📒 Weekly Sports News ✒ #2
Greetings! 👋🏼
I’m deliviring this newsletter every Wednesday, sharing a handpicked collection of links along with my take on the latest or interesting news in the sports industry in my opinion.
Before we dive into the news, let me take a moment to reflect on the smaller sports that I stumbled upon while putting together this week’s newsletter. 🤔
🗯️ It’s been two weeks of me saving all kinds of news, just so I can choose the juiciest bits and add them here for you to devour.
And what did I find, you ask?
Well, in just two weeks, I’ve come to realize how crucial it is to create content to develop a sport’s fanbase.
🤦🏼 Now, despite me playing handball in a semi-professional manner (which even helped me move out from my home country), I could only find a few measly news articles related to it. 🙄
And guess what? The same goes for padel, boxing, and even MotoGP, which is currently embroiled in a championship battle with three races to go.
But you know which sports have an abundance of news? You got it, my friend! US sports reign supreme! That’s why I believe they’re so darn important, and why the US national leagues have managed to build such a colossal business empire around them. 💼
So, please, do me a solid and share this newsletter with your friends, colleagues, and on social media. Give the post a like, shoot me a message – your support means the world to me! 🤝
Alright, enough chit-chat! Let’s get down to business! 👇
Cycling
💁♀️I got some tea for you! This might not be breaking news, but mate, it’s worth a mention. The first season of the National Cycling League (NCL) has already come and gone. Now, let me spill the deets on this league with a not-so-original name, but hey, it’s practical and the Americans are already used to it. 😏 The NCL is all about taking cycling to the next level!
🚴♀️ Picture this: a circuit set up in major cities where the competition is all about earning points with every lap. Each NCL Cup Series event includes both a women’s and a men’s race, and the points go towards the same team. Talk about teamwork, right?
🏆 In 2023, ten (count ’em, ten!) teams will be invited to compete in the NCL Cup Series. And get this, each Cup event is divided into three segments: a pre-race qualifier, a women’s race, and a men’s race. It’s all about keeping things fair and exciting!
👫 Now, let’s talk numbers. Each team must have a minimum of four (4) and a maximum of five (5) riders per gender. And when it comes to scoring, here’s the breakdown: the qualifier accounts for 10%, the race laps make up a whopping 60% (excluding the final lap, of course), and the final lap itself contributes 30%. It’s all about strategy, baby!
💭 The first season with its four pilot races was just the beginning. I can’t wait to see what the second season has in store. I’m expecting some top-notch sportainment, because let’s face it, Americans know how to put on a show!
Handball
💭 Handball holds a special place in my heart; it has been a constant presence in my life for as long as I can remember.
Through playing handball, I have had the privilege of connecting with significant individuals, developing valuable skills and principles, and even embarking on new adventures, as I mentioned earlier.
Naturally, my passion for the game runs deep, and it all began with my involvement in the esteemed Balonmano Granollers club.
💯 In the 2022-2023 season, the Plenitude Asobal league experienced a significant increase in attendance, with a total of 296,500 fans attending games. It is worth noting that Abanca Ademar León had the highest average attendance with 2,513 spectators per game.
However, it is important to mention that the Handball-Bundesliga in Germany outperformed the Plenitude Asobal league with an average attendance of 4,859 per match and a total of 1,486,735 spectators.
F1
👋 Last week in the newsletter, I mentioned Andretti’s exciting plans to enter F1. Guess what? I stumbled upon this awesome video on Bloomberg Originals’ YouTube channel that dives deep into who Andretti is, their incredible success in F1 and Indycar as drivers, and why they believe getting into F1 is a brilliant idea.
🎙️ Oh, and guess what? You can even listen to it as a podcast! I personally think their business perspective and plans are super relevant for the future. So, go ahead and check it out! 🎞️
⭕ Brace yourself, because the Las Vegas GP is happening next week, and it’s going to be epic! Get ready for a show like no other, with a street circuit layout right in the heart of the city.The Sphere is smack dab in the middle of the circuit, so you know the visuals are going to be out of this world.
💢 Hold up! The residents and visitors of Las Vegas are not happy campers. They’re protesting against the Formula One race organizers because their pre-race logistics preparations are blocking their view of the Sphere and messing with local businesses.
Football
📚 Puma and LaLiga have recently announced an extension of their partnership. This new long-term contract, set to begin from the 2024/2025 season, will continue the collaboration between the two entities that initially started in the 2019/2020 season. As part of this agreement, Puma will retain its position as the official ball provider for LaLiga EA SPORTS and LaLiga HYPERMOTION.
🫂 Messi and Suarez reunited in America’s dream? As confirmed last month by his current coach at Grêmio, Renato Gaúcho, Suárez, 36, will depart the Porto Alegre-based club at the end of the Brazilian Serie A season in December. One-year deal with an option to renew for a second year has been agreed upon with Miami and all that remains is to sign the contract, sources told ESPN.
🌐 World Cup hosting countries for 2030 and 2034 are officialized. The host country for the FIFA World Cup used to be chosen through a bidding process that begins several years before the competition actually begins. Countries interested in hosting the tournament submit a bid to FIFA, outlining their plans for hosting the tournament.
These plans include the stadiums and other facilities that will be used, transportation and accommodation arrangements, and security and safety measures. The host country is chosen in a vote by FIFA’s Congress, formed by the different confederations of different continents.
💭 It’s funny, but before last year’s bidding process assigned Canada, the US, and Mexico as hosts for the 2026 World Cup, this document was released. Link to full document.
Why?
⏪ Because prior to Infantino’s mandate, there was a huge scandal. Sepp Blatter, the former president, allowed votes to be bought, which created a catastrophic system that led to the 2022 World Cup being hosted in Qatar. There are different fabulous documentaries that I can’t recommend enough to understand what happened:
- Qatar: el mundia a sus pies – Youtube
- The Fifa Family: A Love Story – Amazon Prime
- FIFA Uncovered – Netflix
What do I find so funny about it?
📥 Infantino’s created a new bidding process, no way!
But what really happened is that some countries were agreed upon taking part in the process, normal until here, and at the time to decide, no elections were needed because just one proposition was on the table, the others moved to the 2030 bidding, but again, in 2030 all but one candidate moved their bidding to 2034, leaving Saudi Arabia and Oceania (Australia) on the table, but then Australia left the bidding.
🏙️ So the official hosting cities are:
2026: US, Canada & Mexico.
2030: Spain, Portugal & Morocco. First games of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay played in their respective countries.
2034: Arabia Saudi.
NBA
🍃 Steve Kerr Will Step Down As USA Basketball’s Head Coach After The 2024 Olympics. LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant have all made it known they plan to play for Team USA, and it will likely be something of a last ride for that generation of stars.
🏆 NBA is starting this week the NBA Cup. Inspired by European soccer leagues, where there is a regular-season championship and a separate tournament that runs concurrently with the league season. Unlike European soccer tournaments, the NBA Cup is built into the NBA’s regular-season schedule, all 67 games across both stages of the In-Season Tournament will count toward the regular-season standings except the Championship game.
💭 The tournament aims to create excitement over the regular season. Regular season average 1.59 million viewers versus 5.12 millions for the playoff games. Thus, here NBA organization is, as always, not afraid of trying and creating new formats to engage more fans, which means business.
💭 How fans are going to be able to tell the difference betwen a regular or cup game?
No problem, NBA got you covered. This games are going to be played on tuesdays and fridays, during NBA season at least in November. They have created this smart and beautiful new jerseys and court layouts which are going to be unique for cup games.
That means more revenue in jerseys, more fans in the stadium and of course money is involved for players motivation, $500k for each player in the winning team 😮.
What do you think of the courts layouts? Is it difficult to follow the ball?
NFL
NFL is making clear his plans to expand to Europe. Last Sunday 5th of November Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs played in Germany. The game was the second NFL regular-season game ever held in Germany, and it was played at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt. The game was a success, with a full house of 50,023 fans in attendance.
The NFL has been staging games in London and Germany for the International Series, with a total of five games being played in London and Frankfurt in the 2023 season.
NFL will potentially go to new countries in 2024, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the league is targeting Spain and Brazil as potential host countries for these games. Decision will be made between december and january.
Padel
💭 Even though, the last newsletter I didn’t write about padel, it is an interesting sport to follow because of his unstoppable growht in players, therefore businesses are going to be created around it.
🤝 Businesses like the main tour in padel, at the end of august the World Padel Tour that now is merging with Premier Padel under the governance of the International Padel Federation starting in 2024. The owner of Premier Padel is Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), which also owns French Ligue 1 soccer champions and Paris St Germain.
👑 The Kings League of padel that plans to debut in January 29th of 2024 is joining forces with Rafael Nadal Academy! The Hexagon Cup already with 1 million euros in money prize, consist in 6 teams of 6 players and a draft to pick 2 “next gen” players. They confirmed one Ballon d’Or, someone related to F1 and a famous tennist, maybe now we have a hint of who would that be.
Tennis
💢 The WTA Finals were called to be the great tournament of women’s tennis. No male ‘competition’, no sharing the spotlight with men, just the eight best tennis players in the world facing each other. The poster seemed unbeatable.
👎🏼 The tournament has become a disaster and the subject of criticism from the players and ridicule from social media users, who have attacked a tournament whose venue was known less than two months ago and the court was installed a few hours before the start of the tournament. Furthermore, the public is not responding as expected and the stands have been half empty in all the games. This is the list of things that have not been done well in the 2023 WTA Finals:
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An unfinished court
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Tennis players who have not had time to train before the matches
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Stagnant water in every corner of the stadium
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Half-empty stands
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Strong gusts of wind preventing from playing.
💰 The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has announced that this year it will distribute $9.6M (€8.9M), of which $2.4M (€2.2M) will go to the national team players who win the Billie Jean King Cup.
It had taken 40 years for Wightman’s concept of a women’s version of Davis Cup to become a reality. Now, Billie Jean King Cup formerly known as Federation Cup (1963-1995) and Fed Cup (1995-2020) was launched in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the (ITF). It is now the world’s largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with a record 110 nations competing in 2022.
🚨 CHECK IT OUT! 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!
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