NBCUniversal

NBC Sports' Peter King announced that he is retiring in his weekly Monday column today following a career that saw him write that column for 27 years and be a sportswriter for 44. King in recent years has "mostly moved away from the day-to-day minutiae of covering the league." King: "Coaching searches, free-agency, the lead-up to the draft ... It’s important, obviously. And last year I started noticing how much of it I simply didn’t care about." King added that he may find himself "jonesing to do something in the media when I’m bored in three months." King: "I truly don’t know what the future holds for me. I probably will work at something. ... Maybe it will be something in the media world, but just not Football Morning in America." He added, "I know I’ll want to do something with my time eventually. I just don’t know what it is" (NBCSPORTS.com, 2/26).

People all over the football world reacted to the news of King's retirement: 

• ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter: "Congratulations to the Hall-of-Fame reporter and storyteller @peter_king, who announced he is “retiring*”. Nobody went where he did, interviewed who he did, and loved what he did more than Peter. He is a legend. Monday mornings, and this business, won’t be the same without him." 
• ESPN NFL reporter Field Yates: "An iconic run for @peter_king. Football fans have been so fortunate for so long to wake up each Monday morning to your column with unparalleled insight into all things NFL. Congratulations, Peter!"
• PGA Tour Digital Assistant Editor Kevin Prise: "I grew up wanting to be like @peter_king. Since middle school, I’ve had a Mon/Tues solo meal to unplug w/ column. Every single week. Thank you sir for decades of inspiration to be a great storyteller. If I can do .01 for golf as you did for football, I’ll have had a good career." 
• MMQB Senior NFL Reporter Albert Breer: "Maybe the most fitting thing about this is how many people he helped/mentored over the years he’s working to promote in the column. I’m one who could never do enough to repay him. And hopefully we can all do the only thing he ever asked -- help someone else. Thank you, @peter_king."
• The Athletic Senior NFL Writer Kalyn Kahler: "THANK YOU @peter_king !! You’ve been the greatest mentor I could ask for. Congrats on your “retirement”! I’m gonna miss the details in your column so much."
• Fox Sports Senior National Writer Peter Schrager: "Congrats, @peter_king … can’t over-state how kind and gracious Peter was and is to younger scribes, as seen in his column today or so many of the kind / helpful words he’s shared -- in print or not -- to so many of us over the years. It’s a great way to be and how it should be."

MLS

A record crowd of 27,642 came out to Dignity Health Sports Park last night to see Lionel Messi and Inter Miami take on the L.A. Galaxy, as fans "packed the grass berm behind the north goal and filled temporary bleachers near the south goal." Cocktail tables were set up behind the Miami bench "for the most well-heeled supporters during warmups," helping the Galaxy to also break the record for the "highest-grossing game in stadium history." The team handed out more than 200 media credentials, "four times the usual amount, and still couldn’t accommodate everybody who wanted one." The grandstands "almost matched the field for star power," with actors Halle Berry, Hillary Duff and Edward Norton, rapper Lil Wayne and athletes Novak Djokovic, Puka Nacua, Christen Press, Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi among those on hand. Now that Messi "has everyone’s attention, the challenge for MLS is to keep it" (L.A. TIMES, 2/25).

Messi scored in the second minute of second-half injury time as Inter Miami salvaged a 1-1 draw with the Galaxy. The goal "delivered another thrill to the raucous crowd" cheering on both teams at Miami’s first road game of the season. There were also "thousands of fans" who wore Messi shirts (AP, 2/25).

AEG's Phil Anschutz attends Inter Miami-Galaxy

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AEG founder & Chair Phil Anschutz (r) alongside David Beckham and Lionel Messi

Photo: MLS

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Phil Anschutz and David Beckham

Photo: MLS

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Comcast in late 2014 announced a 10-year deal to rebrand what was then known as the Nationwide Series from 2015 through 2024 for roughly $200M in totalGetty Images

Comcast’s Xfinity telecommunications brand is in discussions with NASCAR over a new sponsorship deal that would start in 2025, but it’s still possible that this could be the last year of the Xfinity Series entitlement.

In late 2014, Comcast announced a 10-year deal to re-brand what was then known as the Nationwide Series from 2015 through 2024 for roughly $200M in total. At the time,  NBC Sports had just signed on with NASCAR for a 10-year, $4.4B media rights agreement, and Comcast had launched Xfinity in 2010 as a new name for its traditional TV/internet/phone business, giving the company a need to market the service with a national platform.

Now, as the end nears for the initial Xfinity Series entitlement, Comcast VP/Branded Partnerships & Activation Matt Lederer says the company is actively evaluating a new sponsorship agreement with NASCAR, but the company is “not trying to look at what Year 11 looks like but really, how does this become Year 1 of a new deal?” 

Asked if the Xfinity Series asset will be a necessity for a renewal, Lederer suggested that it won’t be, though they’re still working through negotiations. “It’s a little too early for us to give a really good answer on that, but I would say that as we’ve learned the sport over the last 10 years, we’ve learned the ecosystem of NASCAR has a lot of tentacles and there’s a lot of ways to engage with the fanbase,” he said. “The Xfinity Series for us has been the gold star across all those areas, but it’s a little too early to say what a new deal would look like.”

Xfinity works with GMR Marketing on its sports marketing.

The Big 12 is adding a wrinkle to the way fans reserve seats for basketball conference tournaments, as the conference is set to launch the “Basketball All-Access Pass” this morning. The membership -- which includes "premium" and "priority" options and is expected to function like personal seat licenses -- will allow fans to purchase the same seat location for the basketball championships through the 2031 season.

“The experience that our fans have will be much greater, because regardless if you take the premium route or the priority route, you're going to have access to clubs and experiences in the building that had never existed before that truly enhance the overall value proposition and that’s critically important,” Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark told Sports Business Journal. “It's one thing to charge more, but we know we have to give more and I plan on doing that at a high level.”

This program comes after the Big 12 worked with Legends to conduct a fan survey of 12,000 Big 12 basketball fans in 2023, collecting feedback on elements like ticketing, seating, and fan experience. Among those takeaways was a desire for more premium seating options.

“This opportunity allows us to really combine the best seats with hospitality and allow folks to secure that for multiple years,” said Mike Behan, President of Legends’ college division.

The “Basketball All-Access'' pass is slated to account for 12% of T-Mobile Center in K.C., while an industry source told SBJ the program projects to bring in roughly $30M in revenue for the league.

Yormark also suggested should things go well during the basketball rollout, a similar type of premium offering could be applied to the Big 12’s football championship game.

SeatGeek’s new features will streamline the process.

Last year, SeatGeek became the official resale partner of MLB, with its 30 teams, thousands of games and massive volume of tickets; and client Paciolan, the official ticketer for hundreds of college athletics programs. That meant SeatGeek suddenly had more rights holders and more season-ticket holders on its platform than ever before, and prompted the company to develop a new product geared toward making resale easier, called Next Fan Up. Work on the new product began in early 2023. 

Next Fan Up’s features are intended to make reselling tickets easier for the many ticket holders that have come into the SeatGeek fold, as well as the existing customer base, including professional sellers. Smart Pricing, aimed at erasing some of ticket resale’s more tedious aspects, is the new product’s star feature. Resellers can control ticket pricing themselves, turn some of that over to SeatGeek’s Smart Pricing or let SeatGeek handle it completely (while setting parameters such as whether to be aggressive in pricing, or sell quickly or patiently). Machine learning then dynamically prices the tickets based on dozens of factors and inputs, such as weather, announcement of a bobblehead night, injuries to star players or the opponent.  

Considering MLB’s season-ticket holders’ needs, Next Fan Up has made it easier to bulk-list tickets, which many fans do when the season schedule is released. An August 2023 SeatGeek survey of season- ticket holders found 45% were concerned about having to pay for games they aren’t able to attend.  

Seat Perks, another feature, should prove useful, too. Because SeatGeek is integrated with Paciolan and MLB, it gets official seat manifests from teams and venues and can automatically include the perks that accompany a ticket, like all-inclusive food and beverage, aisle accessibility or an exclusive entrance to the venue, perks that until now were either up to the seller to include or the buyer had to take the seller’s word that those perks were included. 

Daily ticket sales reports for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 are "tracking nearly dead-even" with the Greatest Spectacle in Racing’s most recent sellout eight years ago, "pushing the race closer to the 350,000-fan sellout for its 100th running." The race hosted more than 330,000 fans last year, the most since 2016. A year ago, IMS saw "roughly a 1% uptick" in ticket sales, moving from 12,000 unsold grandstand seats to 9,000 (and 325,000 to 330,000 race day attendees). It will "still need to see an improvement year-over-year to reach that grandstand sellout mark" with "enough time for fans to feel a scarcity in infield admission that led to 2016’s sellout." Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles attributes the upward trajectory of tickets sales to track owner Roger Penske’s "continued investment into the track" that presently stands around $50M just over four years. Boles said IMS' "collective facelift" has "helped show customers on the fence just how much the track’s new ownership cares about their experience." Beyond the grandstands, Boles says the track’s Snake Pit ticket sales are "'crazy again,' tracking towards the pre-pandemic highs" of more than 25,000 (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 2/26).

Bundesliga has reached an extension and expansion of its global partnership with Sportradar for an additional six years, through to the end of the 2031-32 season. Over the course of the extended agreement, the two parties will collaborate on bringing to market data and audio visual products that enhance the offering for fans around the world. With this early renewal, Sportradar receives the rights to:

• Sublicense video content from Germany’s top two divisions to its global network of sportsbook clients.
• Collect and exclusively distribute live match data for betting purposes, collaborating with Bundesliga and its stakeholders on an aligned approach for media data (from the start of the 2025-26 season).
• Provide betting and streaming rights for all matches in the WOW Virtual Bundesliga, the DFL’s esports offering.
• Expand the product and enhance the scope of Sportradar’s Virtual Sports Bundesliga, the company’s one of a kind interactive gaming experience.
• Further combat match-fixing, with the inclusion of education and prevention services, in addition to the existing bet monitoring through Sportradar’s Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), reinforcing both partners’ commitment to integrity (Bundesliga).

Hockey HOFer Chris Chelios was the recipient of "a heartfelt, big-budget Blackhawks jersey retirement ceremony" last night at the United Center. His 90-year-old mother, Sue, and his four kids -- including current Hawks broadcaster Caley -- and former teammates including Jeremy Roenick and Ed Belfour were in attendance, as well as "a star-studded collection of friends" ranging from Hockey HOFer Wayne Gretzky to Basketball HOFer Dennis Rodman to Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. Chelios "blew well past" his allotted speaking time during his speech. Former Blackhawks broadcaster Pat Foley emceed the event. Chelios received "universal love" as the team raised up his No. 7 banner -- the ninth raised by the Hawks (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 2/25).

Dressed in "all black and surrounded by family, friends and former teammates," Chelios "blew kisses to the cheering crowd" after he was introduced. The fans saluted the Chicago native with chants of "Cheli! Cheli!" while the current Blackhawks and Red Wings watched from the benches. Model Cindy Crawford and former tennis star John McEnroe were also "among a group of Chelios’ longtime friends" in attendance. Michael Jordan, another "longtime buddy," sent along a congratulatory video. Gretzky and fellow Hockey HOFer Mark Messier "also watched from a box" (AP, 2/25). Chelios started the ceremony "with a ride onto the ice in a black classic car along with his mother" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/25). Jordan "planned to attend" in person, but "had to back out because of a family matter" (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 2/25).

Fanatics Collectibles and Topps hosted a "Hobby Rip Night" at 400+ hobby shops across 12 U.S. states on Saturday, and appearances across the country included former NFLer Tom Brady (Skybox Collectibles at Citi Field in N.Y.); Suns F Kevin Durant, Ravens WR Odell Beckham Jr. and Bengals QB Joe Burrow (Rip Valley in Phoenix); Braves RF Ronald Acuna Jr. (Blue Breaks in Venice, Fla.); rapper Meek Mill (Cards HQ in Atlanta); and D-backs CF Corbin Carroll (Valleywide Cards in Phoenix) (Fanatics).

NWSL club San Diego Wave FC has extended and expanded its partnership with 24 Hour Fitness that will see the fitness club become the club’s new lower back of kit partner (San Diego Wave).

The Wall Street Journal dives into the legend of former PGA Tour player Anthony Kim under the header, "Golf’s hottest young star vanished for a decade. Now he's finally coming back." It’s more than a decade now since Kim "disappeared from professional golf." The former PGA Tour supernova, who "exploded into stardom with his booming drives and a bunch of wins in his early 20s," hasn’t competed in a pro tournament since 2012. His "abrupt departure" made him "the game’s enduring mystery, and created a new pastime for golf insiders: whispering about the possibility that he might one day return." Now Kim is poised to make his "long-anticipated comeback," and he has picked "somewhere far from the PGA Tour spotlight" to emerge from the shadows: Saudi Arabia. Kim, now 38 years old, is set to compete this week in his first professional event since 2012 at LIV Golf Jeddah. That makes him "the latest splashy addition" for the Saudi-backed circuit, which wooed Masters champion Jon Rahm away from the PGA Tour to "bolster its lineup before the season."

Also:

• Mike Freeman: The NFL should be ashamed of itself that Eric Bieniemy has to coach in college.
• How last summer’s success changed the relationship between Team Canada, NBA players.

TUESDAY

• The NFL Scouting Combine begins at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis (7 days).
• Shift4 Payments will release its quarterly earnings.

WEDNESDAY

• Liberty Media Group will release its quarterly earnings.
• Paramount Global will release its quarterly earnings.
• Atlanta Braves Holdings will release its quarterly earnings.
• Nexstar Media Group will release its quarterly earnings.

THURSDAY

• Anheuser Busch InBev will release its quarterly earnings.
• Sodexo will release its quarterly earnings.
• Acushnet will release its quarterly earnings.

FRIDAY

• The 18th annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference will be held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Speakers include Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, Joe Gibbs Racing President Dave Alpern, NFL Chief Football Administrative Officer Dawn Aponte, RedBird Capital Partners founder & Managing Partner Gerry Cardinale, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment founder & Managing General Partner Josh Harris, IMG Events and On Location President Paul Caine, former WNBAer Sue Bird, CNBC correspondent Contessa Brewer and more. See the agenda here.
• FuboTV will release its quarterly earnings.

Have an event we should feature? Send an email to malongi@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

Joey Logano's glove penalty explained by @LarryMac28:#RaceDay | https://t.co/mRRDpA6iAy https://t.co/oy8V1MYfA8 pic.twitter.com/Mo8agc6bLh

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 25, 2024

When you see someone who has earned more than $100 million brawling at a football camp... the math ain't mathing. This incident involving Cam is very disheartening.

— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) February 25, 2024

Supermodel and Chicago LEGEND Cindy Crawford just hit the center-ice shot during Hawks intermission 🤯 pic.twitter.com/wT5C6uRm4T

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 26, 2024

"Trained as a priest and a physician, in 1532 he published his first novel under the pen name Alcofribas Nasier."

"Who is François Rabelais?"