03/12/20: NCAA venues go silent

Thursday March 12, 2020

As the coronavirus continues to work its way around the country, the NCAA dropped the hammer on its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, announcing that while both will now be held as scheduled at all venues next week, fans will not be allowed in. NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement the decision was made after consulting with public health officials in an attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Attendance at the events will be now limited to essential staff and family members.

“The NCAA continues to assess the impact of COVID-19 in consultation with public health officials and our COVID-19 advisory panel,” Emmert stated. “Based on their advice and my discussions with the NCAA Board of Governors, I have made the decision to conduct our upcoming championship events, including the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, with only essential staff and limited family attendance. While I understand how disappointing this is for all fans of our sports, my decision is based on the current understanding of how COVID-19 is progressing in the United States. This decision is in the best interest of public health, including that of coaches, administrators, fans and, most importantly, our student-athletes.”

PROGRAMMING

The National Women’s Soccer League landed a big deal, announcing a landmark, multi-year media rights agreements that will see CBS Sports and Twitch pick up rights to exclusively present all NWSL matches for the next three years, beginning with the upcoming 2020 season. CBS Sports will deliver a total of 87 NWSL matches in 2020 across CBS, CBS Sports Network, and CBS All Access. Highlights include the NWSL season opener and Championship Game on the CBS Television Network; 14 matches on CBS Sports Network, including both Semifinals; and 71 additional games on CBS All Access. In addition, Twitch will present 24 free, select matches during the 2020 NWSL regular season. Twitch will also serve as the NWSL’s exclusive international media rights partner outside the United States, making all 108 regular season games, the playoffs, and championship available to global viewers. The NWSL and Twitch will collaborate on additional league and player-related content and original programming opportunities.

Back to the coronavirus, MLB is reportedly looking into different sites for games for the start of the 2020 regular season in an effort to dodge the virus. According to the WSJ, options include teams playing at other MLB stadiums in cities less affected by the crisis, when its primary tenant is on the road remaining at their spring training facilities in Arizona or Florida. In the event that large public gatherings are banned by local authorities, the article states that MLB would proceed with the schedule in normal fashion only if they unable to make these alternative arrangements.

The 2019-20 men’s basketball regular season on BTN ranked as the most-watched in network history, according to Nielsen, snagging 12% overall growth across all games and averaging 223,749 viewers. Three of BTN’s top 10 regular season games of all time took place in 2019-20, including the No. 1 and No. 2 games during the first eight days of March.

Univision/TUDN’s carriage of El Clásico Capitalino between UNAM/America handed the channels with 1.6 million Total Viewers and 845,000 Adults 18-49 to rank as the top rated soccer match of year on any network, regardless of language. Season-to-date, Liga MX on Univision networks is up 10% and 13% among Total Viewers 2+ and Adults 18-49, respectively, compared to 2019

The Olympic Flame lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece, will be presented live this morning at 5:30a on Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA and headlines Olympic programming this week on NBC Sports. Following the ceremony, which is always held at the ancient Olympic site in Olympia, the Olympic Flame will spend eight days in Greece before being flown to Japan to start a 121-day trek leading to the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad on July 24.

SiriusXM begins its coverage of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship with this week’s season-opening event, the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020 in Melbourne, on Sunday. All Formula 1 races are available to subscribers on SiriusXM radios and on the SiriusXM app. Additionally, SiriusXM’s exclusive pre- and post-race show will return as part of coverage this Sunday. Speed City F1, hosted by Jon Massengale, Les Kiser and Jonathan Green, will air in the hour before and after every Formula 1 race this season.

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SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

Churchill Downs Incorporated struck a five-year partnership with Ford Motor Company to establish the brand as the official truck, SUV, car and van of The Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs Racetrack. The new 2020 Ford F-Series Super Duty will serve as the featured vehicle of the 146th Kentucky Derby. Ford will host on-site activities throughout Derby week highlighting the Built Ford Proud lineup as well as provide a Ford Explorer to each Kentucky Oaks and Derby horse owner for use at Churchill Downs during the event.

The Big 12 Conference and Academy Sports + Outdoors announced a new multi-year deal featuring the first-ever title sponsorship of Big 12 Football Media Days. Concurrent with the 2019-20 collegiate athletics season, Academy is now the “Official Sporting Goods and Outdoor Retailer of the Big 12 Conference” and receives notable visibility across Football Media Days and Conference championship events. Academy will be featured through a fully integrated platform associated with Big 12 championship events. Additionally, Academy will have a presence on campuses during regular season football games, and the retailer will have inclusion with coaches’ television football shows.

The makers of Shell Rotella Heavy Duty Engine Oils locked in a new charitable contribution program, Shell Rotella’s Rugged Ride for Charity, as part of their continued relationship with the PBR Canada Monster Energy Tour in 2020. Throughout the coast-to-coast tour, the top scoring athlete from each of the 10 PBR Canada Monster Energy Tour events will select a charity to receive the Shell Lubricants donation.

Freebird, a free iOS and Android app, became the official rideshare rewards partner of the Los Angeles Kings and has partnered with the team to utilize the Freebird platform to enable the team to enhance the fan experience with rides and other unique rewards packages. The partnership, brokered by AEG Global Partnerships, will allow Freebird users to purchase LA Kings tickets through rewards points and cash earned in their Freebird account. Rides to STAPLES Center through the Freebird app will be included with Freebird Ticket Pack to six remaining 2020 LA Kings home games.

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

LaLiga North America is teaming up with PointsBet, which will serve as the “Official Betting Partner of LaLiga North America.” The companies will also work together on best-in-class practices to protect the integrity of LaLiga games.
Part of this agreement including the creation of multilingual content that will be featured across LaLiga North America’s programming slate—with the creation of the “PointsBet Prediction of the Week.” In addition, three LaLiga Ambassadors will be chosen as PointsBet Legends and will provide their personal predictions in English and Spanish to encourage fans to make their own, on the dedicated PointsBet betting space on the LaLiga website.

The XFL is tapping the services of DJDTP, a full-service music production company based in New York and Los Angeles, to create an original league anthem and unique theme songs for each of its eight teams. All nine songs are available on Spotify and iTunes. “Music creates the soundtrack for sports memories that last a lifetime,” said Jeffrey Pollack, President and COO of the XFL. “The tracks produced by DJDTP help drive engagement and excitement inside our game venues and around the league.”

ESPORTS

In this week’s edition of Cynopsis Esports…
· E3 cancelled
· Overwatch League locks up Spring homestands
· Leagues scramble to adjust for coronavirus
· Flashpoint seeks character
· EGF gets Acer assist
· Campbell reaches Checkpoint
· Cloud9’s Puma collection
· Skillz’ top mobile athletes
· Activision Blizzard’s new president

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On This Day
1972: Gordie Howe retires.

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Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question
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