The NHL and Fanatics today unveiled the uniforms players will wear during the 2024-25 season, the first under a 10-year deal between the league and sports apparel company announced last year. The Fanatics-branded jerseys will be given to players selected this Friday and Saturday during the NHL Draft at Sphere in Las Vegas.

The differences between the new uniforms and the Adidas-branded ones worn over the past seven seasons are intentionally minimal, with both the NHL and Fanatics stressing that the change in branding won’t cause hiccups in manufacturing or design.

“Our goal was not to come in and go, 'Oh, we're going to completely change the uniform,' not to do change for the sake of change,” said Keith Leach, Fanatics’ VP and GM for the NHL and Canada.

Under the Fanatics relationship, financial terms of which were not disclosed, Quebec-based SP Apparel will continue to manufacture the jerseys worn by NHL players as it has for the past 50 years with previous partners such as Adidas, Reebok and CCM. The NHL is confident this will ensure continuity of quality. In addition, Fanatics built an experienced creative team around longtime NHL jersey designer Dominique Fillion, allowing the league to keep delivering sharp new looks for special events and new alternate jerseys.

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In a 14-1 vote Tuesday, the Jacksonville City Council agreed to a 30-year lease and funding agreement with the Jaguars as part of the city’s “largest single development spending deal in city history” -- $775M in EverBank Stadium renovations and $56M in an altered community benefits agreement, according to Hanna Holthaus of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. Football fans and Jacksonville residents have “waited to know the inner workings of the deal for years” as it carries “significant implications for the future of the Jaguars franchise and the financial health of the city.” Following the vote, the deal will now head to the NFL owners meeting in October when it “must receive support from at least 75% of team owners.” Holthaus notes the accepted deal puts the city responsible for 55% of stadium costs, which “includes maintenance funding prior to the start of construction but not the cost of outdoor work.” The majority of the deal Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan’s team negotiated “came through City Council criticism unscathed.” But the “popular community benefits agreement was not as successful,” and the council conversation on how to fund the area surrounding the stadium is “ongoing and will continue through the next budget process.” Holthaus notes that at $150M, the Jaguars investment is “the largest in NFL history for a community benefits agreement” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 6/25). 

ABC drew 7.66 million viewers for the Panthers’ 2-1 win over the Oilers in Game 7of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night. That’s easily the best hockey audience of any kind in the U.S. since Game 7 of the 2019 Final, when Blues-Bruins drew an NHL-record 8.91 million viewers on NBC. The last Game 7 before Blues-Bruins was Bruins-Canucks in 2011, when NBC drew 8.54 million viewers. ABC peaked at 10.3 million viewers late in the third period of Panthers-Oilers (around 10:45pm). 

ABC easily won primetime with Panthers-Oilers. The No. 2 program for the night was the U.S. Olympic Trials for track & field on NBC, which averaged around 4.2 million viewers. The No. 3 program was the night was the series-clinching Game 3 of the Tennessee-Texas A&M College World Series on ESPN (3.2 million).

ABC averaged 4.17 million viewers for the seven-game Panthers-Oilers series, up 58% from the five-game Golden Knights-Panthers series last year. However, Panthers-Oilers is down 10% from the six-game Avalanche-Lightning series on ABC in 2022 (that was the first year of a new media-rights deal).

In Canada, Game 7 of Panthers-Oilers another 7.55 million viewers across Sportsnet, the CBC and Citytv, marking Sportsnet’s best NHL audience yet and the second-best NHL audience of any kind ever in the country.

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The Minnesota Lynx captured their first WNBA Commissioner’s Cup championship with a 94-89 victory over the N.Y. Liberty last night, becoming the "fourth different team to win the Cup in the event’s four-year history." The Liberty, who were "trying to be the first to repeat" as champions, "continued the trend of the host team losing." The game was moved from the Liberty’s usual home Barclays Center to UBS Arena because of the NBA Draft. The teams in the Commissioner’s Cup will "split a prize pool of $500,000." Lynx players "can make up to $30,000," while each player on the Liberty "makes $10,000." Every player competing "will also receive $5,000 in crypto currency." There was also a "charitable component" to the tournament, with the Liberty raising $15,000 for Women Creating Change and the Lynx raising $13,500 for Gender Justice. The Lynx "earned an additional $10,000" for their charity by winning and the Liberty received $5,000 for finishing second (AP, 6/25).

The NBA Draft will take place tonight in Brooklyn. But its epicenter will likely be France. Frenchmen Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr are expected to be the top two overall selections, the first time that country has produced a pair of top 5 picks in a single draft -- and only a year after the Spurs took France’s Victor Wembanyama No. 1 overall.

The NBA’s first two-night draft, presented by State Farm, will be broadcast in 214 countries and 33 territories tonight and tomorrow, partially due to the league’s top prospects continuing to be global. In addition to Risacher and Sarr, other expected French draftees this week are Tidjane Salaün, Melvin Ajinça and Pacôme Dadiet. At least two international players have been taken in the top 10 of the NBA Draft in each of the past 11 years, with tonight virtually guaranteed to make it 12 straight. Cameroon’s Ulrich Chomche is expected to be the first player out of the NBA Academy Africa to be picked

The NBA last season already had a record 125 international players from 40 countries, including 26 from Canada, 14 from France, nine from Australia, seven from Serbia, six from Germany and five each from Nigeria and Turkey. 

Coca-Cola has signed an eight-year extension for its sponsorship of the Special Olympics. The beverage giant has sponsored the sports organization for athletes with intellectual disabilities since its founding in 1968. Coca-Cola’s latest extension, the longest in the deal’s history, runs through 2031. In a keynote address at SBJ’s Brand Innovation Summit earlier this month, Coca-Cola VP/Global Sports & Entertainment Marketing and Partnerships Brad Ross said the company’s work with the Special Olympics is key to its marketing efforts.

“Legacy goes beyond just the product and the company and the brand,” Ross said. “For us, it’s about building an inclusive ecosystem and giving back.”

Coca-Cola’s support for the organization includes donations, marketing initiatives and employee volunteers for events including the biennial Special Olympics World Games, most recently held in Berlin last year. The 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games will take place in Turin, Italy next March. 

The ATP has seen record social and digital audience growth across ATP athletes, tournaments and Tour over the past year. The past 12 months have seen ATP athletes’ social media audiences rise 10% to 168 million globally, while ATP tournaments have increased their social media fan followings by 16%, now totalling 8.8 million. During the same period, the ATP Tour’s social media reach across all official ATP Tour social media platforms has enjoyed record growth, increasing by 48% to 2.9 billion, video views growing by 159%, total social media audience growing 7% to 9.7 million followers and website video views up 15%. Seventeen ATP athletes now boast more than one million followers on social media. Additionally, total minutes viewed for the past 12 months on ATPTour.com increased 20%, pageviews increased 13% and users were up 7% (ATP). 

The Red Sox ownership group that included the late Larry Lucchino "will receive the Sports Philanthropist of the Year award" at the 2024 ESPYS. The Red Sox Foundation, founded by Lucchino, Tom Werner and John Henry, is "credited with driving" $120M in community investment in both New England and Lee County, Fla. Henry last year launched the Fenway Park Learning Lab, which "created an immersive curriculum for more than 2,500 Boston Public Schools students in the sixth grade." Werner, meanwhile, "led the creation of the Home Base program," an organization that has "treated the mental and physical needs" of more than 35,000 military veterans. Lucchino, who died in April, devoted much of his time and energy to the Jimmy Fund, "for which he served as chairman." The ESPYS ceremony will be televised live July 11 on ABC from L.A. (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/24).

The leaders and influencers in Atlanta’s vibrant sports community will take part today in the Business of Sports Summit hosted by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and presented by Southern Company. The event at the Overtime Elite Arena, which is expected to draw around 300 guests, includes lunch and a series of in-depth conversations about Atlanta sports, featuring SBJ Publisher and Executive Editor Abe Madkour in a keynote address titled, "The Future of Sports Business." Other panels on the agenda include "The Fan Experience of the Future" (with Braves SVP/Operations Hannah Basinger, Hawks Chief Technology & Innovation Officer Kimberly Rometo, AMBSE Chief Technology Officer Karl Pierburg and Global Payments SVP/Product Strategy Aidoo Osei); "The U.S. Soccer Ecosystem" (with U.S. Soccer Chief Commercial Officer David Wright); "The Atlanta Dream" (with Dream President & COO Morgan Shaw Parker); and "The Atlanta Falcons On and Off the Field" (with Falcons President Greg Beadles and Falcons Sr Dir of Community Affairs Amanda Dinkel) (SBJ). 

On this week’s podcast, SBJ college writer Ben Portnoy dishes on what the Big East's new media deals mean for the conference – and college basketball at large. Our Olympic writer Rachel Axon gets us set for the Paris Games as we are in the thick of U.S. Olympic Trials. And SBJ media writer Mollie Cahillane catches up with the hosts of the most listened to tennis podcast in the world, The Tennis Podcast.

Washington State has named interim AD Anne McCoy to the full-time position. McCoy, 56, replaces Pat Chun, who left for rival Washington in late March, and "becomes the first woman to hold the position" of WSU AD (Spokane SPOKESMAN-REVIEW, 6/25).See more about McCoy's appointment in today's Daily. 

A packed stadium if 81,106 fans witnessed F Lionel Messi and Argentina’s 1-0 win over Chile last night at MetLife Stadium in the Copa America tournament (MLS).

Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines will host the Utah Hockey Club's "NHL debut" during a preseason game Sept. 22 against the Blues. Tickets for the event, dubbed the "Des Moines Community Classic presented by Community Choice," will go on sale starting June 28 (DES MOINES REGISTER, 6/24). 

The Univ. of Cincinnati athletic department was named the "best institutional program" at the third annual NIL Summit on Saturday. Cincinnati topped fellow finalists Florida, Grand Canyon Univ, Univ. of Nebraska, Ohio State, Ole Miss, St. Joseph's and UCLA (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 6/23). 

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"Obviously, I can’t confirm anything. ... We feel relatively confident about our future with the league as they work to finalize everything with all of their partners. We feel good about where we stand at the moment" -- ESPN President of Content Burke Magnus, on the network's continued negotiations for NBA media rights (THE ATHLETIC, 6/26).

SI goes with the header, "WNBA's connection with queer fans goes deeper than annual Pride Night games." Barclays Center was "ornamented in silver" Saturday afternoon, the venue "shimmering" for the N.Y. Liberty’s 10th annual Pride game. Former WNBAer Sue Wicks, a member of the Liberty’s inaugural 1997 team and the WNBA’s first openly gay player, was on hand for the festivities, "receiving a sonorous ovation from the crowd as she appeared on the jumbotron." With Pride "comes plenty of pomp and circumstance -- and can sometimes feel like a rainbow-coated cursory gesture" -- but the WNBA’s celebration is also "grounded by its fundamental queerness." The W "holds a unique place in the world of sports and entertainment," as one of America’s "few cultural outputs that is elementally queer and primarily women-led."

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