A federal judge dismissed the central claim of unequal pay in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. women’s national soccer team against the U.S. Soccer Federation. But the players, including Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, have vowed to appeal. Dan digs in with Axios sports editor Kendall Baker.
The absence of live sports is reigniting the years-long debate over the real value of live sports in a Pay-TV package.
Why it matters: New York State Attorney General Letitia has argued that consumers shouldn't have to pay the same amount for cable and satellite packages, which include expensive sports networks, when those sports networks aren't carrying any live sports.
Driving the news: In a written decision, Judge R. Gary Klausner said the women hadn't provided enough evidence of pay discrimination to take the issue to the scheduled June 16 trial.
ESPN will broadcast Korean Baseball Organization games, starting with the season opener on Tuesday, the network announced.
The big picture: Monday's announcement comes as most U.S. sports have shut down because of the coronavirus. The South Korean league, which was originally scheduled to begin in late March, was delayed until this Tuesday. The deal gives ESPN exclusive English-language coverage of the league as part of an agreement with Eclat Media Group.
It's been 54 days since we last had sports in this country — and 187 days since we last had baseball.
Why it matters: That's a long time to go without our national pastime. In fact, unless baseball returns before July 15, we are living through the longest MLB outage in history (current record: 257 days during the 1994-95 strike).
