Talk About Tennis 2.0

I guess, then, that is what was said above. There is no such concept as "enough money". This man basically bankrupted Barca with his massive deal, but still wants even more.
I guess they are truly competitive in all senses.

Greed is not a victimless crime...

Jamal Khashoggi's Fiancée Wants LIV Golfers Banned for 'Supporting Murderers'

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Dozens of women and girls who were sexually abused by the former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar have filed administrative claims against the FBI over its investigation.
U.S. Women's National Team gymnasts Simone Biles and Aly Raisman and gymnast Maggie Nichols are among the more than 90 claimants who are seeking damages in excess of $1 billion from the bureau.

I hope they get this money. The way this was handled is much more criminal than a dollar amount.

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/08/11036592 ... bi-lawsuit

More sports moving online.

We have said it before. Soon, you will only be able to watch sports as PPV.

It's a bad idea in the case of the MLS to me. Soccer is growing in popularity, but it needs to be easily accessed in order to get more popular. There is very clear data in what gets watched OTA vs. cable vs. streaming, and acting like streaming is an every household thing remains to be a misguided notion held by those with more means. And the increase in popularity here was spearheaded by women's soccer not MLS. So for them to move this on a service and not one that people have easy access to is an interesting decision. Even more curious is that given the relative newness of the MLS, every team is still growing their local fanbase, so no local broadcast is a bold move that only time will tell if it pays off. In other sports, the local market is a huge factor to overall success, that fandom is an important driving force not just in ratings, but in tickets and merchandising among other things. So it's lucrative overall deal sure. But how much would they have had to give up to keep the playoffs on a TV contract with streaming as well? To offer X number of local games OTA in a specific region? Seems like a better approach than exclusivity.

I have a hard time seeing all sports ever being only PPV. I could see some big events in the specific sport doing it, but not everything. Streaming as a whole, while technically popular, gets overstated in the degree of popularity it has. It is also talked about as a monolith as if it's not 20 different services.

I say NBA and NFL would love to see people watching only via their platforms. Tennis is going that way because it is such a niche sport.
Down here in S. America, of course it won't happen with soccer, because, as you say, people will not accept it; it is not affordable for most everybody that watches the sport. But in wealthy countries, it might end up being that way.
Might.

Some athletes do gain total separation from the rest of the field.
Yulimar Rojas, Venezuela's triple-jump monster, just added this year's World Championship's gold to her coffer. That is three in a row.
Olympic gold (Tokyo) and silver (Rio), WR, OR, Indoor WR, and now this. She really has no competition at the moment.
She is 26, so you can count on participating in the Paris OG, and very likely one more. She can be on her way to being the greatest Triple-Jumper in all of history.

It is very sad that some of these athletes have to go through these delays with their countries. All of these athletes have dreamed in participating in these games and to have something like this slow it down and add extra stress is just not right.

Speaking of untouchables.
Sydney McLaughlin broke the 400M hurdles world record AGAIN. She has broken it 4 times in 13 months, and this time she broke it by almost 3/4 of a second, which in track and field is absolutely absurd. She dropped her own record from 51.41 to 50.68.
The silver went to Femke Bol, who came 1.5 secs behind McLaughlin. Again, in a short race like that, the separation is ridiculous.
That is: McLaughlin is running 4 consecutive 100/Hurdles in 12.67. The record for the 100 hurdles/women is 12.20. So basically her four laps would land her four times in the podium (roughly).
(I know that the 100 hurdles have more concentrated hurdles, but... still).

I watched the upset that happened in I think it was the 4 x 100 meter relay Men's. Team Canada upset the United States to win the Gold medal.

Another faulty baton transfer, although last year in Tokyo they failed to even reach the finals.
Jamaican women were also upset by a baton transfer. That was huge.