Closing Bell

The Giants on Saturday will hold their annual Pride Day, and the event is “back and bigger than ever, with the proceedings now encompassing the Mission Rock side of McCovey Cove.” The team is handing out a Pride Day bucket hat to the first 15,000 fans, and the players “will wear the same Pride hat they did last season.” There are “no plans for extra security measures Saturday,” and the team has “not received any pushback about the event, nor have any sponsors dropped out.” While there have been “rumblings that some other pro sports teams might modify or even do away with their Pride events,” no MLB teams to date “have announced any changes to Pride games.” That despite an atmosphere of “scrubbed diversity programs and cancelled corporate sponsorship for Pride celebrations” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 6/6).

Meanwhile, the Nationals held their annual Pride night on Thursday -- called Nationals’ Night Out -- and the “number of special tickets sold, which came with a Pride-themed Nationals jersey and benefited Team DC’s student-athlete scholarship fund, exceeded last year’s record total of roughly 7,500.” A Pride flag “flew beyond left field as a crowd of 30,402 filled the stands,” and Thomas Jefferson “held up a Pride flag after winning the Presidents’ Race.” The stadium lights and scoreboards “featured rainbow colors and imagery throughout the night” (WASHINGTON POST, 6/6).

The Rangers remain the only MLB team not to have a Pride celebration of some sort. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Mac Engel writes observers “don’t expect this to change” as long as the team is owned by Ray Davis “even if the lack of a Pride Night generates negative headlines every year.” The 83-year-old Ray is “from the generation that is not going to ‘get’ all the fuss about a Pride Night” (FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 6/6). The team’s decision to not hold a Pride Night “has perplexed baseball fans,” as it has “never really stated why this is the case, other than showcasing initiatives the team has worked on” (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 6/4).

Despite a 5-0 blowout in the UEFA Champions League final between PSG and Inter Milan last Saturday, CBS Sports has seen growth in its digital presence driven by soccer properties since boosting its presence in the sport.

“It was a culmination of a really successful season for us,” said Jeff Gerttula, EVP & Head of CBS Sports Digital.

“Soccer is a really interesting property for us, probably because it best represents new sports and where we’re investing and growing in the way that we’re approaching sports,” Gerttula said. “Soccer is something we’ve really jumped into the last five years. We didn’t have any soccer presence, and now I think it’s safe to say we’re a global leader in the space.”

According to Gerttula, Champions League has become a “massive new vertical” for CBS Sports, with an approach built around streaming and social.

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Texas Tech will face Texas on Friday night to determine the softball national championship, and the school has re-signed P NiJaree Canady to “another seven-figure NIL contract” with its collective for the 2026 season. Canady was the first softball player to sign a $1M deal when she joined TTU after transferring from Stanford last summer. Canady has “consistently said she intended to stay at Texas Tech, but questions persisted as to whether she would enter the NCAA transfer portal again after another record-setting season to see what her value would be” (ESPN.com, 6/6).

NASCAR’s inaugural “In-Season Challenge” is set for its debut Sunday at the Michigan International Speedway. The competition, announced in May 2024, will see 32 drivers “race for seeding over the next three races,” concluding at Pocono on June 22. Drivers are “seeded by their best finish for the five-race competition starting at Atlanta.” Then it “goes to single elimination with the field cut to 16 at Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four at Dover and the final two at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.” The winner gets $1M (AP, 6/6).

Forbes “convened dozens of investors and business leaders” for the fourth annual Forbes Iconoclast Summit at Cipriani Wall Street on Thursday. A host of figures involved in the world of sports were present at the summit, including former Angel City FC lead investor Alexis Ohanian, Nets and Liberty co-owner Clara Wu Tsai, Avenue Capital Group co-founder & CEO Marc Lasry, TKO President & COO Mark Shapiro. Here’s a sampling of what each had to say:

What’s next for women’s sports: Ohanian said that he’s “never been more excited about the potential of women’s soccer and women’s sports as a business opportunity.” Ohanian: “When we look back at the legacy of under-investment in women’s sports, we will find a dangerous cocktail of sexism, racism and business incompetence. That’s part of the reason we’re seeing this whipsaw now. It would not be growing this fast if it hadn’t been suppressed for so long.”

Not a charity case: Gotham FC and USWNT F Midge Purce “pushed back on the perception that investing in women’s sports is charitable or just a moral obligation.” Purce “urged the media and marketing industry to take note of the reality that women drive consumption” and to “think creatively about how to package women’s sports, rather than putting it in the same box as men’s sports.”

Building revenue growth in the WNBA: Tsai called women’s sports “a growth asset with a lot of long-term upside potential,” but while the “viewership is growing, the revenue hasn’t quite caught up.” She pointed out that viewership is “now at about 30-40% of NBA games, but revenue is still only 2% of the NBA’s media deal,” indicating that the WNBA “will be set for a meteoric increase when it negotiates its next TV rights contract.” Tsai: “We don’t know what the ceiling is for the WNBA. There’s still so much upside, and so, you can be really creative.”

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WPTA-TV, ABC’s affiliate in Indiana, “apologized” today for “cutting away” from last night’s NBA Finals Game 1 with “just over a minute left in the fourth quarter.” With the Pacers down 110-107, WPTA “cut away to its local 11 p.m. Fort Wayne news tease.” WPTA VP & GM Chris Fedele said, “We sincerely apologize for the brief interruption during the NBA game broadcast.” Fedele said a “technical issue in our master control inadvertently triggered the start” of the newscast. When the network resumed game coverage, Indiana had cut the deficit to one. Viewers “were able to watch” G Tyrese Haliburton as he “scored the buzzer-beater with 0.3 seconds remaining” to seal the Pacers’ 111-110 win (THE ATHLETIC, 6/6).

Taymar Sales U. and Austin Peay are set to announce a multiyear partnership, sources told Sports Business Journal. The agreement will include partnering on sponsorships, ticket sales and annual giving, making the school the first to partner with Taymar across all three verticals. Taymar will have a five-person team on site to support each avenue of business. An official announcement is expected on Friday.

SBJ is hosting a block of sessions at the NACDA & Affiliates Convention in the Grand 7A Room on Tuesday from 10am-12pm ET, with a host of speakers set to take the stage. Speakers for SBJ’s blocks include Clemson Ventures CEO Michael Drake, Cincy Sports Partners President Ryan Holmes, Orlando City SC President of Business Operations Jarrod Dillon, Tennessee Senior Deputy AD & CRO Ryan Alpert, Learfield Head of Content Grant Jones, Mets Dir of Media Partnerships Alex Kopilow and more. SBJ Colleges Writer Ben Portnoy will be moderating the first panel, entitled, “Leveraging Social Media and Influencer Partnerships in Collegiate Athletics,” while SBJ Publisher & Executive Editor Abe Madkour will be moderating the second (“Developing Athletic Districts -- How to Transform the Experience for Game Day and Beyond”) and third (“Learnings From the Professional Ranks: How to Drive Revenue Across Campus”) panels. Let us know if you’ll be stopping by any of our sessions (SBJ).