Chess Not Checkers: Moving Pieces in Sports
Everton Enters New Partnership. New Crop of NBA Talent. Senators Move to Ottawa.
Our thoughts are with the country and people of Ukraine, hoping a peaceful end is near.
On Today’s Agenda:
What’s Really at Stake for Everton
The NBA Draft Brings New Activations to a Star-Studded Night
Ottawa Senators on the Move
Everton and Their New Partner
What’s Really at Stake for Everton
By AJ Hewish
Everything seemed to be going well for Everton FC for a few years; breaking into the top half of the premier league table, new sponsor Cazoo and plans to build a new stadium in the Merseyside.
However, this past season, Everton stayed in the premier league on the very last day of the season and has been plagued with heavy financial issues from both the league financial rules and lavish spending from the Everton owner. To add more fire to the flame, owner Farhad Moshiri is looking to put Everton up for sale to generate some much-needed cash.
Additionally, Stake Casino (Watford FC sponsor last season) has become a new sponsor for Everton.
Stake calls itself a crypto betting platform on Instagram and in its company profile, now becoming a sponsor for Everton as well as Watford in the Championship next season.
This however is causing further drama in the football community and government. Firstly, many teams in the league ended their betting-related sponsors, including Newcastle, Crystal Palace, and Wolves, mainly due to the likely betting restrictions set to be imposed by the British government. Everton is doing the opposite. Their long-term sponsor deal is valued at over £10 million per year, despite the peer pressure from the rest of the league.
The drama is this: on the official Everton website, the “Who is Stake.com” mentions the likes of their deal with Drake and Sergio Aguero, but surprisingly never mentions the word “cryptocurrency”, but on Stake’s social media, they heavily emphasize their company as being a crypto casino.
Additionally, recent news shows that members of the British public who search Stake.com find not a single result of their involvement in cryptocurrency. Turn on a VPN in the UK, and you’ll see everything there is to know about their crypto betting….. seems kind of suspicious.
The whole gambling regulation scene in the UK right now is definitely causing some drama and we’re all for it. Maybe Everton will face some penalties from the league or even the government. Potentially threatening their financial stability and sending them into administration.
We all knew that crypto would cause some disruption in the coming years and this is just one of the many occasions that we’ve seen so far. Maybe we’ll see more or we’ll see some serious clamping down on crypto and gambling.
New Sights and Sounds
The NBA Draft Brings New Activations to a Star-Studded Night
By Hiral Patel
There will never be a single word or phrase that can summarise the nerves, emotions, and anticipation of NBA draft night, as 60 young stars get to start the next step of making their professional dreams come true. The NBA draft has become significant for many things, including the constant battle between Woj and Shams to tweet the picks before they happen, and the suits worn by the draftees. The 2022 draft was no different, where fans were tuned in and in-person to see the fate of the teams picking in the lottery, and whatever surprises the teams had in store.
A few interesting changes to the regular NBA draft programming were made for the 2022 edition, and it was all centered around the partnerships of the league. Starting with the headline partner, State Farm, the brand teamed up with the league to make a pretty big change in how fans would hear the draft. The NBA draft jingle was changed to now play the State Farm jingle whenever a pick would be announced by Commissioner Adam Silver. Though fans watching on TV did not hear this jingle unless you were paying attention to it, fans in attendance at Barclays Centre in Brooklyn were subject to this new change. Many took to Twitter to express their disbelief that the NBA would change such a traditional and celebrated sound, which many explained triggered a Pavlovian response whenever heard by fans.
The big win of the draft? AT&T produced some touching draft profile videos of some of the lottery picks. With a hint of logo placement in the form of AT&T pop sockets on the players’ phones, the video was focused on the player’s journey to making the league, centered around staying connected to their families on their phones. It presented a great mix of product integration with the emotional connection of the draft - a great execution all around.
The eyes that are on the draft across the world have only increased with the rise of international talent in the league, particularly in the lottery. With 2 Canadians being taken in the top 8 (shoutouts to Bennedict Mathurin and Shaedon Sharpe), including the many European and African selections in the first round, it begs the question if more international partners will find avenues to participate in the draft, rather than leave the partners to a focused American market. While last year was focused on the athletes, their stardom, and the partnerships with each athlete, the wow factor with athlete partnerships at the draft was still missing. As fans look to next year’s draft and beyond the missed picks by their teams, we can only hope that the partnerships evolve as well.
Senators Relocationg… to Ottawa
Ottawa Senators Reach Deal with NCC for New Lebreton Flats Arena
By Caleb Gilligan
For the first time since 2016, a new arena in downtown Ottawa is on the table. On June 23, the National Capital Commission (NCC) reached an agreement with Capital Sports Development Inc (CSDI), a group led by the Ottawa Senators, to sign a memorandum of understanding for their new project. After a disappointing season, the news was a beam of light for Senators fans showing the bright future that lies ahead for the team on and off the ice.
However, not all fans are convinced that the plan will go through, especially after a proposal for a new arena at the same location failed in 2016. The proposal from six years ago was submitted by the RendezVous Lebreton Group comprised of the Ottawa Senators and Trinity Development Group. The plan originally beat out competition from other residential development groups but failed when issues started to arise between the Senators’ owner Eugene Melnyk and Trinity Development leader, John Ruddy.
After being selected in 2016, the negotiations on the master development agreement lasted until November of 2018 when Melnyk and Ruddy’s partnership ended abruptly. According to sources, the source of the issue was that Melnyk was unwilling to pay for the new arena for his Senators. He even went as far as to publicly state that he would forgo any revenue from the arena as long as Ruddy would build the rink and allow the Senators to run it. The partnership ended when Melnyk filed a $700 million lawsuit against Ruddy and his Trinity Development while Ruddy countersued Melnyk for $1 billion shortly after. The NCC finally canceled the deal with RendezVous Lebreton Group in December of 2018 and the Lebreton Flats project was restarted. The trial between Melnyk and Ruddy was set to begin later this year in September before Melnyk suddenly passed away in March.
This time, the winning proposal, Capital Sports Development Inc., is compromised of the Ottawa Senators, Tipping Point Sports, Sterling Project Development, Populus, and Live Nation. The group has more partners involved with greater experience with building stadiums, with Sterling Project Group and Populus working on recent NHL arenas such as Climate Pledge Arena, T-Mobile Arena, and UBS Arena. Although the similarities between the two proposals are there, the NCC vows that time the process will be different.
The team will undoubtedly benefit from a change in scenery after missing the playoffs for the last 5 years. After playing in half-empty arenas for the last few years, players will rejoice in the opportunity to move closer to their fans. The new rink should also help General Manager Pierre Dorian with recruiting players with the prospect of playing near Parliament Hill being more attractive than Kanata. More spotlight on the team will also help Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, and other young Senator players to cement their status as NHL stars. Although a new arena won’t be ready for at least 4 or 5 years, this gives the team a chance to become competitive before the move to Lebreton Flats.
It’s yet to be seen how this Lebreton Flats arena proposal will fold out, but it’s safe to say that Senators fans and citizens of Ottawa are hoping for a better result than in 2018.