SHAPO SAVES CANADA’S BACON IN TOURNEY
BULLS OF THE WEEK
It was a big week for the accelerating transition from conventional broadcast sport television to video streaming when Disney Corporation announced it had taken full control of BAMtech, Major League Baseball’s impressive digital platform that made “Baseball Advanced Media” the industry leader worldwide.
Ownership control of the company now valued at $3.76 billion US will not only give Disney a streaming service to compete with the Netflixes of the world, it will provide ESPN everything it needs to launch its own digital sports platform within 18 months (including digital rights to all National Hockey League games not televised by NBC).
It’s another among a series of transformative developments — CBS Sports online, Twitter streaming and original content production, Facebook Live, NFL Thursday Night Football on Amazon and new on-demand entry DAZN (pronounced Dazone) — that will shape how we consume sport content in the years leading to 2020.
Meanwhile, playing at a remarkable .711 clip going into the weekend, the Los Angeles Dodgers are riding the wave of record-breaking milestones in a way that makes them not only the hottest thing in Major League Baseball but among the biggest daily hooks on sport television, radio, social and online during the dog days of summer.
While the Dodgers are the most bullish team in North American professional sport again this week, young Canadian tennis star-on-the-rise Denis Shapovalov is making his mark as the most-talked about individual athlete.
That’s especially true here north of the border where he came into this weekend’s quarter-finals at the Rogers Cup on the strength of a career-highlight reel performance Thursday night against top tournament seed and world No. 2 Rafael Nadal of Spain.
The intensely entertaining win was the stuff dreams are made of for guys like “Shapo,” he of the surfer-dude good looks and thumbs-up resonance with not just hardcore tennis fans, but even casual sports followers.
In the dictionary beside the term “career week” is a photograph of 18-year-old Shapovalov and his Rogers Cup prize money tally of $112,000 US and counting (a quarter-final win boosts that to $220,000). The rising star had earned $198,000 in his pro career to date; $133,000 of that this year.
What’s happening in Montreal is a life-changer for Shapovalov and another important gamechanger for Tennis Canada and Canadian tennis.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
There’s a bearish downside to each of this week’s bulls.
Why it’s taken so long for
■
content leaders and rights holders such as ESPN and CBS to go direct to consumer with streaming options while giving head starts to the Netflix fraternity.
The ridiculous situation in
■
which the Dodgers’ season is being seen by only 30 per cent of the team’s L.A. fan base because of the regional cable TV distribution dispute.
How the Rogers Cup needed
■
the dream run by Shapovalov to make up for disappointing opening match losses by Milos Raonic, Genie Bouchard and Vasik Pospisil. As the Canadian Open of tennis, the Rogers Cup is the precious one week each year that Canadian players have the chance to strut their stuff in a major tour stop on home soil.
It was far too short a week for Roanic, Bouchard and Pospisil. The Sport Market on TSN 1040 rates and debates the bulls and bears of sport business. Join Tom Mayenknecht Saturday from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. for a behind-the-scenes look at the sport business stories that matter most to fans. Follow Tom Mayenknecht at: Twitter.com/TheSportMarket