SBJ Morning Buzzcast: September 4, 2026

0:00The Monster Energy SMX World Championship is where the world's best off-road motorcycle racers battle for victory on custom-built tracks packed with speed, skill and intensity. Join the millions of passionate fans and learn more at supermodocross.com. I took in some tennis at the US Open at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center, and the renovations there are really coming along. They have certainly changed Arthur Ashtadium dramatically with more suites and entirely new suite level. It's amazing how that complex and event continues to evolve. It's just the place to be at the end of summer in New York City. Hope they have a great rest of the tournament. This is your morning buscast for Friday, September 4th. I made Madcore. And yes, Adam Silver, he did bring down the hammer on the clippers and Steve Balmer. And it certainly wasn't what I was expecting.

1:02I knew there would be some who would take the fall. I had heard for some time there was a lot of noise around General Manager Lawrence Frank and Team President Gillian Zucker. But now you add Balmer to the list. So what do you have here? Lawrence Frank is banned for six months. And sugar is banned for the entire season, both without pay. Balmer is of course suspended. He cannot attend games or practices. He can't appear at league events, all star games, Emirates cups, finals, draft, combine. He cannot appear at any of those. He will not be able to go into the team's offices or weigh in on personnel or business decisions. Steve Balmer cannot talk to the media about the clippers issues on the court, though he can go on television or go to the media to defend himself against cap allegations. Now he will choose an interim governor who will sit on the NBA's board to make decisions

2:03on the league's business. Also everybody's talking about being stripped of five first round picks. This team will be bad for a long time. And the team was fighting so hard to be relevant in the LA market with the Intuit dome trying to build a winner. They are now going to be in purgatory for a long, long time. As some wrote, this is pretty close to a death now for a decade. There won't be any attraction for free agents to sign with the clippers. This team won't be on national TV. They won't play in the league's most marquee games. They are done as a franchise for the immediate future on the court. And I would think the business side would be challenged as well. Now some questions remain. I'm sure other owners are happy to see the book thrown at Balmer. If you're Bob Eiger and Josh Kushner, you now have an open runway in Los Angeles for the Lakers. And what I'm also paying most attention to, how hard will Steve Balmer fight back?

3:10He has a great deal of personal pride. This is a deep stain on his reputation. Let's move on. While I was in New York this week, I met with a strong source in the college sports space who told me all this back and forth around eligibility issues has really brought more support to the Protect College Sports Act. And he believes it's going to pass the Senate, but I will say unlikely to even be taken up in the House. But the bottom line is everyone feels this eligibility issue has emboldened many to come together and that many C college sports about to go over the cliff with some of these moves. And one more sign was the extraordinary news that SEC is suing one of its own members, filing a lawsuit against LSU and its leadership in an Alabama federal court. And when you think about it, this is the SEC suing one of its founding members and came as Greg Sankey again, defended the league's ability to enforce its rules as multiple

4:16athletes try to play this fall after they've turned pro. And then Thursday night, another bombshell as a judge sent a message in declaring that two players are clear to return to college football setting up a dramatic show now between the SEC and LSU leading into its season opening game this weekend. The players said they intend to play for Lane Kiffin and again, a judge also okayed an injunction that prohibits the NCAA and SEC from punishing any school that puts these players on the field. So this scene is not pretty. It's really unfortunate and this battle between LSU and the rest of the SEC is really an early test to the league's ability to govern itself really in the absence of any effective oversight from the NCAA or any clear rules.

5:17But it's coming to a head this weekend, two players will try to take the field. How will the SEC respond? And again, so much of this being dictated by judges and the courts, staying with college sports, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petiti says there's currently a lot more momentum for a 24 team playoff than there has been in the past. Now we know that Big Ten has been in favor of doubling the current number of college football playoff teams. The SEC of course prefers expanding it to maybe 16 teams. But Petiti said people are warming up to the 2014 playoff concept. People are in favor of proving or providing more access to the playoff and that mirrors what I've been hearing as well. Still a ways to go, but there's definite momentum around a 2014 playoff. We'll see if they can get it over the goal line. At a breakfast this week, a source and I were talking about the unrivaled recent fundraise

6:18and that fundraise raise the value of the league to more than $650 million. That is for the valuation for the three on three basketball league. That's really been around for only three years and both of us marveled at that number and the overall rising valuations in sports. But then they asked me if I had attended any of the games that unrivaled played last year in Philadelphia or in Brooklyn. These were games that they took out of their home of Sephora, Arena, and Miami. I said I hadn't. They had gone to the Brooklyn game and they went on and on about how they were blown away by the fan energy, how much fans spent on merchandise, how the fans knew the players, knew the team, knew the games. They said it was one of their most impressive events they went to all last year and they encouraged me to take in a game this coming season. So maybe it's no surprise that unrivaled announced it's returning to the Barclays Center

7:21in Brooklyn this coming January for two back to back regular season games. Remember, they sold out super quick when they played a game there last March and they will have a more unrivaled tour this coming season just like they did last year with games in New York and Philadelphia. This will be about expanding the footprint of unrivaled beyond its home market of Miami. It definitely seems to be working based on ticket sales and interest. So that is a story to continue to watch. This is what I love some new data from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association on sports participation. This is the baseline for sports fandom. You play as a young person, you become a sports fan. Here's some data from the last 12 months ending June of this year, 81% of Americans actively participated in a sport that's up from just over 80% last year.

8:22Team sports continue to show strong growth. The category grew by nearly 4% led by basketball, meaning more people are playing team basketball than last year, up nearly 10%. Flag football is up nearly 10%. Soccer is up 6%. These are people playing in team based soccer teams or leagues. What was the big growth sport? You guessed it or maybe not. Paddle. Paddle participation was up 14%. Making it the fastest growing activity in this report. Now yes, you can say it's growing from a small base and that's true, but it was still the fastest growing sport. One sport that's leveled off? Pickleball. Pickleball's growth has cooled. After 5 straight years as the fastest growing sport, pickleball is up just 1%. So far this year, that mirrors some other anecdotal evidence I've heard about.

9:22Pickleball, starting to level off after 5 years of tremendous growth. Still a very active sport, but not as hot as the past few years. So some great data from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. You can check out the full list on sportsbusinessjournal.com. And Stephen Asimeth, he has been talked about in political circles. But he spoke in depth on the topic this week on a national political podcast and he said he will not run for president in 2028. This is his strongest denial around the speculation. He was quoted as saying, quote, the minute I announced that I'm running, I would be taken off the air. I wouldn't be able to work and I would lose a contract that I worked my entire career for and I'm not giving that up. So again, Stephen Asimeth, pretty strong, saying he's not giving up his gig at ESPN to run

10:23for president. He said as long as the rules are what they are and they can't be circumvented, it's not something he is going to think about. So Stephen Asimeth, putting a pin or basically popping the balloon on whether or not he would run for national office. My takeaways today, pretty simple. Number one, how hard will Steve Balmer fight back against Adam Silver? Take away number two. New data shows that pickleball growth has slowed. Paddle is growing more and more as more court are being built and developed. And yes, I was specifically told to call it paddle, not pedel by a number of industry insiders. And my third takeaway, have a great Labor Day weekend. We will not have a buzzcast this coming Monday. We'll be back next week. And so that is your morning buzzcast for Friday, September 4th. I'm Abe Mattcore. Thanks for listening. Stay healthy. Be good to each other. We will connect next week.

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