SBJ Unpacks: NFL Threatens Forfeits For Protocol Violations

Tonight in SBJ Unpacks: The NFL threatens forfeits as punishment for teams' failure to adhere to COVID-19 protocols. 

Also:

• Tod Leiweke joins Sounders ownership group
• Jared Smith gets candid about leaving Ticketmaster
• Facebook's Rob Shaw talks NBA VR sponsorship
• USOPC to recognize Maya Moore, 1980 boycott
• Fitch maintains stable rating on Hard Rock Stadium bonds
• FanDuel, DraftKings cash in on pent-up demand

NFL THREATENS FORFEITS, LOSS OF DRAFT PICKS FOR PROTOCOL VIOLATIONS

• The NFL for the first time this afternoon threatened forfeits as punishment for COVID-19 protocol violations in a conference call with executives from every team, SBJ’s Ben Fischer reports. Commissioner Roger Goodell said that would be an option if violations “result in virus spread requiring adjustments to the schedule or otherwise impacting other teams,” and again mentioned draft pick cuts as another potential hammer.
  
  

• The NFL and NFLPA also agreed to new steps to double down on pandemic mitigation after the first two NFL games were postponed this week (Steelers-Titans and Patriots-Chiefs, being played tonight). They include: “a league-wide video monitoring system” to ensure compliance with rules requiring face masks when in facilities and traveling and bans on any gatherings outside the club facilities.
  
  
• The meeting came after another Sunday in which coaches were seen on camera without masks, namely the Raiders' Jon Gruden. Today, NFL Network reported that 10 Raiders players were fined $165K in total for being seen without face marks at a recent fundraiser. 
  
  
• “Complacency is our shared opponent,” Goodell wrote. “We must reinforce our commitment to full adherence to our mandatory safety protocols and best practices.” Later, he repeated: “Simply put, compliance is mandatory.”

KRAKEN CEO TOD LEIWEKE JOINS SOUNDERS OWNERSHIP GROUP

• Seattle Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke and his wife, Tara, are now part of the Sounders ownership group, per SBJ’s Mark J. Burns. 
  
  
• Leiweke has prior ties to the club as he oversaw the league’s expansion into MLS in the late 2000s. He also served as CEO of the Seahawks from 2002-2010. 
  
  
• The news follows last week’s announcement that Jed Kaplan, minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies and second-tier English soccer club Swansea City, joining Orlando City as part-owner. Check out Tuesday’s Morning Buzz for more information on the Sounders’ new owners.

TICKETMASTER'S JARED SMITH: COVID LANDSCAPE HASTENED DEPARTURE

• Ticketmaster Global Chair Jared Smith, who will step down from his role by the end of 2020 after 17 years at the company, told SBJ's Karn Dhingra his departure was hastened by the economic fallout from the global pandemic. 
  
  
• “If not for COVID, would I have left this year? Probably not,” Smith said. Smith, who was promoted to global chair in August, said he had discussed with Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino plans to eventually leave over the next few years, but COVID accelerated his timetable and they both decided to make the move now rather than later. Per Variety, Global President Mark Yovich, who was promoted at the same time Smith was named chair, "will remain in that role, while North America President Amy Howe will become COO." 
  
  
• Smith: “We were geared up for a really big year, everybody was touring, it was going to be a huge stadium year, we were opening up with new customers with SoFi (Stadium) and the Raiders. ... We were geared up for a huge year."
  
   
• Smith believes COVID will accelerate trends around identity-based digital ticketing that were occurring in the business before the pandemic, albeit at a lesser rate. “What would have been in my opinion a three or five-year progression or shift from paper-based tickets to 100% identity-based tickets, I think will now happen overnight,” Smith said. “As we come out of COVID, for all of the right reasons, almost every team, every venue, every artist is going to want to know who bought the tickets and more importantly who is using the tickets. When that happens, a ton of great things will flow from that."

• Smith hopes to stay in the live entertainment and sports industry, but is also confident he can apply lessons from his 17 years at Ticketmaster elsewhere as he contemplates his next move. “If I can find the right opportunity to stay in the business, I’d love to. But I’m fortunate if I don’t, I don’t have to,” Smith said. He added that Ticketmaster at its core is a "product and technology business at massive scale with a big consumer tech business and marketplace." Smith: "That’s readily transferable to any number of industries.” 
  
   

FACEBOOK'S ROB SHAW TALKS NBA VR HEADSET SPONSORSHIP

• Oculus from Facebook in mid-August became the official virtual-reality headset sponsor of the NBA, and Facebook Director of Sports Media & League Partnerships Rob Shaw said the deal has “provided a great opportunity to leverage” Oculus’ VR technology within NBA games to “really bring our brand out to the public, probably like never before.”
  
  
• Shaw told SBJ’s Andrew Levin, “As a longtime New York Knicks fan … you aspire for the seat that a certain Spike Lee is always seated in, and Oculus, in many ways, affords you that opportunity.”
  
  
• Shaw stressed Facebook is at a point where it is “expanding the gates quite a bit” in the VR space, calling the list of potential experiences “unfathomable.” He recalled a meeting very early in his time at Facebook in which Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained why the company was investing in Oculus. Zuckerberg at the time said, “Think about a world where two people in New Jersey can go on a date to the Louvre in Paris.”
  
  
• Shaw said, “It opened my mind. It blew my mind … to understand the power of VR, the power of being able to truly have yourself an experience that you only could get if you were literally traveling thousands of miles to have.” With that in mind, Shaw concluded, “We’ve always been very honest and clear that Oculus is a long-term play. This isn’t something that we’re buying to make a quick dollar. This is something that we believe is going to change the way people socialize and engage with each other.”
  
  
• For more insights from Shaw on Oculus’ deal with the NBA, and the implications of VR and Facebook’s content strategy, check out today’s episode of “SBJ Unpacks: The Road Ahead” podcast.

USOPC TO HONOR MAYA MOORE, 1980 OLYMPIC BOYCOTT

• The USOPC today announced its annual award recipients, reports SBJ’s Chris Smith. The awards will be presented virtually on Thursday, as part of the annual USOPC Assembly. 
  
  
• The Olympic & Paralympic Torch Award, which celebrates outstanding service to the Olympic and Paralympic movement, will be given to the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team in recognition of its decision to boycott the Moscow Games 40 years ago. Minnesota Lynx F Maya Moore, who won gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, will receive the Jack Kelly Fair Play Award for her decision to step away from basketball last year in order to pursue criminal justice reform efforts. 
  
  
• The two annual Rings of Gold Awards, which honor an individual and a program that have helped children achieve their Olympic dreams, will be awarded to Dr. Tekemia Dorsey and the George Pocock Rowing Foundation’s Erg Ed program. Dorsey founded the International Association of Black Triathletes in 2014 and has since been responsible for introducing hundreds of youths in urban neighborhoods to multisport racing. The decade-old Erg Ed program, which is operated in partnership with USRowing, provides middle and high schools equipment, training and a curriculum that’s used by more than 25,000 students annually. 

FITCH KEEPS STABLE RATING ON HARD ROCK STADIUM BONDS

• Fitch kept its BBB rating on a combined $185.6 million of the Miami-Dade County Industrial Development Authority’s outstanding bonds on Hard Rock Stadium, reports SBJ's Karn Dhingra. One tranche of bonds at $109.3 million is taxable and another at $76.3 million is tax-exempt. 
  
  
• In its rating, Fitch noted some of Hard Rock Stadium’s variable-rate debt exposes the venue’s credit to interest rate fluctuations, but the stadium’s holding company has “revised the debt amortization schedule of its existing debt, easing some near-term pressure on debt service.” But Hard Rock’s overall debt service payments will grow steadily before dropping off in FY 2035. 
  
  
• Fitch also noted that “revenues from suites, club seats, sponsorships and advertising agreements are exposed to renewal risk and continued economic uncertainty." Combined with an "underperforming team, price points and renewal terms may be pressured.” 
  
  
• Fitch’s rating assumes Hard Rock Stadium’s 2022 revenue is expected to be flat and by 2023 revenues are expected to show modest growth and steadily increase in subsequent years. 

OUTSIDE CONTRIBUTORS: FANDUEL, DRAFTKINGS CASH IN

• Tonight's op-ed contribution is from Randy Koch, CEO of Facteus, a leading provider of actionable insights from financial data. He writes under the header, "FanDuel, DraftKings Cash In On Pent-up Demand Over The Summer."
  
  
• Koch: "Spoiler alert: It’s even more than you think. After a slight dip in year-over-year growth in the early days of the pandemic, DraftKings stabilized and picked up steam at the end of May and hit 100% year-over-year growth by the tail end of June. In that same time, FanDuel racked up impressive 100%-200% year-over-year growth numbers. Believe it or not, this is just the warmup."
  
  
• To read the full contribution, click here.

SPEED READS

• The Texans have "fired head coach and general manager Bill O'Brien," sources told ESPN's Dan Graziano and Adam Schefter. Texans Owner Cal McNair gave O'Brien the GM title this past January. The team is off to an 0-4 start this season following yesterday's loss to the Vikings, and also have the NFL’s highest payroll this year at $248 million. The Houston Chronicle's Aaron Wilson reports Texans Exec VP/Football Operations Jack Easterby is "expected to be instrumental" in advising McNair on the coaching search.
  
  

• Erika Nardini, the CEO of Barstool Sports since 2016, has been elected to the WWE’s Board of Directors, writes SBJ’s Mark J. Burns. WWE Chair & CEO Vince McMahon said Nardini’s “entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen and understanding of today’s consumers will serve as a perfect addition” to the sports and entertainment property. Nardini is also on the advisory boards of food publisher Food52 and the Premier Lacrosse League. 
  
  

• The biggest changes to Amazon’s Megacast coverage of “Thursday Night Football,” which begins this week with Buccaneers-Bears, will be the launch of in-game, on-demand replays through its X-Ray feature and more programming developed for Twitch in the run-up to the game, reports SBJ's John Ourand. The game on Amazon Prime, however, essentially will have a similar look and feel to last year. “These are things that you really can only do in an OTT environment,” said Amazon Director of Global Live Sports Production Jared Stacy. “From a content perspective, it gives fans more ways to engage with the broadcast and with the game.”
  
  
• Adweek's Jason Lynch reports without TV's "usual September rush of broadcast premieres, fourth-quarter ad impressions are up in the air due to upended production schedules." Jon Steinlauf, chief U.S. advertising sales officer at Discovery, said his outfit "not being so dependent on Hollywood scripted production as many of our competitors are, has been an advantage." But Steinlauf knows it’s "still going to be a fight for viewers." Between unscripted shows, cable news and live sports, said Steinlauf, “television is still super competitive every night.”
  
  

• Golfworld's Tod Leonard writes across the college golf landscape, the NCAA, conferences and universities are in the "strange, unprecedented position of relying on states, counties and even the beliefs of individual families to determine their competitive fate in the 2020-’21 season and beyond." For now, a handful Power Five and mid-major conferences in D-I have begun playing in tournaments this fall. The rest are "waiting for the spring portion of the schedule to start play, with the hope COVID-19 abates and potential vaccines may be available to return some normalcy to the landscape."
  
  
• Why was Fargo, North Dakota, such a popular destination for NFL scouts and executives this past weekend? North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance. The potential first round pick played his first game of the season on Saturday with the Bison's normal schedule scrapped due to COVID-19. Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel reports 26 scouts from 20 different NFL franchises were in attendance, and the Panthers, Lions and Colts sent "three higher-up executives" as well.
  
  

• Check out the most recent editions of our SBJ Unpacks podcasts:
  
  
  • Sports betting consultant Sara Slane on Caesars Entertainment’s $3.73 billion acquisition of William Hill and other developing stories around the gaming industry. 
    
    
  • Will Cavanaugh of SportsAtlas shares insights from the make-good-economy that has emerged during the pandemic across sports sponsorship.
    
    
  • Honeywell Senior Sales Manager Tom Sumner joins Andrew Levin to discuss helping the NFL Panthers welcome fans.

Something related to coronavirus and sports business catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it.