Closing Bell

French Open Tournament Director Amelie Mauresmo said that prize money “will not change this year despite players complaining they deserve a bigger share.” Mauresmo said that she “remained open to dialogue and was confident of a solution.” A meeting is “expected on Friday” between tournament organizers and the players and their representatives. Many players are planning to limit their interactions with reporters on Friday’s pre-tournament media day in protest of the pay (AP, 5/21).

The Daytona International Speedway is installing LED lighting across all existing oval track high past pole-mounted fixtures, the road course, infield pit box and emergency lighting systems in collaboration with Musco. The project will also feature LED RGB accent lighting on track light poles synchronized with the caution light system, as well as uplighting for the upper-level underside of grandstand seating. The project officially began in April and is expected to be completed in January 2027 (NASCAR).

Elements of the new system “will be in place” when NASCAR returns to Daytona in late August for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 (DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL, 5/21). Speedway management believes that the upgrade will “provide a generational leap for the facility” (RACER, 5/21).

Univ. of Georgia President Jere Morehead on Thursday said that he is “prepared to vote on creating an SEC mechanism for rule enforcement in the aftermath of the SCORE Act stalling out in Congress.” Morehead, who voiced his interest in the conference creating its own rules back in January, said, “If we don’t get a bill from [Sen. Maria] Cantwell and [Sen. Ted] Cruz this week, that will be another concern. ... If we don’t get federal legislation, in my opinion, we’re going to have to do this conference by conference because we can’t allow the Wild West to continue any longer.” Morehead indicated that the agenda for next week’s SEC spring meetings is “still evolving and that he didn’t know if a vote about the conference enforcing its own rules would occur.” Morehead “twice pushed back on describing the SEC making its own rules as a ‘breakaway.’” Morehead said, “If the Big Ten does it or the SEC does it, I expect other leagues will follow suit and do what they need to do to keep their leagues operational. But we just cannot continue down this current path” (247SPORTS.com, 5/21).

The Univ. of Georgia Athletic Association announced that it received a $10M donation to “support men’s basketball” from PrizePicks founder and Georgia alumnus Adam Wexler. It is the “largest single donation in UGA athletics to support men’s basketball.” The commitment will be “used for personnel and operating expenses as a general fund, per UGA, with a portion going toward the Athletic Director Excellence Fund” (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 5/21).

LIV Golf is seeking up to $350M in new investment and “plans to shrink to a 10-event schedule while giving players equity stakes” in a bid to survive losing PIF funding after 2026, according to sources cited by REUTERS. Sources said that investment bank Ducera Partners, which is advising LIV, began “presenting the plan to potential backers on Thursday.” The sources added that players have been “briefed on the plan and have responded positively.” The range, sources noted, is $250M-$350M (REUTERS, 5/21).

Howard Fendrich, a national sports writer for the AP who covered tennis, the Olympics and more, has died at 55. His wife Rosanna Maietta said that he died Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was “diagnosed with cancer in February” shortly after returning from covering the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. Fendrich worked at the AP for 33 years, during which time he “chronicled the careers” of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and more, while covering some 70 Grand Slam tournaments over “nearly a quarter century on the beat” (AP, 5/21).

This week on the SBJ Sports Media Pod: What’s ahead for the NBA conference finals and finals, a big race weekend on tap, NASCAR’s Nielsen pivot, and recapping the Sports Business Awards.

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast, SBJ’s Austin Karp and Josh Carpenter discuss why games overseas are becoming a core part of the NFL’s growth strategy.

As new sports leagues emerge, technology leadership plays a critical role in shaping live broadcasts, managing digital platforms, supporting sports betting and safeguarding cybersecurity. UFL SVP Innovation and Media Scott Harniman, TMRW Sports CTO Andrew Macaulay and Athletes Unlimited CTO John Spade described how their leagues operate, adapt and evolve with technology in a panel at SBJ’s Tech Week.

Harniman noted that the UFL is approaching technology to create an innovative broadcasting experience. Harniman said the league is “bringing elevated coach-to-player communication” instead of the traditional one-helmet offense and one-helmet defense. He said, “We actually have 16 helmets that have GSC receivers in there with coach-to-player capabilities, and our broadcast partners have full access to that.” Harniman added, “We just try to infuse transparency and access into the game, and that’s where we see our innovation as the real differentiator.”

Continuing on how the UFL approaches technology, Harniman called baseball the gold standard of data technology on plays. Harniman said the UFL’s goal is to have “all of our players wearing sensors in games.” Harniman said he believes his team is “moderately successful” in bringing that “invisible layer of data to football.”

Harniman said the UFL plans to evolve its technology as the league moves to a city-based model. He said, “We’ve really focused a lot on remote tools, that’s how we can see what’s happening in the venue, both from a data standpoint, but also visually, different things, communication. We’re still working through different ideas on how to handle things like command post, or those things that you would naturally find in a fixed arena or stadium.”

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Leaders across the sports and tech worlds discussed the latest innovations and trends impacting the industry on Wednesday.

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Apple TV will present an entire MLS match shot exclusively on iPhone 17 Pros, marking the first time an iPhone will be used to capture the entirety of a major professional live sporting event broadcast. The Saturday match will be between the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo FC. Apple TV first incorporated iPhone into a live sports broadcast during a September 2025 “Friday Night Baseball” matchup. iPhone 17 Pro footage was also incorporated into its MLS Cup telecast in December 2025 (MLS). Crew members will use 15 iPhone 17 Pros “positioned throughout the venue” (VARIETY, 5/21).