The NFL's least valuable team snowed in its own fans
Plus: The NBA's bizarre clapback, a podcast I loved, and Egypt's plea for FIFA to move an LGBTQ+ celebration.
Here are six sports business items worthy of your attention at the start of the week…
Non-Sportico Story of the Week ❄️: In sub-freezing temperatures on Sunday, Cincinnati Bengals fans showed up to Paycor Stadium to find snow and ice covering most of the seats. The Cincinnati Enquirer does a good job of breaking down the absurdity that ensued, including an interview with a county commissioner who was there and another fan who said her section was given a plastic container to scrape off the ice. The team’s response was “seats are easily wiped off,” a wholly unacceptable answer for a team whose venue just received $350 million in public money for renovations.1
Sportico Story of the Week🏅: Back in 2012, Michael Jordan listed his old Bulls-era mansion for $29 million, roughly $41 million in today’s dollars. It lingered on the market for more than a decade before selling last year for $9.5 million. Oof.
But that was only the appetizer to what has been a wild story about the 56,000-squre-foot property’s future. Our colleague Daniel Libit has the latest, which includes the buyer asking the Highland Park City Council for permission to use the parking lot of an adjacent nature preserve so that he can create an “immersive, multi-sensory experience focused entirely on personal transformation.”
What I Don’t Understand❓: Two weeks ago, The Athletic‘s John Hollinger wrote a column about the toll that increased travel has taken on NBA players. It’s a subject that’s top of mind for both players and fans amid what appears to be an increase in high profile injuries. On Thursday, the league fired back on X in a very bizarre way. Top comms executive Mike Bass took issue with Hollinger’s assertions, but wrote his response with the header and font of a fake The Athletic story. What is going on here??
What Made Me Laugh 🤡: If you followed this year’s most bizarre college football story—a Big Ten quarterback cosplaying as an NFL star—then this X post is for you.
What I Listened To 🎧: I’m not a huge fan of most business podcasts, they’re usually too long and too self-important.2 But I was riveted by Bobby Kotick’s sit-down with Grit from earlier this year. The video game mogul talks about his career—including a wild story about Steve Wynn, new details about how Microsoft bought Activision, and a warning about the industry moving forward.
The wild anecdote that opens the podcast sets the tone for the next two hours.
What Has Me Nervous 🏳️🌈: Last week Jacob mentioned a notable idiosyncrasy of next year’s World Cup schedule: A LGBTQ+ Pride Night, set for June 26 in Seattle, will feature a game between Egypt and Iran, two countries where homosexuality is illegal. In the days after the schedule was set, Egypt formally asked FIFA to cancel the festivities.3 In response, the Seattle host committee said it had no intention to alter its plans. Hell yeah.
It’s unclear what FIFA has authority to do here—the governing body controls stadiums and official fan zones, but the match coincides with Seattle PrideFest—but there’s reason to worry it might flex its muscle to change the city’s plans. FIFA does not have a good history when it comes to supporting inclusive messaging when a Middle Eastern country feels aggrieved.
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.
I’ve always knocked the Buffalo Bills’ approach to this problem, in which fans are paid $20 per hour to clear the venue (shovel provided), but maybe that’s the answer.
Our podcast, the Sporticast, is neither! You should subscribe!
Iranian soccer executives appear equally concerned.