July 9, 2024
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This summer’s international soccer tournaments in the U.S. and Europe have been good business for Fox Sports. … Baseball has a fresh rising star to attract younger fans. … The only full-time female NASCAR driver is looking for a new team. … It’s been more than two decades since a controversial MLB All-Star Game led to major changes. … And Front Office Sports Today explores the Olympic journey of Simone Biles.
—David Rumsey and Eric Fisher
Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports
Fox Sports has gone all in on international soccer tournaments in recent years, and the major financial investment is paying off big-time.
The semifinals of Copa América and Euro 2024 begin Tuesday with plenty of star power left in both tournaments that have already produced record viewership for Fox, which owns U.S. media rights to each event.
The group-stage match between the U.S. and Uruguay was the most-watched English-language Copa América telecast ever in the U.S., attracting 3.77 million viewers. Argentina’s victory over Ecuador on July 4 drew an audience of 1.86 million, which is a record number for a Copa América quarterfinal that doesn’t involve the U.S. The Euros had the most-watched round of 16 ever, with games averaging 1.98 million viewers.
In Copa América, the draw of Lionel Messi (above) remains alive as the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner will lead Argentina against Canada, which has made a surprise run through the knockout round. Across the pond, England is looking to return to the final of the Euros after its loss to Italy in the championship match three summers ago produced the most-watched U.S. broadcast of the Euros with 6.48 million viewers on ESPN.
This is the first year that Fox is broadcasting the Euros after taking over the rights from ESPN. Next year, the UEFA Women’s Euro will similarly move from ESPN to Fox. Copa América has been broadcast by Fox since 2016. The financial terms of those deals are not known, but the real kicker for Fox is the network’s rights to the FIFA men’s and women’s World Cups, which have been a point of controversy.
In 2011, Fox won FIFA rights—also previously held by ESPN—after agreeing to pay $425 million for a contract running from ’15 to ’22. Then, in ’15, FIFA extended Fox’s deal until the ’26 World Cup, which would have been an extremely hot commodity for American broadcasters after ultimately being awarded to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Several media outlets have reported that the move was to make-good for FIFA moving the ’22 World Cup in Qatar out of the traditional summer window and into the fall, when it competed with the NFL and college football, among other sports.
Despite the failure of the U.S. men’s national team in Copa América, a home FIFA World Cup in 2026 should be a win for Fox Sports. In addition to a shot at redemption for the Americans, the network will be broadcasting from familiar locales as the world’s biggest international soccer stars compete in front of 60,000 to 70,000 fans in many NFL stadiums. The energy around the World Cup will likely be higher than at Copa América, which early in the tournament saw many matches with half-capacity crowds.
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MLB’s biggest rookie phenom is headed to the All-Star Game, and is perhaps helping change how the entire sport thinks about its young talent in the process.
Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (above) was named to the National League squad Sunday, less than two months after being called up to the major leagues. The 22-year-old Skenes is also the first player in league history to be selected No. 1 in the MLB draft in one year and be named an All-Star in the next.
Such a rapid ascent is almost unheard of in baseball, a sport in which even the biggest prospects typically require multiple years of development in the minor leagues—creating a heightened challenge for the league to market its up-and-coming stars.
But at every level of competition, Skenes has proved himself even bigger than the hype that precedes him. Since joining the Pirates, Skenes has amassed a 5–0 record with 78 strikeouts in 59⅓ innings—the eighth-highest total ever for an MLB pitcher since 1901 in their first 10 starts.
Since the July 16 All-Star Game at Globe Life Field lines up with Skenes’s normal pitching schedule, there is also rising chatter that he could even start the event for the NL. Such a designation would provide an entirely new level of national attention to Skenes, as the Pirates are still toiling with a losing record and in one of MLB’s smallest markets.
But there is much more to the Skenes story. Beyond his electric fastball reaching 100 miles per hour and his wipeout slider, his online fame is further burnished by his relationship with girlfriend Olivia Dunne. A star LSU gymnast and also a national collegiate champion, Dunne has a combined TikTok and Instagram following of more than 13 million—celebrating Skenes’s selection Sunday with a post generating more than 4 million views—and is one of the leading figures for college name, image, and likeness rights.
Skenes isn’t even the most famous person in that relationship, but that could soon change if his rapid ascent continues.
“I knew he was the sickest,” said former LSU teammate Tre’ Morgan to MLB.com. “Now, everybody in the world knows he’s the sickest.”
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Simone Biles (above) left the Tokyo Olympics on a sour note, after dealing with the “twisties” (the gymnastics version of the “yips”) and saying she felt pressured to perform by USA Gymnastics. After a superlative performance at the Olympic trials, she is looking to reclaim gold with a U.S. team that was reshaped by injuries shortly before the tournament. Journalist Ari Saperstein joins the show to discuss Biles’s journey and the future of gymnastics in America.
🎧 Watch, listen, and subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify, and YouTube.
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“Sadly our goals no longer align.”
—Hailie Deegan (above), who was the only full-time female driver in NASCAR’s top three national series, on her split from Xfinity Series team AM Racing. Deegan, 22, had been driving the No. 15 car this season, which was her debut campaign in the sport’s second-tier circuit. But the two sides announced they were parting ways Monday.
Deegan is one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers on social media, with 3.2 million followers on TikTok and another 1.6 million on Instagram. In her statement about the move, Deegan said she is working as quickly as possible to find another opportunity to get back on the track.
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On this day 22 years ago: Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game ended in a 7–7 tie between the American League and National League, prompting significant changes to the league’s key midseason event. Designed in part as a showcase for league commissioner Bud Selig’s (above) hometown of Milwaukee, the event at what is now American Family Field started as a largely conventional All-Star Game. But as the Yankees’ Joe Torre and Diamondbacks’ Bob Brenly managed the game to maximize player appearances—in keeping with custom for the game—both teams ran out of pitchers with the score still tied in the 11th inning. As the ruling of the tie was announced, an ugly scene erupted at the ballpark, with fans throwing bottles and trash onto the field and unleashing a torrent of boos.
Already in the midst of a difficult labor negotiation with the MLB Players Association and a rising steroids problem, Selig was also photographed at the game raising his hands in disgust while conferring with umpires—marking a significant hit to his image that would last for several years.
The real impact, however, would come with the game itself. In coordination with the game’s rights holder, Fox Sports, MLB the following year introduced a new rule in which home field advantage in the World Series was awarded to the winning league in the All-Star Game. Branded “This Time It Counts,” this measure would last until 2017. Selig’s successor, Rob Manfred, then implemented a new structure awarding World Series home-field advantage to the team with the best regular-season record, wanting to reward teams that have shown excellence across an entire season.
Still, there are other rules to help prevent another All-Star Game player availability fiasco. In 2022, MLB introduced a new provision that abolishes extra innings in the Midsummer Classic in favor of a mini–Home Run Derby.
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