Fox and IndyCar Put Faces to Indianapolis 500 With Help From Macy's and Letterman
Rolling into this weekend's Indianapolis 500, both the NTT IndyCar series and Fox are moving at top speed toward their goals for the collaboration.
In June 2024, IndyCar announced that it was shifting partners from NBCUniversal to Fox and putting all 17 of its races, plus two days of qualifying rounds for the Gainbridge-sponsored Indy 500, on live network broadcasts. The circuit saw immediate dividends during its opening race in St. Petersburg, when Fox drew an audience of 1.42 million—a viewership level IndyCar hadn't hit since the 2011 Indianapolis 500 and 45% higher than last year's opener on NBC, according to Sports Media Watch.
As Fox announced during its upfront earlier this month, IndyCar viewership is up 25% on Fox from the same time last year. That didn't happen in a vacuum, as Fox began marketing IndyCar in fall and early winter during its college football and National Football League broadcasts, using its other Fox Sports properties to boost awareness of IndyCar.
'We were able to use that platform to start advertising and talking about IndyCar and the drivers to a wide audience, and that was an important part of the liftoff of the new season and the new relationship with Indy continued that through the playoffs and the Super Bowl,' said Robert Gottlieb, president of marketing at Fox Sports. 'We've used our NASCAR broadcast, beginning with the Daytona 500, which has large amounts of motorsports fans, and we're able to talk to them a lot about IndyCar, and so that all led to a pretty virtuous circle that delivered us to our opener at St Petersburg.' Read More Goodbody Stockbrokers to cut 20 jobs amid Iseq exodus
Gottlieb considers the Indianapolis 500 broadcast an inflection point for Fox's IndyCar coverage, with much of it building to this stage. During the Super Bowl, Fox's IndyCar ads focused on 26-year-old Mexican driver Pato O'Ward, who dabbles in Formula 1 with McLaren and came in second at last year's Indy 500 after a raucous final lap. The campaign also featured reigning champion Josef Newgarden, who's going for his third-consecutive victory after winning the previous two races in Indianapolis on the last lap. businessmayor May 23, 2025
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New York Times
43 minutes ago
- New York Times
FIFA's Gianni Infantino says soccer will be ‘No. 1 sport' in U.S., urges promotion, relegation
NEW YORK — FIFA president Gianni Infantino says soccer has the potential to soon be the 'No. 1 sport here in America,' and that reaching this goal is one of FIFA's top priorities. There are just a few things the sport should consider first, Infantino said, such as exploring the introduction of promotion and relegation in American soccer. Advertisement Infantino made these bold statements in a wide-ranging fireside chat with Fox Sports' Jordan Schultz at Fanatics Fest on Sunday afternoon in New York City, before heading across the Hudson River to catch a Club World Cup match at nearby MetLife Stadium. In 'three to four, maximum five years,' Infantino said, 'it will be top, top, top. One of the top leagues in the world, for sure. And I can tell you why — because now I'm here.' That's a fast timeline based on recent data. A 2025 poll conducted by S&P Global that garnered 2,501 responses found 14 percent of surveyed 'internet adults' watch soccer, the seventh-highest figure behind the traditional 'big four' sports — baseball, basketball, football and hockey — as well as both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Of those who do watch, 76 percent said they watched men's international soccer (World Cup, Olympics), 50 percent watch women's international soccer, and 55 percent already watch MLS. As for in-person gross, Two Circles' annual review of attendance ranks soccer as the fourth most-attended sport at 8 percent of 292 million attendees in 2024. Though that gives it a narrow edge over hockey, itself at 7 percent, soccer significantly trails the share held by baseball (35 percent), basketball (22 percent) and football (20 percent). The other 8 percent includes other sports. Infantino, who lives in Miami, spoke at length about his vision for soccer in America. Aside from suggesting the nixing of the long-criticized 'pay to play' model for youth soccer, which Infantino called 'a problem here in America,' he also hinted that introducing promotion and relegation could help bring more excitement to the sport. His remarks came after Schultz asked Infantino about Wrexham's wild success in recent years, going from the subject of a Netflix series to three straight league promotions. 'This is one of the beauties of promotion and relegation,' Infantino said. 'So, in soccer, unlike any other sport, surprises are happening, and the little one can beat the big one, right? And this rarely, rarely happens in other sports, 90 percent of the time, the stronger one wins. In soccer, it's 70 percent of the time. Advertisement 'You have these surprises. You have these fairy tales of teams. … This is something you can bring in this American culture as well, where you don't have the concept of promotion and relegation, and there's something interesting that I think has to be explored.' A Cinderella story like Wrexham's, as Infantino suggested, is something that in American soccer simply hasn't happened thanks to the absence of promotion and relegation in the men's American soccer landscape. That's something that could soon change, though, with United Soccer League owners in March voting to implement the system into their leagues. Their decision challenges the tradition of Major League Soccer, which has never implemented a relegation system that's common in soccer leagues across the world. Nevertheless, Infantino's remarks show ambition to enact what would be a seismic change to how professional men's soccer has operated in the United States. The current system launched in the 1990s, when, as a condition of being awarded the hosting rights for the men's World Cup in 1994, U.S. Soccer vowed to launch a sustainable first-division league: Major League Soccer. Since its debut season in 1996, MLS has operated as a closed single-entity circuit in which all owners have vested interests in their collective success in tandem rather than each club looking out for its own interests. The approach allowed MLS to succeed where its glitzy predecessor, the NASL, failed, stability and parity, while accepting the league couldn't thrive with haves and have-nots at varying levels of operational success. Like MLS, NASL did not implement relegation. The compromises made in this format are undeniable. Few leagues around the world can match the strictness of MLS' rules and regulations, which limit how teams can spend across their entire roster and force teams to focus their expenditures on only a handful of leading players regardless of their age or pedigree. The devotion to competitive balance also keeps clubs from being able to outspend their rivals to gain an on-field edge, instead having to be crafty and work within a borderline labyrinthine set of roster rules. Advertisement As the sport's popularity has continued to spike over the past decade or more, American and Canadian fans have looked to other leagues beyond their MLS markets and taken interest in the sport's more open structure. A 2016 study by Deloitte of 'over 1,000 U.S. soccer fans,' commissioned by the owner of lower-division club Miami FC, found that 88 percent of domestic respondents 'believe (the) introduction of promotion and relegation would be beneficial for club soccer in the USA.' In that spirit, the USL — which has operated among the United States' lower divisions since 2011 — introduced an audacious aim to bring promotion and relegation to the U.S., announcing earlier this year it hoped to debut a new circuit at a first-division level to make a three-tier open system as soon as 2027. As currently designed, such a venture would not involve MLS, the nation's top league. In a sit-down interview with The Athletic in 2023, MLS commissioner Don Garber left the door open for the league to one day consider adopting a promotion and relegation model. 'I don't see any reason why, at the right time, if we're able to accommodate it as it relates to schedule and players and the ecosystem of MLS, why we couldn't have more teams in the future,' Garber said at the time. 'But this is an example of — life is a long time. We do not need to expand. We expand so that we can build our fan base. We build our fan base, which drives revenue, we drive revenue and we can invest that money back into the sport.' Ultimately, it will be up to MLS' owners — who come to decisions through votes held by the board of governors, taking cues from various committees among its membership — to determine whether it wants to finally move forward with opening the system. The Athletic has reached out to MLS for comment on Infantino's remarks. Infantino's remarks aren't the first sign that MLS might need to embrace the winds of change — far from it, in fact. However, this latest in a seemingly endless series of major summer tournaments has shown that leagues beyond Europe's elite can contend at the highest levels if set up for success. Though both the Seattle Sounders and Los Angeles have been competitive in their Club World Cup matches, both teams enter the final group stage match without a single point.
Fox Sports
an hour ago
- Fox Sports
The U.S. Is Thinking Outside the Box To Find An Edge In Set Pieces — And It's Working
ARLINGTON, Texas — Sebastian Berhalter stood over the free kick about 40 yards away from Saudi Arabia's goal. He raised his hand, then delivered pinpoint service into the box where Chris Richards was able to get on the end of it and score what ultimately became the winning goal for the U.S. men's national team in its second Gold Cup match at Q2 Stadium in Austin on Thursday. The victory meant that the Americans would advance to the quarterfinals, though they will conclude group stage play on Sunday vs. Haiti here at AT&T Stadium (7 p.m. ET on FOX). Richards nearly had a goal earlier in that match, but his header off Jack McGlynn's corner went right into the goalkeeper's chest. These two scoring opportunities — one that was successful and one that wasn't — are not coincidence. Since Mauricio Pochettino took over as the USMNT's manager last fall, there's been more emphasis placed on set pieces, both offensively and defensively. "Offensively, I feel like we've always had the ability to be good at them, but we've never been good at them," Tyler Adams told reporters. "So I think now it's important just putting the balls in the right areas, making sure guys are making the right runs. Obviously, Chris with a great finish, but I think it could be a huge trend for us." That's what this team has been hoping would be the case for a while. In fact, former U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter (Sebastian's father) had hired Gianni Vio, an Italian set piece specialist, and saw the benefit in last summer's Copa América opener when Christian Pulisic scored off a corner kick that Vio designed. But outside of a few goals here and there, the U.S. hasn't been proficient enough. Pochettino, however, has placed a greater significance on this aspect of the game. Yes, working on set pieces consistently is important, but he's also introduced the team to a technology called TrackMan , which provides real-time data on ball flight, speed, launch angles, distance and more. It has been predominantly used for golf and baseball, but according to the company's website, it has expanded to soccer, American football and even hammer throw and shot put. "It shows if you put the ball in a certain area, the percentage of scoring or getting a head on it or first contact is going to go up," Adams said. "I think putting the ball into consistent delivery has been important, but we have threats. Even Chris, I think he's finally coming into his own. I'm like, 'Dude, go and win the ball, like, you're huge.' And he's continuing to find that balance and be a threat for us." As Adams alluded to, this kind of innovation is all well and good, but you have to have players who can execute for it to matter. "The key is to have a player like Chris who is so good at attacking the box and then a player with great delivery like we have in Sebastian or Jack McGlynn, who have a really good touch on the ball," Pochettino said. "Of course, sometimes [scoring goals] happens and sometimes it doesn't happen, sometimes we have more or less luck. "But it's not only us who are working in this way to try to improve on set pieces in offensive and defensive situations. I think today, all the clubs and national teams are really focused and have specialists. And yes, we are in this way trying to help the players to achieve our goals on the pitch." Sebastian Berhalter has actually been using TrackMan with his MLS club, the Vancouver Whitecaps, for a while. During the season, he works with assistant coaches Jan Michaelsen and Michael D'Agostino a few times a week so he can keep improving his delivery. It's paying off. "I think my whole career it's something that I wanted to be good at, and slowly it's gotten better," Berhalter said. "I think these last couple years in Vancouver they've emphasized it. I sat down with our assistant coach and he told me that, you know, 'This year you can be the best in the league at set pieces.'" He's now developed a reputation for it, and given how open things are when it comes to Pochettino's player pool, this particular skill set could help Berhalter's case for a World Cup roster spot next year. "Set pieces are really about repetition," Paxten Aaronson said. "Everybody has the technique, but how many times can you take it? [Berhalter] serves really, really good ones in directions where defenses don't want to put their head. So he does a great job." The USMNT has been spending 15-20 minutes on set pieces before every Gold Cup game, "really making sure everyone knows what we're doing," Berhalter said. "Even the day before in training, [Pochettino] said, 'Take your time, be calm, you know you can deliver a good ball.' So it's something he's given me confidence in." As for capitalizing on more of these opportunities going forward, guys like Richards know they can anticipate quality service from Berhalter. "As soon as I saw it there, I thought, 'This has to be me,'" Richards said. He hedged correctly, and the USMNT won its second straight game. Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her at @LakenLitman . recommended Get more from Gold Cup Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
Dawn Staley Reveals Helpful Advice For Eagles' Jalen Hurts
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Jalen Hurts has a friend in South Carolina Women's Basketball coach, Dawn Staley. The Philadelphia-born coach, who has made her support of the Philadelphia Eagles well known, recently revealed that she frequently sends messages to Hurts, offering some inspiration. As a quarterback in one of the toughest NFL markets, Staley feels that Hurts could use the frequent inspiration, even though he was considered one of the "coolest cats." "I know sometimes when you play for a team that's in Philly, and you're the quarterback, and you're the star, it really is a lonely place," said Staley. "He's QB1, we lose, the city goes crazy. So, I know it's a lonely place. Sometimes I text him, 'Hey, don't get too high with the highs or low.' He doesn't... He doesn't now. He's the coolest cat that I know, but sometimes you need to hear that you're the only one who is going to feel the pressure of everybody else, because other people in other positions can just kind of go under the radar, so to speak. When it's the quarterback, and we know you've got the potential to take us to Super Bowls and win Super Bowls, you really feel the pressure." Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles on the sideline during the second half against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on November 24, 2024 in Inglewood, California. Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles on the sideline during the second half against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on November 24, 2024 in Inglewood, run in Philadelphia hasn't always been easy. Although he quickly earned the support of the city after taking over as the starter during his rookie effort, beating out the struggling Carson Wentz, a sophomore slump created a negative narrative about Hurts as a franchise quarterback. Kylie Kelce and Dawn Staley talks about the pressure Jalen Hurts has being the quarterback in Philadelphia and how it can be really lonely for him. Dawn says she checks up on him, just to make sure he's good. She also says Jalen is the coolest calmest person ever. — ✍🏾 (@clearittfup) June 20, 2025 Even after Hurts put together an MVP campaign in year three and led the Eagles to the Super Bowl, the franchise quarterback remains one of the most polarizing players at the position. Staley was happy to see Hurts overcome the narratives in 2024, putting together a second Super Bowl run and coming out on top. The pressure was on Hurts to deliver more often than not, and he ended the season by earning Super Bowl MVP honors after the Eagles took down Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Staley's advice likely went a long way for Hurts throughout his Philadelphia journey. Since the quarterback still faces a ton of question marks with all he's accomplished, Staley will have to continue reaching out to the two-time Pro Bowler to keep him sharp in the City of Brotherly Love. For more Philadelphia Eagles and NFL news, head over to Newsweek Sports.
