Closing Bell

NBA viewership was down 2% this season, averaging 1.53 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT/truTV. The NBA had been at around 1.6 million the three seasons coming into 2024-25, meaning this regular season was the lowest figure since the pandemic campaign of 2020-21. That season, with a regular season starting just before Christmas and the end of the regular season in mid-May, the league averaged 1.4 million.

The league was down close to 19% headed into the end of 2024 before a strong Christmas slate brought that back under 10%. Then the league saw even more buzz coming off the trade deadline (Luka Doncic to the Lakers; Jimmy Butler to the Warriors) and almost ended up flat with last season.

ABC on its own (24 games) was up 10% to 2.68 million viewers, boosted by a slate of five windows on Christmas Day for the first time. ABC had a mix of Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games once again.

On cable, ESPN averaged 1.32 million viewers, down 7% from last season and the network’s lowest figure since the pandemic season (1.2 million). Similarly, TNT/truTV averaged 1.25 million viewers, down 8% (same pandemic season superlative).

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LA28’s latest venue plan includes keeping cricket on the West Coast and putting other new sports in notable locations.

Baseball will be played in Dodger Stadium, while squash will be held on the Universal Studios lot.

Another of the new sports put forward by LA28, cricket will remain in L.A. County and be hosted on a temporary field at the Fairgrounds in Pomona.

The sport joins the Games in its T20 format, and speculation had revolved around the possibility of hosting it on the East Coast in a friendlier time zone for Indian audiences.

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Basketball HOFer and NBA EVP & Head of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars is “finalizing a deal” to become the new President of Basketball Operations for the Pelicans, according to sources. Dumars would replace David Griffin -- who was fired Monday -- as the top basketball executive for the franchise. Dumars served as the chief strategy officer of the Kings from 2019-22 and has been with the NBA league office since 2022. Dumars also ran the Pistons from 2000-14, winning the Executive of the Year in 2003 and building the 2004 championship team. In New Orleans, Dumars is “expected to soon immerse himself with the current basketball staff,” led by GM Bryson Graham, and coach Willie Green (ESPN.com, 4/15).

Mavericks GM Nico Harrison told reporters he has “no regrets” on the trade that sent G Luka Doncic to the Lakers. Harrison, speaking for the first time to reporters since his news conference announcing the trade, said he will “earn the trust of this community back” and added he has three years left on his contract, and he sees himself “finishing it out.” He also said there was not “an underestimation” of what Doncic meant to the fanbase, but “clearly we knew afterwards, his impact on the fanbase.” Harrison: “I do think our intended roster we put on the floor would’ve subsided a lot of the fanbase’s vitriol, you know, because they would be out there winning” (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 4/15).

Mavs CEO Rick Welts said that the Mavs “remain ‘really solid’ from a business standpoint,” noting that between 75% and 80% of season ticket memberships “have been renewed with six months still left to go before the next season.” Welts also said that he “talks to corporate sponsors every day who continue to see the value of having a relationship” with the Mavs and the NBA. He acknowledged that a “segment of the fanbase feels alienated right now and promised the Mavericks as an organization will do everything possible to ‘win back their trust’” (DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/15).

Since the Kraken first took the ice in 2021, its leadership has preached a listen-first approach to growing its fanbase. That’s included fan surveys, focus groups and listening sessions with executives, all conducted by the team’s in-house Business Intelligence and Sales & Service teams.

As the franchise’s fourth season comes to an end this week, feedback solicited through those forums is now culminating in what the organization is calling a “reinvention” of several aspects of its fan experience, from ticketing and hospitality to concessions.

“We’ve built up great listening muscle, and now we get to act upon the listening relative to how we’re operating,” Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke said. “We are doing so much right. But there’s more we know we can do.”

The strategy breaks into three pillars, according to Leiweke: access, pricing and connection to players. In a brunch for season-ticket holders -- and subsequent email -- that went out on Tuesday, the team announced several initial changes, including:

• Adjusting the prices of season-ticket packages in select sections of Climate Pledge Arena, such that the team says 90% of season-ticket holders will see their prices go down.
• Increasing its inventory of family ticket bundles (which run $150 and include four tickets, four hot dogs, four sodas and a popcorn).
• Instituting an arena-wide 25% F&B discount for season-ticket holders (and continuing to sell $9.99 craft beers and “items of the game” for under $10 to all fans).
• Implementing a new policy that will allow season-ticket holders to buy and renew packages on one-year terms (previously, the team sold in only three-, five- or seven-year increments).

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The PGA Tour has extended another tournament title sponsor, with Grupo Puntacana signing on for the Corales Puntacana Championship through 2027. The tour’s prior deal with Grupo Puntacana expired after the 2025 tournament, which tees off in the Dominican Republic tomorrow. The event is being played opposite the RBC Heritage, one of the PGA Tour’s Signature events.

Financial terms were not disclosed, though an industry source pegged the opposite field events at between $4-5M annually. No agency was used in the deal.

Grupo Puntacana’s deal comes on the heels of several other title sponsor extensions for the tour, including with 3M, Valspar and RSM. The extension also leaves the tour with four other title sponsors that expire after the 2025 events.

RBC’s deals for the Heritage, as well as the RBC Canadian Open, both expire after the bank signed one-year extensions for 2025. It’s been waiting to see how the negotiations between the tour and Saudi Arabia’s PIF shake out before signing longer-term deals.

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The International Golf Federation confirmed the IOC’s “addition of a mixed-team event” for the 2028 L.A. Games. It will take place “after the men’s competition and before the women’s,” with all of them taking place at Riviera Country Club. The mixed-team event will be “contested as a 36-hole competition featuring 18 holes of foursomes (alternate shot) for the first round, followed by 18 holes of four-ball (best ball) for the final round.” There will be a “maximum of one team per country,” with teams comprised of “one male and one female who are already qualified for the Men’s and Women’s Individual Olympic Golf Competitions” (GOLFWEEK, 4/15). Golf is one of six sports that will “add a mixed-gender competition in 2028″ along with archery, the 4x100 meter mixed relay, gymnastics, rowing coastal beach sprint and table tennis (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 4/15).

Private equity firm Velocity Capital Management has agreed to make an investment in European soccer agency Unique Sports Group, “committing more than” $100M to the deal. The agency, which is headquartered in London and represents more than 350 soccer players “will use the capital to fuel its growth strategy, by making acquisitions, expanding into new territories and opening additional lines of business, such as entering women’s sports.” Unique will mark “the sixth -- and largest -- investment to date” for Velocity, which launched in 2022 and is “aiming to raise” $500M for its debut fund. Led by former Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment Chief Investment Officer David Abrams and former Sportradar CEO Arne Rees, Velocity has stakes in Elevate, Parella Motorsports and the X Games, among others (FORBES, 4/15).

ESPN “will broadcast” the Indiana Fever’s exhibition game against Brazil’s national team on May 4 at the Univ. of Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena, according to sources. It is believed to be the WNBA’s “first nationally televised exhibition game.” The 5pm CT tipoff “will be on ESPN unless the network has a Game 7 in the NBA playoffs.” In that case, the Fever-Brazil game “would shift to ESPN2.” The game will be Fever G Caitlin Clark’s first at Carver-Hawkeye Arena since graduating last spring. The “lack of accessible preseason broadcasts has become a pain point for fans in recent seasons,” as many have “clamored to have network partners air those games.” Last season, an exhibition between the Chicago Sky and the Minnesota Lynx was “unavailable on a broadcast but totaled more than two million views through a fan’s phone stream on X” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/15).