week, pretty neat pic.twitter.com/f8Jd6kBCV7

— Sabremetrix📊 (@Sabremetrix) June 25, 2023

We truly have the best Capitals team❤️ We all love what we do & love spending game days bringing coverage to you amazing #ALLCAPS fans!! Thrilled for our Pregame Live crew bringing home another @CapitalEmmys🏆 https://t.co/oRBrfcCYa3

— Alexa Landestoy (Shaw) (@alexalandestoy) June 25, 2023

Ottawa continues discussions with multiple clubs about Alex DeBrincat. The #GoSensGo could get into the first-round and bring back a 1st as part of a deal, but it’s not a prerequisite for every team they’re talking to. Wings own picks 9 & 17 overall and remain in the mix for him

— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) June 25, 2023

This angle of Nolan taking the field at the #LondonSeries is just 🤌 pic.twitter.com/gfp4gOO85U

— MLB (@MLB) June 25, 2023

Friday night’s “Final Jeopardy!” category was “Female Authors.”

“At age 9 in 1883 she moved west, where she met Annie Pavelka, a young pioneer on whom she would later model a title character.”

“Who is Willa Cather?”