SBJ Unpacks: Tracking the fallout of Trump’s policy blitz

Tonight in Unpacks: From tariffs to travel bans, the sports industry is keeping a cautious eye on the uncertainty created from President Trump’s actions, as SBJ’s Tom Friend reports as part of this week’s cover story package.

• Dave Checketts, Eccles family plan $1.2 billion for sports investments
• U.S. sports bettors wager $500 billion since 2018’s legalization
• Sources: YouTube, WBD, Amazon among NFL Brazil bidders
• Guest feature: A Scotland soccer team’s wee look into the future

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Austin Karp opens the week with thoughts on how a raft of weekend blowouts will affect viewership numbers for the NBA Playoffs, a look at NHL regular-season viewership, the staggering betting totals since a SCOTUS ruling legalized sports gambling and more.

SBJ PSA: Now is the time to nominate women leading the way and making an impact in sports business for SBJ’s 2025 Game Changers, which has recognized the women changing the sports industry for more than a decade. The deadline for nominations is midnight tonight.

An NBA team executive calls it the jersey challenge. Go to your closet — whether you are old school, new school or in elementary school — and see where your LeBron No. 23 or your Curry No. 30 or your Tatum No. 0 originates from. “Not a lot of it says, ‘Made in the USA,’” he said.

So that’s just one of many trickle-down effects of President Donald Trump’s unconventional first 100 days in office. His worldwide tariffs almost certainly will affect the prices you pay for merchandise, and the entertainment districts you want to wear them in. His travel bans could disrupt the World Cup in 2026 and the L.A. Olympics in 2028. His government job cuts may sour the sports ecosystem of Washington, D.C. His policies could drain the value of the Canadian dollar for NHL players. He may find himself in the middle of a golf tour war. And, in the end, the average sports fan may end up paying the price for it all.

“It’s going to become more expensive than ever to access sports,” the NBA team executive said. “Merchandise is basically the entry-level way to express fandom. It’s typically the cheapest way to show you’re a fan because tickets are more expensive and maybe it’s hard to travel to games. But now you’ve even made the entry point into sports more expensive.”

The most apt description of the Trump effect on sports is: uncertainty. Because lost in the fledgling trade wars is how much the four major U.S. sports leagues have been prioritizing globalization. Besides the fact that their fans wear jerseys made in Vietnam, the Philippines and China, the leagues see international markets as the next phase of growth. The NFL hopes to play 16 games overseas soon; the NBA hopes to launch an NBA Europe; MLB would like to send Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers back to Japan; the NHL may want another 4 Nations Face-Off. But the price to pull it off is rising.

“All that growth is all predicated on either the global market or the global fan — and the ability to be able to bring them closer together through these leagues," said a noted political analyst who asked to remain anonymous. “And [the tariffs are] making all of that significantly harder.

“It’s harder because it’s going to be more expensive, more expensive to go there. It’s going to be more expensive to do business.”

To hear sports experts talk, it is also going to be “harder or more expensive to acquire capital,” and to start any new league (such as NBA Europe), they say: “You need capital.” They also wonder about practice facilities that are supposed to be built in leagues such as the WNBA (for the Sky, Fever and Wings, to name three), which could now be affected by the price of steel and other raw materials. “Or all these mixed-use developments,” said one. “They may get pushed out or sidelined.”

They wonder about the 2026 World Cup, which was supposed be cordially co-hosted by three North American countries —the U.S., Canada and Mexico — that are now divided by Trump policies. The original idea was there would be free movement across the three countries, something few continents could offer. But that theorem hasn’t aged well.

They wonder about the NHL, which is the most international and Canadian of all the U.S. sports. “My eye is on what this tariff war is potentially doing to the NHL, what changes there are in the relative value of the Canadian to the U.S. dollar and how that could be impacting them,” said one political expert. “But also how [Trump] has sort of ignited a bit of a cultural Canadian Renaissance, in that, you know, they’re more Canada proud than ever before.”

They wonder about the NBA G League team in Mexico City, which has to travel back and forth over the border and import Nike products and Gatorade for their players. “It goes through customs, obviously, and I don’t know if we’re going to have different tariffs on bringing that to Mexico,” said Nuño Pérez-Pla de Alvear, team president of the Mexico City Capitanes. “But in terms of other things, I think it wouldn’t affect the players who are flying. They’re here, they’re crossing through customs with a visa. … I think we’re not going to have any issue at all."

They wonder about the 2028 L.A. Olympics, which could be affected by Trump travel bans for potentially 40-plus countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Russia and even South Sudan, whose basketball team nearly upset James and Curry in a preliminary matchup before the 2024 Paris Games.

In fact, the Nike USA basketball jerseys that James and Curry wore in Paris may or may not have actually been made in the U.S.A. (something Nike doesn’t disclose) — which is not only ironic, but at the heart of the entire Trump tariff issue.

Your closet is about to change.

Longtime sports executive Dave Checketts and the Eccles family’s The Cynosure Group have teamed up to launch a new sports private equity firm, Cynosure | Checketts Sports Capital. The 50-50 joint venture is targeting a $1.2B debut fund that will take stakes in teams, emerging leagues, facilities, media, tech and other parts of the sports industry. The partners said their near-term focus will be largely on acquiring minority stakes in teams throughout the established leagues in North America, though they also see investment opportunities in European soccer, potential MLB expansion and women’s leagues.

“Above all, women’s sports right now, the games and the athletes have become better and stronger. And they finally have the investment they long deserved,” Checketts said. “So much about women’s sports is so interesting, and a lot of people are looking at women’s sports as an investment.” Checketts pointed specifically to recent momentum for the LPGA, NWSL, WNBA and Unrivaled.

Checketts has held leading executive roles with the Jazz, Knicks, MSG and Legends, in addition to previously owning the Blues and Real Salt Lake. He’s also an investor in his family’s Rhone activewear brand. He’ll be honored this year as a new member of SBJ’s Champions: Pioneers and Innovators.

The Eccles family is a newcomer to sports ownership, though it has long been involved with Utah’s sports industry. Spencer F. Eccles played a key role in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and was awarded the IOC’s prestigious Pierre de Coubertin Medal. His son, Spencer P. Eccles, is on the board of the organizing committee for the upcoming 2034 Salt Lake City Games. “The investments that we’ve made [in sports] have been more in the nonprofit space and on the development side,” Eccles said. “So sports runs through our blood.”

The Eccles family has provided support for the construction of multiple Utah-area sports facilities, including the Univ. of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The amount wagered legally on sports in the U.S. since the Supreme Court cleared the way seven years ago eclipsed a half trillion dollars late last month.

We don’t know the who, when or where of the wager that eclipsed the $500 billion mark. But based on totals reported thus far by regulators in 14 states, U.S. handle for March is sitting at $6.38 billion and tracking toward $14.5 billion, which would bring the total since states beyond Nevada started taking bets to $502 billion.

It’s important to note here that handle is not the amount that sportsbooks have made during that span. It is the amount that bettors wagered.

Still, a half trillion dollars wagered is a striking threshold, especially since about 65% of it came in the last three years.

To commemorate the occasion, here are five thoughts spurred by $500 billion in bets.

1) A quicker path to $500 billion that expected

This happened more quickly than even the more optimistic projections would have suggested, especially without legalization in California or Texas. That’s largely because handle continues to grow by double digits even in hefty states that have been open for three years or more.

Pennsylvania and Indiana, which opened in 2018, were up 19% and 20%, respectively, last year. Illinois, which opened in 2020, was up 20%. Colorado, another 2020 state, was up 11%. Five of the six states that opened in 2021 -- Tennessee, Virginia, Wyoming, Connecticut and Arizona -- were up more than 20%. The other, Michigan, was up 14%.

2) Rise of the Empire State

There is about a 15% chance that that half-trillionth dollar wagered was bet in New York, which has delivered that highest handle of any state each month since it opened in January, 2022. But you know what sportsbook operators talk about first when you ask about New York? Its 51% tax rate.

An irritant from the beginning, the sportsbooks hoped they’d be able to lobby the rate down over time. Instead, it has emboldened other states to raise their rates.

And these are states that matter.

More on that later.

3) Growth inside the Beltway

Though it is unlikely that the bet was placed in D.C., which accounted for only 1% of March handle reported so far, it is almost 6X more likely than it would have been a year ago, when the district operated under a convoluted setup that all but neutered online wagering, even though it was legal. D.C. sportsbooks took a record $86 million in wagers in March, up from $15.7 million last March.

The numbers from last March look as if they came from a time capsule. D.C. sportsbooks took more in retail bets ($8.8 million) than they did online ($6.8 million). That was the last month before D.C. leaders punted their lottery-based online provider, first in favor of FanDuel and then in an open market that allowed all licensed operators to take bets through their apps.

Last month, FanDuel accounted for 49% of D.C. handle, while DraftKings had 21% and Caesars had 12%. D.C. regulators no longer distinguish between online and retail in their monthly reports.

4) Happy birthday to the Tar Heel State

Among the 10 states that saw handle increase compared to last March was North Carolina, which was up 4%. While not an especially large gain, it’s notable because it was against the state’s launch month, which was fueled by $202.6 million in promotional wagers.

Sportsbooks reported $17.9 million in promo wagers last month. Though North Carolina didn’t open until March 10 last year, that was in time to take bets on all of March Madness, as well as the ACC and SEC basketball tournaments.

5) What’s actually going on in Florida?

While interesting, and reflective of strong demand, that $502 billion may deserve an asterisk, since there is no publicly available record of how much has been wagered in Florida since the Seminole tribe began taking bets through its Hard Rock Bet app in December 2023.

With an over-21 population of 17.2 million, Florida is the most populous state to allow sports betting.

How much are people there betting? Neither the state nor the tribe will say.

And, as promised, more on those rising tax rates

The North Carolina Senate approved a proposal this week that would double the state’s sports betting tax from 18% to 36%. This would draw it even with Pennsylvania for the fifth highest rate of any jurisdiction.

New York, New Hampshire and Rhode Island tax sports betting revenue at 51%, while Delaware taxes it at 50%. Illinois taxes operators on a sliding scale that ranges from 20% to 40%, with the leaders FanDuel and DraftKings the only two paying the highest rate.

Massachusetts legislators failed in an attempt to raise that state’s tax rate from 20% to 51% as part of the state budget bill last year, but have introduced the increase again this year as part of a larger bill that also regulates how much a bettor can wager in a day. Maryland’s budget proposes an increase from 15% to 30%. New Jersey’s proposal also would nearly double its rate, from 13% to 25%.

Along with the NFL Draft, the NFL has another media rights deal in the market and bidding is strong, according to sources. It could be for one of two games, but is likely centered on the high-profile Week 1 Brazil game to be played Friday, Sept. 5, in São Paulo. That pits the Chargers against an undetermined team -- but it looks like it will be the popular three-time defending AFC champion Chiefs, substantially increasing the value of the game.

YouTube TV, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon have shown interest, sources said, with some calling YouTube a favorite. WBD hasn’t had NFL rights since TNT carried a partial-season package from 1990-97, and for YouTube, it would be a meaningful expansion of the NFL relationship.

Each season always includes a handful of NFL games each year that don’t have a predetermined TV home.

YouTube TV has held the “Sunday Ticket” out-of-market package since 2023, but it’s only retransmitting CBS and Fox feeds of the Sunday afternoon slate. For both YouTube and WBD, this step would require them to either hire talent and production staff from another rights holder or build it from scratch in a short window. All rights holders and the NFL declined to comment.

The Brazil game streamed exclusively on Peacock last year, drawing 14.7 million viewers to the subscription side of the app (Peacock’s second-best streaming audience, behind only an NFL Wild Card matchup). While NBC is guaranteed a Peacock exclusive at some point this season under its long-term NFL deal, it’s not necessarily the Brazil game.

To be clear, the Chiefs are not a guarantee for the Brazil game. The NFL schedule is still a work in progress, and generally speaking, SBJ Football is loath to get into the schedule-guessing game. But the NFL wants to maximize the value of the Brazil game. And the matchup is critical for bidders to know -- one source said the specific teams could “make or break” a network or streamer’s interest in taking on the considerable task of showing a game from a difficult, remote market. Last year, Brazil featured a high-profile Eagles-Packers matchup.

We know for sure that the other team in São Paulo will be one of the Chargers’ nine predetermined home opponents. The league allows home teams in international games to “protect” two of their planned matchups from being sent abroad in order to keep the biggest revenue-games local. Sources confirmed the Chargers did not protect any of their divisional matchups this year, believing that less common L.A. home games against the Steelers, Eagles or Commanders might be even more lucrative, making the Chiefs available for Brazil.

Incidentally, YouTube and WBD’s upfronts are both on May 14, and Amazon’s is on May 12. The NFL is probably going to release its schedule “somewhere” in the May 13-15 range, NFL VP/Broadcast Planning and Scheduling Mike North recently said.

Consumer spending on gaming software and services will generate $85.2 billion this year -- whether it be from games, accessories, consoles, in-game transactions or otherwise -- and that figure is up from $80.2 billion last year, per data from Newzoo’s annual PC & Console Gaming Report.

Let’s dive into the insights.

Sports games: A power to reckon with

Sports video games are the largest genre on consoles, outpacing shooters, battle royale, role-playing and adventure games. Its share on PC is growing, but “it’s still relatively small compared to console,” Newzoo Principal Games Market Analyst Michiel Buijsman said.

When it comes to in-game transactions, I like to think about Mel Brooks’ line from “Spaceballs” about merchandising, where he describes it as “where the real money from the movie is made.” In gaming, most in-game transaction spending is coming from sports games and popular titles like Call of Duty, Fortnite and Roblox. “There’s a very solid base of that microtransaction from sports games,” said Buijsman. He also notes that while a game like EA Sports FC 25 underperformed, NBA 2K25 did very well. “Those two offset each other.”

What sports games mean to PS5

Newzoo said playtime on Sony’s PS5 grew 23% (and it grew 6% across all platforms), but this isn’t because of sports games. Most of this comes from Fortnite, Lego’s Fortnite mode and Roblox, which launched on the console in late 2023, and the standard Call of Duty bump in the fall. But while growth isn’t coming from sports games, Buijsman said “they take up a sizable amount of playtime” and “still, it’s one of the most, it’s the largest genre by revenue.” But what this shows is the power of Call of Duty, Fortnite and Roblox, and especially why so many sports leagues are getting on the latter two’s platforms.

But why are sports such a draw on PlayStation? Sony’s platform has long had a larger audience in Europe than Xbox, and many other regions outside the U.S. prefer the PlayStation as well (Xbox has a small audience Japan). Buijsman: “You can see that, especially for PlayStation, there’s a big soccer-loving audience that also games and therefore attracting all that playtime into EA FC as well. But this has grown over time simply because it has a good platform fit. There’s a big overlap between the audience that plays games and likes sports, because it’s sort of grounded in the interest in real life sports. While there is an audience that might play NBA 2K and doesn’t watch basketball, it’s easier to have if both are present.”

Back to school -- in a big way

EA Sports College Football 25 accounted for 4% of the growth in playtime of new releases in 2024 (which was 15% of all playtime on PlayStation and Xbox). It’s an impressive number when you consider the thousands of new releases across all platforms. “That’s pretty good,” Buijsman said.

It’s the classic example of pent-up demand combined with a well-received product. “It’s one of those games that hasn’t been published for a long time. A lot of players might be re-engaged here with the title up from the previous editions ... as well as some new players,” noted Buijsman.

The strength of annual sports games

New releases accounted for 15% of all playtime on PlayStation and Xbox. For Microsoft’s console, three of the top-five games of 2024 in terms of playtime were sports games: EA College Football 25, NBA 2K25 and EA Sports FC 25. Basically, 3.7% of last year’s playtime on Xbox was on those three games, Buijsman noted.

Of the top five new releases on PS5, three were sports games: EA Sports FC 25, NBA 2K25 and EA College Football 25, at 4.3% of playtime. It also shows which consoles and sports are more dominant in certain regions.

“The interesting thing to note here is that if you look at EA FC, it’s the second title on PlayStation where it is No. 4 on Xbox,” Buijsman said. “What you can see here is the skew toward an American audience, because the second largest new game in the U.S. was college football, then NBA 2K and then EA FC. And then if you look at PlayStation, which is much more prevalent in the rest of the world, especially Europe, you can see that EA Sports FC has two-and-a half times as many hours, for example, compared to NBA 2K.”

Building on ‘recursive nostalgia’

One of the cornerstone trends of this Newzoo report is “recursive nostalgia.” Buijsman described that as when “games are using their own stories, histories and gameplay elements as a means to re-engage players.” It’s all about triggering that nostalgia of playing previous versions or events in a game. And this applies to sports games, with legacy athletes and legends modes where you can play with Michael Jordan or Ronaldinho. “They’re great to have in your team, of course, as well as triggering that nostalgia feeling,” Buijsman said.

When it comes to bringing back old events, he noted how NBA 2K25 could bring back the Jordan Challenge from NBA 2K11 to reengage players that never played it -- or want to give it another go with the modern version of the games. Recursive nostalgia can also be as simple as bringing back music from past editions. Or being innovative, as Sony has been with its Storylines mode in recent MLB: The Show games that shine a light on the significance of the Negro Leagues and its players.

How much do Fortnite and Roblox cannibalize sports games?

Game publishers everywhere are worried about the effects that the major free-to-play games are having on the market, especially Fortnite and Roblox, which can carve into the audiences for other games. But sports are more sheltered from these hungry heavyweights, even if there is some overlap.

Buijsman: “If we look on console, most of the spending of players is on premium content, which includes EA FC and NBA 2K, and there’s a very big player base that just plays one or two of those sports titles. There’s a very, very solid base of players that won’t move anywhere else. They will likely buy it the year after again and keep spending. ... So, they’re relatively sheltered, I would say they’re more sheltered when compared to shooters or other free to play games on console.”

Fortnite and Roblox are also not as cannibalistic to sports games because, while they do offer some sports-like experiences, they aren’t true sports games. Folks who prefer buying and playing the annual sports games don’t dive into Fortnite or Roblox.

Lack of homegrown teams hurts Latin American market

Another reason EA Sports FC has not performed as well as it did in its FIFA years is because of licensing deals. While La Liga has a presence in EA Sports FC, other leagues and clubs in Mexico and Latin America do not.

“We did an analysis a while back where we saw now for the second year in a row, the Mexican Latin American teams are not present in EA FC because of licensing that is going on. And we did see sort of a stronger drop in those markets with engagement going down,” Buijsman said. “If you’re in Mexico and or in Brazil, and your team is not represented in a game, you definitely lose sort of interest in it. So really, the connection between real life sports and playing one of the sports games is definitely there.”

The major takeaway for sports leagues for gaming in 2025

Buijsman says when it comes to sports, “it’s sort of boring.” Now, this isn’t a bad thing, as the big established games continue to hold strong (or even build audience) and old brands such as College Football can not only return to but also storm back stronger than ever before. “They’re not going away,” Buijsman said. But he does note that the makers of soccer games -- EA Sports and Konami (eFootball, the former Pro Evolution series) -- could face the threat of an aging audience for soccer in the future.

But as long as pro sports remain popular with audiences around the world, sports games should do well. “If they stay popular, then of course I see it’s better for the games as well. Like I said, sometimes FIFA does worse, and then we have a World Cup or a European championship again, then they’re doing a bit better. So [a game might be] hovering up and down, and then it’s growing. And then there’s some innovation every year for these titles, but I don’t think we will see any big innovation within the titles, how they monetize and how they’re being played, [anytime soon].”

It’ll be interesting to see if NASCAR 25 can follow College Football’s example in pulling off a rebirth.

One disclaimer on the projections from Buijsman: Newzoo’s projections do not factor in President Trump’s recent tariff regimes, which are creating uncertainity in every market across the globe.

“[Trump’s tariffs are] so new. We are keeping an eye on them and figuring out what to do and what effect they will have. But right now, these numbers that we just published do not take into account any of the recently announced tariffs,” he said.

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Standing near the pitch where the Scottish soccer team that I co-own, the Caledonian Braves, were locked in a late-season road match on a recent Friday night, the feeling was a little bit strange.

Talk about places you never expected to be.

The Braves only came into existence in 2019 and, with COVID lockdown, really have been playing for just a few years. And yet, almost 9,000 people from 55 countries and every U.S. state have invested in the club through a crowdfunding app, raising more than $2.7 million, an enviable nest egg for a team in the Lowland League, the fifth tier of Scotland’s soccer pyramid.

That’s not all. The Braves, whose nickname is meant to evoke “Braveheart” or “Scotland the Brave,” a bagpipe tune many Americans would recognize, also have a solid social media game, and used clever ads on Instagram and Facebook to attract potential investors.

Last April, I took the plunge, putting $200 into the Braves. I don’t expect a massive return — the point was to contribute to a bit of Scottish sports entrepreneurship. It fits for me. I have Scottish ancestry, earned a graduate degree at the University of Dundee, travel to Glasgow on business and count soccer among my favorite sports. The Braves at the time were trying to hit the $500,000 investment mark.

Now they’ve more than quintupled that target, and I find myself part of a fan base — maybe an owner base is a better way to put it — who watch Braves matches in the U.S. that are cast by volunteers back in Scotland. Hundreds routinely tune in, or watch extended highlights on YouTube, and keep up with each other and the team through Discord or Facebook.

A burger bar managed by a co-owner in Denver has held game watches. “We’ve had people get tattoos,” club founder Chris Ewing told me in semi-disbelief.

Ewing is the answer to the question “How did this all happen?” He grew up in Glasgow and then, as a young man, gave Paris a try, managing a pub there. But that lifestyle wasn’t healthy over the long haul, and he got a job working for the famous French club Paris-Saint Germain.

From there, he started a youth academy for French players and arranged for the team to play in a Scottish league even further down the ladder. The academy, called Edusport, won its way into promotion to the Lowland League. But such youth academies are transitory, and Ewing realized progress was quickly going to become much tougher, especially on his own.

That’s when he struck on the idea to flip the model of team ownership.

Instead of putting the team into a community and trying to attract local fans, a particularly tough task in Scotland, which has had organized soccer since the 19th century, why not create a 21st century club unbound by geography?

“Football is for people, and I wanted to give football back to the fans,” Ewing said. “I came up with this idea to share the club with folk, but I wanted to do it with people around the world. And I wanted to dispel the myth that a community club would only serve a local community.”

A community today “can be people anywhere in the world that just share the same values, the same hopes, aspirations, dreams, and I wanted to do that with a football club,” he added. “And today, of course, you can do that because you have the internet, you have social media.”

Investors get a voice in some club decisions: what the kit, or uniforms, will look like; which European tournament to play in; and so on. The ultimate goal is to climb steadily up through the leagues above them and, one fine season, play in the Scottish Premiership.

While sports teams and individual athletes have turned to crowdfunding before, the amount raised is often in the low thousands, not so much the low millions. The windfall won’t enable the Braves to make it to the top (between operational costs and salaries, it could be gone quite quickly without planning), but it can help the club get to higher leagues and steady revenue.

It’s fair to say, meanwhile, that no one among the tiny circle who runs or plays for the Braves expected it to go this well, with so many people buying in.

Ross McNeil, a striker and the Braves club captain, recalls that a video went out from the social media team “and it blew up. All the sudden people were following you on Instagram, messaging you.”

Next thing you know, the club has been the subject of a BBC Scotland feature story, and an American academic-journalist — that would be me — spent spring break with the club to see this little phenomenon close up. An owners meetup on Saturday for the final home match of the regular season in Glasgow drew around 60 owners plus family. The Braves won’t get promoted this year, but finished third in an 18-team league, up from 12th last season.

Part of their success with investors likely has to do with the popularity of “Ted Lasso” and “Welcome to Wrexham,” and the goodwill vibe of both TV series.

“It was like, well, ‘I want my own Wrexham story,’ so I hopped on board,” said Marc Cavender, the manager at 5280 Burger Bar in Denver, about his decision to invest. “Since then, it’s like I just eat, breathe and live Braves.”

Back in Edinburgh, the night I saw them in action, the Braves held off the B team from the Premiership club Heart of Midlothian for a 1-0 victory. I found myself elated by the win, but wasn’t sure how an owner is supposed to react to success, so I just waited for the Braves’ affable head coach Ricky Waddell and offered my hand.

“You can come back,” he said as he shook it.

I plan to do exactly that.

John Affleck is the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society at Penn State.

• On Location sold out of premium inventory and Elite and Champion packages for WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, contributing to a 75% year-over-year increase in hospitality sales for the event (and a 140% jump since 2023), reports SBJ’s Bret McCormick.
• The Orioles and Nationals added a direct-to-consumer streaming option for MASN, writes SBJ’s Mike Mazzeo.
• Daktronics is building and installing a 37-display system totaling more than 77,000 square feet at the Titans’ new Nissan Stadium, which opens in 2027, notes McCormick.
• President Trump is expected to appoint former N.Y. gubernatorial candidate Andrew Giuliani as the executive director of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026, reports SBJ’s Alex Silverman.
• Cosm and developer Bedrock broke ground on Cosm’s fourth location last Thursday in downtown Detroit, notes McCormick.
• EA Sports is working with Metallica on an activation for EA Sports College Football 26. The program, For Whom the Band Tolls, features a battle of the college marching bands, with the winner recording the College Football 26 theme song for the upcoming game. The contest includes an NIL component for the winning band.
• Japanese mobile game publisher and developer Cygames is becoming a sponsor of the Kentucky Derby in a deal that includes naming rights for the Unbridled Sidney Stakes Presented by Cygames for May 2’s Kentucky Oaks Day.