Morning Buzz

Playfly Sports has hired longtime MLB executive Chris Marinak to serve as the company’s new president and report directly to CEO Craig Sloan. Marinak, an SBJ Forty Under 40 Hall of Famer who spent 17 years in the MLB office, left the league last month and most recently served as its chief operations and strategy officer. TurnkeyZRG assisted Playfly with the search.

Marinak, who will begin his role on March 2 and remain based in N.Y., will have six direct reports at Playfly, including the three main divisions (media; sponsorship; and advisory and services) plus global partnership sales, business development and international business. All commercial units will be under his purview. Asked about what attracted him to Playfly, Marinak talked about the company’s reach, which includes over 250 partners in sports. “I’m not sure there’s another place where I could have this level of impact,” he said. “You can reach every single basketball, baseball, hockey team. You can have an impact in college, you can have an impact in other professional sports. And to me, that’s just really compelling.”

Sloan, who has been Playfly CEO for two years, was looking to fill this position as the company continues to be in “build mode” after just five years of existence. “It was pretty clear that we were going to have to be able to add additional executive horsepower,” he said. Playfly will also look to Marinak to bring his vast experience with data to this new role. At MLB, he oversaw fan-facing tech (including MLB.com and MLB.tv), ticketing operations and the creation of the schedule. Now, Marinak sees a lot of opportunity for data solutions at the university level. “When Craig and I were talking about the opportunities for Playfly and Playfly’s clients, particularly when you start looking at the college level, that is probably one of the biggest opportunities in sports right now,” he said.

Marinak’s MLB duties also encompassed international and special events, including the MLB World Tour and World Baseball Classic. At Playfly, international growth will be a key goal for Marinak as well. “Playfly already has a great start with their European business,” he said. “There’s a lot we can do to grow that both in Europe and then in other parts of the world. And so that’ll be another area that I think I can really spend a lot of time on trying to develop and build.”

LA28 is adding another sponsor at its highest level, signing consulting firm Korn Ferry as the organizing committee’s official talent and organizational consulting partner. The deal will see Korn Ferry, which LA28 used to hire its CEO Reynold Hoover, working with organizers to hire and onboard the more than 4,000 employees LA28 will need for the Games.

The deal is the first new sponsorship announced in 2026 after the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties -- the joint venture between LA28 and the USOPC -- added 15 new sponsors and crossed the $2B mark last year.

Korn Ferry becomes the seventh founding partner, LA28’s highest level of sponsorship. It joins Delta and Comcast -- who joined in 2020 and 2021, respectively -- and four sponsors added last year in Honda, Starbucks, Google and Intuit.

The Chiefs have narrowed their new stadium architect search to Manica and Populous. The two firms will compete over the next few months for the right to design the Chiefs’ new stadium in Kansas, with the team set to leave Missouri and its longtime home, Arrowhead Stadium, for a new $2.2B venue scheduled to open ahead of the 2031 NFL season.

The stadium project will include surrounding mixed-use real estate, while the Chiefs will also build a separate headquarters and training facility surrounded by mixed-use in Johnson County. That project will have its own selection processes. The total investment in new real estate for the Chiefs is $4B.

Both Populous and Manica have deep K.C. roots and both have designed NFL stadiums, including the next two to open, in Buffalo (Populous) and Nashville (Manica). Populous had worked with the Chiefs to design a $1.15B renovation of Arrowhead prior to the team’s decision to move over the state border.

A Chiefs spokesman said dozens of architecture firms responded to the team’s initial request for proposals (RFP), before the field was winnowed to Populous and Manica.

Read More >>>

MLS will highlight a marquee match each Saturday on Apple TV during the 2026 season with Walmart Saturday Showdown, the most prominent activation yet of the multiyear deal Walmart signed last summer as a sponsor of MLS and Leagues Cup.

The creation of the Saturday Showdown follows last season’s introduction of Sunday Night Soccer, a featured standalone match sponsored by Continental Tires. Unlike Sunday Night Soccer, the Saturday Showdown matches won’t necessarily have an exclusive time slot on the MLS calendar. The league said Saturday Showdown will feature enhanced presentation across both Apple TV and MLS platforms.

The first Saturday Showdown match will see LAFC host Inter Miami at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on Feb. 21. One day earlier, MLS, Apple and Walmart will host a fan event at a to-be-announced venue in Hollywood featuring MLS legends, celebrity hosts and interactive games.

This season will be MLS’ fourth under its media rights agreement with Apple but the first with all of its matches included as part of the main Apple TV package. Previously, most MLS matches were only available through a separate service called MLS Season Pass. The hope is making MLS matches available to all Apple TV subscribers will lead to increased exposure for the league and its sponsors.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “will have a security role during the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Games,” according to sources cited by the AP. The sources said that “federal ICE agents would support diplomatic security details and would not run any immigration enforcement operations.” Sources added that during previous Olympics, “several federal agencies have supported security for U.S. diplomats, including the investigative component of ICE called Homeland Security Investigations.” Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said that ICE “would not be welcome in his city” (AP, 1/27).

Anta Sports has “agreed to buy” a 29% stake in Puma from France’s Pinault family for $1.78B (all figures U.S.), making the Chinese company “Puma’s largest shareholder.” Anta will pay $41.63 a share for the 29.06% stake held by Artemis, the investment vehicle of the Pinault family. Anta’s stake is still below a 30% threshold “at which German law requires a mandatory takeover offer to be made to other shareholders.” Shares in Puma “rose more than” 5% in early trading in Frankfurt on Tuesday. The move comes as Anta has been “expanding its own brand” in the U.S., where it produces basketball shoes for NBAers including Mavericks Gs Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving (FINANCIAL TIMES, 1/26).

A White House event in which commissioners from five major sports leagues were to appear alongside President Donald Trump as he “unveiled the latest plans for the celebration” of the U.S.’s 250th anniversary “has been postponed due to adverse weather conditions,” according to sources cited by THE ATHLETIC. The White House is “seeking to reschedule the event,” which it “would prefer to do ahead of the Super Bowl,” set for Feb. 8. That “may prove difficult, however, due to the continuing low temperatures and the challenge of ensuring all of those involved in the event can make it to the Oval Office at the same time on the same day” (THE ATHLETIC, 1/26).

In a column written before the event’s postponement, USA TODAY’s Nancy Armour wrote under the header, “Sports commissioners should scrap White House party planning trip.” Armour noted “this is not about politics,” it is “about not pretending everything is normal when it is not.” It is “about preventing their leagues from becoming the focus of Americans’ anger.” Armour: “It’s a needless risk, especially since the leagues can celebrate this country’s founding on their own” (USA TODAY, 1/26).

Spanish soccer federation President Rafael Louzán on Monday said that Spain “will host the final of the 2030 World Cup,” which is set to be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco. FIFA has “not yet said where it plans to stage” the final, and Louzán did “not specify in which city or venue it would be played.” Real Madrid’s recently renovated Santiago Bernabeu Stadium “has been long touted by Spanish media as the venue for the final,” but recently there “had been reports that Morocco could end up hosting the match.” Barcelona also renovated its Camp Nou stadium and “could also bid for the final” (AP, 1/26).

Meanwhile, ESPN.com cited sources as saying that Brazil “has asked FIFA to host the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup.” Sources added that the request “came during a meeting of top Brazil football officials during a visit to Rio de Janeiro by FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Monday." The Brazilian Football Confederation “has been working behind the scenes for months to try and bring the Club World Cup to Brazil.” FIFA has “not yet announced how formal bidding for the 2029 event will work” (ESPN.com, 1/26).

The CW is making its foray into tennis, signing a deal for broadcast rights to the MGM Slam on March 1 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as the event expands to eight players this year. The CW is also adding longtime ESPN talent Chris McKendry, who’s been calling matches down at the Australian Open, for reporting/analyst duties on the telecast. Ted Robinson, who has done Pac-12 work for The CW, will do play-by-play.

Range Sports Media Rights Advisory brokered the CW deal on behalf of MGM. Capital One will also come aboard as presenting sponsor of this year’s event.

This is the third iteration of the event, and last year it featured WTA stars Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka playing at Michelob Ultra Arena on DAZN (they also played doubles against Mardy Fish and Andre Agassi). The first iteration in 2024 featured Carlos Alcaraz playing Rafael Nadal in what was called the Netflix Slam. The male players taking part in the exhibition this year are Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Lorenzo Musetti, Alexander Bublik, Casper Ruud, Nick Kyrgios, Joao Fonseca and Gael Monfils.

In this episode of On Stage, Charlie Baker, President of the NCAA, sits down with Abraham Madkour, Publisher & Executive Editor of Sports Business Journal, for a wide-ranging discussion on where college sports stand -- and where they’re headed next.

Recorded on December 9, 2025 at SBJ’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in Las Vegas, the conversation captures Baker at a pivotal moment, as the NCAA navigates unprecedented structural change, financial pressure, and evolving expectations from athletes, schools, and fans alike.

Topics explored include:

• Redefining the NCAA’s Role: How Baker views the organization’s mission amid rapid change and increasing external forces.
• The Economics of College Sports: Balancing sustainability, fairness, and competitive integrity across divisions.
• Student-Athlete Experience: Where progress has been made and where work remains to support athlete welfare and opportunity.
• Leadership in Transition: What it takes to lead through uncertainty while aligning a diverse and complex membership.
• What Comes Next: Baker’s perspective on the long-term direction of college athletics in a reshaped landscape.

It’s a thoughtful, candid conversation that provides clarity and perspective on one of the most consequential periods in the history of college sports.

“This border state produced about half of the gunpowder for the Union.”