On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including the latest business fallout from the opening weekend of March Madness.
This year’s Cinderella team in the men’s tournament is Princeton, which scored surprise victories over both Arizona and Missouri. Those wins are the two biggest financial upsets of the tournaments, when sorting by how much each school spends on its men’s basketball program. It’s a role reversal for a school that has one of the country’s largest endowments and a yearly tuition cost of nearly $80,000.
The hosts also discuss Iowa women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark and the financial turnaround in the Fairleigh Dickinson University athletic department. Facing a budget shortfall a few years ago, the Knights bucked conventional thinking by adding sports. Athletic director Brad Hurlbut recently told Sportico that the blueprint has been a huge success.
Next the hosts discuss the World Baseball Classic, which wraps this week. The international tournament has drawn rave reviews from players and fans outside the U.S., but many American baseball enthusiasts have bristled at the injury concerns. Freddie Freeman, José Altuve and Edwin Díaz are among the stars who have been injured in the past few weeks.
Lastly, they discuss Michael Jordan potentially selling a control stake in the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. Jordan, the league’s only black majority owner, has a unique relationship with the NBA, and he’ll be difficult to replace for a handful of reasons.
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