Morning Buzz

Gotham FC have hired former Florida Panthers executive Mark Zarthar as team president, installing a new business leader as the NWSL club looks to parlay championship success into commercial growth in the country’s largest media market.

Zarthar, a 2025 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree, will oversee the club’s business operations, including revenue generation, marketing, operations, finance and HR functions. His arrival coincides with the departure of Ryan Dillon, who had served as chief business officer since owner Carolyn Tisch Blodgett took control of the club in 2023. Dillon is returning to Tisch’s investment firm, Next 3, as chief growth officer. Sportico first reported Gotham FC’s hiring of Zarthar.

The move is the latest step in a broader reshaping of Gotham FC’s leadership structure. Former Angel City FC Head of Strategy and Chief of Staff Kari Fleischauer, who joined Gotham as COO, and former 49ers CMO Alex Chang, who joined as CRO, will now report to Zarthar. The club will also announce the promotion of GM Yael Averbuch West to president of soccer operations.

Zarthar will be tasked with elevating Gotham FC into one of the NWSL’s top-performing businesses to match an impressive run of on-field success that has included two championships in the past three seasons. Attendance at Sports Illustrated Stadium, where the team is a tenant, grew by 41% between 2023 and 2025, but its average of 8,892 last season still ranked below the league average of 10,669.

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A fan “ran onto the court” midway through the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night at the Frost Bank Center and “attempted to take a selfie” with Spurs C Victor Wembanyama before two security staffers “swiftly ushered him off the court.” The incident briefly stopped play before the Knicks went on to defeat the Spurs 105-95 before a sellout crowd of 18,835. The fan, “holding a cellphone in his right hand, ran onto the court with 6:28 left.” Wembanyama said, “I’ve never been in that situation. I didn’t know how to act. It really surprised me, almost as much as that time (when) a bat crossed the court.” The fan was “rushed off the court and taken through a baseline tunnel that led toward the NBA’s interview areas.” An NBA spokesperson said after the game that it was “too soon to discuss any penalties the league might impose on the fan” (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 6/4).

A Knicks watch party inside MSG drew 18,000 fans, while an estimated 10,000 “stood in designated watch areas located outside on W. 33rd St. between 7th and 8th Avenues gazing up at massive screens displaying the game” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/3).

Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, former CEO Bob Iger and ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro were shown alongside NBA Commissioner Adam Silver during the game, prompting the ESPN broadcast crew to refer to them as “murderers’ row of executives” and “handsome.” Analysts Mike Breen, Tim Legler and Richard Jefferson then joked that they were not trying to “curry favor because they’re our bosses” (BUSINESS INSIDER, 6/3).

N.Y. Giants QB Jaxson Dart, WR Odell Beckham Jr. and LB Brian Burns took a private plane with comedian Pete Davidson after practice to attend Game 1 and are “expected to be back” in time for Thursday’s practice (N.Y. POST, 6/3).

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The NBA will either add one expansion team, two expansion teams or zero expansion teams, Commissioner Adam Silver reiterated Wednesday, with an assurance that the league will let candidates Las Vegas and Seattle know by the end of this calendar year.

“We’re focused on Las Vegas and Seattle,” Silver said. “There are multiple groups interested in both cities. We’re in discussions with them. And the timeline is that, as I’ve said before, it’s not a foregone conclusion that we will expand either in one city or both cities. But what we’ve told all interested parties that our anticipation, our Board [of Governors] will make a decision by the end of this calendar year.”

The determining factor will likely be the expansion franchise fees. Sources have said the NBA is seeking bids between $7B and $10B, which would incentivize the BOG to vote yes. By expanding, each current owner would lose a portion of their shared 11-year, $77B media-rights money — so the expansion fee is their way to make that money back, if not exceed it.

The NBA is continuing to ideate ways to name an award after the late Commissioner David Stern, with current Commissioner Adam Silver saying Wednesday, “It is hard with David because the problem is so many of the proposals of the league office honestly haven’t felt big enough.”

Stern, the league’s commissioner from 1984 through 2014, was a rousing presence who shifted the NBA Finals from tape delay to live network TV, brainstormed the WNBA, invented TMBO and put an emphasis on global growth. The impending NBA Europe is in some ways his legacy, along with Silver.

“We’ve done community awards, but there’s no doubt that more needs to be done [and] there undoubtedly will be opportunities around this new Europe league,” Silver said. “David’s vision was the global NBA. Whether again [an award in NBA Europe] will feel big enough in the same way, I almost think there’s nothing that we could do in some ways that will ultimately feel that he’s getting his just due. But we have a committee of team employees of league people, and we got way waylaid a little bit by COVID and lost a little momentum. But we’re turning back to it and we’re going to come up with the right way to honor it.”

As it currently stands, the most notable award bearing Stern’s name is the David J. Stern Sports Scholarship, which gives students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities -- usually freshmen -- up to $30,000 over three years. The award is administered by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Investment firm Brand Velocity Group has acquired RCX Sports, which operates league-licensed youth sports properties including NFL Flag, Jr. NBA and NHL Street. The company was previously owned by The Raine Group’s investment arm.

BVG is an independent sponsor, raising capital on a deal-by-deal basis, and the RCX investment is part of the sports investment strategy it launched in 2022. Limited partners in the RCX acquisition include Hamilton Lane’s social impact fund, St. Cloud Capital, Darco Capital and Three Ocean Partners. Athlete investors in the deal include Eli Manning, a partner with BVG, as well as Emmitt Smith, Peyton Manning, Klay Thompson and Larry Fitzgerald.

Financial terms were not available. The transaction is for 100% of RCX’s equity. Raine and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe advised RCX, while BVG was advised by CohnReznick Advisory and Sidley Austin. Sidley’s Chuck Baker is also an advisor to BVG’s sports investment practice.

BVG partner Austin Ramos said RCX is differentiated from other youth sports operators because of its valuable league partnerships -- he pointed to the NFL providing a Super Bowl ad spot for RCX’s NFL Flag program last year -- and its strategy of pursuing mass participation instead of just elite-level play.

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Some members of the Glazer family have been “debating whether to sell their stake” in Premier League club Manchester United, according to sources cited by BLOOMBERG NEWS. Sources added that the internal discussions initially “centered on stake sales by some individual family members, who are now hoping to convince others to join them.” Sources mentioned that the Glazer family “as a whole hasn’t made a decision to exit,” and different family members are “still discussing the best path forward.” Sources continued that some “remain against a sale and it could be difficult to pursue a deal unless they come around.” The talks come little more than two years after the family sold a roughly 29% stake in in the club to billionaire Jim Ratcliffe giving his group Ineos control of soccer operations (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 6/4).

The D.C. Open, the only combined ATP/WTA 500 event on the pro tennis circuit, has signed a new, expanded sponsorship deal with Mubadala Investment Company to make the Abu Dhabi state-controlled investment firm the tournament’s exclusive title sponsor through 2030. Financial terms were not disclosed. The new, five-year-deal, for which no agencies were used, will see the tournament rebranded as the Mubadala D.C. Open; it had been co-branded the Mubadala Citi D.C. Open since 2023, when tournament owner Mark Ein combined the Citi Open ATP 500 event in D.C. (for which he purchased the management rights in 2019) and the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic WTA 500 in San Jose (for which Ein leased the tournament sanction). “They [Mubadala] came to us preemptively and said, ‘Why don’t we become the sole title? We love the event. We love D.C. We love the charity it supports,’” Ein told SBJ. “They’ve embraced the totality of this.”

Mubadala will receive expanded signage and hospitality assets as part of the new deal and continue its work with the Washington Tennis & Education Foundation to provide tennis/education programming and internship opportunities to young people. Citi will no longer sponsor the event. Mubadala also sponsors the Rio Open ATP 500 in Brazil and is the title sponsor of the Abu Dhabi Open WTA 500 in the U.A.E.

This year’s D.C. Open (July 25-August 2) will be the tournament’s 57th edition, all of which have been held at Rock Creek Park in D.C. The event has sold out 59 consecutive sessions since 2019.

The FIFA World Cup’s “unprecedented trio of star-studded opening ceremonies" in the U.S., Canada and Mexico will feature top artistic performances that “tap into the national identity” of each host nation. The ceremonies will include “welcoming speeches, a parade of flags, the presentation of the match ball and about 30 minutes of musical entertainment,” with international stars set to “take the stage” at L.A. Stadium. The ceremonies are created by Italian producer Marco Balich -- who was behind the opening ceremony for this year’s Milan Cortina Games -- with the help of teams numbering 260 to 300 people in each city. Balich said that the ceremonies’ “unifying theme will be ‘the celebration of sports, the passion for soccer, symbolized by the cup itself.’” In Canada, a mosaic will “represent its multicultural identity.” Mexico’s motif will be the “traditional paper cutouts called papel picado.” Balich said the U.S. will have “a super shiny, glowing cup.” He added that it is a “very good sign” that Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are “working together to host ‘a peaceful World Cup.’” The festivities launch on June 11 in Mexico City and continue June 12 in Toronto (AP, 6/4).

On this week’s pod, SBJ’s Austin Karp and Josh Carpenter dive into a big June for ABC, which is hosting both the Stanley Cup Final as well as the NBA Finals, which will have an international flair. We break down the newest NFL analyst for CBS Sports, and Rebecca Lowe looks ahead to the World Cup.

The Duke-Michigan men’s basketball game that was previously announced for Dec. 21 at MSG is “now expected to be played at loanDepot Park,” according to sources cited by CBSSPORTS.com. The game date remains Dec. 21, and sources said that although the contracts “haven’t been signed,” it is “close to 100% that the game gets moved to the MLB ballpark.” A source noted that there were “some critical final steps to making the basketball game in a baseball stadium a reality,” but the game’s “fate was headed that way.” The decision to leave N.Y. was “forced upon both teams after a broadcast rights dispute immediately surfaced” following Duke’s late April announcement of its deal with Amazon. Sources said that because Michigan and Duke “hadn’t signed a contract when the Amazon deal was announced,” there was “immediate pushback from Fox ... because the network expected to retain the territorial broadcast rights” (CBSSPORTS.com, 6/3).

RELATED: What to make of the Duke-Amazon deal

“By his actions after his wife died in 1898 after bearing him 6 children, William Jackson Smart inspired this annual event.”