The WWE seems to be weathering the impact of the big Vince McMahon lawsuit that was filed in January, and of this week’s naming of previously unidentified corporate officers who appear in the suit. … The NBA’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts bring their own set of challenges. … The Players Championship is underway, but support for the PGA Tour’s commissioner is up and down. … And the Broncos will set a financial record in 2024, just not in a good way.
—Eric Fisher and David Rumsey
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Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
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With its television programs drawing strong ratings behind the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to the ring and a new deal with Logan Paul’s Prime Hydration, WWE has been on a business roll ahead of next month’s WrestleMania. The question lingering in the background during that time has been about the potential effect of a sex-trafficking lawsuit filed against former chair Vince McMahon in January. The fallout was hard to gauge in part because so much remained unknown about the suit, including the names of figures that it identified only as corporate officers.
The revelation this week that key WWE executives Nick Khan and Brad Blum were among those names—though neither is alleged to have participated in or known about abuse of any kind—has brought back to prominence questions about whether the lawsuit will affect the company’s dominant position in sports media and sponsorship.
So far the answer appears to be “no.”
Even before the latest disclosures, there were rising calls among some fans to boycott WWE. But with McMahon gone from the company, none of WWE’s current media and corporate partners have signaled any intent to exit or break their contracts. WWE’s meteoric growth in recent years has since January intersected with a series of allegations that a former WWE employee was retained as a “sexual slave” of McMahon, and a set of rights-holders who are primarily made up of generally risk-averse, publicly traded companies.
Among WWE’s major media and sponsorship deals:
- A newly signed 10-year deal with Netflix for flagship weekly show Raw, worth more than $5 billion and beginning next year
- A five-year, $1 billion deal signed with Comcast-owned NBCUniversal in 2021 in which the former WWE Network was folded into Peacock, including the WrestleMania franchise (that agreement expires in two years)
- A further involvement with NBCUniversal through a five-year, $1.4 billion agreement for the U.S. rights to SmackDown
- A five-year pact, worth more than $100 million, with The CW Network for rights to WWE NXT, the pro wrestling company’s developmental circuit
- A major new move into mat advertising through an eight-figure agreement with Prime Hydration, representing the largest sponsorship in WWE history
Will the Tide Turn?
While many athlete sponsorship agreements have morality clauses that allow brands to exit upon the emergence of damaging information—such as what happened to Tiger Woods with his personal scandals—most sports rights deals are not structured the same way. WWE has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and by clearing up a mystery about which executives were named in the suit, the latest developments may offer reassurance to WWE’s partners—and potential future ones.
Investors do not appear particularly moved by the latest news. Stock in WWE parent company TKO Group Holdings has shifted less than 1% this week, though shares are down more than 22% since hitting the market in September, with a marked fall later that first month on the heels of the SmackDown deal responsible for much of the overall decline.
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The life of the NBA’s lead on diversity, equity, and inclusion is a busy one these days. Lesley Slaton Brown, the league’s chief DEI officer, joins Front Office Sports Today to talk about how a globalizing league has changed her job, why the NAACP is urging Black athletes to skip public colleges in Florida, and the ways in which an election year makes her work both more fraught and more important.
🎧 Listen and subscribe on Apple, Google, and Spotify.
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“As a leader of an organization, I will want a person like that to take some ownership and say, ‘Hey, we made a couple of mistakes, but this is how we’re going to rectify it,’ instead of kind of sweeping it under the rug, which I felt like has been done to a certain degree.”
—Viktor Hovland, giving his current opinion of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan during a pre-tournament interview ahead of the Players Championship. On Tuesday, Monahan admitted he could have handled things better last summer, when the Tour struck a framework agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia that has still not been completed. “I’ve taken full responsibility and accountability for that,” Monahan said. “That’s on me.” Hovland shot a 73 (+1) during the first round Thursday.
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$53 million
Amount in dead cap money the Broncos will absorb in 2024, the largest single-season hit in NFL history, according to Spotrac. The charge—which accounts for 20.5% of Denver’s adjusted salary cap in ’24—is a result of quarterback Russell Wilson’s release Wednesday, the first day of the new league year. Wilson, who reportedly agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.2 million with the Steelers (the veteran’s minimum), will also cost Denver $32 million against the cap in ’25. The Broncos traded for Wilson in ’22 and signed him to a five-year deal worth $242.6 million.
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On this day 155 years ago: The Cincinnati Red Stockings organized to become the first all-professional and salaried baseball team. Advancing beyond other barnstorming clubs and a prior ban on professional teams by the National Association of Base Ball Players, the Red Stockings are the oldest clear link to what we know today as Major League Baseball. That Red Stockings team posted a perfect 57–0 season against NABBP teams that year, still the only perfect season in pro baseball history.
The modern-day Reds identify themselves with the Red Stockings, though there were other pro baseball franchise foldings and rebirths in the Queen City between 1871 and the arrival of the National League’s Reds in 1890. Despite the Reds’ recent ups and downs on the field and status operating in one of MLB’s smallest media markets, the franchise has made its unrivaled lineage core to its brand and often leaned into that extensive history. Most recently, the Reds in 2019 made its sesquicentennial anniversary a yearlong affair, led in part by the use of 15 throwback uniforms signifying different eras for the franchise.
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- Owen Wilson is set to headline a new Apple TV+ comedy series centered on pro golf. The show will focus on Pryce Cahill, a former pro golfer who, after losing his job at an Indiana sporting goods store, pins his hopes on mentoring a troubled 17-year-old golf prodigy.
- Amazon Prime Video has green-lighted an untitled documentary tracing the life of former NBA star Allen Iverson. Produced by Shaquille O’Neal’s Jersey Legends and Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media, the film promises an inside look into Iverson’s journey.
- NFL Network is set to air more than 30 Arena Football League regular-season and postseason games this spring. Additionally, the network will feature Overtime’s football league, OT7, beginning in April.
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 | But 53% are in favor of revenue sharing. |
 | Nick Saban was among the guests at an NIL roundtable this week.
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 | The NAACP is now urging Black college athletes to reconsider playing at Florida public colleges.
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 | Among the milestones: Iowa broke a 25-year viewership record on CBS. |
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