Welcome back to The Varsity, my twice-weekly email about everyone in the owner’s box… and all the people who wish they were there, too. Happy Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 to all who celebrate.

📺 Programming note: I was on CNBC’s Last Call on Friday to discuss my story about Stephen A. Smith’s $90 million offer from ESPN. Check it out here. The Stephen A. saga is one of the most fascinating subplots in sports right now, and it’s perfectly timed to play out during the summer doldrums—after the NBA Finals and before NFL training camp. (Yes, yes, I know Copa, the Euros, and the Stanley Cup finals are on.) I’ll have much more on the Stephen A. stakes below.

Meanwhile, don’t miss my Puck partner Bill Cohan’s fascinating tale of NIMBYism on Nantucket, starring Charles Johnson, part-owner of the San Francisco Giants (with a cameo from Red Sox owner John Henry). In a nutshell, Johnson did not want a modest clam shack to open near one of his several homes on the island. After amassing a ton of legal fees and reams of bad press over more than a year, Johnson resolved the dispute at a picnic table summit with a few of his fellow billionaires. Maybe there’s hope for the rest of us, too.

Remember: No forwarding this private email to anyone who can afford it (and you all can afford it) or you will be subjected to Marchand’s interpretive reading of Emily Dickinson poems. We mean it this time! Don’t grinfuck me!

Okay, let’s get to it…

1. Game 7 expectations: The last time the Stanley Cup Finals went to a decisive Game 7 was back in 2019, when the Blues beat the Bruins 4-1. NBC scored 8.91 million viewers for the contest, the NHL’s largest audience to date. It was a slightly better outcome than the previous Stanley Cup Game 7, in 2011—i.e., the media industry’s Before Times, an era where cord-cutting seemed unimaginable—when the Bruins defeated the Canucks. NBC drew an audience of 8.54 million for that game.

   I wouldn’t expect ABC, which is broadcasting tonight’s climatic Game 7 between the Panthers and Oilers, to pull in anything close to those numbers, especially considering that Nielsen isn’t counting the Edmonton market—or any Canadian market, for that matter. Still, I think the storyline of the Oilers potentially overcoming a 3-0 deficit is compelling and should draw casual fans. Most of my sources are predicting somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 million to 5.5 million viewers, a conservative estimate given that Friday night’s Game 6 averaged 4.2 million. I’m much more optimistic: I think that tonight’s game hits 6 million viewers, which will have Disney executives breaking out the Canadian Club.

2. Khan’s Indiana dowry: The state of Indiana is paying around $15 million to lure WWE’s three largest events—WrestleMania, Summer Slam, and the Royal Rumble—to Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium over the next few years. The $15 million dowry represents the largest-ever domestic fee WWE has received from a market looking to host its events.

   It was hard to come up with a specific breakdown, but it seems likely that WrestleMania would account for between $7 million and $9 million, which is significantly more than the reported $5 million Las Vegas is paying to host the event next year. I’m told that the SummerSlam and Royal Rumble payments are more than double the previous highs for those events. Royal Rumble is already slated for February 1; SummerSlam and WrestleMania dates are still T.B.A.

   WWE president Nick Khan led the negotiations for WWE, with TKO E.V.P. Pete Dropick and WWE E.V.P. Chris Legentil. Indiana Sports Corp. president Patrick Talty headed up negotiations for the state.

3. A Spulu leak: Venu (f.k.a. Spulu), the enigmatic sports streaming joint venture from Disney, Fox, and WBD, has been shrouded in secrecy since it was first semi-unveiled four months ago. All we knew was that former Apple executive Pete Distad was running the service, and that he eventually selected a management team. Beyond that, questions generally abounded about the service, technology, and price point—at least beyond the $40-$50 per month figure that was often bandied about.

   Thanks to the sleuthing of Janko Roettgers, however, we have an early snapshot of the product. My sources confirmed that the interface Roettgers previewed was legit. (It’s an “in-progress development build,” as one put it.) The service, which will have DVR and multiview functionality, will organize sporting events through league hubs and offer livestreaming access to channels from Disney, Fox, and WBD. “The big question left,” Roettgers wrote, “[is] how much will Venu cost—and will the service be able to find a sweet spot that enough sports fans are willing to pay?”

4. Required reading for Diamond addicts: Don’t worry, today’s issue of The Varsity offers a general reprieve from one of the industry’s more grim and depressing soap operas—Diamond Sports’ attempt to move out of bankruptcy, replete with its glide paths, cliff paths, and grinfuckers. (Drink!) But for the obsessed among us, I couldn’t help but point to a Wall Street Journal story published on Friday by Alexander Gladstone, Andrew Scurria, and Akiko Matsuda about the bankruptcy court in Houston that is handling the Diamond case. According to the story, the court’s chief judge, David R. Jones, “was known for ruling in favor of … firms representing corporate debtors, according to dozens of bankruptcy lawyers who worked on cases Jones oversaw.”

   The story outlines how the biggest corporate bankruptcies have moved from New York and Delaware to Houston over the last 13 years. Judge Christopher Lopez, who is handling the Diamond case, is not mentioned in the story. Neither is Diamond Sports. But it should be required reading for anyone interested in the case.

5. Another NBA non-update update: I called a good source of mine this morning, and before I could even ask about where things stand with the NBA, he blurted out, “July.” Yes, dear reader, as we’ve reported for the past four weeks, we’re still “two weeks away” from the ink drying on the NBA media rights deals. The NBA will host a two-day draft this Wednesday and Thursday—the first time it has held its draft over two days, which makes it even more unlikely that we’ll hear anything about the league’s media deals until after July 4.

As I reported last week, Stephen A. Smith, the network’s top talent, appears unwilling to countenance its recent five-year, $90 million offer, which would pay the voluble star $18 million per year. Instead, Smith covets the blockbuster deal that the network used to persuade McAfee to decamp last year from FanDuel. Notably, ESPN pays McAfee’s production company, which operates his talk show, $25 million a year—a fee that covers all its operating costs: salaries, insurance, fixed costs, etcetera. ESPN has also offered him about $5 million a year to appear on College GameDay, sources told me. (McAfee has yet to sign the deal.)

For his part, Stephen A. doesn’t just want McAfeebucks. Smith, who is listed as executive producer on First Take—and has been instrumental in developing co-hosts, booking the show, and arranging interviews—wants to structure a similar type of deal, perhaps something like Stephen A. Smith Enterprises. Smith is already on ESPN’s air more than any other talent, but I’m told that he and his agents at WME are looking for an expanded role that could see him get more involved in production, appear on more of ESPN’s NFL programming, and do all the requisite appearances that ESPN’s advertising and affiliate relations departments ask him to do. (WME also represents Puck.)

In many ways, despite McAfee’s proclivity for causing trouble and grabbing attention, ESPN is already Stephen A.’s network—jettisoning Max Kellerman from First Take, giving the outspoken star the “tunnel cam” treatment during the NBA Finals, and investing football money in a studio personality. But it’s also entirely possible that Smith and WME’s ask is incongruent with the market. Next year, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro will launch both the network’s flagship streamer and its Venu joint venture. The company will be paying out the nose on broadcast rights for the NFL, college football, baseball, women’s college sports, and its new NBA deal. Stephen A. may be the network’s brightest star, but ESPN’s future comes down to live sports broadcasts and technology—becoming the streaming hub for all sports fans who want to watch a game, make a wager, or buy merchandise. Stephen A. can cut through the clutter and help attract paying subscribers, but it’s undeniable that First Take will play a smaller role in this new ecosystem.

As WME considers the market for its client, they will have plenty of suitors to choose from. There are the streaming companies, such as Amazon and Apple, that are entering live sports broadcasting. There will also be a host of gambling companies who have increasingly been looking to use big-name talent to draw in new customers and stand out in a crowded field. Stephen A. could also take the YouTube or social media route, like Tucker Carlson, ensuring he owns his own I.P. There’s also satellite radio options.

Ironically, just about the only area where Smith is unlikely to attract multiple bidders is the one where he gained fame: Broadcast network executives are loath to pay the type of salary he is seeking. “The amount of ink spilled on a daytime sports program watched by the unemployed is incredible to me,” one executive told me, summing up the view of many.

More on Stephen A.: “If ESPN keeps SAS, it’ll have to drive up not one, not two, not three, but four Brink’s trucks to his house. While no name is bigger than the brand, Stephen A. is pretty close.” —A sports media writer

More on Stephen A. Part II: “There’s no one on any sports daily talk show who is worth $25 million. ESPN’s not getting a higher affiliate fee because of Stephen A. They’re not bumping enough of a subscriber count on streaming to offset that.” —A network executive

More on Stephen A., Part III: “You mentioned WME a lot here, but you didn’t mention that WME reps Puck.” —A Varsity subscriber
[Ed note: Thanks for the reminder. WME does indeed rep Puck, but not me.]

On the June sports doldrums: “Always a must-read, but you started off by saying ‘We’ve entered the doldrums of the sports media calendar.’ Last I checked, there is still an excellent Stanley Cup Finals going on! Even with a Canadian team in the finals, the on-ice product has been excellent. Give hockey its due!!” —A Varsity subscriber with Canadian roots who happens to work at a bank

Everyone’s an editor: “How about some coverage of how Fox is making soccer invisible. Back when Euros were on ESPN, they were an event. They got tons of coverage on the mothership and its digital site. Fox has Euros and Copa, and there’s no soccer noise this summer. It’s bad for the sport ahead of the 2026 World Cup on U.S. soil. Plus, Fox’s studio team and commentators are terrrrrrrible. If it’s like this for the World Cup in two years, soccer won’t get a bump. It will look J.V. And that’s on Fox.” —A journalist

On the Varsity spelling bee: “While on vacation, I had my rising 8th grader read this newsletter out loud to me. She had to use the iPhone lookup feature for several words. Congratulations for being both educational and informative. Glad you didn’t work ‘grinfuck’ into your copy this week. I did have to explain who Marchand is, though.” —A Varsity subscriber

On the return of The Varsity’s Marchand roast: “I was relieved to learn that I was not your only private email reader whose heart skipped a beat at the conclusion of your Tuesday email upon realization that any mention of Marchand had been omitted. While attempting your make-good in Thursday's email, a future zing idea came to me. While you actively discourage us to forward your emails to non Puck subscribers, perhaps on a special occasion you encourage us to instead forward your email to Marchand's inbox!” —A web designer

More on Marchand: “Tonight's Marchand bit was perfection. Although I really wouldn't mind lip-synching along to the Eras Tour with him.” —A journalist

On my upcoming podcast: “The name of your new podcast has to be Grinfucking With John Ourand.” —An on-air broadcaster