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Extra: What Is Sportswashing — and Does It Work? (Update)

1h 5m · Freakonomics Radio · 04 Mar 05:05

In ancient Rome, it was bread and circuses. Today, it’s a World Cup, an Olympics, and a new Saudi-backed golf league that’s challenging the PGA Tour. Can a sporting event really repair a country’s reputation — or will it trigger the dreaded Streisand Effect? Also: why the major U.S. sports leagues are warming up to the idea of foreign investment.

  • SOURCES:
    • Jodi Balsam, professor of clinical law at Brooklyn Law School.
    • Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel analyst.
    • Karen Crouse, sports journalist.
    • Bomani Jones, sports journalist.
    • Victor Matheson, professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross.
    • Alan Shipnuck, sports journalist.
  • RESOURCES:
    • "The New N.F.L. Owners?" by Lauren Hirsch, Kevin Draper, Michael J. de la Merced and Sarah Kessler (The New York Times, 2024).
    • "PGA Tour Raises $1.5 Billion From Group of U.S. Investors," by Lauren Hirsch (The New York Times, 2024).
    • "PGA Tour, LIV Golf Agree to Merge," by Andrew Beaton and Louise Radnofsky (The Wall Street Journal, 2023).
    • Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar, by Alan Shipnuck (2022).
    • "Dustin Johnson Paid £100m to Perform Late U-Turn and Join Saudi-Backed Rebel Series," by By James Corrigan and Tom Morgan (The Telegraph, 2022).
    • "Russia Was the Hottest Place in Sports. Now It’s Frozen Out," by Joshua Robinson, Ben Cohen, and Louise Radnofsky (The Wall Street Journal, 2022).
    • "Could This Be the Year ‘Sportwashing’ Backfires?" by Andrés Martinez (The Los Angeles Times, 2022).
    • "The Truth About Phil and Saudi Arabia," by Alan Shipnuck (The Fire Pit Collective, 2022).
    • The New Yale Book of Quotations, by Fred Shapiro (2021).
    • "The Surprising Reason That There Are So Many Thai Restaurants in America," by Myles Karp (Vice, 2018).
  • EXTRAS:
    • "Greg Norman Takes On the P.G.A. Tour," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).

The episode Extra: What Is Sportswashing — and Does It Work? (Update) from the podcast Freakonomics Radio has a duration of 1:05:17. It was first published 04 Mar 05:05. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

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