Morning Buzz

NEW YORK -- Despite the expectation of an MLB labor battle on the horizon, Red Sox owner John Henry implored players and executives to work together, listen, find common ground and move the game forward.

Henry made his remarks as part of his acceptance speech for being named the 2026 SBA Lifetime Achievement honoree Wednesday at the Sports Business Awards.

“Having been a part of seeing players and club executives in other sports working together seamlessly, I am hopeful that 2026 can mark the beginning of a new partnership in Major League Baseball,” Henry said. “The game is in tremendous shape at this point. I’ve been privileged to work with Commissioner Rob Manfred and a group of club executives on MLB’s Economic Reform Committee, because both players and clubs have been unhappy with baseball’s economic system for at least the last two CBAs. We need to work together to find common ground to move the game forward.”

The league and union opened talks on CBA negotiations with initial presentations last week, though no proposals were made. The CBA expires Dec. 1.

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NEW YORK – Mark Walter capped off a busy year by walking out of the Marriott Marquee with another trophy.

Walter was voted Executive of the Year at the SBAs after a massive 2025 that included a second straight World Series title, adding an iconic NBA franchise to his growing sports portfolio, co-founding Cadillac F1 and the PWHL continuing to expand and gain momentum in its second season.

“It was just a whirlwind of excitement, really, for us,” said Walter, who had to miss Game 4 of the Walter Cup Final, which saw the Montreal Victoire secure their first PWHL championship and cap Year 3 for the league. “That’s the only way I can put it.”

Walter’s Dodgers followed up on their 2024 title by winning again in 2025. Along the way, they established an MLB-record with a total payroll of $515M (salaries and luxury taxes), while drawing over 4 million fans to Dodger Stadium and posting new league benchmarks in gross revenue and sponsorship revenue. The Dodgers are two years into DH/P Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700M deal, and have two titles to show for it, while making massive business gains in Japan.

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NEW YORK — More than any time in recent memory, hockey has been part of the zeitgeist over the past year. Some of that has been the NHL’s doing; some has been “Heated Rivalry.”

But the league has capitalized on all of it, earning League of the Year honors Wednesday at the 2026 Sports Business Awards for its efforts. The NHL won the award for the third time, and first since 2014.

The recent run of success has been underpinned by a combination of a long-awaited return to international competition and an uncharacteristically strong working relationship with the NHL Players Association.

After an unexpected smash hit with the 4 Nations Face-Off in February 2025, NHL players returned to the Olympic Games this year for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Games. While not an NHL event, the gold-medal matchup between the U.S. and Canada brought the league another wave of mainstream attention, helping propel it to its best U.S. viewership in more than a decade and record attendance for the fourth consecutive season.

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NEW YORK — The Los Angeles Dodgers not only won consecutive World Series titles but also built a business juggernaut in the process, a powerful combination that drove its honor as Team of the Year at Wednesday night’s Sports Business Awards.

Playing in a renovated Dodger Stadium, the club drew more than 4 million in attendance for the first time in 2025, becoming the first MLB franchise to do so since 2008. One estimate projected their sponsorship revenue to exceed $200M for the year, a 17% year-over-year increase. That represents a total of 76 partners with an average deal size said to be approximately five times the league average.

This was the Dodgers’ second victory in this category, following a prior win in 2021. Owner Mark Walter, who was named Executive of the Year a few minutes earlier, joined CEO Stan Kasten and CMO Lon Rosen onstage to accept the award.

“There are so many people that are responsible for us being here,” Kasten said. “That starts, of course, with our ownership, Mark Walter and his partners, who provide us with the direction, the resources and the time to formulate a plan and to execute.”

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NEW YORK — The 19th annual Sports Business Awards were celebrated Wednesday night in N.Y.

The winners were determined by a group of industry executives. Award winners in two categories — Athletic Director of the Year and Executive of the Year — are selected solely by Sports Business Journal.

2026’s Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Fenway Sports Group founder John Henry was also recognized Wednesday night for his contributions to the industry.

Soccer Without Borders received the Celebration of Service award.

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Leaders across the sports business world gathered at the N.Y. Marriott Marquis for the 2026 Sports Business Awards Wednesday night.

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Google will serve as the presenting sponsor of the U.S. Soccer’s roster reveal show for the 2026 FIFA World Cup next week under a new deal struck with just weeks to kickoff. The multiyear agreement, terms of which were not disclosed, makes the search giant an official sponsor of both the men’s and women’s national teams with exclusivity in the search and consumer AI categories.

Google becomes U.S. Soccer’s 27th sponsor heading into the World Cup and serves as the latest example of the federation’s unprecedented appeal to brands heading into the first World Cup on home soil since 1994. The federation is projecting revenue of $397M this fiscal year, including $227M from sponsorship, licensing and fan engagement.

Fox will air U.S. Soccer’s World Cup roster reveal from 3-4pm ET on May 26 as a live, hour-long special from the Rooftop at Pier 17 in N.Y. The event will also be free for fans to attend in person. Google will also have a presence at the U.S. Soccer House activation space in Venice Beach, which will be open during the World Cup from June 11-26, with a photo booth powered by its Gemini AI technology. U.S. Soccer and Google are billing the collaboration as an effort to enhance the search experience for soccer fans during the World Cup. CAA represented Google in negotiations with U.S. Soccer.

The brand is also partnering with current U.S. men’s national team players Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams, as well as former players Landon Donovan and Tim Howard. The four players will appear in a new Google Search campaign launching in June across broadcast, digital and social channels.

The NHL has entered into a memorandum of understanding to work with federal regulators on the oversight of sports prediction markets, agreeing to share information in an effort to police what has emerged as a popular form of sports betting in states that have not legalized it.

The agreement with the Commody Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) largely mirrors one MLB signed with it in March. Though not binding, it sets parameters for the CFTC and the league to “discuss, cooperate and exchange information concerning issues of common interest, such as the integrity of professional hockey and the event contracts related thereto.”

That includes monitoring for insider trading and identifying and restricting easily manipulated markets on apps such as Kalshi, Polymarket and the flood of widely used U.S. sportsbook and self-described “picks” apps that now also offer prediction contracts.

“From the beginning, we’ve always believed in the viability of the prediction markets, in large part because they are federally regulated,” said Keith Wachtel, president of business at the NHL. “That was always something that gave us comfort. We believe we are better off being part of the system than not. We wanted to demonstrate and show that we are aligned with the CFTC in doing everything we can to deepen the effort to protect the game and our fans.”

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The Montreal Victoire “finally captured its first Walter Cup,” winning the PWHL title Wednesday night with a 4-0 win over the Ottawa Charge in Game 4, marking the first time a Canadian team won the league’s championship. Though the win was not on home ice, Victoire captain and F Marie-Philip Poulin “proudly hoisted the Walter Cup before devoted screaming fans who made the trip” to Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre (MONTREAL GAZETTE, 5/20).

Montreal’s on-ice celebration “lasted long after Charge players had left the ice.” Charge players “raised their sticks in the air” before heading into the locker room as they thanked their fanbase and “got a loud ovation from the crowd of 12,362.” The loss for the Charge marked the team’s second straight defeat in the final (SPORTSNET.ca, 5/21).

“51 days after this event, Edward Teller said the United States had lost ‘a battle more important & greater than Pearl Harbor.’”