Closing Bell

The Connecticut Sun have signed Walgreens as the team’s jersey patch sponsor for the 2025 WNBA season. Walgreens -- which will also be the team’s official retail wellness partner -- will have its logo prominently displayed on the Sun’s jerseys throughout the 2025 season. Walgreens will sponsor the Sun’s “Game Action Givebacks” initiative, Sun Assists, which ties a donation to every assist made by a Sun player. Additionally, Walgreens’ community-driven efforts with the Sun will include a variety of activations throughout the season, as well as seven concourse table activations during home games at Mohegan Sun Arena. A key part of the partnership will also include the launch of a player-driven content series highlighting topics related to women’s wellness advocacy (Sun). Walgreens did not use an agency on the deal, which was done directly with the Sun’s leadership team (SBJ).

USA Swimming has hired Greg Meehan as its national team managing director, giving the national governing body one familiar with the country’s top athletes.

The former Stanford women’s coach served as the head coach of the Olympic team for the Tokyo Games as well as the assistant coach in 2016 (Rio) and 2024 (Paris).

At Stanford, Meehan led the Cardinal to seven Pac-12 titles and three consecutive national championships from 2017-19.

He has coached Olympians Katie Ledecky, Maya DiRado Andrews, Torri Huske and Simone Manuel.

Read More >>>

Buffalo Pro Soccer announced plans to construct a 7,600-seat, privately funded stadium near the Buffalo River in the city’s Valley neighborhood. Fans have a limited opportunity to secure their priority spot as a season-ticket member for the club’s inaugural season through a “Founding Member” campaign launched Friday. Buffalo Pro Soccer has engaged LaBella Associates as its lead architect and MEP engineer, Wendel Companies to provide civil engineering, SixFive Stadium Experience to serve as modular stadium advisor and supplier, and Campus Constructing Management Group as the construction manager. Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation provided development services and Newmark Ciminelli represented Buffalo Pro Soccer in the lease transaction. Buffalo Pro Soccer also announced two new investors: Bills LS Reid Ferguson and Viridi CEO and OSC Founder Jon Williams (Buffalo Pro Soccer). The planned stadium location is on property near The Powerhouse by Rich Entertainment Group building, which was “one of three sites that had been under consideration for months and comes after the soccer group moved away from its preferred site at the former Buffalo News and HSBC Atrium parking lots.” That project “would have required about” $20M in state funds to cover the estimated $40M cost of the project. The stadium’s price tag for the planned Elk Street location “will be less than the anticipated” $30M with additional funds for operations (BUFFALO NEWS, 4/11).

Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has appointed former Arsenal CEO Vinai Venkatesham to the same position “in a dramatic boardroom shake-up that raises questions about chairman Daniel Levy's stranglehold on the club.“ Venkatesham, who was Arsenal’s CEO for four years until leaving last summer, will fill the newly created role “in a move that signals major changes in the way the club is run.” Levy is the longest-serving chairman in the Premier League, having been in the role since 2001. The hiring of Venkatesham, who “will join in the summer,” is “seen as a major coup for Spurs as he had also been courted by Newcastle” (London STANDARD, 4/11).

Venkatesham and Levy were colleagues at the European Club Association, getting elected together in 2021 to its executive board -- “which has huge influence at UEFA, shaping the commercial and sporting strategy of the Champions League.” Venkateshem will join Tottenham after a “troubled season for the club,” which sits 14th in the 20-team Premier League “despite having what is widely seen as the best stadium in England and one of its most lucrative” (AP, 4/11).

Univ. of Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava “did not attend spring practice Friday” amid negotiations over a new NIL contract, which “came as a surprise to coaches and players,” according to sources. Iamaleava has “been in conversations with the Vols,” but the situation “has become a growing source of frustration among administrators at Tennessee and within the locker room,” sources said. The day before the winter portal window closed in December, sources said that Iamaleava’s representatives “wanted to renegotiate his deal” in the $4M range, but “his deal was unchanged.” He’s “expected to make” $2.4M with the Vols this year, sources said. With the portal set to open Wednesday, Iamaleava’s representatives “were again looking for” $4M, and sources said that Tennessee “wasn’t going to blink and pay him any more money” (ESPN.com, 4/11).

Bat Around, a gamified batting practice experience powered by HitTrax, debuted at Coors Field on April 4 as part of a three-year deal with the Rockies, according to Bat Around CEO Matt Farrell.

Last year, Bat Around was at Tropicana Field as part of a three-year deal with the Rays. However, the Rays’ deal was paused due to hurricane damage at the Trop that caused Tampa to move its games to Steinbrenner Field for the 2025 season.

Bat Around has also had very preliminary discussions with a couple more MLB teams. It was also at the 2024 College World Series.

Bat Around breaks up the monotony of hitting in a batting cage by providing a virtual, video game-like element for youth baseball and softball players. There are different rounds that enable users to practice situational hitting. “It’s a decathlon of hitting,” Farrell said.

Read More >>>

Italy-based food company Barilla’s pasta brand has signed on as F1’s first ever partner in that category, with pasta bars set to be placed around the paddock and Paddock Club along with trackside signage, consumer promotions and digital media advertising. Starting this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit, the branded pasta bar will be at most of the grands prix that F1 holds around the world. Company VP Paolo Barilla raced in F1 in 15 grands prix for the team known at the time as Minardi in 1989 and 1990 with a best finish of 11th, and he also won the Le Mans 24 Hour sports car race in 1985.

He said in a statement, “A lightning-fast F1 car and a delicious plate of pasta: what do they have in common? At first, it may not be obvious, but behind both, and the effort that goes into making them, are skilled professionals, passionate and determined, driven by the desire to keep improving. Our greatest satisfaction is being able to offer all the men and women of F1, after an intense competition, a well-deserved plate of pasta.” Nico Rosberg, the 2016 F1 world champion, posted on social media that he will be part of the deal as an endorser. Elsewhere in sports sponsorship, Barilla has had a patch also appear on American tennis player Coco Gauff’s on-court apparel before.