Rixon Sports Report - Fri. May 30th, 2025

- Rare Honus Wagner Card selling for millions

- WNBA players demanding family benefits in new CBA

- SEC increases fines for storming the field

- Big 12 ditching private equity - for now

- At least one more game for TNT

Transcript

Welcome to the Rixon Sports Report, the fastest three minutes in sports business for Friday, May 30th, 2025.

Sportico with the story on the rare Honus Wagner baseball card up for auction with early bids that have already topped $3.5 million bucks.  The last Honus Wagner card at this type sold for $7.5 million dollars in 2022 as part of a private sale.  Only 54 of these cards exist, with right around half of them reflecting the highest grade 1 rating.  Wagner, nicknamed the Flying Dutchman, played for the Pirates and was one of the first five players admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  Reasons for the rarity of these cards vary, with one of the unconfirmed reasons being that Wagner didn’t want his cards used to promote tobacco use, since these cards were included with tobacco products, but some of the cards slipped in anyway.  Regardless, the early price tells us that the market for this is still high.

Sticking with Sportico, great piece by Eric Jackson on some of the demands WNBA players are making in their CBA talks, with a focus on family benefits and childcare.  Many benefits are currently locked behind service requirements, requiring as many as eight years of roster time.  Expect this to continue to be a big piece of the negotiations as they continue.

The SEC increases the fines related to court and field storming, eliminating the escalating system and moving to a flat $500,000 fine for each incident.  SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey announced the rule change Thursday.  The SEC prohibited field storming beginning in 2004 but with little success.  The rule reignited controversy in 2022 when Tennessee fans stormed the field after defeating Alabama, trapping some of the players on the field.  Vanderbilt was arguably the largest offender this past season after they memorably beat Alabama and paraded the goalposts down to the Columbia River with another two fines being levied from court stormings during basketball season, the last one costing $500,000.  There is one caveat: The league can waive the fine if the opposing team and officials are allowed to get to the locker room before the fans storm.  More at ESPN.

Sticking with college, Front Office Sports on the Big 12 stopping their efforts in finding a private equity deal.  The conference has been researching this for over a year, with Commissioner Brett Yormark saying, and I quote “right now, we’re not ready.”  The “right now” of that is certainly telling, with naming rights off the table as well for the moment.  Yormark continues to be an innovator in this space so I am sure this is not the last we are hearing on that.

Last but not least, the Knicks win Thursday night pushes the Eastern Conference Finals to six games, which means we’ll keep getting TNT’s iteration of Inside the NBA, at least for one more game.  Kevin Harlan making sure to thank the crew and people behind the scenes in case game 5 in New York was the last.  Inside the NBA wildly popular format will remain as part of the licensing deal with ESPN next season, with the NBA’s other partners Amazon and NBC rounding out the coverage.  Front Office Sports with more.

Thanks again for listening to the Rixon Sports Report.  As always, you can find links to these stories at RixonSports.com.