Trivia

What NFL quarterback holds the most MVP awards?

Last Week’s Answer: The Belmont Stakes is held in Belmont, New York every year.

Baseball:

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred offered a "curt response" to current and former San Jose mayors who sent him a letter asking for MLB to consider suspending territorial rights and consider San Jose for an expansion team." Manfred in a letter thanked San Jose for its interest in a team but cited the A’s "'complicated relocation process' to Las Vegas as a reason MLB is not taking any action yet." The letter read, “At least until that process is complete, we are not in a position to take any other actions with respect to the territories in Northern California or to consider the possibility of expansion.” Current San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and four former mayors sent a letter in late June that "called on MLB to allow for Santa Clara County to be freed from being considered the territory" of the Giants.

Football:

Now-bankrupt crypto firm FTX had paid Tom Brady $30M as part of his endorsement agreement before it "imploded last fall," a deal that consisted “almost entirely of FTX stock," according to the New York Times. As part of the deal, Brady’s former wife Gisele Bündchen was paid $18M in FTX stock. Terms of the deal would have required the former couple to “pay taxes on at least some of their now worthless FTX stock” following the company's bankruptcy. Tech start-ups and celebrities have “long had a symbiotic relationship.” The start-ups "offer stars a way to make money while staying on the cutting edge of internet culture" as the celebrities "help young companies gain credibility and reach a larger audience.” Of all the start-ups that “recruited celebrities to endorse crypto,” FTX was “perhaps the most eager.” FTX Head of Partnerships Sina Nader said that Brady seemed “genuinely interested in crypto” as he “occasionally had conversations with” FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. In 2021, Brady also co-founded Autograph, which “helps famous people sell the crypto collectibles known as nonfungible tokens.” A source said that Autograph’s revenue “sank last year,” however, amid the crypto meltdown. Now, the start-up has “shifted its strategy to focus more on helping celebrities find ways to foster loyalty with their fans,” and “less on marketing crypto tokens to consumers.”

Basketball:

The Utah Jazz announced they will air free games on KJZZ-TV in a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which ends a long 15-year era of Jazz game broadcasting, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The Jazz can now “choose to air selected games on its main station" KUTV-CBS. The Jazz also said that KUTV will “bring ‘significant coverage’ of the team on its station, produced by either Sinclair or SEG Media throughout the year.” No length of the deal was announced, but team owner Ryan Smith said, “It’s not a super long-term deal, but with the flexibility, it’s probably much more of a partnership than a deal.” He added, “With KJZZ, if we’re good partners, we’ll keep going.” Larsen noted the Jazz were not “previously thrilled with the lack of additional Jazz-related content available on AT&T SportsNet under the old deal.” Other RSNs had “complementary team-related programming outside of game windows on a regular basis,” but AT&T SportsNet “rarely did.” The Jazz had previously held on to AT&T SportsNet with “one-year contracts in the years since 2021, hoping for new bidders to emerge.” In particular, the team “hoped that one of the big-five FAANG tech companies – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google – would seek an interest in local sports programming."

Other:

The Qatari group led by Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad al-Thani is “increasingly confident it’s won the bidding war” for Manchester United over British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, according to the Bloomberg News. Sources said that people inside the Qatari bid are “communicating their confidence of victory and believe it’s just a matter of time before an official announcement is made.” Sources said that the structure of Ratcliffe’s deal has “provoked opposition from current minority shareholders” in the club that “would not be bought out.” About 69% of the club is owned by the Glazers, with the rest “spread among multiple stakeholders” who own shared listed on the NYSE. The public shares have a “fraction of the voting rights of those held by the Glazers.” Shares of Manchester United rose “as much as 8.3% in New York and are up about 90% since the Glazers began their strategic review” last fall.

Sources: SportsBusiness Daily; YahooSports.com; Bloomberg News; Espn; Salt Lake Tribune; Minneapolis Star Tribune, New York Times