Closing Bell

TGL is in advanced conversations to expand its number of teams and is looking deeply into adding a women’s version of the high-tech golf league.

Speaking on a panel at the CAA World Congress of Sports, TMRW Sports co-founder & CEO Mike McCarley said nothing had been finalized but progress had been made on both fronts. Regarding expansion, he expressed being “pleasantly surprised” at the number of bidders and would likely “start with one [new team] and then it’ll grow from there.” McCarley noted TGL has narrowed that selection process to bidders from North America.

Joining him on the dais was Seven Seven Six Founder Alexis Ohanian, whose sports investments include co-founding Angel City FC and starting women’s track league Athlos, who shared that part of his original pitch for being the first owner in TGL was to ensure it would expand to women at some point.

“I’ve been bugging these guys about the LPGA deal for a minute,” said Ohanian, who owns L.A. Golf Club, the regular-season champ. “They have been very interested. It’s just these things take time, and I’m not allowed to make any news.”

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David Blitzer decided to sell his controlling interest in MLS’ Real Salt Lake and the NWSL’s Utah Royals to put local leadership back in charge, he said on stage today at the CAA World Congress of Sports.

“I love the MLS; I love the NWSL,” Blitzer said. “I took a view that was pretty rational a couple of months ago, which was pretty straightforward, which was I think that I live five hours away by plane from Salt Lake City and I didn’t feel like I was delivering what I should and could deliver if I was local in that marketplace.

“So I went out and found a partner who is an amazing family who couldn’t be more local in terms of the Miller family in Salt Lake City, and started a conversation about them taking control of the team.”

The sale price was reportedly for around $600M, and Blitzer said there were no other potential buyers. “It took four or five months, but it was one phone call to the right partner and they were intrigued and then I got done,” Blitzer said.

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Topics diverse as consumer behavior, rationale behind property selection and aligning advertising were deliberated during a wide-ranging sports sponsorship panel at the CAA World Congress of Sports on Tuesday afternoon.

Many of the biggest brands buying sponsorship assets have little need for greater consumer familiarity. That hasn’t dissuaded sellers from consistently trying to sell those companies branding assets.

“For us, it’s really focusing not so much on brand awareness, but how are we utilizing our sponsorship platforms to be more relevant and creating these kinds of experiences that you can’t otherwise get,” said Visa SVP/Sponsorship Strategy Andrea Fairchild. “You look at the landscape of sponsorships and you say, ’ what could happen only because we were there.’”

Kristin Shaff, Amazon Web Services Global Director of Strategic Partnerships, listed honing in on their target audience and finding a relevant creative tie as criteria for any sports sponsorship.

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The PWHL is adding a seventh league-owned team in Vancouver, B.C., for its 2025-26 season, marking the league’s first expansion beyond its original six as it heads into its third season. The unnamed Vancouver club will play and practice on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE), with home games held at the city-owned Pacific Coliseum (home of the Canucks until 1995) and training taking place at the PNE Agrodome.

The Vancouver market demonstrated its enthusiasm for the PWHL by posting the best attendance mark thus far for one of the league’s 11 neutral-site games over two seasons: 19,038 fans for the sold-out Montréal Victoire-Toronto Sceptres game at Rogers Arena on Jan. 8. Vancouver will be the league’s fourth team in Canada, the country in which the league has seen its largest crowds and biggest buzz since launching on New Year’s Day 2024.

“Vancouver just really checked all the boxes,” said PWHL EVP/Business Operations Amy Scheer. “When we look at infrastructure, being able to play at the Pacific Coliseum and be the primary tenant there is huge. It’s an absolute first for us.”

Pacific Coliseum has a capacity of 16,281 for hockey and was last renovated in 2007. Scheer said the PNE, a city-owned nonprofit organization that led Vancouver’s expansion bid, will cover the cost of upgrades at both the Coliseum and Agrodome, including locker rooms and training facilities. The Coliseum will also be equipped with upgraded broadcast capabilities.

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YouTube is “currently considered the front-runner” to get the streaming rights to next year’s NFL Draft, which “would be in addition to ESPN’s linear deal." It’s the “latest development in the platform’s expanding foray into the sports rights business.” In addition, the NFL “plans to sell the international rights to a U.S.-based streamer.” YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon “have all kicked the tires.” It’s “not known” if any international streaming deal for the draft “would include the U.S. market, which would allow the streamer to air it concurrently with ABC and ESPN” (PUCK, 4/22).

[ RELATED: Sources: YouTube TV, Amazon, WBD bidding on mini-NFL rights package for 2025Opens in new window ]

The PGA Tour has extended with another important commercial partner, as Zurich Insurance has signed on to title sponsor the Zurich Classic of New Orleans through 2030. Zurich’s current deal expired after the 2026 event. The tournament, in a team format since 2017, tees off tomorrow at TPC Louisiana. Last year marked Zurich’s 20th title sponsoring the tournament.

Exact financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though an industry source pegged title sponsorships of full-field tournaments on the PGA Tour in the $14-18M range annually. CAA, Zurich’s agency of record, worked on the deal with the tour.

The Zurich extension comes on the heels of several other title sponsorship agreements for the tour in recent months. Companies like RSM, 3M and Valpsar all renewed deals that were close to expiration. Last week, the tour extended with Grupo Puntacana for the Corales Puntacana Championship.

The biggest remaining titles with expiring deals this year include RBC (two events) and AT&T for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Golf club manufacturer Ping announced today an agreement to partner with LIV Golf’s Torque GC team, captained by long-time Ping ambassador Joaquin Niemann. The officially begins this week at LIV Golf Mexico City, set for April 25-27. All four Torque players -- Niemann, Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz and Carlos Ortiz -- will play with Ping clubs, wear Ping-branded headwear and carry a Ping staff bag (Ping). Torque GC is the second major golf OEM to partner with a LIV team, following Callaway’s deal with Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII (SBJ).

Fashion brand Coach has enlisted several athletes to be part of an advertising campaign around its recently released Soho Sneaker, building off its recent deal with the WNBA. Meant to spark sales of the $145 shoe, the campaign is called “Not Just For Walking,” and it features Auburn G Tahaad Pettiford, Mercury F Satou Sabally and NASCAR driver Toni Breidinger, along with singer Audrey Nuna and model Giovanna Ramos.

The brand debuted a 90-second spot around the campaign today showing the endorsers using the shoe in unexpected ways, such as Pettiford spinning the shoe on his finger like a basketball and Breidinger using the shoe as a phone holder so she can watch a race while taking a bath. The spot was directed by filmmaker Colin Tilley.

The N.Y.-based retailer, founded in 1941, said it chose the endorsers based on how they fit in with sneaker culture. Coach is part of the publicly traded Tapestry Inc., which also owns the Kate Spade & Company and Stuart Weitzman brands. Earlier this month, Coach signed on with the WNBA to become presenting partner of WNBA Pride and the orange carpet at the WNBA Draft.

For Breidinger, the deal adds to an impressive list of brand partners, particularly given that she is only competing in the third division of NASCAR in the Craftsman Truck Series. However, Breidinger is a social media powerhouse with millions of followers, and that’s led to deals with the likes of Celsius Essential Energy, Raising Cane’s, Gatorade and Victoria’s Secret.

The construction in and around the Panthers’ practice field in Charlotte will “prevent fan attendance at training camp over the next two summers.” The Panthers moved training camp from Spartanburg, S.C., to their home base in Charlotte last year and are “planning to revamp the facility with several new features.” While the Panthers will not be able to house fans for daily training camp practice, the team “still plans to host its annual Fan Fest on Saturday, Aug. 2, at Bank of America Stadium.” Despite the construction, the team “plans to host” the Browns for joint practice in Charlotte. The 2020 training camp, due to the pandemic, had been the “only training camp slate in team history to not feature fan attendance” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 4/23).

Fenway Park announced that boxing “will return to the ballpark” for the first time in 69 years on June 7. Partnering with Nolan Bros. Boxing Promotions, the park “will host a professional fight card of 11 bouts” in the Big Concourse at Fenway. Tickets start at $100, and a “limited number of ringside seats are available for purchase.” The doors will open at 4pm ET, with the first fight starting at 5pm. The most recent boxing match at Fenway Park was in 1956, when Tony DeMarco defeated Vince Martinez (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/23).

Infinite Athlete has signed a long-term partnership with AI-powered video clipping platform Magnifi with the aim of augmenting its video-based biomechanical analysis tools.

While the sides declined to comment on deal terms, Infinite Athlete SVP/Global Partnerships & Revenue Sid Rao framed the pact as another step in Infinite Athlete’s increasing focus on athlete performance, which has accelerated since the company (formerly Tempus Ex Machina) acquired Biocore and rebranded in late 2023.

“We’re always looking to improve the sources of our data,” Rao told SBJ. “The better and faster data we have, the more we can improve our solutions to league and team partners. In that regard, Magnifi became a really interesting partnership.”

Magnifi’s technology uses computer vision to identify and metatag key moments during sporting events. Its best-known use case is in content creation, where it has more than 200 sports clients, including FIFA+ and the Mountain West Conference.

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Major League Rugby will host its 2025 Championship at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I. on June 28 at 2pm ET, the league announced today.

The venue -- the new home of the United Soccer League’s Rhode Island FC -- is in the final stages of construction for its renovation. The 10,500-seat stadium is expected to open May 3 with its first Rhode Island FC match.

MLR Chief Revenue Officer Lucas Reid told SBJ that in the vetting process that began last summer, the venue was appealing for the rugby league because of its newness and location.

“It’s a perfect size venue for what we’re looking to do,” Reid said. “We think our fan base in Rugby is strong up in this area, and it’s a beautiful stadium. … A new building is really appealing with state-of-the-art infrastructure and tech.”

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