- Of all the ways in which Don Garber has transformed the business prospects of MLS, the most eye-popping might be this: The league did not have a media rights fee agreement when he took over as commissioner in 1999, and didn’t for seven more years. SBJ profiled Garber this week as he celebrates his 25th year at the helm of the league.
- ESPN’s decision to offer a five-day, four-night MLB ballpark tour package this Labor Day weekend is the first venture by the Disney-owned subsidiary into tourism and experiences, and it's a test case for creating other bespoke experiences across ESPN’s vast rights portfolio, writes SBJ's Wes Sanderson.
- The NBA asked New York’s Supreme Court late Friday to dismiss Warner Bros. Discovery’s matching rights lawsuit against the league, claiming, for instance, that WBD rewrote lengthy portions of Amazon’s $1.93 billion annual bid and in essence submitted a counteroffer rather than a match, notes SBJ's Tom Friend.
- For you history buffs out there, it was on this day in 1939 that the first televised MLB game was broadcast (on station W2XBS, which would eventually become WNBC-TV). Announcer Red Barber called the game between the Reds and the Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
- SBJ this week also named the honorees for the 2024 class of New Voices Under 30. Among those with ties to sports media are Omaha Productions' Ben Brown and ESPN's Ashley Ward.
