Closing Bell

The Bengals have completed phase one of a roughly $500M multiyear renovation project that is the largest since Paycor Stadium opened in 2000. Work included the addition of 2,000 club seats as well as “more suites and loge boxes, complete renovations to those spaces, a new outdoor space accessible to all fans, dramatically improved new signs to help fans find their way around the stadium and more.” Club seating “has increased to 10,000 from 8,000 before the renovation.” The East Club went through a “massive renovation.” The space “now has four bars, plus a self-serve draft beer station.” Restrooms were redone and furniture “was replaced, with lounge seats added.” Many of the same changes were “made to the club on the west side of the stadium.” The Bengals renovated and expanded the Field Club space, too. Each of the stadium’s suites was renovated, with “five new ones added to bring the total to 137.” The team will do a second phase next year in the offseason, which will include “replacing most stadium seats and a new, larger video board with enhanced technology” (CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER, 7/21).

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Oklahoma City has selected the design of local artist Matt Goad for the main concourse floor at Continental Coliseum, the future home of the Thunder that opens ahead of the 2028-29 NBA season.

The blueish terrazzo concourse floor will likely consist of an amalgamation of shell, recycled glass, porcelain and reflective mirror aggregates.

Goad’s design, titled “One Voice. One OKC,” is intended to represent the overlapping sound waves of Oklahoma City’s collective voices spreading across the 80,000-square-foot main concourse floor. He previously produced an artistic design for a similar project, the terrazzo floor at OKC Will Rogers International Airport. Goad’s work is being funded through Oklahoma City’s “1% for Art” ordinance, which requires 1% of the construction budget for city-owned buildings, parks and trails to be set aside for public art. He was one of 30 artists from around the world who responded to an RFP.

The downtown Oklahoma City arena has broken ground, and a recent LinkedIn post showed its concrete footings being poured. The $900M arena is designed by Manica and built by a Mortenson and Flintco joint venture. CAA Icon is the project’s owners’ rep.

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A consortium of investors led by EFL Championship club Queens Park Rangers co-owner Amit Bhatia and backed by the Mittal family is “in talks to buy a significant minority stake” in Premier League club Liverpool FC, in a deal that would value the club “at more than” $6B. Sources noted that the investor group headed by Bhatia, the son-in-law of steel tycoon and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, has “hired advisers to work on the offer” and is “in active talks” with Fenway Sports Group. FSG confirmed the consortium’s interest in a statement. Sources mentioned that “no deal had yet been struck,” and there “was no certainty an agreement would be reached.” It would be the “latest big-money deal” in English football, following the $3.34B takeover of Premier League club Chelsea FC in 2022 and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s minority stake purchase in Premier League club Manchester United, which valued Liverpool’s arch-rivals at more than $6.3B, including debt, in 2023. FSG bought Liverpool for $401.2M in 2010. Ahead of the potential deal, Bhatia “agreed to transfer his shareholding in Queens Park Rangers” to the club’s majority owner Ruben Gnanalingam to avoid holding stakes in two clubs (FINANCIAL TIMES, 7/21).

The proposed deal is for a “similar-sized stake” to the one FSG sold to Dynasty Equity in 2025, when the American investment firm “paid a figure in the region of” $200M for about 3% of the club. That deal valued the 20-time English champions at approximately $6B. In 2022, FSG announced it was open to offers for Liverpool but eventually agreed to sell only a small stake to Dynasty. As well as its most famous assets, Liverpool and the Red Sox, FSG owns a stake in the commercial arm of golf’s PGA Tour and NASCAR’s RFK Racing. Last year, it sold the Penguins for $1.7B (THE ATHLETIC, 7/21).

In 2024, Fenway began exploring their options to begin a multi-club ownership model but have “more recently shelved those plans,” which led to the exit of Fenway Sports Group CEO of Football Michael Edwards (Liverpool ECHO, 7/21).

SiriusXM and Audacy on Tuesday announced a new agreement that will bring 42 of Audacy’s leading sports, news and talk stations from 29 markets across the U.S. to SiriusXM -- including the likes of WFAN in N.Y., WEEI in Boston, WIP in Philadelphia and WSCR in Chicago, among others. There will be 23 Audacy sports stations launching on SiriusXM on Sept. 1, in time for the start of football season, giving fans nationwide access to local sports talk, commentary and analysis from sports markets across the country. The agreement builds on SiriusXM’s sports audio lineup, giving listeners coast-to-coast access to hometown sports talk along with national voices, league channels and podcasts (Audacy).

Starting Sept. 1, the following Audacy sports stations will be available to SiriusXM listeners in their vehicles and on the SiriusXM app:

Starting Sept. 1, the following Audacy sports stations will be available on the SiriusXM app and in the growing number of vehicles on the road with the latest generation SiriusXM with 360L radios:

The LPGA on Tuesday unveiled a new tournament that will debut at Nanea Golf Club in Hawaii beginning in March 2027. The inaugural Nanea Cup will be played March 11-14 next year with a field competing for a $4M purse. Charles Schwab, Dell Technologies, Salesforce and Workday will all serve as tournament sponsors. The field for the first-of-its-kind competition will feature 95 LPGA golfers and 25 collegiate golfers representing five universities -- Stanford, Texas, Arkansas, Texas A&M and UCLA. The professional and collegiate competitions will be contested concurrently. All competitors will play the first two rounds on Thursday and Friday before the field is cut to the low 50 players and ties. Collegiate players who do not make the cut will still complete their third and final round on Saturday to determine the collegiate team champion, while those who make the cut will also advance to Sunday’s final round alongside LPGA players. In partnership with Golf Channel, the broadcast will feature stories highlighting the collegiate athletes and coaches competing in the event (LPGA).

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Canadian government announced a $1B investment into sports infrastructure, which will be the “largest investment of its kind in Canadian history.” The money will go toward “upgrading stadiums, community fields and local parks, giving young athletes better facilities and resources to develop.” The government said that the goal is to “help more Canadians progress from local playgrounds to the national team.” They said in a statement, “We are backing the Canada Soccer National Training Centre to create a permanent national home for soccer.” The investment builds on a historic run for the Canadian men’s national team at this summer’s World Cup. The men reached the knockout stage for the first time and advanced to the Round of 16 before losing to Morocco. Toronto and Vancouver also hosted 13 of the tournament’s 104 matches and were “highly praised by visiting fans as two of the top host cities” (DAILY HIVE, 7/21).