Pod On Point

In the year end show, the crew takes a look back at some impact stories from 2020 that will shape sports and the business of sports in the years to come. Opening with a look at the evolving sports broadcasting landscape, Anand makes some predictions on how new entrants and upcoming deals will shape broadcasting’s future. Next, Vlad and Mike tag-team a story about the arrival of sports gambling and how this has a multi-layered impact on revenues, valuations, and consumer experiences. In their last impact story, Vlad and Mike again double-up on the many financially-centered issues that will shape the NCAA in 2021 and for years to come. 

Closing the show - and year - with the weekly C’mon man section, Mike wonders how the NFL’s broadcasting partnership with SpongeBob will go...

The crew opens this week’s show with a quick run through of some wins and losses from across the sports world. Hard to believe the original Browns left Cleveland 25 years ago...the SEC lands a big payday with ESPN and heavyweight boxing looks to have some huge belt unifying bouts in the coming months.

In the top stories, the team talks about the annual insanity surrounding the payouts for Power 5 coaches that are fired for underperformance (or losing). The crew also digs into the recent stories surrounding the MLS announcing they may incur up to $1B in losses due to the pandemic impacted seasons.

Closing the show with the weekly C’mon man section, Mike wonders whether Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson pulled a Paul Pierce….

We open this week’s show with a quick take on wins and losses. We mark in the win column the Bucks re-signing of Giannis, and the NCAA announcing a bubble for the Women’s college basketball tournament. We mark in the loss column the fact that college basketball has launched their season without a bubble - cancelling games daily - and the unfortunate pandemic-driven collapse of LaLiga’s TV contract. Lastly, we mark Apple Fitness Plus’ launch as a draw with their mixed-up online store launch.

Mike welcomes a guest to this week’s show, as SafeSeating Solutions founder Scott Nestler steps into the Pod. SafeSeating is a newly launched software solution that is helping venues maximize their seating capacity while keeping their fans and patrons at a safe distance across the stands. 

Lastly, Vlad closes the show with the weekly Cmon Man segment as he notes the uncommon agent deal with NBA retiree Anthony Carter.

We open the show with a few quick wins and losses. In this week’s wins column we put Steph Curry’s new Under Armour sub-brand. It’s an interesting move for the company and the athlete. We also look at how and why the NBA just borrowed $900 million from the financial markets, what it means for the league and will it be a challenge to repay it. Finally, we salute Universal Tennis’ new pro league and an interesting platform that ranks players across age, geography, skill, etc. Our loss this week is Tom Brady’s company TB12 getting a $1 million PPP loan.

Our main stories focus on how sports is slowly drifting toward streaming platforms, why these platforms are doing it (to sell us more stuff and increase our engagement) and does it help us, the fans, in the final analysis. We also look at the Knight Commission recommendation that the football conferences break away from the NCAA and form their own, more perfect union. The NCAA doesn’t like the idea, but we think the shift is already under way.

Wrapping the show with our weekly C’mon man segment, the crew wonders how did breakdancing become an Olympic sport…