Sports & Entertainment Spotlight

Welcome back to the Spotlight! Please accept my sheepish apology—I had planned to use this week’s Spotlight to announce Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl” but Jason and Travis Kelce beat me to the punch on their “New Heights” podcast. It seems having a top rated podcast, several Super Bowl rings and a high-profile romantic relationship with said recording artist, puts you higher in the pecking order than having a middling newsletter, a few legal profession awards and (checks notes) no prior contact with said recording artist. I’m not mad, Taylor. I’m just disappointed. Granted, we will never have a basis for comparison, but I will give credit where credit is due, as Swift’s appearance and announcement of her new album on the podcast has yielded a record for the most viewed podcast in history within the first 24 hours of posting.

It all boils down to yet another example of the melding of sports and entertainment coming together to launch to…new heights. As for me, I still have an announcement, after all: the Spotlight is going on hiatus during a period in which many — myself included (“The Life of a Lawboy”?) — will be on vacation. I hope to see you all back here in September.

• • The Estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is selling ownership of the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers to an ownership group led by Tom Dundon. Dundon brings to the table not only sports ownership experience as majority owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, but also a last name that sounds like an episode of “Law & Order.”
  • With news of Paramount’s $7.8 billion media rights acquisition for UFC, the mixed-martial arts event promotion company may be abandoning its pay-per-view distribution model about 33 years after first rolling it out, and about 30 years after I learned the distribution model was not “paper view.”
  • After his translator was convicted for illegal gambling last year, Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star Shohei Ohtani is again courting controversy, this time on the receiving end of a $240 million lawsuit alleging he sabotaged a luxury real estate deal in Hawaii. Clearly, the highest paid player in baseball is finding out “Mo’ Money, Sho’ Problems”
  • The International Olympic Committee is allowing event organizers for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics to allow sponsors to secure naming rights for competition venues, abandoning long-standing tradition against the practice in favor of long-standing tradition of generating as much revenue as possible.

For inquiries and/or unabashed compliments, please feel free to contact me at josh.bloomgarden@foster.com or add me on LinkedIn.

Welcome back to the Spotlight! In many cultures, the number eight is considered lucky—one that is associated with wealth, prosperity and good fortune. So, it’s only appropriate then that on the eighth day of the eighth month, you’ve joined me (vintage '88) here to receive a wealth of knowledge, prosperity (if dad jokes had any value) and the good fortune of the best sports and entertainment industry newsletter this side of the Mississippi. Before you go rushing out the door to pick up your lottery ticket, allow me to prove my mettle:

• • On the heels of great news of beating bladder cancer, University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders announces an endorsement deal with incontinence underwear brand, Depend. The partnership promises to destigmatize the product while having the added benefit of cutting down on restroom lines at football stadiums everywhere.
  • Actor Zendaya and athletic footwear brand On unveil a co-designed shoe. The cushioned design of the shoe is likely to bring your feet Zen, daya-in and daya-out.
  • Legal deja vu: Sony Music takes Napster to court alleging copyright infringement. In other news, a cat chased a mouse.
  • The NFL and ESPN agree to a tie up that makes the football league a 10% owner of the sports network in exchange for NFL Media Properties (including the popular NFL RedZone channel) and media rights to additional football games. For my part, I will be contributing a Josh-shaped imprint on my couch. 

For inquiries and/or unabashed compliments, please feel free to contact me at josh.bloomgarden@foster.com or add me on LinkedIn.

Welcome back to the Spotlight! Allow me to be among the first to welcome you to August. If you’ve made it this far into summer, congratulations on plodding along through joy-blunting, sizzling hot temperatures. That is not to say that I don’t like the heat, but it would be nice to be able to comfortably wear jeans without having to wring the sweat out afterwards.

Speaking of jeans, you may have heard that there has been somewhat of an outcry over Euphoria and The White Lotus star Sydney Sweeney’s participation in a campaign promoting clothing company American Eagle’s jeans. In particular, the controversy surrounds the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress appearing in advertising materials that say she has great jeans, an obvious double-entendre for her genes that critics maintain evokes eugenics movements from darker moments in history. What’s most offensive to me, however, is the easy pun the brand used. Why couldn’t they at least have considered, “our jeans cover these ‘neys”? Whatever the reason and intent behind the campaign, in a not-so-surprising turn of events, the outrage has only drawn more eyeballs to the campaign, sending American Eagle’s stock price soaring like…a bird of prey. Particularly in light of my wringing (not ringing) description above, the partnership and ensuing Streisand-esque reaction is arguably the best thing that happened to American Eagle since I stopped wearing their jeans after college.

• • Happy Gilmore 2 is now the owner of the Netflix record for most-viewed film with 46.7 million views. I’d like to think my free advertising in last week’s Spotlight contributed about five viewers to that tally—not asking for money, just a “thank you” would be nice.
  • Ex-Astronomer CEO Andy Byron—whose now viral and infamous marital affair was caught on a “kiss cam” during a Coldplay concert—is rumored to be weighing legal action against the British rock band for their audacity in uncovering his web of lies. If Byron is trying to strike back against being thrust into the spotlight (no relation), he may have to trade in his Coldplay fandom for that of Barbra Streisand.
  • Former NBA Star Gilbert Arenas was arrested as part of a federal probe into illegal, high-stakes poker games he hosted at his California mansion. If convicted, he could face a maximum of five years in prison, but he may be able to get off with probation, if he plays his cards right.
    Congratulations to the winners who predicted the “over” on the over/under of 1.5 Barbra Streisand references! See you next week!

For inquiries and/or unabashed compliments, please feel free to contact me at josh.bloomgarden@foster.com or add me on LinkedIn.