SBJ Unpacks: Germany finds World Cup oasis in North Carolina

Tonight in Unpacks: The German Football Association spent 18 months studying where to establish its base camp for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup. It found Wake Forest’s Spry Stadium and Graylyn Estate to be the ideal mixture of idyllic and practical for its training purposes, reports SBJ’s Alex Silverman in this week’s magazine.

Also tonight:

• Inter Miami signs expanded Adidas deal
• Pacers S&E launches retail media network
• MLB begins 2026 with hazy media future
• Op-ed: Why sports can’t tune out environmental, social issues

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Joe Lemire discusses the WNBPA’s members approving the new CBA deal, a record-breaking audience for the first day of March Madness, Kraken ownership making moves with an eye on an NBA expansion team and more.

Most of the teams participating in the 2026 World Cup selected their base camps from a catalog of 64 options compiled by FIFA. But of the more than 30 that have announced locations so far, five opted to source their own training sites and accommodations.

Germany, the first team to announce its base camp, is among those that chose to go outside the catalog. Following a rigorous 18-month selection process, the team landed on Winston-Salem, N.C., where it will train at Wake Forest University’s Spry Stadium and stay at the nearby Graylyn Estate for up to six weeks.

After touring both sites, which are fewer than 2 miles apart, the appeal is clear. The German Football Association — known at home as the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB) — identified the pairing as an ideal environment for players and staff to train and live free of distractions and stressors.

That level of control and comfort, however, comes at a higher cost than many federations are willing or able to bear — in Germany’s case, more than $1 million.

The four-time World Cup champions will have Graylyn Estate to themselves for the duration of their stay in the U.S. The university-owned boutique hotel spans 55 acres of lawns, cobblestone courtyards, a pond, swimming pool and a tennis court.

The main Manor House, a French-inspired mansion originally built by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company chairman Bowman Gray and his wife in the 1920s, will serve as the main dining area and meeting space for the team, as well as accommodations for support staff. Players will stay in The Mews, a separate cluster of rooms built around a European-style courtyard, and have access to bicycles to get around the estate or even to practice at Wake Forest.

“That’s the kind of hotel Germany is searching for: a smaller, cozy one with many green areas,” said Markus Löw, head of team management for the DFB.

The federation plans to customize the property with additions, including a temporary padel court and a garden screening area behind the Manor House for viewing World Cup matches. Nearly every space will also be decorated in red, black and gold.

At Wake Forest’s Spry Stadium soccer complex, Germany will have access to three natural grass pitches maintained by its own pitch manager. The facility is equipped with video technology for recording sessions and a video board for film review.

The 150 to 200 media members expected to cover the team will work out of North Dining Hall, which will be converted into a media center, while an auditorium in nearby Farrell Hall will host press conferences.

“Part of the reason why Germany chose Wake Forest is that it’s kind of plug-and-play and ready to go once they get here, for the most part,” said Craig Zakrzewski, senior associate athletic director for capital projects and operations at Wake Forest.

Under the guidance of the federation, Wake Forest plans to set up a private fitness tent for the German players adjacent to the main field, and the team will also have access to the athletic department’s permanent hydrotherapy facilities on an as-needed basis. Wake Forest will install privacy fencing along Polo Road, which runs adjacent to campus, to comply with both the federation’s wishes and FIFA regulations.

The federation plans to host an open training session shortly after its arrival on campus, allowing the team to engage the community early and then focus strictly on the competition. The Spry Stadium bleachers seat 3,000 people, so attendance will be limited. While the session will be free to the public, Zakrzewski said FIFA requires any open sessions to be ticketed.

The search

For the DFB, identifying and selecting the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina was a process that began after the 2024 UEFA European Championship in Germany and ended after the World Cup final draw in December 2025.

According to Löw, a five-person team made eight trips to the U.S. during that span, visiting 40 to 50 potential base camp locations. While many offered strong training facilities, including several at MLS clubs, few were close enough to suitable accommodations.

“If you look at other team base camps, they have to drive 30 or 40 minutes to the training pitch,” Löw said. “If you train two times a day, the boys are sitting on the bus for two hours. So, that’s not perfect for a tournament.”

The search for accommodations focused largely on golf resorts, which aligned with the team’s preference for a smaller, more secluded setting with outdoor gathering space. Through that process, the federation’s travel partner identified Graylyn, which fit the profile despite lacking a golf course.

When Germany was drawn into Group E, with matches in Houston, Toronto and New York/New Jersey, it finalized plans to base itself in Winston-Salem for the duration of the tournament.

Price of paradise

Though Graylyn and Wake Forest were not in the catalog, the federation still had to clear its base camp choice with FIFA and will have to abide by its commercial regulations and media procedures.

Like training sites in the catalog, FIFA will pay a rental fee to Wake Forest for use of Spry Stadium through the end of the group stage. Multiple agreements obtained by Sports Business Journal indicate those fees are typically in the low-to-mid six figures. Germany will have to pay to keep using its own training site through the knockout rounds, rather than training at different venue-specific sites in each city.

It’s unknown how much FIFA contributes toward lodging, but Germany is going beyond its allotted budget based on both the size of its traveling party and its full hotel buyout. In total, the federation expects to spend more than $1 million on base camp-related expenses.

If it leads to a fifth World Cup title, the cost will be easy to justify.

Inter Miami has signed a new five-year sponsorship agreement with Adidas, the sportswear brand’s first with an MLS club that goes beyond its long-standing relationship with the league. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

As part of the deal, Adidas will have a dedicated footprint within the club’s two-story, 11,000-square-foot team store at the forthcoming Nu Stadium. It will also receive exposure at sports fields within the Miami Freedom Park development around the stadium, as well as on Inter Miami’s preseason tours, social media channels and in-stadium signage.

Inter Miami’s announcement states that the deal positions the club “alongside Adidas’ top international club partnerships,” which include Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Manchester United and Arsenal. Those global heavyweights typically receive fully bespoke kits (rather than templated designs), earlier access to new performance technology, more frequent product releases, broader international retail distribution and larger financial guarantees.

The deal highlights Inter Miami’s unique position among both its MLS peers and top clubs in global soccer.

Like other MLS teams, Inter Miami’s rights fall under the league’s centralized uniform supply agreement, which largely mirrors the model used in other U.S. sports leagues. The relationship dates to 2004 and is worth an average of $138M annually -- or $4.6M per team -- from 2025 through 2030. Still, Inter Miami can command additional financial and promotional consideration based on the unmatched star power of Lionel Messi.

Unlike leading global clubs, however, Inter Miami does not have the ability to negotiate its own kit deal, limiting its ability to fully maximize revenue through a competitive bidding process among brands such as Adidas, Nike, Puma and New Balance.

Inter Miami’s kit is by far the best-selling jersey in MLS and, according to the club, ranks among the most popular globally. The alliance between Adidas and Inter Miami is strengthened by Messi’s long-standing and lucrative relationship with the German brand, allowing for seamless integration across product and marketing. Adidas is also the official kit provider for the Argentine Football Association, for which Messi competes internationally.

While Inter Miami’s popularity is closely tied to Messi, Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden expressed confidence in the club’s continued commercial relevance beyond the star’s likely retirement following his current contract, which runs through 2028.

“We believe in the Inter Miami project, and I’m also sure we will extend after the five years,” Gulden said. “We are really excited about the future, both for Inter Miami and for soccer in general in this country.”

Pacers Sports & Entertainment has unveiled a novel retail media network -- the kind normally reserved for an Amazon, Costco or PetSmart -- that widens its marketing footprint across the globe’s top 500 digital publishers through the data spine of Deloitte and the AI ad tech of Yieldmo.

The result of the three-way collaboration is the Fieldhouse Media Network, which will systematically attach customized advertising from PS&E sponsors onto web-based articles or connected TVs based on keywords such as “free agency,” “Aliyah Boston,” “Caitlin Clark,” “logo threes,” “triple-doubles,” “game-winners,” “trade deadline,” “draft lottery,” “Tyrese Haliburton-comeback” and myriad others that can be sports or non-sports related. PS&E sponsors -- such as Gainbridge, Lexus, Eli Lilly and Salesforce, etc. -- then end up with national and international audiences they did not initially target, broadening their business.

“It starts for us with the thought that in an era of data and digital, there are no small or big markets,” said PS&E Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Joey Graziano, who led the in-house deal. “We now have a platform allowing us to have the advertising inventory that goes alongside the articles written about those key moments, regardless of the publisher."

A year-plus in the making, the platform combines PS&E’s own first-party database from 50 states and 57 countries with Converge by Deloitte for Sports’ database that identifies the behaviors and preferences of 250 million sports and entertainment fans.

“We move past the demographics of just your name, your zip code, your phone number,” said Li-Shen Lee, principal and general manager of Converge by Deloitte for Sports. “And we really bring in this rich proprietary data fabric, which ... allows us to understand way beyond their fandom for the team. What they’re buying? What brands they like? What life stage are you in? Are you about to buy a house? Things ... that really allows us to understand your behavior and who you are as a person in totality. And triangulating that they like, take a Caitlin Clark or Tyrese Haliburton.”

In other words, Converge by Deloitte for Sports can theoretically pinpoint Clark or Haliburton fans who have shown an affinity for automobiles. Then, when that person clicks on a keyworded digital story about the Fever star, they would promptly see an ad for PS&E sponsor Lexus -- through the technology of Yieldmo Sports, which reads the open web in real time and then bids for, negotiates and acquires the ad space from the publisher via AI.

Through it all, the costs are baked into the packages that PS&E sponsors buy, and PS&E also then contractually owns its partners’ viewership metrics and direct marketing audiences.

“To date, what [PS&E] have not been able to do is reach fans who are consuming Caitlin Clark content off channel,” said Eric Herd, Global Head of Sports & Emerging Products at Yieldmo. “Off channel is defined by: the Pacers and Fever don’t own that asset. It’s not their site, it’s not their app, it’s not something within PS&E. It’s ESPN, it’s SI, it’s wherever.

“But now Joey’s team, in addition to all the other assets they’re selling against, can [tell a sponsor], ‘You’re also going to own or be around [Clark or Haliburton or any game-winning shot] content all over the Web.”

In addition to digital ads, PS&E and Fieldhouse Media Network will launch direct marketing campaigns through email, texts and their owned and operated channels -- based again on Deloitte analytics and their own data collected from hosting 200-plus events at Gainbridge Fieldhouse such as the NBA and WNBA all-star games, NBA Finals, WNBA semifinals and other live events.

“This is a platform that’s been proven by the largest Fortune 100 companies in the world,” Graziano said. “Retail media networks exist for Amazon, Costco, PetSmart. But this is the first time someone’s brought that to sports. ... And the secret sauce is in the combination of the three of us.”

MLB begins its regular season Wednesday amid an uncertain time surrounding its media future — even though it will be starting three-year deals with Netflix, NBC/Peacock and ESPN. The league will soon be back at the negotiating table for deals that would start with the 2029 season, and those next pacts will be struck amid a very different media landscape.

The situation for local delivery of games remains equally murky as teams — and the league — try to navigate the best way to get content to fans.

But staying focused on 2026, what are the key items you need to watch from a media perspective?

• MLB is coming off a great viewership story last year. Fox had its best season since 2022, while FS1 was at its highest since 2019. In its final season with “Sunday Night Baseball” (plus a few other games), ESPN enjoyed its biggest MLB viewership year since 2013. TBS had its best year since 2011, and MLB Network was at its best since 2018. The league certainly has momentum coming off a fantastic and highly rated World Baseball Classic, and it will look to NBC, Peacock and Netflix to keep that momentum going.
• Speaking of those newcomers: What will NBC and Netflix bring? NBC is no stranger to baseball, and I would expect the same investment the network has shown in its first NBA season. Meanwhile, Netflix has only three games in 2026, but it could bring a very different vibe to baseball, including for Opening Day. “It is a Netflix broadcast,” new Netflix host Elle Duncan told me. “We are going really big with the names, with the stunts, people who are involved.” Check out SBJ on Tuesday for more on Duncan’s thoughts related to MLB, and also later this week on the SBJ Sports Media Podcast, where she talks about her ESPN departure, the FIFA Women’s World Cup coming to Netflix and her dream desk-mates.
• The MLB audience is also getting younger. ESPN has grown among adults 18-34 by 25% since 2022 (likely one reason Bristol wanted to stay in business with MLB). During that same time frame, TBS is up 59% and FS1 is up 61% in the demo. Younger adults must like the shorter average game time, which was 2 hours, 38 minutes last season — down from 3 hours, 3 minutes in 2022.
• MLB teams are all over the map on local delivery decisions. Financials and mechanisms are still being figured out, but fans still found their favorite team’s games in 2025, with local audiences up 3%, thanks in part to fans increasingly able to find in-market streaming options. This season, after the fall of Main Street Sports Group, the Angels, Braves and Tigers will attempt to make it work on their own (at least the Tigers are coming off a league-leading 112% uptick last season and are using MLB tech as a backbone). But around half of MLB’s teams are under the league streaming umbrella, meaning a big cut to media revenue and creating a big gap between the haves and have-nots (the Dodgers get $334 million annually in local TV revenue through 2038, compared to a team now with MLB in the Brewers, who last season with Main Street only got around $35 million).

When I joined a call with Jerry Cifarelli and Chulho Huh, they were discussing workout routines. These two get along, which is part of the strength of the relationship between their two companies, LG, the South Korea-based makers of well-known home appliances, and ANC.

In the past, ANC might have been described simply as an LED display provider, Daktronics’ main competitor in the North American pro sports market. They’re a bit more than that, and they are leaning into the differences under Cifarelli, who in 2023 bought the company his father, Jerry Sr., founded in 1997.

ANC is built on three units: tech integration (installing LED displays); ongoing tech service related to those installations; and a media and sponsorship sales business connected to the LED displays. Unlike Dak, ANC doesn’t do any manufacturing and has an asset-light business, and it leans into sponsorship more heavily than its South Dakota-based competitor.

The partnership with LG, which has generated eight to nine figures of business already, according to Cifarelli (an SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree in 2025), is the best vehicle for explaining how those three verticals fit together under one ANC umbrella.

Originally founded in 1958 under a different name, LG has existed under the “Life’s Good” brand (LG) since the mid-1990s, but it hadn’t seriously waded into the North American sports industry until a 2023 meeting with Cifarelli and ANC in Barcelona.

A deal framework emerged from that meeting in which ANC would be LG’s nonexclusive conduit for LED display sales to North American sports teams and venues, as well as serving as LG’s agency of record in doing sponsorship and marketing deals with the same teams and venues buying the boards.

LG has the No. 1 market share in washing machines and refrigerators, but “we are placing a strategic focus on expanding our B2B business,” Huh said, “and we see ANC as an imperative partner for achieving our vision.”

The LG-ANC deals began with the Red Sox and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, and now include the Ravens, Commanders, and Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Acquiring the right to communicate to those teams’ fans was nearly as powerful for LG as their video boards being used in highly public stadiums, like Fenway Park.

The connections that LG is making in the sports industry via ANC is, additionally, helping it make inroads with sales of dishwashers and laundry appliances to those same sports organizations, though that’s not the focus of their deal.

“We’re very proud of this marriage because for us it fits ANC’s business and it fits LG’s business, and it fits where the industry is going,” said Cifarelli.

Few topics in corporate America are as politically charged as ESG (environmental, social, governance). Once a relatively unknown framework used by investors and risk professionals, ESG has become a cultural flashpoint. Depending on who you ask, it is praised by some as essential to modern business, derided by others as corporate virtue signaling or pulled into a highly charged political debate far beyond the boardroom.

In the world of sports, where global audiences, massive sponsorship dollars, and fan passion intersect, the debate over ESG is more than rhetorical. The issues it represents are already shaping strategic decisions, sponsorship valuations, risk profiles and reputational outcomes. The question for sports organizations, sponsors and corporate partners is not whether they like ESG, but whether they can afford to ignore it. Increasingly, the answer is no.

ESG is already embedded in sports strategy, even when it doesn’t work

In elite sport, environmental, social and governance issues surface at every major event. When ESG commitments fall short, the consequences are immediate and visible.

For example, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which was positioned as a “sustainable” Games following its pandemic-related postponement, ultimately drew significant criticism over environmental and labor issues tied to venue construction. Deforestation around event sites and reports of extreme overtime for construction workers contradicted sustainability promises, sparking public backlash from environmental groups and labor advocates alike. Although organizers ultimately delivered the Games, those mixed results diluted messaging around environmental stewardship and raised questions about how sustainability goals are operationalized.

Similarly, in the lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, organizers pledged to make these Games among the most environmentally friendly in history. Yet plans for geothermal cooling systems in the Olympic Village were scrapped, and several national teams installed private air-conditioning units. This move undercut sustainability narratives and fueled skepticism about how environmental commitments translate into on-the-ground action. These examples illustrate a common challenge: Good intentions alone are not enough without credible delivery mechanisms.

These reputational and operational missteps are instructive because they show how ESG, when poorly executed, can become a liability rather than an asset. And in an industry where public trust and corporate partnerships are central to success, these liabilities matter.

Why sponsors are driving the ESG conversation

Some of the most significant pressure around ESG in sports is coming from sponsors, not activists. Corporate partners are increasingly evaluating teams, leagues and events through an ESG lens. Where once sponsorship decisions were driven by reach and brand alignment, today they are informed by governance practices, social impact commitments, and environmental credibility.

Brands that can tie their sponsorships to meaningful ESG initiatives gain a competitive advantage. They deepen engagement with values-driven consumers and differentiate themselves from competitors. Conversely, partnerships lacking credible ESG alignment risk backlash. This comes at a time when audiences are more attuned to issues around labor practices, diversity, environmental responsibility, and ethical governance.

In practical terms, this means that organizations that want to attract and retain major sponsors must demonstrate not only that they talk about ESG, but that they execute against clear, measurable goals.

ESG as risk management, not reputation spin

One of the most misunderstood aspects of ESG in sports is the assumption that it is simply a PR exercise. The most effective ESG strategies are less about press releases and more about anticipating and mitigating risks that can quickly grow into crises.

Sports organizations exist in a high-visibility environment where issues can escalate rapidly, from athlete misconduct and governance failures to environmental controversies and human rights concerns. Organizations that incorporate ESG thinking into their strategic planning are better positioned to identify vulnerabilities, align internal stakeholders and prepare proactive responses rather than reactive defenses.

The leagues and teams that handle controversy most effectively are rarely those with the flashiest sustainability reports. They are the ones who have done the quiet, methodical work of integrating risk and reputational considerations into decision-making long before problems surface.

Confronting skepticism with authenticity

Criticism of ESG often stems from real concerns about superficial or performative initiatives. But rejecting ESG wholesale is not the answer. The organizations that build real value from ESG are those that treat it as a framework for disciplined assessment and continuous improvement, including transparent goals, tracked progress and honest communication about challenges and trade-offs.

In sports, credibility is everything. Fans, sponsors, athletes and media can quickly discern between substantive progress and symbolic gestures. Authentic ESG engagement earns trust, not just with those who already care about these issues, but with the broader audience that now sees corporate conduct through a more critical lens.

The conversation around ESG may be polarized and emotionally charged, but its underlying issues, which include environmental impact, social equity, ethical governance and risk preparedness, are already central to the business of sports. Leaders who dismiss ESG as a political distraction risk falling behind, not only in fan perception but in commercial success and long-term sustainability.

In an era where every decision can become a headline, ESG is not just a trend, it is a business imperative for modern sports.

Meghan Tisinger is managing director of Leidar, a global communications consultancy with a specialty in ESG communications.

• MLB signed AbbVie as its official pharmaceutical sponsor in a deal that sees the launch of a “Striking Out Cancer” campaign, reports SBJ’s Terry Lefton.
• Lefton also writes that longtime MLB exec Jim Small is retiring on May 1 after more than 40 years in baseball, both with teams and as president of the World Baseball Classic for the past three years.
• The PGA of America saw a slight decline in revenue for its most recent fiscal year, as the organization pulled in just more than $166 million, a hair below the $172 million from the year prior, notes SBJ’s Josh Carpenter.
• Dan Gilbert’s Rock Entertainment Group brought on minority investors that includes Monarch Collective for Cleveland WNBA, the expansion team set to begin play in 2028, reports SBJ’s Chris Smith.
• The NBA’s Board of Governors on Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to discuss the merits of expansion — both domestic and overseas — and should receive updates on tanking and the potential launch of a local streaming hub next season, writes SBJ’s Tom Friend.
• The Bills unveiled the design for their bison family statues that will sit in Family Circle Plaza in front of the team’s new $2.2 billion stadium that opens later this year, reports SBJ’s Bret McCormick. The bison blow steam out of their noses.
• Kate Greenberg will lead the Major League Volleyball expansion team in D.C., with All United Sports and Entertainment hiring her as team president, writes SBJ’s Rachel Axon.
• Camping World is getting back into NASCAR as a supporting sponsor of the San Diego naval base race taking place this summer, notes SBJ’s Adam Stern.
• The Pro Padel League (PPL) raised a $15 million Series A led by Hornets co-owner and co-Chair Rick Schnall, writes SBJ’s Rob Schaefer.
• League of Legends’ Worlds 2026 championship tournament is returning to the U.S., with early stages in L.A. and Allen, Texas, and the finals at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, notes SBJ’s Jason Wilson.