Morning Buzz

The Fire plan to build a $650M, 22,000-seat soccer-specific stadium along the Chicago River that will be privately financed by owner Joe Mansueto. The club purchased a nine-acre parcel of land for the venue within The 78, a 62-acre mixed-use development planned by Related Midwest, and aims to open the facility for the 2028 MLS season.

The new venue designed by Gensler would be an open-air stadium featuring a canopy over the seating area and a natural grass pitch. The Fire, who have yet to publicly identify a contractor for the project, plan to reveal more stadium details and renderings ahead of a community meeting later this month.

The MLS club unveiled its plans this morning in a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, which features a letter from Mansueto to the city of Chicago and a single sketch of the stadium design.

“The Chicago Fire is a Club on the rise. And soon, we’ll have a permanent home that reflects the passion, energy and pride of the city we love,” Mansueto wrote to conclude the letter.

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The quarterly MLB Owners’ Meetings will take place in N.Y. this week, and while there are no major action items being voted on, baseball’s short-term national media rights future will be at the forefront of discussions.

As reported by SBJ’s Austin Karp Monday, Apple TV is emerging as potentially the leading streamer to land some of the MLB media rights currently resting with ESPN, though not necessarily rights that NBC could be eyeing. No decisions have been made yet.

ESPN is in the final year of its MLB deal, which features “Sunday Night Baseball,” the Wild Card round and Home Run Derby. MLB is weighing the reach of legacy media at fewer dollars versus more dollars from a streamer with lesser reach. Given that all of MLB’s national media rights expire after the 2028 season, any deal would likely be a three-year pact.

Other topics include the automated ball-strike system, a lookback at the MLB Tokyo Series, and how the overall business is doing, with attendance and ratings up so far this season.

TicketManager has acquired Ovations for an undisclosed amount. TicketManager helps corporate clients like Verizon, FedEx, Adidas, Anheuser-Busch and Mastercard manage their season ticket inventory, and Ovations was its largest competitor in the space and a company that essentially created the corporate ticket management business. Ovations’ contracts, clients, IP and 10 employees were acquired from Cendyn, which bought Ovations in May 2015.

“When we first started they were the Goliaths and we were the little Davids,” TicketManager CMO Paul Kim said of Ovations.

The acquisition, several months in the making, follows hot on the heels of TicketManager announcing a $110M equity investment from Valeas Capital Partners that makes Valeas majority owners of the compay; TicketManager co-founder & CEO Tony Knopp and COO Ken Hanscom will retain a minority interest in the company.

The acquisition timing was perfect as TicketManager gears up for a run of major events in the U.S., starting with Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium, the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, and the 2028 Summer Olympics in L.A.

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Sports marketing agency Two Circles has been hired by MotoGP to help the global motorbike racing property grow its fan bases in the U.S. and U.K., two of the regions that forthcoming owner Liberty Media will be most keen to become more popular in. The deal will be announced this morning without released terms aside from the sides saying they’ll be working together for multiple years.

The agency will help MotoGP develop a new social media strategy and broader digital efforts. The hiring comes after Two Circles did an initial research study for the series and at a time when Liberty is nearing approval from the European Union’s antitrust regulators to buy MotoGP, according to a report in April from Reuters. While Liberty aims to unlock commercial value in MotoGP in the same manner in which it has done with F1, F1 was considerably further ahead in its popularity in the U.S. when Liberty bought that four-wheel series in 2016. MotoGP Grand Prix in the U.S. still at times averages only five figures in viewership.

MotoGP Managing Dir of Global Marketing Kelly Brittain said of the motivation for hiring the agency: “We’ve known for some time that markets like the U.S. and U.K. have huge untapped potential, and the Two Circles research highlighted this further. We needed the right partner to help us engage them, not just with more content, but the right content. Two Circles are best-in-class when it comes to growing fandom. This partnership is about action, not words.”

Cosm has a new deal with Professional Bull Riders to show four of the league’s Team Series events at its immersive venues in L.A. and Dallas this summer. Each of the events occupy Sunday afternoon slots, which fits Cosm’s programming schedule and will hopefully appeal to families, Cosm SVP/Content & Media Peter Murphy told SBJ. Cosm also has active content licensing deals with fellow TKO Group Holdings properties UFC and WWE, the latter of whose co-Head of Revenue Alex Varga helped facilitate the PBR deal.

“With the success that we’ve seen with UFC and WWE, they have been tremendous partners,” Murphy said. “We know PBR will be much of the same. It should be exciting.”

PBR is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, making Cosm’s location at the Grandscape entertainment district just outside of Dallas a natural market fit. PBR Chief Revenue Officer Josh Baker added that the league has seen success with events in L.A. (at Crypto.com Arena) and Anaheim (Honda Center) as well, calling Southern California a “big market” for the league.

“I do see our fans reaching out for that content,” Baker said. “And I also see a situation where, when we market this along with Cosm, there’s going to be people that are just looking for something to do, and they haven’t been to Cosm yet, and they say, ‘Wait, bull riding. I’ve seen that a couple of times. I want to see it in this perspective.’ I think we’ll be able to grow new fans out of it.”

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Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Cisco have reached a multiyear partnership with wide-ranging impacts on the overall connective experience for fans who flow through the currently under-renovation Capital One Arena. Financial terms of the deal were not shared with SBJ, but include a bevy of enhancements:

• The Cisco Command Center, which will serve as a hub to oversee venue technology
• Deployment of Wi-Fi 7 for increased internet speed and lower latency while withstanding high traffic
• The use of the Cisco Space platform for real-time fan data and visualization of foot-traffic flow in the venue 
• IPTV, dynamic signage and network support solutions that will impact various fan touchpoints in-venue as well as Monumental Sports Network

The partnership will begin rolling out over the next six months in order to support the adaptation required as MSE navigates the arena’s $800M renovation. The entire makeover of Capital One Arena is a six-phase project that is expected to be completed in 2027 ahead of the Wizards’ and Capitals’ seasons.

“Our commitment with redoing this building is that we’re going to remain here in downtown DC for the next 25 years,” said MSE President of Business Operations & CCO Jim Van Stone. “For us, it was about working with the best-in-class providers, and Cisco is at really the top of the heap when it comes to their innovations and technology.”

Other components of the partnership include Cisco’s joint establishment of a program with MSE to help military veterans transition into the corporate workforce. The Wizards will also use Cisco’s Customer Experience Center in The Wharf (a large mixed-use development in D.C.) as their headquarters for the NBA Draft, taking place June 25-26.

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Gym Class, the top-rated VR sports title on Meta Quest, is adding an MLB licensing deal to its existing NBA agreement as it broadens its casual sports experiences in direct response to user behavior. Gym Class co-founder Paul Katsen said gamers had organically started playing baseball in the VR platform, pitching basketballs to each other and using cones as bats.

With the agreement -- MLB’s second in as many weeks, following one with Microsoft-owned Minecraft -- Gym Class users can select official home and away uniforms from all 30 MLB clubs to dress their avatars and compete in team-specific digital stadiums as part of the new $19.99 bundle.

“MLB’s goal is to connect with our fans wherever they are, in as many ways as possible, and time and again they have embraced and shown their avidity for innovation,” MLB SVP/Gaming & VR Jamie Leece told SBJ. “We have been fans of what Gym Class has been doing in the VR space for a while and have been discussing ways to bring our sport to their community of players.”

In a user survey, more than 80% reported having at least tried baseball, with the Gym Class baseball community reaching more than 150,000 active monthly members. That’s a small portion of the total user base, Katsen said, although he declined to share the total number of users. The free app has more than 5 million downloads and the #gymclassvr tag has more than 600 million views on TikTok. The NBA invested in 2023, as have Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Kevin Durant.

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Mr. 305 is heading to Bristol, Tenn., as Pitbull will accompany headliner Tim McGraw at the pregame concert before the Aug. 2 MLB Speedway Classic between the Braves and Reds at Bristol Motor Speedway. All fans with MLB Speedway Classic tickets will have access to the pregame concert, which will start about an hour before first pitch. Fox plans to air portions of the performance by the Miami native in its pregame event coverage.

The funeral service for late Colts owner Jim Irsay was held Monday at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, where 10 people spoke and a host of “Colts past and present” were in attendance. In addition to current and former players, in attendance was “every one of the Colts’ past 25 years of coaches” -- Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell, Chuck Pagano, Frank Reich and Shane Steichen -- and “every front-office leader too” in Bill Polian, Ryan Grigson and Chris Ballard. The funeral gathering also included “an eclectic mix” of high-ranking members of IMPD and Pacers executives and “a handful of media: local and national, print and television.” Musician John Mellencamp, who had befriended Irsay back in the 1980s, performed right next to Irsay’s casket during the service (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 6/2).

The Steelers have sent an email to “angry fans and season-ticket holders who complained about the appearances” of QB Mason Rudolph and special teams captain Miles Killebrew at a rally for President Donald Trump on Friday. In the email, the Steelers said that “alumni and current players ‘make their own individual decisions’ and do not represent the views of the organization.” Former NFLer Rocky Bleier, a member of the team’s Hall of Honor, “also appeared at the rally.” The appearances by Rudolph and Killebrew “were not scheduled through the Steelers.” The Rooney family has been “staunch Democratic supporters,” including when late chairman Dan Rooney was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Ireland by former President Barack Obama (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 6/2).

In this episode of On Stage, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey joins Sports Business Journal’s Rachel Axon for a candid interview that took place on April 22, 2025, at the CAA World Congress of Sports presented by Sports Business Journal.

Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in college athletics, Sankey dives into the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of the NCAA and beyond:

• College Football Playoff (CFP) Format: Sankey offers a behind-the-scenes look at the ongoing discussions and why there’s no final model in place yet.
• NIL: He unpacks the evolution of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and why a national clearinghouse could help restore trust and transparency.
• Congressional Involvement & Liability Protection: Sankey discusses why national standards matter, his thoughts on antitrust exemptions, and what real reform could look like.
• Media Rights & Conference Expansion: His perspective on how these forces are reshaping the SEC and college sports as a whole.
• Student-Athlete Welfare: How the conference balances commercial imperatives with the well-being and development of student-athletes.
• Vision for the Future: Sankey shares his thoughts on the next chapter for college sports, what’s working, and what still needs to be addressed.

This conversation -- which took place in front of a packed ballroom of sports leaders -- provides great insights from the frontlines of the college sports evolution.

“Referring to what’s wrongly believed to be a meteorite, ‘The Falling Star’ is the title of Chapter 2 of this 1898 novel.”