🔎Sports Curated✒️#1
Greetings my beloved reader 👋🏼 .
This is the debut edition of my weekly newsletter. Every Wednesday, I’ll be sharing a handpicked collection of links along with my take on the latest and greatest news in the sports industry in my opinion.
As Michael Buffer would say: “Let’s get ready to rumble!”
Boxing
Francis Ngannou fought Tyson Fury for the Heavyweight Champion Belt on October 29, 2023, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Even though Ngannou dropped Fury with a left hand in the third round, and despite a split decision, Ngannou failed to win with a disputed decision nevertheless.
💭 Interestingly, the Gymshark CEO, who has over 500k followers on LinkedIn, proudly posted about their sponsorship. Intrigued, I decided to investigate further because I knew that they have an app for creating, tracking, and sharing workout routines. It turns out that you can actually follow a workout by Francis as part of their sponsorship deal. This is undoubtedly a very cool activation of the sponsorship!
Cycling
🚵🏼♀️ Tour de France winners Jonas Vingegaard and Demi Vollering were awarded with the Vélo d’Or “Golden Bicycle” award on October 24th. This article explains what were the 2023 results and the complete list of winners.
💭 There has been criticism on social media regarding the focus on the big three races (Tour de France, La Vuelta, and El Giro) and how more value is placed on these races. As a result, some cyclists choose to only participate in these races during the summer, rather than competing in the entire season which starts in January and ends in November. This is why fans seem to be more supportive of Mathieu Van der Poel or Tadej Pogacar, as they have participated in some of the big three races and the classic races throughout the season.
🇮🇹 The Tour de France 2024 route is starting in Florence. Here’s a video and tweet. Remco Evenepoel, the 2022 winner of La Vuelta, is not happy about the white roads. He stated, “I don’t think it’s necessary in the big vueltas, there are specific races in the calendar already special because of their roads.“
🤝 Nairo Quintana is returning to Movistar Team as a leader. In last week’s newsletter, I recommended an interview with him on a Catalan radio station. This week, Movistar has just released a tweet saying, 🐦 “Nairo is coming back home.”
F1
📺 F1 is going all-in with Dazn, leaving Movistar out of the picture. Dazn will have exclusive broadcasting rights until 2026. 💭 Commentators Antonio Lobato, Toni Cuquerella, and Pedro de la Rosa, whom I really think are great and bring a balanced passion and deep F1 knowledge on both the engineering and driver side, are ending their contract with Movistar. They will now have to negotiate with Dazn again. Lobato mentioned in the following tweet 🐦: “I might travel to some circuits but not to all of them. If they want to talk, we will talk.”
🏎️ Red Bull might change their strategy with their second team. Alphatauri could be called Racing Bulls in the 2024 season, and there will be different sponsors instead of one main sponsor. 💭 This could be an interesting strategy to analyze the revenue numbers and the negotiation power of Red Bull. Additionally, the main name will change less frequently, making it easier for fans to remember. However, the sponsorship will have less influence.
👥 Andretti is bidding to become the 11th team in Formula 1, and the process is progressing. Here’s an article that covers everything you need to know about them.
🤳🏼 Here’s an in-depth social media report on F1’s social media accounts, including the top 10 scuderias. F1 accounts dominate, followed by Ferrari, Mercedes, Redbull, and a significant increase in Aston Martin’s presence. The F1 community receives positive feedback in social media engagement about 6 out of 10 times, with a total of 196M followers.
Football
F.C.Barcelona Team’s Efforts to Improve Financial State
- As part of the reconstruction of their new stadium, F.C.Barcelona is selling their old Camp Nou seats, creating new incentives. You can find more information here.
- The renowned theme park Portaventura is collaborating in the stadium construction by creating their first attraction outside of the park, which will be located in the new Barça stadium. Additionally, La Liga is investing €40M for an area inside Portaventura park. More details can be found here.
🕹️ El Clasico.
Check out the latest revenue, most valuable players, and trading balance information for Real Madrid and F.C.Barcelona here.
💪 The Rolling Stones, Spotify’s activation is forging an unparalleled partnership with F.C. Barcelona. Instead of seeking direct revenue through the agreement, Spotify is striving for positive engagement and enhancing brand image. Meanwhile, FCB is generating income by selling exclusive unit jerseys priced at 400€ and above. This should be seen as an innovative approach to partnerships where both parties benefit, and not everything is solely focused on monetary gains.
🥇 Messi and Aitana are the winners of the Ballon d’Or. Read more here.
👑 Kingsleague is accelerating its expansion to avoid imitation, according to CEO Oriol Querol in one of the most interesting interviews in sports innovation. If you understand Spanish, you can find the link here.
NBA
⭕ Front Office Sports discusses the potential of hosting events at The Sphere in Las Vegas, despite the challenging conditions. Boxing or the NBA may hold an event there soon. Read the article “The Sphere Wasn’t Built For Sports. The Biggest Players Want In” for more information. Additionally, James Lawrence Dolan, chairman and CEO of MSG Entertainment, which owns the Madison Square Garden and The Sphere in Las Vegas, discusses the possibilities, 2Playbooks, Inside podcast states.
NFL
📷 HBO is making a documentary about the Miami Dolphins during the regular season. 💭 However, some players feel less comfortable and have concerns about privacy, which could potentially affect the game.
Tennis
🏟️ The Merton Council has approved the expansion of Wimbledon which was the last Grand Slam venue yet to be renovated, including a new stadium and 38 courts. This renovation will allow for more revenue streams, additional selling seats, technology for sponsorship activations, and the ability to host qualifying games in the same venue. Read more here.
🚺 WTA players are complaining about the conditions of the WTA Finals. The venue was still under construction, and the hard court surface had not been laid. The temporary structure, located on the grounds of a luxury hotel resort, was not ready until the day before the tournament began. The players are demanding changes, including salary increases. Read more about it in The Guardian’s article here.
💭 WTA players have to travel extensively, deliver top performance, and often rely on a small team, pushing their bodies to the limit. On the other hand, the WTA is facing financial challenges, with tournaments struggling to sell enough tickets and broadcasting not generating sufficient revenue to cover costs. We shall see what comes next.
WTA Finals Players
IOC
College runs the olympics, 75% of US athletes competed in collage and more than 100 countries send collage athletes to olympics. Here’s the full aritcle.
I’m also starting two other newsletters.
On Fridays, I’ll try to help you prepare for the weekend by suggesting the best games or events to watch and giving you some insights on what you should know about them to better enjoy the experience 😮.
In the Sunday newsletter, I’ll put my addiction to watching sports documentaries to good use 🤓 by reviewing and selecting the ones that I think are worth recommending. I’ll also share some interesting thoughts about them, so you’ll have something to add to your watchlist for the afternoon 🛋️📺.
If you’d like to explore more, feel free to check out my substack in the link below and see for yourself. Lots of health!
