After more than two years of singularly pushing to build a downtown Philadelphia arena, the 76ers are at least entertaining the notion of building a facility in Camden, N.J.

Marking a significant turn in a long-simmering venue issue in the City of Brotherly Love, the state of New Jersey has directly pitched the 76ers to abandon their plans to construct an arena in Philadelphia’s Center City, and instead locate the project in Camden, just across the Delaware River. The Garden State’s pitch comes with an offer of up to $400 million in tax credits toward an arena and mixed-use development. The 76ers’ downtown plan involves entirely private financing.

While Diamond Sports in recent weeks has managed to secure crucial rights deals with the NBA and NHL as well as a new carriage agreement with Comcast, the owner of the Bally Sports RSNs isn’t expected to have a crack at exiting Chapter 11 until at least next month. As part of an emergency session held Tuesday afternoon in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Diamond counsel Joe Graham asked that a twice-delayed confirmation hearing be rescheduled for early- to mid-November. Initially slated for June 18, the hearing represents what amounts to the final legal milestone in Diamond’s long journey out of bankruptcy.

The NCAA isn’t the only entity trying to force the terms of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals to become public. Last week, the California state legislature passed an amendment to its existing NIL law requiring any deals worth $5,000 or more to be reported to their schools, who will then publicize the information in anonymized data separated by sport and gender. The amendment is currently awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.

In their notice of appeal to the 9th Circuit filed Friday night, lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote that they will challenge the Aug. 20 final judgment “and all other orders, opinions, rulings, and decisions,” including Gutierrez’s Aug. 1 decision to grant the NFL’s motion for a judgment as a matter of law. Lawyers representing more than two million NFL Sunday Ticket customers filed a notice of appeal, an expected move after a federal judge made the extraordinary decision to set aside the jury’s $4.7 billion verdict on Aug. 1.

A U.S bankruptcy court today denied a contentious MLB request to unseal Diamond Sports Group’s recent 2024-25 agreements with the NBA and NHL, SBJ has learned, just days after MLB lawyers had questioned the feasibility of Diamond’s business plan with each league and had informed the court it was skeptical about Diamond’s viability before or even after emerging from Chapter 11.

The Cleveland Browns announced that Huntington National Bank has agreed to a 20-year naming rights agreement for the team’s current stadium, which will now be known as Huntington Bank Field. The agreement also states that the regional bank will carry over the rights to a new stadium if the Browns move forward with a proposed plan to build a domed stadium in the Cleveland suburbs.

The Sept. 1 deadline to renew the football scheduling partnership between the Pac-12 and Mountain West passed this weekend without a formal agreement. It “does not appear” that the deal will be renewed at all, even at a later date, a source confirms to Front Office Sports.

As the NFL season rolls around, ESPN approaches the first anniversary of the launch of its first sportsbook, ESPN Bet.

Since ESPN entered a 10-year, $2 billion partnership with Penn Entertainment and rebranded the Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN Bet, the sports media giant has yet to achieve significant gains—at least in terms of market share.

In a May report by Eilers & Krejcik, ESPN Bet had secured only 2.8% of the online sports betting market share compared to a combined 74% by FanDuel and DraftKings. Penn president Jay Snowden said last year that the company is projecting 20% market share by 2027.

But ESPN claims it’s where it wants to be. During the company’s media day in Bristol, Conn., on Wednesday, Mike Morrison, VP for ESPN Bet and ESPN Fantasy, told Front Office Sports that ESPN is “happy” with its growth.

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Since ESPN entered a 10-year, $2 billion partnership with Penn Entertainment and rebranded the Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN Bet, the sports media giant has yet to achieve significant gains—at least in terms of market share.

​

In a May report by Eilers & Krejcik, ESPN Bet had secured only 2.8% of the online sports betting market share compared to a combined 74% by FanDuel and DraftKings. Penn president Jay Snowden said last year that the company is projecting 20% market share by 2027.

​

But ESPN claims it’s where it wants to be. During the company’s media day in Bristol, Conn., on Wednesday, Mike Morrison, VP for ESPN Bet and ESPN Fantasy, told Front Office Sports that ESPN is “happy” with its growth.

​

Source: Front Office Sports

Fanatics has refiled its lawsuit against Cardinals rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. with a new addition—the elder Marvin Harrison.

In a new filing in the New York state Supreme Court, the amended lawsuit says Harrison Sr. “aided and abetted Harrison Jr.’s fraud on Fanatics.” The elder Harrison was a legendary Hall of Fame receiver for the Colts, while his son is about to begin his NFL career with the Cardinals.

The NWSL is eliminating its annual draft, increasing pay and effectively granting no-trade clauses to players across the league, all part of the new labor accord that was quietly ratified earlier this month.

The deal includes some of the most player-centric language of any labor accord in major U.S. team sports, and notably shifts the NWSL toward the more traditional soccer player contracts often seen in Europe.

Florida State’s football team flew to Ireland on Wednesday night in preparation for Saturday’s season opener against Georgia Tech in Dublin. But the school’s legal representatives spent time this week meeting with officials from the ACC for a court-mandated mediation surrounding FSU’s efforts to leave the conference.

There was no immediate resolution to their litigation. Representatives for the ACC and FSU did not immediately respond to a request for comment about this week’s mediation.

Deion Sanders’ pleas for mercy appear to have been ignored.

Los Angeles County prosecutors have charged three teenagers with felonies after an alleged theft in Colorado’s locker room last year despite Sanders imploring law enforcement to let them off lightly.

The incident took place during an Oct. 2023 UCLA-Colorado game at the Rose Bowl.

The House v. NCAA settlement has been presented as a major step toward increasing college athletes’ economic rights—and many industry stakeholders agree the revenue-sharing component is a particularly huge win for players.

But the settlement goes far beyond the scope of the original lawsuit, covering issues normally negotiated through only players’ unions.

A Massachusetts judge denied DraftKings’ motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit against the company arguing deceptive marketing schemes Wednesday.

A group of bettors are suing the company for what looked like an easy incentive for new bettors, but it was actually a tough bonus to earn. The gamblers are represented by the Boston nonprofit Public Health Advocacy Institute.

FuboTV is still riding high—at least on the stock market—as the high-profile Venu Sports legal battle remains in a holding pattern.

In the first full day of trading following a federal judge placing a preliminary injunction against the debut of Venu Sports—the streaming alliance involving Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery—FuboTV shares closed up by 17.6% at $1.80 per share.

Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby’s federal lawsuit against the WNBA and her former team, the Las Vegas Aces, could set important precedent for the employment relationship between pregnant pro athletes and their teams and league, and whether a player trade can cause an injury the law ought to protect.

There is a potentially impactful new twist in the long-running Royals stadium saga, one arriving against the backdrop of an increasingly impatient Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.

The MLB club is now considering Washington Square Park, on the southern edge of downtown Kansas City, as a site option for a new ballpark.

Six years out from the widespread legalization and acceptance of sports betting in the United States, the sports world has been plagued over and over by scandals. A wave has hit in 2024, from Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter to Jontay Porter to most recently, the Notre Dame men’s swimming team. Now, a new study by researchers at BYU, Kansas, and Northwestern is linking sports betting with long-term negative financial consequences for gamblers.

Notre Dame announced a one-year suspension for its men’s swimming team Thursday after an external review found chronic violations of NCAA gambling rules and issues with the team’s “culture.”

“The external review confirmed and expanded on our initial concerns about a deeply embedded team culture dismissive of Notre Dame’s standards for student-athletes, including our expectation that they treat one another with dignity and respect,” athletic director Pete Bevacqua said in a statement. “We hope this decision sends a clear and unequivocal message reaffirming that commitment and expectation.”

The biggest headline coming out of the settlement proposal for the House v. NCAA class action lawsuit over name, image, and likeness rights is the potential for a revenue-sharing agreement between schools and players.

But the 300-page proposal also includes an entire section that would hand unprecedented control over name, image, and likeness deals to the NCAA. The goal: to weed out NIL deals considered “pay-for-play,” where NIL collectives and boosters offer astronomical sums in exchange for miniscule marketing activities.

University of Miami booster John Ruiz has been a major funder of the school’s sports in the name, image, and likeness era. Now the source of that money may be drying up.

Ruiz admitted to investors earlier this week that his company is far short of revenue projections.

LifeWallet, an insurance claims company, projected it would make $963 million in net revenue last year. Instead, its total revenue was $7.7 million.

The sports streaming joint venture between Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery will have to wait, and it may never see the light of day at all.

A federal judge has blocked the planned Aug. 23 launch of Venu, a collaboration among the three media giants.

FuboTV in February sued over the planned app, and argued the launch should be enjoined for antitrust reasons. Judge Margaret Garnett agreed.

Fox Corp. is on the verge of scoring a massive touchdown for Super Bowl LIX, even though kickoff is a little less than half a year away, according to
Variety
.
The company, which is slated to broadcast the 2025 Super Bowl from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 9, has sold out all but a handful of slots of commercial inventory, according to three media buyers familiar with recent negotiations.

Graeme McDowell became the first LIV golfer to be punished under its drug policy.

In statements Sunday, LIV Golf and McDowell said the positive test was caused by an over-the-counter nasal decongestant.

It’ll cost him $252,500 in total.

Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby filed a federal lawsuit Monday in Nevada against the WNBA and her former team, the Las Vegas Aces.

The 18-page suit doubles down on Hamby’s previous claims that her former employer discriminated against her because she was pregnant, which included trading her to Los Angeles.

The first athlete objections to the House v. NCAA proposal have been filed, less than a month after the 300-page document—that would pave the way for revenue-sharing—was submitted to the court. A trio of objections argued a wide range of grievances, from gender equity to antitrust issues.

House v. NCAA, first filed in 2020, argues that athletes deserve damages for losing out on NIL (name, image, and likeness) opportunities before 2021, and that the definition of NIL should be expanded.

The A’s have more than seven weeks left playing in Oakland, but the MLB team is already preparing its farewell tour in the Bay Area.

With the playoffs out of the question at 48–68 and last place in the AL West, the Sept. 26 game against the Rangers will be the club’s final home contest at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum. On Thursday, the A’s announced the game is already sold out. The single-game attendance record at the Coliseum is 56,310 from a 2018 game against the Giants. This season, Oakland is averaging fewer than 9,000 fans per game.

The NCAA handed down a four-year show-cause order for former Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh after determining the coach had had impermissible contact with recruits and players during the COVID-19 restricted period.

The organization determined Harbaugh had "engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations."

Manchester United is highlighting the partnership between Microsoft and Qualcomm both on and off the pitch.

On Friday, Qualcomm announced that the Windows maker is affixing its Copilot+ PC brand to the back of Man United’s kits for select matches. The arrangement is part of the telecom’s landmark jersey sponsorship where the Snapdragon semiconductor brand adorns the front of all the team’s kits (including training shirts) for its men’s and women’s clubs.

Steve Cohen didn’t hire Scott Havens (above, right) to make trades or scout prospects, but the Mets president of business operations has noted the same problem many others have identified over the past few years: pro baseball needs more star power.

Speaking at the Front Office Sports Huddle in the Hamptons event last week, Havens was asked to name the current “face of baseball,” a longtime parlor game among sports media.

A free gift to Olympic athletes may have international fallout.

Every athlete in the Olympics was set to receive a free Samsung phone. But South Korean officials said Thursday that the swag for North Korean athletes would violate 2017 sanctions against the country for its nuclear program.

The Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox Sports have so far invested $400 million each in their highly anticipated sports streaming joint venture Venu, according to Fox Corp. COO John Nallen’s testimony Wednesday at a preliminary injunction hearing in FuboTV’s lawsuit against the three companies.

Nallen also disclosed that Disney, Fox, and WBD will each spend $15 million marketing Venu in its first year, separate from what Venu itself will spend.

The final open-water swimming competition of the Paris Olympics concluded Friday, bringing an end to a tumultuous, dramatic, and expensive saga.

The city of Paris spent $1.5 billion to clean up the Seine river, which ultimately hosted five events during the Games despite questions about water quality and its safety for swimming. But that exorbitant expense wasn’t enough to quell disruptions.

The saga between Fanatics and Arizona Cardinals rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. continues as two recent affidavits from the player’s camp led a judge to rule Thursday that the company can refile its lawsuit.

Fanatics sued the former Ohio State wide receiver in May saying Harrison breached their signed agreement and that he falsely claimed the agreement didn’t exist. Harrison doubled down last month, claiming he personally never agreed to any Fanatics deal.

Liberty Media, the owner of Formula One Group, confirmed Thursday it is under investigation by the Department of Justice over its feud with Andretti Global.

Earlier this year, a group of U.S. senators had asked the Biden Administration to investigate whether F1’s rejection of Andretti violated antitrust laws.

This Tuesday a federal judge at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in Manhattan will hold a hearing that will greatly impact whether Venu Sports will—as planned—launch this fall. Venu would be a streaming platform that features live sports and costs $42.99 a month.

It was only eight months ago when Michigan and the Big Ten averted a courtroom showdown by settling a case that centered on the conference suspending then-head football coach Jim Harbaugh over an alleged sign-stealing scheme orchestrated by former Wolverines football analyst Connor Stalions.

An Oakland-based developer will take over the entirety of the A’s Coliseum complex, the team announced Monday.

The African American Sports & Entertainment Group has aggressively pursued the Coliseum site, which is half owned by the city and the other half by the A’s. The team, whose lease at the stadium is up at the end of this season, will sell its stake for $125 million.

Good luck buying a Marvin Harrison Jr. jersey before the NFL season starts.

The dispute between Harrison—the fourth pick in April’s NFL draft—and retail giant Fanatics has taken another turn. The NFL Network recently reported that the NFLPA told the NFL, the Cardinals, and Fanatics not to sell Harrison jerseys, based on the wishes of his representatives.

A UFC fighter-pay antitrust case that stretches back nearly a decade took another detour Tuesday when U.S. District Court Judge Richard Boulware denied a preliminary $335 million settlement agreement.

The precise reasons behind Boulware’s rejection of the settlement was not laid out in the notice posted on the court docket, although he expressed concerns over the payout amounts to fighters at a July hearing. Boulware is expected to file an order that will detail his issues with the settlement ahead of an Aug. 19 hearing in a Las Vegas federal courtroom.

Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league launched by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, has signed UConn guard Paige Bueckers to a NIL deal that includes equity. According to The Athletic, Bueckers will become the first active NCAA athlete to have an ownership stake in a professional league.

Bueckers, who is expected to be a high first-round pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, is returning to Storrs for one more year.

Want to own part of Howard’s men’s basketball program?

That will be $100 million.

The Bison, an HBCU and the back-to-back tournament champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference are currently for sale—sort of—as coach Kenny Blakeney is reportedly offering one-third of the program for nine figures.