SBJ Unpacks: The Masters’ TV evolution

Tonight in Unpacks: The 90th Masters tees off Thursday, marking another milestone for the tournament: its 70th year on TV. In this week’s magazine, SBJ’s Josh Carpenter looks at the Masters’ history on CBS and why years that end in 6 are so special for the event.

Also tonight:

• Toyota Center’s $180 million renovation gets greenlight
• Men’s Final Four viewership up vs. 2024
• Baker, NCAA to settle postseason patches this summer
• Op-ed: Why grief is a leadership issue in sport

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour discusses another strong audience number for the NCAA’s Women’s Final Four, Seattle and Las Vegas as NBA expansion homes, MLB’s YouTube strategy and more.

When broadcast coverage of the Masters begins this week, it will mark a special occasion for the tournament: its 70^th anniversary on television.

The Masters and CBS have the longest-running relationship in sports between a specific event and network, reportedly agreeing each year on a new deal for coverage of the tournament. Financial terms of those deals are never disclosed.

The Masters, despite being the youngest of the golf majors, is the one most steeped in tradition. And CBS threads a needle each year of honoring that tradition while also introducing new coverage concepts.

“It’s a very delicate balance because honoring tradition of what this tournament represents is very important to them, very important to us,” CBS Sports President and CEO David Berson said. “We’re constantly looking to add things to the Masters that are firsts, that are capitalizing on new technology that’s available, but truly trying to strike that balance that we’re keeping it true to what it’s about.”

Though its first broadcast didn’t come until 1956, Augusta National Chairman Clifford Roberts had it in his mind to televise the tournament as early as 1947. According to David Owen’s book “The Making of the Masters,” CBS had a radio contract with Augusta National in the early 1940s but chose not to renew. The club then signed a deal with NBC, which also gave it the rights to televise the tournament. As soon as two months before that 1947 tournament, Roberts believed it would be televised, but NBC declined the option.

Fast forward to early 1956 and NBC was already carrying a money-losing operation with golf’s U.S. Open. Roberts wanted the Masters on TV, but a second golf tournament was too much for NBC, so the network declined its option. CBS signed with the club shortly thereafter, and the first Masters was broadcast less than a month later. The network carried the final four holes, and an estimated 10 million viewers tuned in.

CBS initially agreed to pay the club $10,000 for rights to the tournament and planned only to focus on the 18^th hole. But Roberts wanted more coverage and agreed to cut CBS’s fee in half if the network would use the extra money to invest in more coverage, which it did to cover the final four holes. According to Owen’s book, CBS executive Merritt Coleman wired Roberts saying the tournament was “one of the most exciting sports programs I have ever witnessed.”

This year is a major milestone for the tournament and network, but looking deeper, years ending with 6 have a beautiful symmetry with Augusta National and the Masters’ media history.

In 1966, a decade after that first televised tournament, the Masters was the first televised golf tournament in color.

“It was like walking into the light after a lifetime of darkness,” legendary CBS producer Frank Chirkinian once told Sports Illustrated. “It is still burned into my brain.”

That was also the year CBS expanded coverage beyond the 15^th hole, and it was in 1966 that CBS’s Jack Whitaker referred to a crowd of patrons as a “mob,” leading to a reported suspension by the club.

Twenty years after that, in 1986, Jim Nantz, the current host for CBS Sports, made his debut at the tournament.

“It’s the one event which people relate with me the most,” Nantz once told Links Magazine of his years covering the Masters. “I might be talking to a football coach in August, and he’ll ask me, ‘What about Augusta?’ Fans at games ask me, ‘Who’s going to win the Masters this year?’ It’s the one event I think about all year long. The Masters is in my heart.”

In 1996, Chirkinian produced his final Masters after 38 consecutive years. But there are more through lines: That same year, the tournament debuted its digital platform, Masters.org. In 2006, the tournament rolled out its “Amen Corner Live” coverage for the first time, and in 2016 the Masters was the first live sporting event in the U.S. to be carried in 4K Ultra HD.

Now this week, Amazon Prime Video is debuting as a new rights partner (four hours of coverage over Thursday and Friday), while it’s also rolling out a data-based “Inside Amen Corner” video feed.

“It’s not about us,” Berson said. “It’s about this incredible venue, the incredible history of this tournament, the incredible players in it, but add some bells and whistles that just help tell better stories, help showcase the strategy more, but keep true to what it is.”

While not entirely peeling back the curtain on what coverage this week will entail, Sellers Shy, CBS’s coordinating producer for golf, hinted that there could be enhanced drones and shot tracing used around Amen Corner. Those were both staples of CBS’s West Coast coverage on the PGA Tour early in the 2026 season.

This week’s broadcast also will hark back to 1986 — Nantz’s first year — which marks the 40^th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus’ sixth Green Jacket, what many consider the best Masters of all time.

“We want to make sure that the viewers at home get to see the latest and greatest technology that [we have] to offer,” Shy said. “Augusta, frankly, the course deserves it. We want to make sure that the course and the tournament is the highlight.”

Masters Media Milestones

1956 — CBS broadcasts the Masters for the first time, providing coverage of the final four holes.

1966 — The Masters becomes the first golf tournament to be broadcast in color.

1986 — Jim Nantz makes his debut on CBS covering the tournament.

2006 — The tournament offers its “Amen Corner Live” coverage for the first time.

2016 — The Masters becomes the first live sporting event in the U.S. to be carried in 4K Ultra HD.

The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority approved a $180M renovation of Toyota Center during a special meeting Wednesday. The project will commence once the Rockets’ 2025-26 NBA season ends, and it will continue through the subsequent NBA season before completion by the start of the 2027-28 season.

Toyota Center has had “plenty of what I would call ‘projects,’ particularly maintenance and keeping the building up to date,” over the years, said Rockets’ President of Business Operations Gretchen Sheirr, but the building has never had the big, multiyear renovation it’s now undertaking.

“There is no hiding that it’s 23 years old,” Sheirr added.

The Houston Chronicle reported the city’s mayor, John Whitmire, saying Wednesday that $95M of the project costs would be covered by the state with Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta providing the remainder.

The renovation’s most visible element is a 20,000-square-foot glass atrium at the corner of Polk and La Branch streets, giving the arena’s main entrance more aesthetic oomph. The new atrium will provide 3,000 square feet of covered gathering space at the venue’s front door, with a season ticket members lounge overlooking the indoor portion of the atrium.

Toyota Center’s renovation was designed by Generator Studio, which recently led design of the K.C. Current’s CPKC Stadium and the Blackhawks Ice Center in Chicago.

“They’re very nimble,” said Sheirr. “We did a search like anyone does during a process and we were impressed with their capabilities. They’ve done a lot of renovation-specific work.”

Whiting-Turner is the contractor, with CAA Icon managing the project.

The venue’s south entry will be reconfigured to provide an easier arrival experience featuring a new visual opening into the seating bowl. The Skybridge entrance, connecting the arena and the Toyota Tundra Garage for premium ticketholders, will also be overhauled.

Toyota Center features two levels of suites but all 80 are the same traditional, shoebox-style space.

“That’s just not today’s world,” Sheirr said.

That will change with creation of the 6,000-square-foot Summit Club containing multiple dining and lounge areas designed to accommodate a variety of uses. Sixteen suites will be converted into 24 theater boxes. And all existing (remaining) suites, which have been untouched since Toyota Center opened in 2003, will be renovated and modernized, with updated interiors, furnishings and finishes. While modernized, 56 suites will remain in their original shape.

The new atrium structure will create new upper concourse space above the remade main entrance. The Sky Bar and HOU Market will be added in the approximately 5,000 additional square feet, providing views of downtown and elevated hospitality for GA ticket holders, too.

The 23-year-old arena’s vertical transportation (for accessing the venue’s five levels), network connectivity and broadcast, building systems, wayfinding and guest navigation, and food service infrastructure will all be updated and improved.

Beginning in 2027, Toyota Center will be home to the second iteration of the Houston Comets, following Fertitta’s $300M acquisition of the Connecticut Sun. The Comets were one of the WNBA’s original eight franchises but disbanded after the 2008 season and a prolonged stretch of mismanagement.

Accordingly, the arena renovation includes a revamped Rockets and Comets team store that will more than double the footprint of the current team store. And Fertitta plans to invest in Comets-specific facilities at the arena (that investment was included in the $180M figure) with more information coming later this year.

The Rockets’ lease to play at the venue runs through the 2032-33 NBA season; this project doesn’t impact that. The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority oversees the arena (along with Daikin Park and Shell Energy Stadium).

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The return of the men’s basketball Final Four to cable TV was better than it was two years ago, but noticeably well below broadcast TV in 2025. Saturday night’s doubleheader -- UConn-Illinois and Michigan-Arizona -- averaged 14.2 million viewers across TNT/TBS/truTV. Last year, that figure was 15.5 million for the doubleheader on CBS for Houston-Duke and Florida-Auburn. But TNT Sports is up 11% from the last time it had the Final Four in 2024 (Purdue-N.C. State and UConn-Alabama).

Michigan’s blowout of Arizona in the late window was still the top game Saturday, with TBS/TNT/truTV drawing 14.3 million. That includes 810,000 -- or around 6% of their total audience -- for the Fab Five alt-cast on truTV. The Fab Five alt-cast also peaked at 1.5 million during the first half. Michigan-Arizona was a little below the 14.8 million for Florida-Auburn on CBS last year in the late window, but above 14.1 million for UConn-Alabama two years ago. Michigan-Arizona also lost a significant chunk of its audience once it became a blowout, as the second-half viewership was 20% lower than the first half. In the early window on Saturday night, a closer UConn-Illinois game drew 14.2 million viewers (no alt-cast for that one). That’s down sharply from Houston-Duke on CBS last year (16.3 million), but well above 11.4 million for Purdue-N.C. State in 2024.

Heading into the Final Four, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was up 7% from 2025, but it’s not certain that superlative will hold once the numbers come in for the championship game later on Wednesday.

College Basketball Crown vs. NIT

The title games and full tournaments for both the men’s College Basketball Crown (CBC) and NIT were up in 2026, and the second-year title game for the CBC beat out the NIT by 36%. West Virginia’s win over Oklahoma on Sunday in the 530pm ET window drew 950,000 viewers on Fox, up 16% from the debut game last year (Nebraska-UCF). The full CBC tourney averaged 460,000 viewers across FS1 and Fox this year, up 77% from 260,000 in 2025 (no surprise with eight teams playing vs. four this year).

Meanwhile, the NIT saw a title game increase despite a move from ESPN to ESPN2. Auburn-Tulsa in prime time delivered 700,000 viewers this year, up from 508,000 for Chattanooga-UC Irvine last year. The Sunday prime-time slot on main ESPN this year went to a regular-season Rangers-Capitals contest -- which drew 720,000 viewers. For the full NIT, the NCAA-run event averaged 290,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, up from 212,000 viewers last season.

NCAA President Charlie Baker has been a busy man.

He spent the last week bouncing between the Women’s Final Four in Phoenix and the organization’s home base in Indianapolis for the men’s tournament.

Throw in President Donald Trump issuing his long-awaited executive order on college sports legislation Friday afternoon and it’s quite the stretch for Baker and his staff.

“The first thing I’d say is that we appreciate the attention that he’s brought to this issue. There’s no question that the conversations in the House and the senate both picked up after we had our big group meeting in D.C.,” Baker said. “A number of the issues that he raises in the executive order, which are things certainly that we’ve been dealing with, we’ve either moved to solve or are currently working on.”

One interesting sports business nugget out of Baker’s talk was that a handful of NCAA committees are working on a solution to the postseason jersey patch conundrum.

Corporate patches can see use during regular season play, but the NCAA’s corporate partner program — and potential conflicts there — has made sponsored patches during the postseason a complex matter. Baker said the hope is to have something approved to allow corporate patches during the postseason “before we get too far into the summer.”

It’s also worth noting what the College Football Playoff does with its corporate partners. Sources told SBJ in recent weeks the expectation is schools that have sold such assets ahead of their postseason berths will be allowed to maintain them, though exact machinations are still being worked out.

It’s fair to assume the NCAA and CFP would benefit from similar policies.

Here are a couple of other news and notes from Baker’s spiel with reporters ahead of Saturday’s Final Four games in Indianapolis:

• Baker was asked about Trump’s executive order off the top. Following in line with what he told my colleague Rachel Axon and others in Phoenix, he was encouraged, though plenty of discussion is still to come.
• Men’s and women’s NCAA tournament expansion was the topic du jour throughout the weekend in Indianapolis. Baker deferred on that, though industry buzz suggests that a decision is expected to be made on whether to grow the field to 76 teams in the days/weeks after the Final Four.

PHOENIX -- I’m now 2-for-2 on completely losing my voice at women’s basketball events (👀WNBA All-Star), but I’m coming back with a notebook full of ideas and reporting for future stories. While I get cranking, here’s my impressions of what stood out at the Women’s Final Four:

1. Phoenix is a women’s basketball town. The city hosted the Women’s Final Four for the first time ever, and the NCAA would do well to consider going back. Already high on women’s basketball with the hometown Mercury, Phoenix didn’t simply roll out a red carpet.

It did one better, with a multistory bracket on the side of the Barrister Building across from Mortgage Matchup Center. The towering grid of teams displaying the path to the Final Four was part of a centralized, walkable plan for the event to take over the downtown. Organizers put the Tourney Town and Four It All Fan sites at the convention center, a block away from the arena.

“What we tried to create is when folks stepped off the airplane at Sky Harbor Airport, that they knew they were at the Women’s Final Four,” said Jay Parry, CEO of the Phoenix Final Four Local Organizing Committee. “Then that just continued into downtown Phoenix, and the idea was to have this very compact, walkable campus. And I got great feedback on everything being so close.

“We’re just really proud about how it all came together.”

Parry asked me about my experience, and I co-sign on the walkability. Everything was close, so I’ll chalk my 30,000-step day on Saturday to doing a lot.

2. Give the fans what they want -- community and merch. I made a couple visits out to Togethxr House, the largest single activation the company has done. The vibes were great, and it was a good space to engage with the brands activating there (including Aveeno, Aflac, Paula’s Choice, Chase and Stanley 1913).

The secret sauce it taps into in women’s sports though is a need for community, but one that isn’t tribal in the divisive way we see in so many other sports. The fans that came through definitely supported their teams, but even after UConn and Texas lost in the semifinals, the community remains because it’s built on supporting women and the idea that they rise together.

(By comparison, as a lifelong Bills fan, I can assure you I am definitely not cheering for other NFL teams to do well if mine is not.)

Which leads to where Togethxr excelled, working with Dick’s Sporting Goods to create an extensive merch shop. It had team-specific gear, the company’s iconic “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” apparel and its new collab with Stanley 1913.

And Round 21 launched merch with the Valkyries’ Tip Hayes, with “Never Been Done” tees among the items in the shop.

“Fans of women’s sports, first and foremost, want to support women. Then it might be their favorite player or team, but they want to support women,” said Round 21 CEO Jasmine Maietta. “This new generation understands that sports doesn’t live at one address like the stadium. We want to empower sports to be in our scroll, on what we wear, where we spend time with friends.”

3. Podcasts still rule. As I wrote about late last year, the business of women’s sports podcasts is booming. It sure was at the Final Four. In the two days off competition, I saw live tapings of four shows -- “Between the Lines,” Lisa Leslie’s show with Just Women’s Sports; “Good Game with Sarah Spain” at Tourney Town; “Unsupervised with Syd and TP” at Togethxr House; and “A Touch More” at the Orpheum Theater.

Highly recommend any of those if you have the chance to go at the WNBA All-Star Game, NWSL championship or other major events.

4. Women’s basketball owns April. ESPN play-by-play announcer Ryan Ruocco compared it to a bomb cyclone. Reporter Holly Rowe called it “a perfect storm of chaos.”

No matter the adjectives or comparison, April is going to be a busy month in women’s basketball.

UCLA winning the Final Four came with the WNBA expansion draft taking place before the tournament semifinals. Up next for the league is free agency -- though exact timing of that is TBD since the CBA hasn’t been finalized -- followed by the college draft on April 13.

Amid all that movement, the transfer portal opened Monday and will surely have big ripples (👀 Iowa State), and WNBA training camp opens April 19.

“We should be capitalizing on the intersection of everything that’s happening now because this is something that most sports don’t have that small window from going from college to pro,” said ESPN analyst Chiney Ogwumike. “That to me is a beautiful time to show the transition, what makes us unique.”

5. A collab we loved. The championship featured the beloved performer Red Panda, with rugby star Ilona Maher (who was part of ESPN’s Megacast) throwing her bowls to Red Panda atop her giant unicycle. So stressful, but so entertaining.

Elite sport is designed around precision, preparation, and performance continuity. Teams invest heavily in physical conditioning, recovery systems, analytics, and mental skills training — all aimed at minimizing variability and maximizing outcomes. Yet one of the most predictable disruptions to team functioning remains one of the least strategically addressed: grief.

Death, traumatic loss, and suicide affect athletic organizations at every level. When a teammate, coach or staff member dies, teams often respond with symbolic gestures: tributes, memorial decals, moments of silence. While meaningful, these rituals rarely address the longer-term psychological and organizational effects of loss. Grief does not operate on competitive timelines, nor does it resolve when schedules resume.

Psychological research has long established grief as a multidimensional response affecting cognition, emotional regulation, sleep, communication and physiological functioning (Atkins & Lorelle, 2025; Stroebe & Schut, 1999; Worden, 2009). Within high-performance environments, these disruptions influence variables central to sport outcomes: concentration, reaction time, decision-making, interpersonal dynamics and emotional stability under pressure. The International Olympic Committee’s consensus statement on mental health reinforces that psychological experiences — including responses to trauma and loss — directly influence performance stability and athlete functioning (Reardon et al., 2019). Yet grief events are rarely framed as performance variables.

Instead, their effects often surface indirectly. Coaches may observe shifts in focus. Executives may detect changes in team cohesion. Performance staff may see fluctuations in energy or engagement. These responses are frequently interpreted through lenses of motivation, discipline, or resilience rather than recognized as predictable human adaptations.

As one collegiate athletic director reflected following the sudden death of a student athlete, “We prepared for injuries. We prepared for performance slumps. We were not prepared for grief. The disruption to focus, communication, and team stability lasted far longer than anyone anticipated.”

In performance systems built on marginal gains, unacknowledged grief becomes a hidden source of volatility. Leadership plays a defining role in how teams metabolize loss. Psychological safety research consistently demonstrates that leader communication shapes group cohesion, trust, and adaptive functioning (Edmondson, 2018). Within sport, coaching behaviors significantly influence athlete well-being and emotional regulation (Fransen et al., 2020). In moments of grief, athletes look to leadership for guidance.

Silence, even when well-intended, often creates uncertainty. Athletes may privately wonder whether it is appropriate to discuss the loss, whether emotional responses are acceptable, or whether acknowledgment signals distraction from performance priorities. One athlete captured this dynamic succinctly: “What helped most wasn’t counseling. It was our coach saying, ‘This is hard. We’re going to talk about it.’ That changed everything.”

Deaths by suicide introduce additional complexity. Despite growing mental health awareness, stigma remains deeply embedded across many sport cultures (Rice et al., 2016). Suicide-related losses are often accompanied by avoidance, euphemistic language, or institutional discomfort. However, suicide postvention research indicates that silence complicates grief adaptation and increases psychological distress (Andriessen, 2009). Avoiding conversations about suicide does not reduce organizational risk and it can amplify speculation, rumination and emotional isolation. A sport psychologist working with an elite program observed, “Athletes were already talking about it privately. The organization’s reluctance to address suicide openly didn’t reduce distress. It amplified it.”

What remains notably absent across many teams is preparedness. Coaches and leaders are rarely trained to navigate grief as a collective experience. Communication frameworks for loss are seldom formalized. Performance fluctuations linked to grief are often misinterpreted. Mental health stigma continues to shape disclosure patterns. These gaps reflect an evolving performance landscape.

Grief literacy — the ability to recognize and respond effectively to loss — represents an emerging organizational competency. Evidence-informed leadership strategies emphasize acknowledging loss directly, normalizing variability in grief responses, creating structured opportunities for dialogue, and equipping leaders with communication approaches grounded in presence.

Temporary performance disruption following loss are examples of human physiology and psychology operating under strain. Sport organizations relentlessly pursue competitive advantages. Yet one of the most powerful stabilizers of team performance — psychological safety during adversity — remains underleveraged. Teams capable of addressing grief openly often demonstrate stronger cohesion, trust, and long-term resilience.

Despite increased investment in athlete mental health, grief remains largely absent from organizational planning. Teams routinely develop protocols for injuries, crisis communications, and performance slumps, yet few establish structured approaches for navigating death, traumatic loss, or suicide. Several gaps consistently emerge across sport environments:

Lack of preparedness

Most coaches and executives are not trained to manage the psychological and cultural effects of loss. Grief is treated as an unexpected disruption rather than an inevitable organizational reality.

Communication uncertainty

Leaders often struggle with what to say — particularly following suicide. Fear of “saying the wrong thing” frequently leads to silence, which athletes may interpret as avoidance or emotional minimization.

Misinterpretation of grief responses

Performance fluctuations, irritability, disengagement, or emotional variability are often framed as motivation or discipline concerns rather than adaptive grief responses (Reardon et al., 2019).

Stigma persistence

Mental health stigma remains deeply embedded in many sport cultures (Rice et al., 2016). Grief-related distress may be concealed due to fear of appearing weak or unstable. In high-performance systems, unaddressed grief becomes a hidden performance variable.

What coaches and teams can do

Grief literacy does not have to include clinical intervention. Leadership behaviors, communication clarity and cultural permission from leaders can be very helpful. For instance, regularly and routinely checking in with athletes, coaches and staff adds compassion to a difficult situation. Examples of evidence-informed strategies include:

Acknowledge loss directly

Naming the reality of the loss reduces uncertainty and speculation. Avoiding language, particularly around suicide, often increases distress rather than containing it (Andriessen, 2009).

Normalize variability

Athletes will respond differently. Some may seek immersion in training, others may struggle with concentration or emotional regulation. Leaders who normalize variability reduce stigma-driven self-judgment.

Create structured space

Brief team conversations, facilitated dialogues, or check-ins provide athletes with psychological permission to express reactions without forcing disclosure.

Equip leadership

Coaches and captains benefit from basic communication frameworks that emphasize being present with their athletes:

“This is difficult.”

“This impacts all of us differently.”

“We will navigate this together.”

Temporary performance disruptions following loss are predictable. Framing them within human adaptation rather than deficit language preserves trust and stability.

Dr. Michele Kerulis is a professor, author, and mental health expert whose work advances athlete well-being, resilience and performance. Emilio Parga, M.Ed., is the founder and executive director of The Solace Tree, supporting children and families who are grieving death and loss. He founded the AASP Death and Trauma-Informed Grief Special Interest Group.

• Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday that he and PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp spent half a day together in February talking about how the organizations could collaborate on pro golf moving forward, reports SBJ’s Josh Carpenter from the Masters.
• NBC drew the second-best final round audience yet for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, with 1.1 million viewers tuning in Saturday for Maria Jose Marin’s win, writes SBJ’s Austin Karp.
• Global revenues from women’s sports are projected to exceed $3 billion in 2026, notes SBJ’s Rachel Axon from a report from Deloitte. Women’s sports revenue has increased 340% since the company first launched the annual report in 2022.
• The NY/NJ host committee for this summer’s FIFA World Cup revealed plans for a Jersey Fan Hub at Sports Illustrated Stadium that will operate on select days throughout the 39-day competition, reports SBJ’s Alex Silverman.
• Women’s talent representation agency Always Alpha will begin representing tennis players once it completes the acquisition of Courtside Talent, writes SBJ’s Irving Mejia-Hilario, gaining a talent roster that includes Grand Slam champion Sloane Stephens (who is also represented by GSE Worldwide).