SBJ Facilities: The watchlist for 2026

So long to Buffalo’s old Highmark Stadium. And hello to the Bills’ new Highmark Stadium, which opens this fall. Check out my big magazine story on the new venue in the Jan. 19 SBJ print edition, part of our annual facilities look-ahead section, as well as my video tour of the stadium in December.

Topics on my beat that I’m watching closely in 2026:

Consequential court cases

I crossed the Tim Leiweke bid-rigging case (more on that below) off my 2026 watch list, but two lawsuits of major consequence remain — the Mavericks and Stars’ legal tussle in Dallas and the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation.

The Dallas affair is fascinating because the outcome will have a huge say in the city’s sports venue future. Does the DFW metroplex end up with four arenas by 2031? Or can the city of Dallas salvage its relationship with the Stars and keep them in American Airlines Center? It’s the first time in U.S. sports business history that two co-tenants sued each other, and this will be a heck of a precedent regardless of the outcome.

Anyone paying a speck of attention to sports business can grasp the magnitude of the potential DOJ-Live Nation trial. Could the DOJ bust up Live Nation and Ticketmaster? Sit with that for a minute. The impact would reach into every corner of revenue-generating sports.

But I’m still skeptical that the trial ever happens (see, again: Tim Leiweke, below).

Leiweke’s next act

Leiweke’s early December pardon by Trump — “with prejudice,” meaning this legal issue is forever over for the Oak View Group co-founder — has enabled him to approach 2026 very differently than he might have otherwise. His daughter, Francesca Bodie, left OVG last fall, and it’s easy to envision her and her father launching a new investment/project vehicle related to sports and entertainment venue development.

It might not be limited to just creating new arenas, though. This line from the Wall Street Journal’s thorough story — I’m not afraid to admit I deeply wish the story had my byline on it — published shortly after Leiweke’s pardon jumped out (italics are mine): “He said he plans to move forward with a new company and buy a sports team.”

The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup

As an American, a soccer fan, a sports business journalist and a close watcher of politics, I’ll just say this: It could be a strange event in so many different ways.

Price elasticity

Full-year 2025 Consumer Price Index data comes out Tuesday, a day after this newsletter publishes, but it’s not hard to imagine that a category way down toward the bottom of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Excel spreadsheets called “Admission to Sporting Events” will again see notable year-over-year price increases.

From January 2023 to 2024, the cost of live sports attendance jumped 13.5%, then another 6.5% from Jan. 2024 to Jan. 2025.

This is not unique to sports; prices on everything from instant coffee (up 24% from Nov. 2024 to Nov. 2025) to chewing gum (which saw a 10% rise during the same period) to uncooked ground beef (15%) are abnormally high. But it’s an issue that the live sports industry — which still counts as discretionary spending for most people — needs to keep front of mind, especially as it builds new stadiums and arenas with smaller capacities (further ticket prices).

Additionally, I’m curious to see if the HOTDOG Act, short for “Honest Oversight of Ticketed Dining and Onsite Grub” Act, goes anywhere. It would direct the Federal Trade Commission to investigate any price gouging in concessions in professional sports.

Practice facility/team HQ mixed-use prospect becoming more prevalent

The Cowboys’ home base in Frisco, The Star, should sit on the same sports-related mixed-use pedestal as the Braves’ development northwest of Atlanta, The Battery.

Practice facility/team HQ-anchored mixed-use developments are en vogue, and the Cowboys were trendsetters. Special mention to the Vikings, who created what’s usually the second stop for any team touring these kinds of facilities for ideas and inspiration, Viking Lakes.

The Chiefs’ recently announced project in Johnson County, Kan., is the latest example, following recent ones from the Browns, Cardinals and Rams.

I bring this up because the Chiefs’ deal with Kansas includes an entire pro sports real estate portfolio, not just a singular stadium, training facility or real estate development, and it’ll be interesting to watch these separate projects — the stadium and its mixed-use development and the team’s HQ and training facility and its mixed-used development — come to life at similar times.

What works in one setting but not in the other?

Which has more community impact?

Which can be a greater economic engine?

We’ll have a nice test case to watch.

Another year of big stadium/arena decisions

This will be another consequential year of stadium and arena decisions. For example:

• The Royals, who are on their own after the Chiefs successfully negotiated with the state of Kansas and Johnson and Wyandotte counties.
• The Buccaneers, whose Raymond James Stadium lease ends in 2028.
• The Bears’ Chicagoland exploratory adventure.
• The New England Revolution’s Everett waterfront stadium effort, which seems to be moving in the right direction.
• The Vancouver Whitecaps, fresh off an MLS Cup finals appearance, are seemingly homeless after their BC Place lease expired, though a short-term extension appears to be in the works after the club and city agreed to explore the possibility of building a new soccer-specific stadium.
• The Mavericks and Stars, whose American Airlines Center leases end after the 2031 seasons.
• The Rays (under new ownership), whose Tropicana Field lease expires in 2028.
• Memphis’ FedEx Forum, where the Grizzlies’ lease ends in 2029 and there has been little movement.
• KeyBank Center and Smoothie King Center, a pair of arenas I group together because they both were put on the backburner by larger NFL projects in Buffalo and New Orleans, and in both scenarios, short-term extension options were activated to secure more time. Both arenas need some TLC.

Speaking with Ray Chery on a Teams call, I told him I found the backstory of his life pivot with his wife, Dana, from high-powered jobs in the investment banking and tech industries toward ownership of portable sink company Monsam “kind of funny.”

“We think it’s funny every day,” Ray said, smiling.

Did the Cherys ever imagine they’d be owners of a company like Monsam? That answer is no.

Both have MBAs — Dana from Northwestern, and Ray from the University of Chicago — and were well down the path of successful careers, Ray’s in investment banking (Brown Brothers Harriman in Boston, Robert W. Baird in Chicago and Jefferies in San Francisco) and Dana’s in tech marketing for Salesforce and Samsara.

But “entrepreneurship was always in the back of our minds,” Ray said. Their change in perspective came amid a tough labor market where increasingly more people are disillusioned with the upper crust of employers, especially in the finance and tech worlds, where there is often little regard for personal lives or well-being. At the same time, an entire generation of Baby Boomers is retiring, but the owners want to see their businesses live on.

Having watched startup founders closely during their time in San Francisco, the Cherys knew entrepreneurship through acquisition would be a better avenue for them. They contracted with a broker listing businesses for sale and began studying hundreds of opportunities.

“It represented a chance at autonomy, an opportunity for us to own something, and it just felt like the right time to go for it,” Ray said. “We were looking for companies that were historically profitable, close proximity to our home, and a retiring owner.”

They ultimately landed on Monsam, a portmanteau of the names of the previous owners’ kids. The 27-year-old business was established, had practical and varied uses cases (handwashing is pretty foundational), and was profitable.

The Cherys thought there was more growth runway for the business, too, in education, health care and construction, as well as sports venues. In the latter, Monsam portable sinks can help venue operators leverage dead space without installing formal plumbing.

“I love portables,” said Ravens Chief Growth and Innovation Officer Moon Javaid, a friend of Chery’s and a fellow Chicago MBA grad. “Portables are great, because you can add more points-of-sale and you can do it in a more thoughtful way. It’s great to have somebody with [Ray’s] kind of background to solve problems.”

The Cherys closed on the Monsam acquisition in May 2024 (for an undisclosed price). They split Monsam’s corporate responsibilities and have eight employees and a Bay Area workshop. They deal with delivery drivers, craftspeople and installers, basically an entire blue-collar side of the economy they hadn’t encountered.

“I live in the Bay Area. There is a lot of sexy, high-flying, AI stuff, and [Monsam] was an opportunity to step away from that and connect with the broader economy,” said Ray. “There is this notion of boring businesses, they’re becoming more popular. Sleepier businesses that people might not appreciate for how important they are or valuable they are.”

The eagle-eyed — or invited — might have noticed an oddly themed private pop-up club at LoanDepot Park during the NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 2. The Panthers, playing as the home team against the Rangers, re-created Amerant Bank Arena’s Panther Club at the baseball stadium.

The permanent version of the Panther Club has existed at the south Florida arena for almost three years as an homage to New York City’s famed Monkey Club; Panthers owner Vinnie Viola is a fan and devotee of the Manhattan original.

The invite-only Panther Club at Amerant Bank Arena is accessible by just 35 members, with invitations only made by a Panthers team owner, team executive or an existing member. Many of the celebrities that take in Panthers games, such as pro golfers like Scottie Scheffler, are allowed to stop by, too.

“We have a market here that really likes exclusivity, things that are hard to access,” said Panthers VP/Sales and Service Taralynn Reburn.

The Panther Club sits on the arena’s suite level, with a velvet rope, speakeasy-type pay phone and small hallway marquee indicating this is not a regular suite.

Inside, the aesthetic is classic Italian eatery. A mahogany bar serving signature Old Fashioned cocktails anchors the space, flanked by tufted red leather booths with red-and-white checkerboard tablecloths. Local artist Grant Gruenhaupt hand-painted designs on the club’s walls to match the Manhattan original, only swapping monkeys for panthers.

On game days, the Panther Club opens at the same time as the rest of the arena but is usually the last space in use after games. Membership costs in the five-figure range annually, with one type including Stanley Cup Playoffs and one not. There are 36 seats associated with the club.

It’s very much a country club model, said Reburn. “You can’t pass off the tickets to someone else. That allows us to maintain that exclusivity. We know who is in there.”

When the club opened, the Panthers found most of its members already in the building, some of whom had seats and club access elsewhere (which they maintained). The emergence of the Panther Bar from the shadows is timely, as similarly exclusive, members-only clubs pervade across the North American sports venue landscape.

“If you just found out about it, it’s doing the right thing,” Reburn said, “staying under wraps.”

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Levy’s special Chicago-style Hot Chocolate debuted in December for the Packers-Bears game at Soldier Field and was so successful — it sold out by the second quarter — that the F&B provider brought it back for the teams’ Jan. 10 rematch in Saturday’s NFL Wild Card game. What makes this $17.99 hot cocoa drink featuring Amaretto and topped with toasted salted caramel marshmallows truly Chicago-style? The inclusion of one more key ingredient: MALORT (winces).

Family offices have become the new Wall Street power players, according to this interesting WSJ story.

• Boxcar Development, a real estate company owned by Herb Simon and his family, broke ground Wednesday morning on a Ritz-Carlton hotel and 4,000-capacity music venue, both of which will be connected to Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse via a third-floor skybridge. While Simon owns the Pacers and Fever, this development deal is separate from the sports teams and is run through Boxcar.
• The Titans’ under-construction Nissan Stadium will feature a checkout-free concessions setup with Amazon Just Walk Out technology at over 50 locales when it opens ahead of the 2027 NFL season.
• Delaware North Sportservice hired Tom Barney as its president. He fills the position left vacant by Jamie Obletz, who spent more than four years in the role before being promoted to COO last October following the departure of Amy Latimer for Oak View Group.
• Populous hired Cary Hirschstein as the sports architecture firm’s first head of real estate strategy. Hirschstein joins the global design firm from HR&A Advisors, where he led the sports and entertainment practice as a managing partner and spent 20 years involved with various aspects of mixed-use development, including in sports.
• The German men’s national soccer team picked Winston-Salem, N.C., as its team base camp for the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer, training at Wake Forest, reports SBJ’s Alex Silverman, as squads submit preferences for base camps.
• Charlotte-based hospital system Atrium Health is becoming a sponsor of Hendrick Motorsports through a deal that also includes naming rights to a new athletic center on the team’s sprawling campus, writes SBJ’s Adam Stern.
• SailGP unveiled the league’s first permanent training base, which will sit within a new performance and innovation center opened by the yacht racing team American Magic in Pensacola, Fla., notes SBJ’s Rob Schaefer.