The Genesis Invitational will "not be played at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades in four weeks because of wildfires that have ravaged" the L.A. area. The PGA Tour in a statement said the tournament will be "played at an alternate location," and a "venue update and additional tournament information will be provided" in the coming days. Amid speculation of where the event might move, three possibilities on the West Coast Swing "have been mentioned" -- PGA West, home of The American Express this week, Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego and TPC Scottsdale in Arizona. All three already have "infrastructure like grandstands built for their own tournaments." PGA West Exec Dir Ben Dobbs on Wednesday said that his facility "would be interested in the Genesis event, but that the PGA Tour had not reached out." Dobbs added that on Thursday he was set for his annual meeting with PGA Tour officials to talk about The American Express, and "if the subject of the Genesis event came up, he would be ready to talk (Palm Springs DESERT SUN, 1/16).

Riviera CC "itself has been spared" from fire damage, "though much of the community north and west of the property was not as fortunate" (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 1/16). The tour "has resisted any decision until some movement had been made on containing fires." It decided to relocate "in collaboration with title sponsor Genesis, Riviera Country Club and TGR Live," which hosts the event (AP, 1/16). 

Tom Brady has nine seasons left on his contract with Fox Sports, and he isn’t going anywhere, his agent told SBJ exclusively today. “Tom has had a tremendous amount of fun working with Fox this year, and he’s really excited about the future with Fox and his growth on their team,” Don Yee said. “And this year was the first year of a long relationship.”

I asked him directly: Does that mean he intends to fulfill the term of his contract? Yee: “Yes.”

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The NFLPA has offered buyouts to about half its 150 employees and leadership suggested that involuntary job cuts could be coming if enough workers don’t accept the offer, sources said.

People with at least seven years’ experience are eligible. The standard buyout package includes 12 months’ severance pay, with escalators for those with more than 30 years’ experience, sources said.

One cause leaders cited for the retrenchment was the arbitration ruling last August in which the union was ordered to pay Panini $7.8M for wrongfully terminating its contract, sources said.

NFLPA officials declined to address specifics but shared a prepared statement: “The NFLPA is continuing its efforts to ensure that the union is operating efficiently and with greater financial discipline to ensure it is best positioned to advocate for its members.”

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After months of chasing partners and Caitlin Clark, Unrivaled launches tonight in Miami minus the Fever wunderkind, but still up to its ears in branding. The list of league sponsors is long -- a number that incrementally reached 16 this morning upon the arrival of Morgan Stanley -- but the question starting now is the length of viewers’ attention spans. Tonight’s mysterious 3-on-3 doubleheader on TNT/Max of Mist vs. Lunar Owls and then Rose vs. Vinyl will be another case study in women’s sports, with a rulebook intended to make everyone’s eyes bulge.

The court is 72-feet long and 49.2 feet wide. The first three quarters are seven minutes long, and the fourth quarter is untimed. The winning score is 11 points more than what the leading team has totaled after three periods. That way, every contest has a game-winning shot.

Played in 850-seat Wayfair Arena, where the furthest seat is 32-feet away from the court, face value ticket prices range from $45 to $250 and opening night prices on the secondary market range from $498 to $727, according to Gametime. The preseason excitement is clearly palpable, with Commissioner Micky Lawler saying Unrivaled is “a big idea,’’ a “blank slate to make dreams come true’’ and “makes me think of Billie Jean King every day.’’ She also called it a “social first’’ league, with executives hoping that even if the ratings on TNT and truTV go south, Unrivaled will still gain steam via TikTok and Instagram, etc.

Without Clark -- who will be recruited all-out again for 2026 -- the clear lead-up star to the league has been Angel Reeseof the Rose, who posts on social media multiple times a day and just tweeted the following on X:  “We get to workout, use the weight room, create new bonds/friendships, get treatment, get massages, use the sauna, getting 2 meals a day, and then a facial before I leave for the day??? yeah i love it here.’’

On this week's Sports Media Podcast, Horizon Sports & Experiences co-CEO and former head of Turner Sports David Levy stops by to talk about his group’s involvement in Unrivaled, while also reflecting on the NBA moving away from TNT next season.

Morgan Stanley is Unrivaled’s 16th and latest partner after signing a strategic sponsorship deal that will place company’s branding on the playing court’s pole pad and also integrate it into Unrivaled’s social media content and community programming. As part of the arrangement, Unrivaled’s 36 women players will also gain “financial empowerment opportunities’’ from Morgan Stanley. The partnership was negotiated in-house and is a multiyear deal.

S.F.-based private equity private equity firm Sixth Street, the owner of NWSL club Bay FC, is seeking to acquire or launch additional women’s soccer clubs around the world as part of a newly launched initiative called Bay Collective.

The firm has recruited Kay Cossington, who currently serves the English Football Association’s women’s technical director, to lead the multi-club ownership group as Sixth Street’s Head of Global Women’s Football and CEO of Bay Collective. She will remain with the FA until May 31 before joining Sixth Street full time.

Bay Collective would be among the first women's-specific multi-club organizations, mirroring a model that has become increasingly popular in men's soccer, perhaps most notably with City Football Group, which has Manchester City as its flagship club and has stakes in teams around the world. NWSL Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang has led the way on the women’s side with her establishment of Kynisca, which also includes France’s Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and England’s London City Lionesses. Mercury 13, which purchased a controlling interest in Italian club Como Women, has also expressed multi-club ambitions and recently received a “significant investment” from Marc Lasry’s Avenue Sports Fund.

Sixth Street co-founder & CEO Alan Waxman said the firm is already in active discussions about potential acquisition targets, which must be outside North America to comply with NWSL rules, and that the firm is also open to the possibility of starting clubs from scratch (as it did with Bay FC) in other territories. He declined to specify how much Sixth Street plans to invest in Bay Collective but said capital will not be a constraint.

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The Heat will announce Hard Rock Bet as their official sportsbook today, joining a Florida sponsorship portfolio that includes the Jaguars, Florida Panthers and Daytona International Speedway. The deal gives Hard Rock branding at Kaseya Center, in-game promotion, digital advertising and VIP hospitality for high-value bettors, including a Hard Rock Bet branded courtside area. Launched in December 2023 by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Hard Rock Bet is the only licensed sportsbook in the state.

Tech consultant and service firm Next League has acquired AI firm Edge3, a move that creates a new college sports practice for the three-year-old company. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed to SBJ. Kenyon Rasheed, co-founder of Edge3, will oversee this new vertical for Next League. His title will be Principal, VP and he will be based in Southern California.

Edge3 combined the advisory experience of professional athletes – Rasheed, fellow co-founder Brian Jones, and advisors Warren Sapp, Gary Payton and Horace Grant– with data-driven analysis to help players navigate the college decision-making process. Edge3 integrated IBM’s WatsonX AI into its predictive analytics engine last February.

Next League previously worked with Edge3 in its early business stage while the latter developed its business model. As the transfer portal, NIL and impending revenue share place more pressure on roster building and management, Next League CEO David Nugent sees Edge3’s capabilities fitting into the future college sports landscape -- whatever that may look like for programs and college athletes.

“The way we see the world, the disruption equals opportunity,” Nugent said of future plans for the college sports vertical. “... We don’t know how our business will unfold until we understand what that structure will actually be. We do know that a lot of schools need a lot of help.”

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UFC President & CEO Dana White is expected to attend next week’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, a spokesperson told SBJ, as industry execs wait to see how the 47th president’s next term impacts the sports business. Trump’s inauguration will take place Monday in front of the U.S. Capitol and reports have been coming in this week about which politicians, luminaries and business leaders will be attending.

At Trump’s victory speech in November at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, White was part of the group that the president elect brought on stage, and Trump at one point invited the UFC executive up to the podium to speak. Since then, Trump’s close relationship with the UFC has been getting extensive media coverage. White was also named a board of director of Meta last week. After the election, SBJ first reported that White said he had no interest in serving in an official position in the Trump administration, a stance he later reiterated at SBJ’s Media Innovators conference as well as in comments to the New Yorker. Before going to DC, White will be at UFC’s first PPV of the year, UFC 311, this weekend at Intuit Dome in L.A.

The Supreme Court this morning could decide the fate of TikTok , two days before the video app could be “effectively banned in the U.S. without the court's intervention.” The court yesterday said on its website that it “may release an opinion electronically” today at 10am ET. It could “put the law on hold, could decline to intervene for now or could definitively rule on whether the law is constitutional.” However, the justices “seemed likely to uphold the law” when it debated the issue last week. President-elect Donald Trump , who “tried to ban TikTok during his first administration,” has since “promised to ‘save’” the popular platform, though it is “unclear how he could do so.” Trump had “urged” the Supreme Court to “pause the ban to give him time to ‘negotiate a resolution.’” If the court lets the Jan. 19 deadline stand, Trump could “direct his attorney general not to enforce the law after he takes office” on Monday. But it is “uncertain if Apple, Google and any other conduits for the app will feel that’s enough protection from the law’s stiff penalties” ( USA TODAY, 1/1 6 ).

A source said that Trump is “considering an executive order to allow TikTok to continue operating” despite a pending legal ban until new owners are found. If the Supreme Court upholds the law, an executive order from Trump “might be the only way for TikTok to continue operating in the United States in the near term.” It could “try to direct the government not to enforce the law or to delay enforcement to complete a deal,” a move that past presidents have used to challenge laws. It is “unclear” if an executive order would “survive legal challenges or persuade the app stores and cloud computing companies to take steps that could expose them to huge penalties.” A source said that some of Trump’s allies “had loose discussions about buying TikTok but provided no details.” President Joe Biden , whose term ends on Monday, a day after the ban is set to go into effect, is also “under pressure to find a way to save the app” ( N.Y. TIMES, 1/16 ).

The Columbus Crew are looking for a Senior Dir of Corporate Partnership Activation. The Columbus-based position is responsible for overseeing the management of all the Club's corporate partnerships, as well as achieving the revenue goal tied to the retention/renewal and growth of all partnerships (Crew).

The Giants are looking for a Business Analyst. The S.F.-based position is responsible for developing understanding of organization business strategy and objectives, designing and maintaining user-friendly, customizable dashboards and data visualizations tailored to various stakeholders, and utilizing data analytics to create and optimize business processes (Giants).

Pacers Sports & Entertainment are looking for a Business Intelligence Manager. The Indianapolis-based position is responsible for collecting and presenting data from sources to satisfy enterprise-wide customer insight needs, including evaluation of ticket and merchandise sales, marketing and promotional campaigns, corporate partnerships, stadium operations, loyalty programs, market research, and various other business verticals (Pacers Sports & Entertainment).

CAA is looking for a Brand Consulting Insights & Analytics Dir. The N.Y.-based position is responsible for supporting the design, implementation, and management of sponsorship strategy, valuation, and measurement initiatives across portfolio of clients, using data visualization skills and tools to analyze and package reports for key internal and external stakeholders (CAA).

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Breeze Airways has launched a new multi-year partnership with the Lightning. It will include a “roundtrip flight giveaway to Raleigh-Durham” for the March 11th game, where the Lightning faces the Hurricanes, “concourse and community activations, including promotions at Ford Thunder Alley during Breeze’s annual Kindness Week in November, and in-game promotions” ( TAMPA BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL, 1/17 ).

The Raiders are assisting relief efforts for L. A. amid the ongoing wildfires. The team is “providing in-kind donations and corporate partnership contributions,” along with “cash for a total of $270,000.”  They also launched a “microsite with the American Red Cross to encourage their fan base to join in the donation efforts” ( LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 1/16 ).

Oklahoma Football GM Curtis Lofton is “stepping down” from the role as his “last day will be Feb. 1.” Lofton was officially named OU's GM in June, “helping lead the Sooners into a new era of college athletics” ( OKLAHOMAN, 1/16 ).

From the start of the 2025 campaign, the DP World Tour’s feeder circuit -- the Challenge Tour -- will be called the “HotelPlanner Tour” through a new multi-year partnership. The deal will see “increased prize funds,” with players set to compete for a record $9.27M in 2025 on a schedule that will consist of 29 events in 18 different countries ( THE SCOTSMAN, 1/17 ).

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“A lot of the small schools, this is their livelihood. They count on their men’s team making the NCAA Tournament, trying to go deep into the tournament. That is a huge, huge chunk of their revenue as a department, so to have another team within the department that can theoretically earn that, it’s great for the schools. It’s great for the future of the game, of the sport. It’s another step in the right direction based on what’s happened the last couple of years.” -- UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma , on the NCAA’s decision to approve revenue-sharing units for women’s basketball teams in the NCAA Tournament ( HARTFORD COURANT, 1/16 ).

SI went with the header, “ ‘Mr. Baseball’ Bob Uecker Is the Voice of Milwaukee .” Longtime MLB and Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker passed away this week at 90 years old. Sports Illustrated republished an article from November 2024 where Jon Wertheim chatted with Uecker about his “storied career and life.”

Also: 

•  Column: The unbearable guilt of losing nothing — and everything — in the Altadena wildfire.

• Knicks’ old-school play a refreshing change from NBA’s unwatchable norm.

"Order Arecales, this tree gets its name from Roman times; a leaf from one was placed in a victor’s hands after a contest was won."

"What is the palm tree?"