Closing Bell

The World Cup quarterfinals get underway Thursday afternoon with France-Morocco at 4pm ET on Fox and Telemundo. The last two iterations of the World Cup saw the round begin on a Friday with earlier start times given the location of the events.

The best of the quarterfinal games four years ago from Qatar was the France-England matchup, which drew a combined 13.8 million viewers on a Saturday afternoon. Given changes to viewership metrics and the later start, a number of games in this year’s quarterfinals will certainly pass that figure. Eight years ago, the best QF was just 9.2 million in English and Spanish for Croatia-Russia early on a Saturday afternoon.

Below are audience figures for each of the quarterfinals, semifinals, third-place games and final for the past two World Cups.

The 2028 L.A. Games is “moving its International Broadcast Center from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood to the Warner Bros. Ranch lot across town in Burbank.” The L.A. organizing committee announced last year that the broadcast center would be housed at Hollywood Park Studios, a new, five-stage production center to be built adjacent to SoFi, which will serve as one of the nerve centers of the games. Though it is farther from the action, the Ranch lot is “significantly larger -- with production office space and 16 stages on 30 acres -- with greater capacity to host the games’ broadcast partners.” Hollywood Park Studios “will still be used as the main press center, where broadcast outlets can do live stand-ups and conduct other operations, while the broadcasters will be based in Burbank.” Warner Bros. Ranch served as a studio backlot before being redeveloped as a soundstage complex over the last few years. As soon as next January, LA28 “will begin work to transform it into the international broadcast center” (VARIETY, 7/9).

Law firm Gibson Dunn on Thursday announced its partnership with LA28 and Team USA in connection with the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The firm will provide legal services to support LA28 as it prepares to host Games (LA28).

The Clippers-Raptors trade centered around F Kawhi Leonard “will not be completed until the NBA investigation into the Clippers about whether they circumvented the salary cap is completed.” The Clippers in a statement Thursday said the trade “can only be finalized if the Raptors’ ownership group assumes the risk of penalties related to Kawhi’s contract that could theoretically result from the ongoing investigation.” The Raptors, meanwhile, issued their own statement saying they “remain eager to bring Kawhi back to Toronto and look forward to a swift resolution.” The Clippers on Thursday again said that they “did not funnel money to Kawhi Leonard” through a no-show endorsement contract with green banking company Aspiration and that they “were victims of a fraud” (ESPN.com, 7/9).

The top 40 LSU athletics donors have been invited “to hear a presentation about the financial future of the department” next month, where LSU President Dr. Wade Rousse will present “an alternative revenue-generating opportunity for LSU athletics that is first of its kind nationally.” Tiger Athletic Foundation President & CEO Matt Borman sent the invitation Thursday, which said that the new revenue plan “could quite possibly change the future of college sports in America.” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is hosting the event at the governor’s mansion with Rousse. There will be “two separate sessions for donors to choose to attend,” Aug. 3 and Aug. 5. The letter was clear the meetings are not fundraisers but rather, “a conversation about the future of college athletics.” LSU athletics is “facing a precarious financial situation in part due to recent large contract buyouts” for former football coaches Brian Kelly ($54M) and Lane Kiffin ($3M), former basketball coach Matt McMahon ($8M) and former AD Scott Woodward ($6M), which total more than $70M in “dead money” (LOUISIANASPORTS.net, 7/9).

The Ohio State, Cincinnati, Dayton and Xavier men’s basketball teams are “taking part in a first-of-its-kind exhibition” that will “take place outdoors at the Lindner Family Tennis Center,” which hosts the Cincinnati Open each year. The CareSource Invitational, which is scheduled for Oct. 7, will feature OSU-Cincinnati and Dayton-Xavier. Dayton will “host the event at its home arena if weather is an issue” (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 7/9). Tickets for the event will be “initially sold through the ticket offices at each participating university before being made available to the public later in the summer.” Each team “received an allotment of 1,000 tickets.” One ticket “will get you in the door for both games.” The CareSource Invitational marks the first college basketball event to be played at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, which underwent a $260M renovation to “expand and enhance the site to operate as a year-round sports destination” (WLWT.com, 7/9).

Meanwhile, the Virginia and Vanderbilt men’s basketball teams for the second straight year will meet in a preseason scrimmage, though this year’s matchup is “part of a unique, first-of-its-kind outdoor, exhibition doubleheader” on Sept. 27 at Credit One Stadium in Charleston. UVA and Vanderbilt will play in the opener of the LinkU Invitational, followed by a second game between College of Charleston and The Citadel. The event is being organized in partnership with The LinkU, Beemok Sports & Entertainment, and Credit One Stadium -- a venue “primarily used to host tennis and concerts” (Charlottesville DAILY PROGRESS, 7/9).

The Dodgers are “scheduled to visit the White House on July 23″ to celebrate their latest World Series title. The date “falls on a scheduled off day in the middle of a nine-game East Coast road trip.” The Dodgers will play three games in Philadelphia against the Phillies July 20-22 before ending the trip with a three-game series against the Mets July 24-26. The Dodgers celebrated their two previous World Series championships at the White House, hosted by President Biden in 2021 and President Trump in April 2025. Questions “swirled around whether players would decline the visit this year after it did not happen during a scheduled visit to Washington in April” (L.A. TIMES, 7/9).

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast, SBJ’s Austin Karp and Josh Carpenter break down the true value of the World Cup, why FIFA’s next U.S. media rights package could be worth as much as $2B per tournament, and which companies are expected to battle for the rights.

Federal authorities have been “investigating the Argentine Football Association for possible fraud and money laundering stemming from hundreds of millions of dollars in bank transactions linked to the United States,” according to sources cited by the MIAMI HERALD. The FBI is “leading the investigation” into the Argentine FA. Argentine newspaper La Nación broke the story Wednesday and reported that the FBI is “probing how the AFA moved more than $300 million to banks and companies in South Florida and elsewhere.” No changes have been brought in the U.S. or Argentina (MIAMI HERALD, 7/9).

The U.S. has “expressed interest in hosting the 2029 Club World Cup as it seeks to capitalise on the commercial and sporting success of staging the World Cup.” FIFA has held talks with U.S. officials about its plans, but the U.S., which hosted the 2025 Club World Cup, has “yet to commit to a bid because the details of the selection process have not been confirmed.” It is “unclear whether there has been any involvement in the discussions” from the White House or ­President Trump’s World Cup taskforce. Trump is due to leave office in January 2029, months before the Club World Cup. FIFA has not revealed the timing or process for selecting the 2029 hosts, although a decision is “expected next year.” FIFA’s desire to “expand the Club World Cup to 48 teams in 2029, supported by the major European clubs, is a potentially complicating factor and could strengthen” any U.S. bid (London GUARDIAN, 7/9).

European player unions from ​17 nations, including France, Italy and the Netherlands, have “withdrawn their support ‌for a class action lawsuit" against FIFA “following a governance agreement.” The new memorandum of understanding between FIFA ​and FIFPro was signed on June 10 and “runs until December 2031, granting players an official ​voice in governance and establishing a Global Social Dialogue Platform based on ⁠collective bargaining principles.” Seeking “damages for an estimated 100,000 eligible players,” the independent class ​action argues that FIFA’s “restrictive transfer regulations unlawfully restricted freedom of movement and suppressed player ​wages." The suit was launched in August 2025 by the Amsterdam-based group Justice for Players (REUTERS, 7/9).

Russia’s track and field federation said that it has “gone to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn a World Athletics ruling suspending its athletes from international events” due to the war in Ukraine. World Athletics excluded all athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus from its international events in March 2022, days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine. It kept that suspension in place at a council meeting last week. Since then, the IOC has eased its restrictions on Russia ahead of the 2028 L.A. Games -- something the Kremlin hailed as an “important step” -- and “recommended other sports bodies do the same.” World Athletics “vowed to defend the case.” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said last week that his organization “discussed options for ‘a conditional pathway back into international competition’ for Russian and Belarusian athletes, but opted against.” Volleyball became the first major Olympic team sport to welcome Russia back since the IOC decision. Its governing body, the FIVB, said in a statement Wednesday that it “plans to allow back Russian teams and players at all levels” (AP, 7/9).