Morning Buzz

Premier League club Manchester United has confirmed that World Athletics President Sebastian Coe “will be spearheading the project to build a new stadium for the club.” The 100,000-seat stadium is “aiming to be open by the start of the 2030/31 season” and is “likely to cost United as much as” US$2.7B to complete the project. Coe, who will remain the head of World Athletics, has been “appointed Chair-Designate of the Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) for the Old Trafford Regeneration” and will “play a ‘key role’ in the next phase of the project.” His role “will focus on planning, land assembly and investment in infrastructure” (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS, 7/9). Coe, who this year was also a candidate for IOC president, was asked by ManU co-owner Jim Ratcliffe “to lead the task force that examined the options open to United,” with the group “concluding that a state-of-the-art ground was the best option.” The Old Trafford Regeneration Mayoral Development Corporation will be created by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham “in partnership with Trafford Council” (London TIMES, 7/9).

The NFL and senior leaders of the NFLPA “struck an unusual confidentiality agreement that hid the details of an arbitration decision from players,” including a finding that league executives had urged team owners to reduce guaranteed player compensation,” according to sources. Under the terms of the agreement, the 61-page arbitration ruling was to be “shared only with league and union lawyers and a handful of senior union and league executives while the NFLPA considered its next legal move.” A source said that on Tuesday, “nearly six months after” arbitrator Christopher Droney’s decision that there was no clear evidence of collusion, the NFLPA, led by Exec Dir Lloyd Howell, “decided to seek an appeal of the ruling.” Not long after the agreement was struck, Howell “briefed the executive committee of 10 active players and union president Jalen Reeves-Maybin” in a conference call. However, sources said that Howell did “not share any details of Droney’s findings or share copies of the ruling with the players.” Sources said that they were “not aware of the union previously striking a confidentiality agreement with the NFL that kept arbitration rulings from being shared with the union’s executive committee and 32 player representatives” (ESPN.com, 7/9).

Apple is in talks to acquire the U.S. media rights for F1, and sources said the tech company’s offer “came in between” $150M and $200M per year -- “far above” the reported $85M-$90M that ESPN is currently paying per year, and “far beyond what ESPN can rationally afford.” Disney CEO Bob Iger and ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro “will inevitably have to persuade” F1 owner Liberty Media’s John Malone and Derek Chang “to take less from ESPN in order to maintain the reach and marketing that ESPN provides” (PUCK, 7/9).

On SBJ’s Sports Media Podcast this week, Austin Karp and Mollie Cahillane take a look back 15 years to “The Decision” and LeBron James taking his talents to South Beach. They then take a deep dive into Apple’s pole position to land F1 media rights. With MLB All-Star festivities around the corner, the duo also chats with Joe Davis of Fox Sports about what he is looking forward to in Atlanta and why Shohei Ohtani is a man ahead of his time. Finally, MLB Network’s Robert Flores joins the show to talk about the state of the league ahead and why the league-owned network continues to have success.

Levy is the new hospitality partner of Army West Point Athletics, beginning this fall at Black Knight campus sports venues. The deal centers on the renovated Michie Stadium, which is in the second phase of a multiyear renovation to modernize its East Stand. Levy will collaborate with Army West Point to redesign both concession and premium hospitality spaces.

Levy won a competitive RFP run by the Army West Point Athletic Association that included Oak View Group and Aramark Sports + Entertainment. Army represents Levy’s fourth new college deal in 2025, following USF, UCF and Michigan State. Levy also provides food and beverage service to the Air Force Academy, and helped host the Army-Navy Game last November at Northwest Stadium.

Beyond Michie Stadium, Levy will serve fans at Christl Arena and Tate Rink at Holleder Center (basketball and hockey), Anderson Rugby Complex (rugby), Doubleday Field (baseball), the Softball Complex, and Malek Stadium at Clinton Field (soccer).

Concessions menus will be reworked to highlight variety, chef-driven quality, and locally inspired ingredients. Self-service tech will be incorporated into the venue, too, to boost speed of service and throughput.

When Ryan Smith and Ryan Sweeney announced the launch of Halo Experience Company (HXCO) in early April, they set out with the goal of raising $1B for sports tech investing.

Just two months later, in early June, the pair of tech heavyweights had already amassed $875M from 117 investors, according to a regulatory filing from last month. Around $80M of that total is from the fund’s management team.

That’s an impressive amount of capital to secure in just eight weeks, especially given that it’s for a debut fund and that HXCO has launched amid one of the most challenging fundraising environments in recent memory. According to Smith, much of the early success has been enabled by the founding partners’ track record in both sports and tech.

“We’ve got the right mix of operators, and we’ve been successful in the past with those who have invested alongside us,” Smith told Sports Business Journal. “I know it’s weird because it’s a first-time fund and those things take forever, and they don’t look like this. But it looks like this because those of us around it have done pretty well.”

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LIV Golf has added another partner to its portfolio through a deal with HSBC that makes the bank the league’s official international banking partner. LIV is announcing the multiyear deal this morning ahead of its tournament in Spain.

The partnership begins this week in Spain with activations at Real Club Valderrama and covers all LIV events. HSBC also will sponsor two of LIV’s teams: Crushers GC and Majesticks GC. Financial terms weren’t disclosed; LIV has been working with CAA on its partnerships.

RELATED: LIV Golf likely to have international-heavy start in 2026

LIV’s deal with HSBC has long been rumored, as far back as the spring. The league also has had talks with UBS dating back to last year.

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The Storm have named WMT Digital as the developer of its recently overhauled app, giving the technology firm its first WNBA client and further expanding its pro sports footprint.

The new Storm app includes streamlined ticketing deployment thanks to an integration with Ticketmaster, as well as integrations with the WNBA data feeds for up-to-date access to news, schedules and rosters. The overall enhancements went live for fans ahead of the WNBA regular season in May and was built in a three-month window after reaching an agreement on the project in February.

Storm CMO Will Gulley picked WMT as their new app developer because the company could quickly fix essential user experiences like ticketing management. The startup was also willing to work out unique solutions, like folding in augmented reality experiences and a pregame light show that incorporates attendees’ phones via fan experience company Cue Audio. “We needed somebody that could grow with us,” Gulley told SBJ.

WMT’s initial foundation started in the college space, but the company has built out more of a pro sports footprint. The Storm join WMT clients Player 15 Group, Rock Entertainment Group and the Mets, among others. WMT works with 40% of schools in the Power Four conferences. WMT founder & CEO Andres Focil was also named to SBJ’s most recent Forty Under 40 class.

No one has covered the uniform logo evolution over the past two decades more accurately than SBJ, and today we are unveiling a Jersey and Helmet Sponsor Directory. This data includes more than 240 current deals from MLB, MLS, the NBA, the WNBA, the NHL and the NFL, with 38 tied to a financial institution, the most of any category in the data. The listings can be searched by team, sponsor, year deal began and type such as home, away or alternate jerseys, sleeves, back and more. You can access the full directory here.

“A 2nd c. inscription in Northern England records that the gods imposed ‘the necessity of keeping intact the empire’ on this man.”