Morning Buzz

Masai Ujiri, the former Raptors president and current Sustainable Development Goal Advocate for the United Nations, on Tuesday became a principal owner of the WNBA’s expansion Toronto Tempo. In collaboration with the Tempo, Ujiri is also launching Tempo Rising, a mentorship platform for women-identifying and non-binary coaches at both the entry and advanced levels. Ujiri will provide leadership and coaching expertise alongside Tempo GM Monica Wright Rogers and Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello.

“As an honorary Canadian, I’m excited to be part of the Tempo team as I believe they are building something truly historic -- a franchise that represents not only Canada, but the future of basketball,” Ujiri said. “I believe deeply in the vision behind the Tempo: creating female leaders, elevating women not just on the court, but across the organization, and building championship culture from day one. This is more than just a new team -- it’s a defining moment in women’s basketball globally.”

Ujiri -- who was the NBA’s executive of the year in 2013 and was president of the Raptors during their championship season of 2019 -- joins an ownership group that includes Chairman Larry Tanenbaum, Chairman of Kilmer Sports Ventures, and a second principal owner in Serena Williams.

In his role with the United Nations, Ujiri has continued his humanitarian work in Africa, which began when he was director of Basketball Without Borders and launched Giants of Africa in the early 2000s. He exited the Raptors front office in 2025.

The Florida Panthers have hired Michael White from Amazon-owned robotaxi company Zoox as their new president of business operations. White, who previously spent 11 years at Disney, brings a background in consumer technology and guest experience to a front office in transition following several key departures.

After serving as Zoox’s chief product officer for the past two-and-a-half years, White started in his new role Monday with the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. In addition to overseeing the franchise’s day-to-day operations, he will lead business efforts across the Panthers’ four operated facilities: Amerant Bank Arena, Baptist Health IcePlex, Panthers IceDen and War Memorial Auditorium.

White takes over a Panthers front office that has experienced an executive exodus since the team won its second straight title last June. He replaces Matt Caldwell, who left the organization last summer to become CEO of the T’Wolves and Lynx. Other high-level departures in recent months include CRO Shawn Thornton (to the Hawks), COO Bryce Hollweg (to janitorial services company CJS Global), CFO James Suh (to the Spurs) and CRO Mark Zarthar, who has yet to take a new role.

Speaking to Sports Business Journal on his first day, White said he does not have a defined mandate from ownership and is beginning with an evaluation of the organization, focusing on opportunities to “amplify and really enhance” the fan experience inside and outside the arena. He added that he has yet to identify which positions he will prioritize as he builds out his leadership team.

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No. 1 seeds UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina “are in the Final Four for the second straight season,” just the second time the same teams have reached the sport’s final weekend in consecutive years. The only other time the same four teams reached consecutive Final Fours was when UConn, Tennessee, Stanford and Georgia did it from 1995-96 (AP, 3/30).

The tournament’s second-ever visit to Dickies Arena in Fort Worth concluded on Monday night, and the venue was “maybe 70% full for the finale” in an arena that seats 13,300 for basketball -- despite one of the teams’ main campus being “three hours south in Austin.” The Fort Worth regional this year “offered the best of the sport,” but “the crowds reflected none of that.” Most of the games “still are too typical of the NCAA women’s tournament where the higher seed seldom loses.” The sport is “still years away from drawing the casual fan to the arena” (FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 3/30).

This year saw the first women’s tournament rounds played in Sacramento since 2010. Visit Sacramento and Sacramento State “will continue to present bids” to the NCAA to “host more tournament rounds, men and women.” The first two rounds of the NCAA Men’s Tournament will be held at Golden 1 Center next March (SACRAMENTO BEE, 3/30).

Whoop has added $575M in new funding at a $10.1B valuation as it reportedly eyes an IPO. Collaborative Fund led the Series G investment round with participation from more than a dozen institutions, highlighted by medical and pharmaceutical entities Abbott and the Mayo Clinic. Whoop has added a series of new health and medical-grade features and products in recent years, including blood biomarker analysis, an FDA-cleared ECG, insights on a user’s blood pressure and longevity-focused healthspan metrics.

Lakers F LeBron James, famously one of Whoop’s first 100 users, invested for the first time along with other superstar athletes who made repeat investments such as Al Nassr F Cristiano Ronaldo and PGA Tour player Rory McIlroy. Whoop, which popularized the concepts of monitoring strain, sleep and recovery, gained attention at the Australian Open when the world’s top tennis players -- Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner -- were all asked to remove the device. The app includes one of the industry’s first generative AI coaching tools.

Whoop shared that it was cash-flow positive in 2025, its bookings doubled and that it has more than 2.5 million members; users receive the screenless tracking device for free and pay a monthly subscription fee, ranging from $199 to $359 per year. The Boston-based tech company recently announced plans to dramatically expand its staff from 800 employees to 1,400.

Whoop founder & CEO Will Ahmed told Bloomberg, “This new raise allows us to really strengthen our balance sheet and ultimately invest more in areas of the business that are already working. We’ve had a very ambitious research and development road map that we’re going to continue to invest behind.”

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The Big 12 is taking steps toward becoming the first FBS conference to sponsor women’s flag football, beginning in 2028 with a minimum of six teams, Sports Business Journal has learned.

The efforts, which remain in the exploratory phase, are being spearheaded by Commissioner Brett Yormark and Chief Football & Competition Officer Scott Draper from the conference side, along with an intimate assist from the NFL.

“We’re trying to meet the moment,” Draper told SBJ. “Our goal here is growth. Our goal is to advance Big 12 membership opportunities and growth for [the conference]. We see this as an opportunity to do that.”

The Big 12 and NFL previously announced a partnership in December that was expected to include collaborations around technology, officiating and, of course, flag football.

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Netflix is “looking to expand its current two-game package” of NFL rights “to four games,” according to sources cited by the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Sources noted the streamer is “interested in adding” the league’s “new Thanksgiving Eve game and an international game, likely in the season’s opening week.” Netflix is in the final year of its three-year Christmas Day game package, for which it paid about $75M a game. The NFL reclaimed the rights to four games as part of its deal last year to sell the NFL Network to ESPN and take an ownership stake in the sports service. A fifth game is “also up for grabs” -- the first international game of the season, which the NFL has “sold as a stand-alone property for the past two seasons.” A source said that the league is “taking a flexible approach to selling the games” and is “willing to field offers for some or all of the inventory from suitors” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/30).

NFL owners voted to award the 2029 Super Bowl to Las Vegas, which will be the second time in five years the city has hosted the game after being off the radar for decades before sports gambling was legalized. The NFL says there is no informal rotation, and each Super Bowl is awarded on the specific merits of a bid for a given year, but a league official Monday indicated Las Vegas has all the makings of a regular Super Bowl destination.

“Clearly, Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas [in 2024] was a tremendous success. Every element of that, everything that Las Vegas brought to bear -- the energy, the size, the scale, the hospitality,” said NFL EVP/Club Business, International & League Events Peter O’Reilly.

Conversations around a return to Las Vegas started immediately after the game in 2024. Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority President & CEO Steve Hill said he wants to “raise the bar,” giving two examples of challenges they want to fix this time.

“We had a couple events from a traffic standpoint conflicted earlier in the week, not the Super Bowl itself, but on a Thursday night and Friday night, where maybe we didn’t think through traffic flow in the city quite as well as we could, and that was one of our points of emphasis as we look at Super Bowl LXIII,” said Hill. “The demand for the fan fest was a little bit surprising -- 40,000, 50,000 people at the fan fest every day.”

The NFL unveiled Monday that the Seahawks will be the featured team on “Hard Knocks” (Training Camp) on HBO this coming season, while the Patriots will be the featured team in 2027 (X, 3/30). The Seahawks will appear on “Hard Knocks” for the “first time in their history.” For years the team was “not eligible because of rules stating that a team did not have to take part if it had appeared in the playoffs over the previous two seasons.” But those rules “were changed a year ago, in part to make the show more appealing” (SEATTLE TIMES, 3/30). It will also be the “first time in franchise history” that the Patriots will be featured on “Hard Knocks” (MASSLIVE, 3/30).

Having the two Super Bowl teams from last season as the next two participants “shows a real commitment to trying to revive a series that’s become a little stale with the flood of team- and league-produced ‘all-access’ shows out there.” The NFL Films folks “need more and more access to make it stand out.” Putting two “really good teams, and really good franchises, in the show doesn’t really solve that.” But “this idea is worth a try” (SI, 3/30).

The NFL on Monday officially signed American Express as the league’s “official payments partner starting ‌with the 2026 season.” SBJ’s Terry Lefton first reported the deal in September. The agreement will give American Express cardholders “access to ticket presales, on-site experiences and other perks at select NFL events in the U.S. and ​abroad.” As part of the rollout, American ​Express cardholders will “get early access” beginning on Tuesday to tickets for the 2026 NFL game in Melbourne between the Rams and 49ers. Visa last year announced it would end its three-decade NFL sponsorship run when its contract expired this month (REUTERS, 3/30).

The Maple Leafs on Monday “relieved” GM Brad Treliving of his duties “late in a disappointing season.” No replacement “was named, and no other firings or hirings were announced.” Treliving had one year left on his contract beyond this one. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment President Keith Pelley is scheduled to address the media at 2pm ET Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena (TORONTO STAR, 3/30).

The move came with the Leafs “on the verge of playoff elimination,” entering Monday’s game with a 31-30-13 record and 13 points out of the second wild-card spot. Treliving oversaw a 139-92-27 record with the Leafs, including a 10-10 playoff mark and a first-round series win over the Senators. But the club “struggled to find consistency this season” and “pivoted to selling at the trade deadline earlier this month as it fell out of contention” (CP, 3/30).

The name of Blues GM Doug Armstrong “continues to be heavy in speculation” as a potential replacement for Treliving. Armstrong is “slated to relinquish” his role to Alexander Steen on July 1, “at which point Armstrong will continue as the Blues’ president of hockey operations” (TORONTO SUN, 3/30).

It is “almost impossible to point to any aspect of the current Maple Leafs where things are not worse now than when Treliving succeeded Kyle Dubas almost three years ago." In fact, “you could argue that relative to expectation, this might be the worst season in Maple Leafs history” (THE HOCKEY NEWS, 3/30).

Sustainability/carbon offset company Karbon-X has signed sponsorships with Ilitch Sports + Entertainment’s Red Wings and Tigers, making it “Official Sustainability Partner” for both Detroit teams.

Under the deal, Calgary-based Karbon-X, which focuses on reducing carbon emissions and other sustainability issues, gets sponsorship assets such as venue signage, along with digital and social media. The teams get greenhouse gas reporting, carbon footprint data, and advice on sustainability initiatives, including an optional $3 sustainability contribution for carbon credits at online ticket checkout.

The agreements begin during the current NHL season and run through the 2028–29 NHL campaign, and include the 2026 through 2028 MLB seasons. The Red Wings and Tigers deals expand a Karbon-X sponsorship portfolio which includes Hockey Canada, the Banff Marathon, and the Edmonton Oilers, which have worn a Karbon-X jersey ad patch for road games since last season. Matt Kauffman’s Insight Sports is agency of record for Karbon-X.

“Literary theories say the first name of this 1847 title character is meant to evoke plainness while the last name hints at a bequest.”