PATRIOTS, LADY GAGA HIT PAY DIRT AT SUPER BOWL
Meanwhile, Knicks should be embarrassed over Oakley incident
It was another week in which NBA boss Adam Silver showed why he has quickly become the thought leader among North American league commissioners. Already ahead of the curve on sports betting and fantasy sports and the first to telecast in virtual reality, here was Silver and the NBA announcing the creation of the NBA 2K eLeague.
The eSports initiative will see NBA teams launch their own five-person video gaming teams, beginning with eight to 12 franchises in 2018. At some point, it seems every NBA club will also own a D-League affiliate, a WNBA women’s team and an eSports franchise. Welcome to the future!
It was also a bullish week for Lady Gaga. One year after turning in one of the best national anthems in major sports event history at Super Bowl 50, the pop star staged a mini-concert that was one part Cirque de soleil, one part Star Trek and one part social conscience. The Pepsi Halftime Show was hotter than the Super Bowl itself, with an average of 117 million Americans making it the most-watched 15 minutes of TV this year.
Yet it was an average American audience of 111.3 million who watched the very bullish New England Patriots — valued by Forbes Magazine at US$3.4 billion — pull off the most remarkable comeback in NFL history in the first overtime in 51 years of Super Bowls. The biggest beneficiaries in terms of their own personal stock and sport legacy: Owner Robert Kraft, head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Remarkable to note that trio has collaborated to win five Super Bowls in seven trips over 16 years, making the case each is the greatest of all-time in their respective lines of work in the NFL.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
With Dr. Bennet Omalu of Concussion movie fame getting involved in the NHL concussion lawsuit, a bearish situation will only get worse for Gary Bettman and the league as they appear to double down on efforts to discredit the science around brain trauma and CTE.
It was also a tough week for CTV as it saw about 39 per cent of its Super Bowl viewership migrate to FOX to watch American commercials in real time on the U.S. television network. What was an average national audience of 7.32 million last year shrunk to 4.77 million on CTV/CTV2/TSN, raising questions about how Bell Media will manage its NFL rights going forward, not to mention how the CRTC will handle the fundamental issue of “simultaneous substitution.”
Yet no one in the business of sport had a worse week than the New York Knicks of the NBA. With team president Phil Jackson taking on star guard Carmelo Anthony on Twitter and owner James Dolan in a standoff with former Knick Charles Oakley, the New York franchise is a dysfunctional embarrassment. Video showing the unfortunate altercation between Oakley and Madison Square Garden security types was an uncomfortable metaphor for how badly disconnected the Knicks are from their last cycle of contention in the mid-1990s. Then it was reported Friday that the Knicks had banned Oakley from Madison Square Garden.
Imagine what their NBA-leading enterprise value of US$3 billion (according to Forbes) would be if they could actually win?
The Sport Market on TSN 1040 rates and debates the bulls and bears of sport business. Join Tom Mayenknecht Saturday from 7 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