Closing Bell

Veteran sports exec Fred Mangione has been named CEO at Scarlet Knight Enterprises, Rutgers’ newly established commercial arm “focused on driving revenue growth and strategic business initiatives.” Mangione will bring more than three decades of experience in the sports and entertainment industry to Rutgers Athletic Department, where he will “oversee the day-to-day operations of Scarlet Knight Enterprises.” Most recently, Mangione served as Chief Business Officer of the N.Y./N.J. Host Committee for the World Cup. He has also held exec leadership positions with the N.Y. Jets, Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment and MM Sports Consulting (ON3, 7/22).

Deep ties and the “ability to further make inroads” into the N.Y. market “certainly jumps out” from Mangione’s resume. His hiring is a “significant addition” for Rutgers AD Keli Zinn as she continues a “substantial reshaping of the athletic department.” Mangione worked as the Jets’ SVP/Sales, Marketing & Premium Partnerships for five years and was the COO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment. Those ties to the N.Y. market are “certainly valuable for Rutgers, especially in a college sports landscape increasingly driven by revenue.” Mangione will begin this new role on Aug. 3 (247SPORTS.com, 7/22).

Inter Miami has signed MF Casemiro on a “free transfer,” but MLS has announced that the league is “investigating the team for potentially violating tampering rules in the process.” The Galaxy had the league’s priority to negotiate with Casemiro -- called “discovery rights” in MLS, which are “meant to stop teams from negotiating against each other for in-demand targets.” Teams are “supposed to acquire discovery rights before contacting a potential signing.” The Galaxy will be “compensated by Miami for Casemiro’s discovery rights,” but that amount will be determined, “in part, after the conclusion of the tampering investigation” (THE ATHLETIC, 7/22). ESPN.com cited sources as saying that the Galaxy “filed a tampering claim against Inter Miami to MLS regarding contact with Casemiro without first acquiring the player’s Discovery Priority.” Though Inter Miami and the Galaxy have since reached a settlement for the Discovery Priority of Casemiro, the league will “continue to review the claim” (ESPN.com, 7/22).

Real Madrid F Kylian Mbappé is returning as the cover athlete for the EA Sports FC 27 standard edition and Ultimate Edition, marking his “first time as an EA Sports FC cover star” and his return to the franchise cover after four years. Mbappé will also “appear as the new cover athlete for EA Sports FC Mobile,” continuing his long-running relationship with the soccer gaming franchise (MASHABLE, 7/22). Despite widespread speculation pointing to Real Madrid F Jude Bellingham “featuring as the standard edition cover star,” with Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr F Cristiano Ronaldo “on the cover of the Ultimate Edition,” it is actually Mbappé who is on the cover of both the standard and Ultimate editions. Mbappé has appeared on the cover of EA’s soccer franchise before but his last appearance was on FIFA 23, the last year EA had the FIFA license (London INDEPENDENT, 7/22).

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey on Wednesday “reiterated that his conference leaders have had conversations about self-governance,” but that “the idea of the SEC creating its own rules is ‘not new’ and ‘it’s not a breakaway’ from the NCAA.” The “preference within the SEC and other leagues remains getting help from Congress in the form of federal legislation.” Following Sankey’s opening comments at the lectern Monday at the beginning of SEC media days, sources said that “there have been additional conversations about the SEC considering playing entirely conference games in all sports.” Sankey, though, “warned of broader national implications, including potential legal problems for the conference.” He pointed to the “importance of the NCAA-run championships in all sports except football.” Sankey: “I know that if there was just a breakaway, we’d be in front of Congress explaining ourselves there, and so that is not a leading issue. Has it been talked about? I was honest in answering that: Yes. But why do they talk about that? Because there’s frustration” (ESPN.com, 7/22).

The Mets are offering a “$10 electronic voucher per ticket that can be used toward a purchase of eligible food, beverages and merchandise” for fans who buy a ticket -- or who already have bought a ticket -- to any of the team’s 32 remaining home games. The “Amazin’ Fan Reward” offer begins with Friday’s game against the Dodgers. The $10 reward “will be automatically loaded on a fan’s gameday ticket barcode” and “is good for day-of-game purchases only and will expire at the end of the game.” The Mets averaged 35,659 fans per game in the season’s first half. If that average holds in the second half and “every ticket buyer uses the $10 reward, that would be a giveaway potentially worth” $356,590 per game, or $11.4M for the rest of the home schedule (NEWSDAY, 7/22).

GSE Worldwide is stepping up its use of artificial intelligence. The N.Y.-based agency is hiring Park City, Utah-based advisory firm Extraordinary AI to help weave AI into everyday work across the agency. The goal is to help staff use technology to work faster, make better decisions and deliver more tailored work for clients in talent representation, events and brand consulting.

The program will touch every part of the company. Employees will get basic AI training and take part in workshops where they walk through their actual tasks and figure out where AI can help. GSE and Extraordinary AI plan to build out and design specific workflows for work like research, pitch and deck building, content drafts, talent and brand prospecting, contract support, reporting and internal planning. Both sides say the focus is on building more capabilities for the agency and that there is no intention to cut jobs at GSE Worldwide.

Extraordinary AI will sit with groups from different departments to map how work is done today, spot bottlenecks and repetitive steps, and test where AI can safely speed things up or improve accuracy. That will then help the agency plan out which teams use AI for which tasks, how employees will be trained to use those tools, and what rules GSE will follow for handling data, checking AI output and approving final work.

For GSE, the move is about building AI skills into the staff it already has, rather than chasing the latest tool. The company is betting that a workforce comfortable using AI in day-to-day tasks will help it respond faster to client asks and keep pace as AI becomes standard across sports and entertainment agencies.

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