Morning Buzz

The USMNT beat Guatemala 2-1 “before a sellout crowd (sold mostly to Guatemala fans)” in a Gold Cup semifinal match at Energizer Park in Houston. Guatemala’s fans “may have outnumbered American fans,” with chances for the Guatemalan squad bringing on “roars from the crowd that dwarfed anything the U.S. team got.” Guatemalan fans were “out in force, seizing a rare opportunity to see their national team playing this deep into an international tournament.” The streets around the stadium were “jammed with fans wearing Guatemala jerseys and carrying Guatemala flags, lending an international flavor to the game that previous international games in St. Louis couldn’t match.” The Americans will face Mexico in the championship game on Sunday in Houston (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 7/2). Guatemalan flags “dominated the landscape” when the teams took the field. Chants of “‘¡Sí, se puede!’ or ‘Yes, you can!’ echoed” around the arena of 22,423 spectators (WASHINGTON POST, 7/2).

Mexico defeated Honduras 1-0 at Levi’s Stadium in the other Gold Cup semifinal, with “hundreds of tickets” still available on resale sites “shortly before the game.” Ticket prices were “far lower than what a Mexico game would normally command.” The announced attendance for the match was 70,975, but “plenty of empty seats were visible.” Some customers said that their friends “had stayed away because of the fear of ICE agents” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 7/2).

The NWSL plans to pause its 2026 season for most of June to accommodate expected stadium demands for the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup in some of its markets. The league, which announced its 2026 schedule footprint on Wednesday, will also extend its regular season to 30 matches per team, up from 26 this year, to accommodate the addition of two new teams to the schedule.

The league will not play from June 1 through June 28 next year, which covers the lead-up to the men’s World Cup kickoff on June 11 and the entire group stage. Seven of the NWSL’s 16 markets will host matches as part of the men’s World Cup next summer: Boston, Houston, K.C., L.A., N.Y., the S.F. Bay Area and Seattle. Three of those (K.C., Houston and N.Y.), plus Orlando, Louisville and Herriman, Utah, are also on FIFA’s latest list of potential base camp locations for visiting national teams. Specific training facilities used by the K.C. Current, Racing Louisville, Houston Dash and Utah Royals could be utilized in that capacity.

Even with the break, the NWSL will play matches during the knockout stages of the men’s World Cup. The league also said its schedule has been formatted to avoid staging contests during FIFA windows and will include a league-wide pause in play for a CBA-mandated break.

The NWSL schedule is also expanding to 30 games per team as expansion franchises in Boston and Denver make their debuts. The addition of four games to each team’s schedule ensures a balanced schedule in which teams play each other twice: once at home and once on the road. It also offers teams two additional home games to generate revenue and additional inventory for the league’s national media partners and its own NWSL+ streaming service.

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Queensland and the Australian federal government have signed a $4.7B (all figures U.S.) deal “to deliver venue infrastructure for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” as “work on the new centrepiece stadium officially kicks off.” The federal government has committed $2.26B “towards venue infrastructure, of which” $789M “will be tipped into the new 63,000-seat Brisbane Stadium at the inner-city Victoria Park and the remainder split between the 16 other new or upgraded venues.” A new deal “was required after the Delivery 2032 plan scrapped the federal government’s” $1.6B Brisbane Arena project. The Crisafulli government has “affirmed the 17,000-seat project will be completed ahead of the Games by the private sector” (THE AUSTRALIAN, 7/3).

RELATED: Brisbane on the right path for 2032 Olympics after IOC visit

The Oklahoma State athletic department has partnered with NOCAP Revenue Solutions in a deal designed to “generate revenue for the university while also helping businesses that support OSU athletics.” NOCAP Revenue Solutions works with athletic departments “to connect them with businesses -- or to offer services to those with existing relationships with the school -- to provide cost-saving methods in a variety of business-to-business operations, like credit card processing, payroll management and others.” The Sooners will “receive a portion of the net profits from the services provided through the partnership.” Oklahoma State shared the news of the deal with members of POSSE, the athletic department’s donor organization, yesterday in “hopes of kickstarting the growth of the new network” (OKLAHOMAN, 7/2).

The Univ. of Tennessee is “switching back to Adidas” after it “could not reach an agreement with Nike to extend its current contract.” The Volunteers had been signed with Nike as their official apparel supplier since 2014, but their deal with the brand “expires in 2026.” The Vols previously had a deal with Adidas from 1995-2014 (LOCAL3NEWS.com, 7/2).

This week on the Sports Media Podcast, Mollie Cahillane and Austin Karp explain why conversations between ESPN and MLB are what many expected and what those talks could yield. The duo also takes a deep dive into the results for both the NBA and NHL drafts, and whether the “F1” movie can help draw fans to live races and bolster fortunes for a media rights pact. Finally, Cahillane and Karp are joined by TelevisaUnivision’s Olek Loewenstein to examine the Spanish-language network’s approach to concurrent international soccer competitions.

The PGA Tour is “altering the disbursement” of $100M in bonus money that is “paid out to players who make it to the final event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.” Because the Tour Championship will “no longer have a starting strokes format and will have all 30 players competing for a single tournament title, the winner will now receive” $10M in bonus money, with $5M “going to second place and $355,000 going to last place.” There will be a “total purse” of $40M. For the FedEx Cup, the $25M bonus to the winner is “no longer being paid,” but the money is “being spread to the points leaders through the BMW Championship.” The leader in points will earn $5M there, “in addition to the purse” that will be $20M “just as the FedEx St. Jude Championship and the eight signature events.” Still “in place is the Comcast Business Tour Top 10,” which pays $40M in bonus money to the top 10 in the final FedEx Cup standings through the Wyndham Championship (SI, 7/2).

“He told of a patient who ‘took hold of his wife’s head, tried to lift it off, to put it on.’”