Closing Bell

The NCAA will be receiving an additional $50M each season in media as part of men’s and women’s tournament expansion from 68 to 76 teams. That expansion means TNT Sports and CBS Sports, which sell sponsorships for both events, will also see the opening of additional categories to grow their own revenue from the event. The move will seek to protect sponsors that are still part of the Corporate Champions and Partners (CCP) program, while also giving those media entities additional sources of potential revenue.

The move to expand also means the elimination of the First Four, which has been held since 2011, in favor of an “Opening Round,” with six games played Tuesday and six games played Wednesday leading into Thursday, the traditional first day of the first round. Each of the No. 16 seeds, plus half of No. 15s, would make up half of those 24 teams. The other dozen would be made up of a mix of No. 11s, No. 12s and No. 13s.

No subsequent schedule changes are expected for the tournament beyond that. The deal means an additional $131M in new revenue distributions to member schools participating in the event over the remaining six years of the NCAA’s media deals.

This would mark the third time since 2000 that the NCAA Basketball Tournament has grown the number of teams in the field. The D-I cabinet is set to meet on May 22 to pass the slated changes to the field, followed by an NCAA Board of Governors vote.

The NBA has adjusted the business model of its proposed standalone league in Europe, sources confirmed Thursday, by informing bidders last week that it will invest over $3B to offset potential early-stage losses and to keep the teams incentivized and solvent as they pursue profit margins.

After a Phase 1 bidding process concluded just over a month ago with about 20 existing basketball and soccer clubs offering between $500M to $1B for franchises, sources said NBA Europe began Phase 2 of its sales process last week with the following financial adjustments:

• The NBA will allocate money for high-end marketing to create significant exposure at launch.
• The league, as part of its $3B investment, will cover early financial deficits to prevent teams from having to pour in extra capital during the infancy stages of the launch.
• While the NBA and FIBA would at first own 52% of NBA Europe, the participating teams would eventually have a majority equity stake following expansion in future years.
• Differentiating it from other European leagues, NBA Europe’s permanent franchises cannot face relegation, a rule designed for long-term stability.
• Neither the NBA nor its owners will take distributions during NBA Europe’s ramp-up period, which is expected to take years, according to sources.
• Simultaneously, at launch and going forward, NBA Europe teams will receive undisclosed but significant participation payments.
• Those payments will increase year-over-year and include annual escalators dependent upon the team’s participation and performance.
• The performance pool is money teams can earn according to regular-season victories and playoff results.
• Different from other topflight European sports leagues, teams will earn a share of expansion fees. NBA Europe is expected to open with 16 teams — 12 permanent franchises and four more through a merit-based format. The Athletic has reported the league could then grow to 18 and eventually to 24 teams by its seventh year, although sources said that is all still be determined.
• The NBA will offer its operational know-how, along with its programming expertise and content prowess to franchises, as well, broadening the basketball ecosystem in Europe.

According to sources, the changes to the NBA blueprint entering Phase 2 were an expected part of the evolving process and came after conversations with potential investors and the league’s banking partners JP Morgan and The Raine Group -- who have been in comprehensive talks with bidders.

NBA Europe is still on course to launch in October 2027, sources said.

Netflix “will air the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game from Australia” during the 2026 season’s opening week, according to sources cited by THE ATHLETIC. The streaming platform will air the Week 1 game between the 49ers and Rams on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 8:35pm ET from Melbourne Cricket Ground. The early-season deal “bookends Netflix’s current broadcast relationship with the NFL,” which has included two games on Christmas Day the past two seasons and will continue in December 2026. Netflix’s live sports portfolio also includes a three-event deal with MLB, the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031, as well as combat sports like boxing and MMA (THE ATHLETIC, 5/7). The Australia game is part of a deal with the NFL “that looks likely” to also include the Thanksgiving Eve game and the Christmas games (X, 5/7).

While its properties are as susceptible to geopolitical upheaval as any sport, Liberty Media says its business plans for the F1 and MotoGP auto racing series remain on track after the first quarter of the year. The Colorado-based Liberty on Thursday announced Q1 FY26 earnings, with comparisons to last year being thrown off there having been three F1 races in the first three months of this year versus two last year. Comparisons this year will also be thrown off by F1 currently being down to 22 races due to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia being postponed, although execs on the earnings call said it could be possible to reschedule one of those later in the season.

Revenue for the quarter was $617M while operating income was $107M. As signs of continued performance, Liberty pointed to deals announced in recent weeks like a new race in Turkey starting next year and new sponsorships with Marsh, FanDuel and Betway along with renewals with Salesforce and Allwyn. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali also touched on the start to the F1 season from an attendance perspective and how the F1 Las Vegas mixed-use development -- dubbed Grand Prix Plaza -- is doing better business with activities like go-karting, private events and its interactive F1 experience.

During the Q&A portion of the earnings call, Liberty CEO Derek Chang confirmed that the company is interested in discussing a potential MotoGP race at the Miami International Autodrome around Hard Rock Stadium, as SBJ first reported over the weekend. Chang said that Liberty would also be careful to also keep the many of the heritage-rich race tracks of the MotoGP schedule intact and that he’s attending several races this year including multiple in Europe to get a better sense of how events are stacking up.

The street seemed to like what it heard from Liberty, with the stock up 4.7%, or $4.16, to $92.82 as of presstime. That takes it back above where the stock was the day before the Iran war started -- $91.59 -- for the first time since the conflict commenced.

Orlando will host one of four qualifying events in the lead-up to the LA28 Games, the IOC announced following its executive board meeting on Thursday. The city will be home to the final event in the Olympic Q-Series in June 2028, with Tokyo, Shanghai and Montreal selected to host the first three.

The IOC will set the sports program for each event in the series at a later date, but they are set to include 3x3 basketball, beach volleyball, flag football for the first time. The IOC launched the qualifying series in 2024 with skateboarding, BMX freestyle and climbing contested in Shanghai and Budapest in the lead-up to the Paris Games.

The IOC launched the event as part of a series of reforms under past-President Thomas Bach, aiming to use the Olympic branding to spotlight and promote athletes’ journeys to the Games. Tokyo (May 4-7) and Shanghai (May 11-14) will host back-to-back events in Asia before the series moves to North America, with Montreal (June 1-4) and Orlando (June 8-11) hosting.

The IOC will announce information on ticketing, broadcast distribution and the sports program later. The decision was one of several by the IOC executive board on Thursday. It also announced:

• No summer sports will join the program for the Winter Games in the French Alps in 2030. The IOC has been reviewing which sports are in the Games, entertaining proposals to add cross country or cycling events to the winter edition.
• The IOC no longer recommends restricting Belarussian athletes from competitions, reversing a decision that has been in place since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC did not change its position on the continued exclusion of Russian athletes, citing continued review of the Russian Olympic Committee’s noncompliance with the Olympic charter.
• It will not decide on a host of the Youth Olympic Games in 2030 as planned as it assesses the strategy for that event. Dakar is set to host this year’s Games in the fall.

Syracuse and Wake Forest will kick off the 2027 college football season at Toronto’s BMO Field with a Week 0 matchup “on either Aug. 28 or Aug. 29” that “will serve as the ACC opener for both teams.” The game will mark the “first time two American universities will open the year in Canada.” The ACC has been “expanding its international footprint” in recent years and has 2026 games scheduled in Dublin (North Carolina-TCU) and Rio de Janeiro (NC State-Virginia), as well as a Dublin game scheduled for 2027 (Pitt-Wisconsin) (ESPN.com, 5/7). More details -- such as “ticket information, time and broadcast schedule” -- will be announced at a later date. The game is “set to air in the U.S. on either ABC or ESPN, and will coincide with” the Canadian National Exhibition, which will run from Aug. 21-Sept. 7 in Toronto (TORONTO STAR, 5/7).

The Players Era college basketball tournament has “expanded its 2026 field to 24 college teams” that “will be split among two tournaments as the event goes to bracket play.” Last year’s field included 18 teams and organizers were “initially shooting for 32 teams in 2026” before settling on 24 with the two-bracket setup. Eight teams will play “in a midweek tournament the week of Nov. 16” and the other 16 will play “the week of Thanksgiving.” Both tournaments “will be held in Las Vegas.” The 16-team field will include defending national champion (and Players Era champ) Michigan, along with a number of “likely preseason Top 25 teams.” In addition, the Players Era agreed to a “multiyear deal with ESPN to broadcast the games.” The tournament was broadcast on TNT in its first two seasons. Schedules will be announced “at a future date, as will details on a women’s event” (THE ATHLETIC, 5/7).

The Athletes Unlimited Softball League’s broadcast schedule for the 2026 season includes 20 exclusive games for CBS Sports Network and MLB Network expanding its coverage to 11 live games. All MLB Network games will be streamed on MLB.TV, MLB+ and in the MLB app. ESPN platforms will carry more than 50 games during the 2026 season. All games are produced by Athletes Unlimited’s broadcast team, led by Chief Broadcast Officer and Exec Producer Cheri Kempf, in collaboration with Game Time Productions (Athletes Unlimited).

Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business is launching a new undergraduate program aimed at developing future sports business leaders. The program, called the Durban Sports Business Program, is established through a gift from alumni Egon Durban and Abby Durban. The program launched this spring with an inaugural cohort of 40 Durban fellows. It is led by Exec Dir Luis Maes, a former exec with the Royals, EA and Nike (Georgetown).

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast, SBJ’s Austin Karp and Josh Carpenter discuss what DAZN acquiring ViewLift says about the future of sports media, local rights and global distribution.