SBJ Unpacks: PGA Tour is leaving Hawaii in 2027

Tonight in Unpacks: The Sentry and Sony Open tournaments in Hawaii will not return to the PGA Tour’s schedule in 2027, reports SBJ’s Josh Carpenter, as part of the calendar changes that CEO Brian Rolapp has been hinting at since assuming that role in the summer.

Also tonight:

• How Melanie Harris is tuning up the Pistons
• Insider wonders about Angels with Padres sale near
• Golf’s got the gambling wind at its back
• Op-ed: Path to team equity should be the next step for NBA players

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour opens the week discussing how the MLBPA will use the reported record Padres sale price of $3.9 billion as an argument against a salary cap, another soccer attendance record at Mile High with Messi and Inter Miami visiting the Rapids, suitors for The Team facing a key deadline and more.

The PGA Tour has now officially decided not to hold its season-opening events -- The Sentry and Sony Open -- in Hawaii in 2027, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

The Sentry officially will not return in 2027, while Sports Business Journal learned on Monday that the tour is in the beginning phases of possibly transitioning the Sony Open to a PGA Tour Champions event, which would still give the tour a multi-event presence in the state.

The tour had played its season-opening tournament, The Sentry, at the Plantation Course at Kapalua dating to 1999, but canceled the 2026 tournament due to water delivery issues on Maui. In its press release announcing that move, the tour mentioned the “logistical complexities unique to staging a tournament on the island of Maui.” It isn’t the only major sports league to leave Hawaii; the NFL nearly a decade ago moved the Pro Bowl to Orlando.

“We are grateful to The Plantation Course at Kapalua, Kapalua Resort, Maui County and the State of Hawaii for their longtime support of our season-opening PGA Tour event, as well as the fans, partners and volunteers across Maui who have supported the event throughout the years,” the tour said in a statement when reached by SBJ on Monday. “The PGA Tour will share more details regarding its 2027 schedule at a later date.”

Sentry also issued a statement Monday via Stephanie Smith, its chief marketing & brand officer and chief golf partnership officer: “We are proud to have sponsored The Sentry in Kapalua for eight years. We have said from the beginning, we love Maui and Maui is a Sentry community not unlike our hometown of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. We cherish the friends and partnerships we have formed over the past several years. Our commitment to the island runs deep, and we remain committed to being active in the community.”

The move by the tour lines up with some of the changes Brian Rolapp has discussed since taking over as CEO last summer, including a later start to the season at a “marquee” West Coast venue. One outstanding question around The Sentry is what happens to the event sponsor, which is signed through 2035.

Industry sources have told SBJ in recent months that a likely landing spot is at the PGA Tour’s annual tournament at Torrey Pines, which had title sponsorship in recent years from Farmers Insurance. Farmers let its deal expire after the 2026 event, though, leaving a spot open at one of the tour’s top early season tournaments.

Should Sentry sponsor the Torrey Pines event, it’s not known where on the calendar the tournament would land. Sources have said recently that it could be an option for a FedExCup Playoffs event, but it also could remain in its old January spot.

Meanwhile, should the tour make the Sony Open a PGA Tour Champions event, it would have back-to-back senior events there, sources said. The senior circuit’s season-opening tournament, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, has been held at Hualalai Resort Golf Club every year since 1997. It’s not known which of those tournaments would be held first.

The tour confirmed the Sony move when reached by SBJ on Monday, adding that it is “having conversations about the Sony Open in Hawaii becoming a PGA Tour Champions event.”

Sony’s sponsorship for the PGA Tour tournament expired after 2026, and there had been discussions about it returning on a one-year basis, possibly as the first tourney of the season. But now the tour is focused on it as a senior event.

Even with Sony’s move and the tour’s move away from The Sentry, it’s still unknown when exactly the 2027 PGA Tour season will begin. The only non-major tournament to have its dates confirmed for 2027 is the American Express, which will be held Jan. 21-24.

The season could begin at the AmEx in the California desert, or the tour could slot in another tournament before it. AmEx’s sponsorship of that event runs through 2028.

Rolapp is expected to give more details on 2027 during a news conference at the Travelers Championship in June.

Detroit knows how to deal with despair. When the Pistons limped to a franchise-worst 14-68 finish in 2024, it was the latest disappointment for a city chasing its first major sports title since 2008.

The losing ran deeper than the standings. A decade in basketball purgatory had quietly stalled the Pistons’ brand, leaving the franchise’s once-iconic identity feeling distant to younger fans and unclear even inside the organization.

Within two seasons, the Pistons would turn that collapse into one of the NBA’s sharpest business and on-court turnarounds. The resurgence culminated in a 60-22 record this season and the franchise’s first No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference since 2007.

Even during the Pistons’ historic 28-game losing streak in the 2023-24 season, as fans chanted for him to sell the team, owner Tom Gores refused to walk away.

“I have a job to do,” he said. “I wasn’t going to leave Detroit stranded. I did an apology to the fans that we were going to get it right, but I never apologized for the players. I believed we had a good core. What I had to do was get to work.”

To start, Gores had to get fresh faces in the room with him. He dismissed head coach Monty Williams and general manager Troy Weaver, and brought in former Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff and former Pelicans executive Trajan Langdon to reset the franchise’s direction.

What he still needed was a president of business operations. Gores commissioned Excel Search and Advisory to conduct a “very broad search.” The firm considered roughly 20 candidates and brought seven senior executives deep into the process.

Gores landed on Melanie Harris, an unlikely choice on paper, to lead the Pistons’ business operation.

Harris is a first-generation American who grew up near the Bronx and climbed from a retail sales job at a discount clothing store to Yale and later Harvard Business School. She spent a decade at consulting firm Bain & Company before landing at Nike, at which she led global strategy for Nike, Jordan and Converse. She had taken over the Jordan Brand business in North America by the time the Pistons called.

“I frankly didn’t think I would leave [Nike]. I thought that was it and I reached the pinnacle,” Harris said. “I was leading Jordan Brand. I was on the consideration list for the succession plan for the Nike CEO role. I never had a dream of leading a sports team.

“Frankly, when I first got the call from a recruiter [Excel Search & Advisory] asking if I had ever thought about leading a sports team, I jokingly said I might coach my kids’ team one day.”

Harris also represents a rare profile across the NBA’s team ranks. She joins Gillian Zucker of the Clippers, Gretchen Sheirr of the Rockets and Shelly Cayette-Weston of the Hornets as the only women holding president of business operations titles.

Though some questioned whether someone without team experience could run an NBA business, Gores said that was part of Harris’ appeal.

“Most of the candidates were from sports. The search firm kept saying it was important you’d worked for a team before,” Gores said. “Melanie was unique. What impressed me was how rounded her experience was. She could brand and execute. You can have all the great strategies, but you’ve got to be able to execute.”

Harris was seen by Gores, and others within the organization, as the final missing piece in the leadership rebuild.

“I always take these opportunities with new leaders as a positive reset, because you don’t ever want to get stagnant, especially on the marketing side,” said Alicia Jeffreys, the Pistons’ executive vice president and chief marketing officer, who has been with the team since 2004. “Sometimes it requires a little bit of a spark of change to be able to do that. And that’s really how we saw Melanie when she came in. She was going to be the spark of change for us.”

The more she listened, the more Detroit made sense. It was a chance to step out of a global sneaker machine and take responsibility for the business of a franchise in a city that, similar to where she grew up, is working class, diverse and accustomed to being underestimated.

“So much of being able to make it in Detroit is about self-belief, hard work and grit,” Harris said. “That was true of my very early upbringing.”

With “eyes wide open” she arrived to southeast Michigan. Despite having no connection to the region, she had watched from afar the Pistons’ prior season, and knew the need to turn the team around. As an outsider, she was shocked to see how welcoming the city was toward her.

“What was pleasantly surprising for me is that I thought folks would be like, ‘Oh, well, you’re not from here.’ And I didn’t get that at all,” Harris said. “Once I showed up and told people I’m now raising my kids here, I was so embraced.”

That willingness to uproot her family became a test in Gores’ mind.

“It was around school time for her kids when she moved,” he said. “She just said, ‘I got it,’ and handled it, figuring out how to convert them in school. That showed me how badly she wanted the job and how she navigates real-life complexity. She showed urgency.”

Harris saw an opportunity to help rebuild the organization, convinced her background in brand-building could reconnect the team with its city. For Harris, the job was to clarify what the Pistons stood for and translate that into how fans experienced the team in the arena, on social media and across the city.

Gores said that clarity was exactly what he was looking for.

“We wanted to have our community understand our brand better, what we were striving for and what we want our culture to be about,” he said. “The other was to have an organization of excellence. There were changes that needed to happen inside. I believed Melanie would listen to our clients and the community instead of just doing what she thought was right.”

Harris knew that to acclimate herself with the team and the city, listening would be crucial. Luckily for Harris, her first day in 2024 doubled as media day and the opening of training camp. She spent most of the day on her feet, bouncing between photo stations, practice courts and hallways, introducing herself to players and staff and trying to absorb how the organization actually operated.

“What was missing was a clear and shared vision of success,” Harris said. “While teams were working hard, departments weren’t always aligned around what winning truly meant.”

In the weeks that followed, she sat down with every department head and employees, asking all of them a similar set of questions about fan engagement and what the culture felt like to longtime employees.

Aligning the organization

What she brought back to Gores and her team was a framework that underpins nearly every business decision the Pistons make. Within her first month, Harris told the organization they’d be judged on five pillars of growth: fan growth, brand growth, career growth, community growth and revenue growth, in that order. The goal was to create a shared direction and accountability across the organization.

Revenue was deliberately last on the list. The shift required departments that had long operated more independently from one another to align around their new priorities. If they centered on the fan, strengthened the Pistons’ identity, built real careers and showed up for Detroit in meaningful ways, she said, the money would follow.

“Once we have that clear brand identity,” Harris said, “then we can, frankly, commercialize that brand, whether it’s through merch, whether it’s through all of the things that you’re seeing across social media — those all bring a common thread that defines the Detroit Pistons.”

That framework helped clarify the Pistons’ brand strategy, said Michael Conley, the team’s senior vice president and chief of staff and strategy, who worked with Harris when they were both at Jordan Brand.

“Those five [pillars] have been the anchors that have guided us through this transformation,” Conley said. “You give people 100 things and you’re going to get 100 things back; when you’re really sharp and clear that ‘these are the five things that matter most,’ there’s no confusion on what we should be doing.”

The approach echoed the one Harris championed at Jordan Brand.

“Her superpower really is her ability to get people to work together and focus on a common goal,” said Larry Miller, chairman of the advisory board for Jordan Brand. “In any business, that’s key. Getting the team to understand we’re all in this together and if the team wins, we all win. Mel was great at that at Nike, and I know she’s bringing that same approach to the Pistons.”

From strategy to execution

Applying that in real life meant rethinking how the Pistons sold their product. The team shifted toward a greater emphasis on premium experiences, especially within its club spaces, while investing in services and benefits designed to drive long-term retention.

“We aligned around a franchise-forward mindset with a renewed focus on foundation building,” said Dan Lefton, the team’s chief revenue officer.

Harris’ game-day duties rarely see her sitting. She’s usually seen walking up and down the concourse at Little Caesars Arena, talking to season-ticket holders and first-timers, looking for moments that can help make them lifelong fans. That focus extended to the in-arena experience, in which the Pistons made investments in elevating the atmosphere, such as upgrading their pyrotechnics and adding more dynamic lighting.

Ticketing-wise, the team saw a 15% increase in seats sold and a 9% increase in attendance, ranking fourth in the league in total attendance with nearly 20 sellout games this season.

Results across the business

Harris has helped apply the same logic to the Pistons’ renewed emphasis on social media, aiming to reach a far larger and more dispersed fan base while clarifying how the franchise can stand out online in a league of 30 competing brands.

The Pistons have shifted from using social as a basic highlight reel to treating it as the primary platform to define what the franchise represents. Under Harris, Jeffreys and Conley, marketing has become creator- and culture-led, leaning harder into Detroit music and fashion.

The team has partnered with Detroit rapper Big Sean, who is now the team’s creative director of global experience. Big Sean, who averages more than 18 million monthly listeners on platforms including Spotify and Apple Music, offers guidance on team merchandise design, in-game experiences and community initiatives. They also collaborated with the estate of legendary late hip-hop producer and Detroit native J. Dilla in 2024 to release a clothing collection, curated by fellow Detroit rapper Royce da 5’9″. Plus, the team frequently uses its own custom team victory anthem, “Pistons Won Again,” by Detroiter GMac Cash in social media posts after a win.

Harris and the social media team know a large portion of the conversation happening today is on social media and, as such, made it a point to work closely with the team’s fans, no matter how far away they are. Content creators from across the world — including Australia’s Jack Kelly, known as “Pistons Jack,” and Tom Hur, known online as “KoreaPistonsFan” — have been brought out to games and met with players, partly in an effort to spread the word of the Pistons to a global fan base. That effort is even more important for the team, seeing as how it has played three regular-season games overseas since 2019.

The digital creator-led strategy also has helped them. They’ve seen a 67% increase in impressions and a 34.9% increase in engagement. According to the league’s aggregated social ranking, which is an aggregate of follower growth rate, engagement rate, posts and views per video for each platform, the Pistons are sixth overall in the NBA, second on Instagram and first on Facebook.

Partnerships have followed the same logic as the Pistons’ broader brand shift, with less of a focus on traditional logo-placement deals and instead anchoring strategy in “proving measurable value and creative activation,” Lefton said.

On Detroit’s Riverfront, in the new Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park, the Pistons partnered on a $1 million investment with the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and the City of Detroit Parks & Recreation Department to build two full-size basketball courts.

Harris also pushed for deals more aligned with Detroit. The Pistons partnered with Detroit-based sneaker marketplace StockX with the idea that a local company embodying the city’s style could be a more authentic extension of the Pistons’ brand than a national sponsor.

The team brought StockX and influencers with it to Mexico City in one of Harris’ recent efforts to expand the Pistons’ brand beyond the United States. That trip also led directly to a renewed partnership with Xbox as one of the team’s corporate sponsors for this season.

Their new approach, combined with the team’s winning ways on the floor, has yielded tangible results. Nationally televised games have increased from just two last season to 19 this year, giving the Pistons a platform they haven’t enjoyed in years. Retail metrics also tell a success story with a 64% increase in total online sales from last year and a 69% increase in new customers on the Pistons’ team store, Pistons313Shop.com.

“We want our fans to be engaged, and that’s not just in the arena, because most of our fans don’t get to come to a game every day,” Harris said. “We did a lot of focus on social media so that we have an opportunity to engage our fans when they’re not in the arena. We wanted to really get clear on what does our brand stand for and what makes us distinct.”

Building beyond the Pistons

Harris has also been directly involved in the effort to bring a WNBA team back to Detroit, a project close to her heart as a former athlete (track and field) and as a mother raising a daughter. Though she’s not on the official WNBA team, Harris worked closely with former Detroit Shock star Swin Cash and Gores as the franchise made its pitch. With the team scheduled to begin play starting in the 2029 season, she sits on an internal committee working through the details, including branding, practice facilities, governance and staffing.

For the Pistons and Harris, the WNBA is partly a fan development play. A second pro basketball team could expand the Pistons’ reach with sponsors, youth sports and more.

“We certainly want to engage our Detroit fan community in shaping the new team’s identity,” she said. “We look at the Pistons as a community asset; we’ll certainly look at this WNBA team as something that is important to all Detroiters, but particularly for girls.”

In Gores’ mind, it’s also another way to double down on Detroit.

“I think it’s tremendous for Detroit,” he said. “The momentum it can create for the community and for the city has been huge. We’re bringing some very important business leaders into the WNBA. Women’s sports, leadership, inspiring kids; it all adds up. We saw it as a no‑brainer.”

Harris is well aware that her presence in those rooms is often viewed differently than that of many other executives. As a Black woman at the top of organizations such as Bain, Nike and now an NBA franchise, she’s long known that when she walks into a room, many don’t assume she’s the one in charge.

“There are some people who look at me and don’t think I deserve to be here,” she said. “The fact that I believed in myself gives me the confidence to say, ‘Yes, I do deserve to be here.’”

Her experience plays a huge role in how she leads. She remembers exactly what it felt like to be the young woman everyone assumed was there to just take notes or run errands.

“I feel a certain responsibility and get a certain joy about spending time with everyone in our organization,” she said. “It was people at levels like I am now who saw something in me when I was just starting. I want to be that person for somebody else.”

The Pistons still have to prove this window can deliver the banners Detroit craves, but they no longer resemble a franchise waiting for something to happen to them. By pairing Harris’ brand and community vision with Langdon’s front office rebuild and Bickerstaff’s work on the floor, Gores has seemingly assembled the kind of dream team in leadership that eluded the organization for more than a decade. In a city that measures success by surviving the hard years, the most important change may be that the Pistons now look built to endure whatever comes next.

Three questions with Melanie Harris

Who are the biggest influences on your life and career?

People who didn’t start with much but refused to let that define them, and who, after succeeding, chose to lift others up. My grandparents were my first examples of that. None of them had the easiest beginnings, but they each modeled discipline, faith, and an unshakable work ethic. Watching them persevere shaped how I approach both life and work.

Later in my career, I saw that same mindset at the highest level through my interactions with Michael Jordan. During my time at Jordan Brand, I learned from him what relentless excellence really looks like. Talent wasn’t enough — preparation, standards and accountability mattered more.

I see a similar story in Tom Gores. From arriving in this country with very little to building Platinum Equity and becoming the owner of the Pistons, Tom’s journey is rooted in grit, long-term vision and the true belief that there are no limits to what we can each achieve.

Those examples shaped me. Work hard. Think smart. Don’t let adversity define you. And when you make it — reach back and help someone else climb.

What message would you give to young, Black women looking to enter the sports industry today?

Believe in yourself deeply and unapologetically. There will already be enough people who question whether you belong — you cannot be one of them. Protect and nurture your own confidence. It’s not arrogance; it’s armor.

Let go of the idea that you have to constantly prove you deserve to be in the room. You’re there because you earned it. When you spend your energy trying to justify your presence, you dilute the very gifts that got you there. Instead, focus on mastering the things only you can do. Lean into your strengths. Refine your voice. Excel in your lane.

And always remember you bring something to the table that no one else can. Your perspective, your lived experience, your instincts — those are assets, not obstacles. In a space that is still largely male, and often not built with you in mind, your difference is your power. Own it. Protect it. And let it open doors for the next woman coming behind you.

What does your perfect day off in Detroit look like?

A perfect day off would have to start with sunshine, because I’ve already learned I need to take advantage of it when we get it here. I’d spend the morning outside with my kids and our dog, probably just walking around our neighborhood. No rush, no schedule — just being present.

At some point, I’m making a phone call to my mom or one of my girlfriends. Those check-ins ground me. No matter how busy life gets, those conversations remind me who I am outside of work.

And to end the day? Mindless TV. Nothing heavy, just something easy that lets my brain fully turn off.

For me, a perfect day isn’t about big plans. It’s about family, fresh air, connection and giving myself permission to slow down.

With the Padres on the verge of an MLB-record $3.9B sale, at least one industry insider wondered if a franchise 90 minutes north of San Diego could be next to hit the market.

“Arte Moreno would be the first one I’d put on that list if he’s still interested,” consultant Marc Ganis, who has ties to many owners, told SBJ.

Moreno, the Angels’ owner, retained Galatioto Sports Partners to explore a potential sale in August 2022 before changing course in January 2023. At the time, Moreno was believed to be seeking $2.5B-$3B.

In Ganis’ view, the Angels, also sitting in a premium geographic location, could make a great consolation prize for the three bidders set to miss out on the Padres.

Unlike the Padres, the Angels have uncertainty surrounding their ballpark. However, they’re in a larger market than San Diego. While the Padres have shifted to MLB Media for their local broadcasts, the Angels elected to go in-house.

“I could see an immediate benefit for Arte, again if he still has interest in selling, because you have 2-3 qualified capital intensive bidding groups that will have lost in the Padres process, and, if Arte was interested in selling, they could easily pivot to the Angels,” Ganis said.

Franchise values of California teams have been skyrocketing. Forbes values the Warriors at $11B, the Rams at $10.5B, the Lakers at $10B (which they just sold for), the Dodgers at $7.8B, the Clippers at $7.5B and the Chargers at $6B.

During a presentation at Braves Investor Day last June, MLB league valuations were cited at 4-11x implied revenue multiples, with average franchise values at $2.8B. NBA league valuations were cited at 10-15x implied revenue multiples, with average franchise values at $4.6B. The Padres are slated to go for nearly 8x revenue ($500M).

“Baseball needs to have ownership (groups) that are striving across the board to be at the highest levels,” Ganis said. “Not trying to bring down those teams that are at the highest levels and subsidize the lower ones. That’s a mindset shift. But it’s a mindset shift that will come from more people like Jose (Feliciano), if he’s the guy that gets (the Padres), buying baseball teams.”

David Blitzer has the option to be the majority owner of the Guardians after the 2027 season.

“Think of Harris-Blitzer when they bought the 76ers. They’ve lost a lot of cash by putting money into the team, but they have increased the asset value substantially by multiples,” Ganis said. “People who are used to making investments to build businesses like Josh (Harris) and David understand that. Those are the kinds of owners we need in baseball.”

The Penners -- majority owners of the Broncos -- just acquired a 40% stake in the Rockies. “I don’t know that they do, but I hope they have options to take over control. Because that’s the type of owner that MLB needs,” Ganis said.

Late Padres owner Peter Seidler treated a small-market team like a big-market team, and his heirs are set to benefit as a result.

“He treated it like a big-market team. He put a lot of cash into the team. He paid for payers, marketing and better facilities,” Ganis said. “And the end result is his heirs are benefiting from that investment.”

Word that U.S. sports predictions market dominator Kalshi popped a record volume number on last weekend’s Masters got me thinking about why golf seems to be punching above its weight on that prediction market, and whether there’s a takeaway that says something about the sport’s potential as a betting product.

Like traditional sports betting, prediction markets percolate based on how much betting interest there is in an event. The Super Bowl and March Madness are good parallels. But prediction market volume also rises based on how often bettors — in some cases larger entities that are treating the sports results the way they would other commodities futures — move in and out of contracts throughout an event.

In the case of a football game, they might take an undervalued team at a lower price — i.e., long odds — at kickoff and then trade out of the position early in the third quarter, when the price on the team has risen, i.e., the odds have dropped. At a sportsbook, that’s called live, or in-play betting. It’s catching on. But it’s not the dominant approach, as it is for those fueling prediction markets.

Think about how that approach applies in golf. The window for most betting around a football or basketball game is about four hours wide, starting in the hour before kickoff or tipoff, as bettors check final injury reports, weigh trends and put on lucky socks, and continuing through the end of the game. The window for betting on a PGA Tour event is four days.

Four hours vs. four days.

I’m going to refill my coffee while you process that.

Four hours vs. four days.

It stands to reason that if that dynamic is driving volume on Kalshi, it should be stoking in-play betting on DraftKings, FanDuel and other sportsbooks.

A timely check-in with Scott Warfield, VP/Gaming at the PGA Tour (and 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree), confirmed that suspicion. Handle on Tour events, not counting the Masters, which does its own thing, is up 33% vs. this time last year. Number of bets is pacing 18% ahead. The number of people betting is up 15%.

So when Kalshi recorded $545 million in volume on the Masters, beating the most recent Super Bowl (not counting Bad Bunny bets and other assorted silliness), Warfield didn’t raise an eyebrow.

“Considering we’re coming off WM Phoenix Open, which was our most bet-on PGA Tour event of all time — and that lasted all of one month until the Players, which became the most bet-on PGA Tour event of all time — I’m not sure I was surprised,” said Warfield, who has been beating the drum for golf in-play education since joining the tour in at the start of 2021. “There is certainly a bit of wind at the back in terms of golf betting.”

Warfield pointed to golf fans learning the betting menu and bettors seeing how in-play applies to golf for the growth. He also credited sportsbooks’ broad adoption of the PGA Tour’s data product, which moved to Sportradar this year when it acquired IMG Arena, and their increasingly visible placement of it on their apps. This year’s expansion of the tour’s betcast channel as an all-day alt feed during the tour’s higher purse “signature” events likely also has helped.

New frontiers

Last month, the tour made significant in-roads in golf-mad Florida, where the state’s lone sportsbook operator, Hard Rock Bet, finally expanded its data deal with Sportradar to include its full suite of golf odds and in-app animation that allows bettors to track all 18 holes in near real time.

“The impetus of all of those content [expansions] was to educate people that it’s not set-it-and-forget-it,” Warfield said, referring to the days when the only golf bets were prematch odds on tournament winners. “It can be set-it-and-forget-it. But it also can be set it, and change it, and add to it, and alter it throughout a four-day period.”

Kind of like prediction markets, right?

That’s the next frontier that the tour now must contemplate. MLB chose its path shortly before Opening Day, when it carved prediction markets out as its own sponsor category, signing an exclusive deal with Polymarket and beginning work on an authorized designation for other operators. The NHL did deals with Kalshi and Polymarket at the start of its season. The NBA and NFL are deep into reviews of their respective approaches.

Ball in government’s court

Considering the uncertain legal grounds underpinning sports predictions, waiting as long as possible may be the prudent course. But a determinant ruling, which could eventually come from the Supreme Court, could take years. Or, best case, a year. When and if it does come, it could go either way.

And with Congress taking a closer look at the CFTC, as it did Thursday during this House Ag committee hearing, there’s a chance sports betting is punted off the CFTC’s menu before it ever gets that far.

Like Nate Bargatze says, nobody knows.

In an equation chocked with variables, the one constant is that the CFTC and Chair Michael Selig, the only commissioner in place on a board that is supposed to have five of them, will cling tightly to agency’s purview over sports prediction contracts until the Supreme Court, the Trump administration or Congress demands that he let go. The good news for the leagues is that he appears willing to put in place guardrails similar to those around sports betting and will give them a say in what they look like.

Those who wait may get more clarity. But they also may be sacrificing large sponsor checks from well-funded prediction market operators eager for their blessing and their valuable digital pipeline to fans.

“We’ve always been analyzing and looking at trends as they develop, and that would include what has happened in the last 24 months with CFTC-regulated products,” Warfield said. “Like the other leagues, there are a ton of things for the PGA Tour to consider that we’re working through, from regulatory framework to integrity to commercial. We’re going through the process. I’m not sure there will ever be an end date. I don’t have a timeline. We will move at the pace that is right for our sport, our company and our stakeholders, including players and tournaments.”

The NBA journeyman who plays for several teams over the course of his career has existed for decades, long before Dennis Schröder completed the rainbow of jersey colors. In recent years though, we’ve seen the multiteam career path, that was historically reserved for role players, become the norm for superstars who are destined for the Hall of Fame. To restore the allure and branding opportunities that come from its stars spending their entire careers in one jersey, the NBA should grant players the opportunity to receive part ownership in its franchises.

The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and team owners have already made efforts to reduce the whiplash of frequent star player movement. The 2023 collective-bargaining agreement allowed teams to offer their star players “supermax” contract extensions that are worth more than what they could be offered by any suitors in free agency. To offer these deals, most teams must go into the highest spending tier, the “second apron,” of their salary cap. Once beyond the second apron, they lose the mid-level exception that allows teams to sign veteran players for anywhere between $5.7 million and $13 million. Instead, these high-paying teams can only offer veterans minimum deals.

In this attempt to incentivize great players to remain with their original teams, the league has made it difficult for teams that hope to contend for a championship to bring in talented role players to complement their stars. For such role players, these rules have limited their career earning potential.

While the next CBA negotiations are still years away, the NBPA and league’s owners should be prepared to create a path for active players to participate in team ownership. Opening the door for players to receive equity stakes, earned through years of high-level play, would serve as the ultimate curve against frequent free agent movement and trade requests.

A handful of NBA players have been vocal about this idea. Most recently, in an interview with Bloomberg, Celtics All-Star and 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown expressed his belief that NBA players should receive team equity options and “be able to invest alongside ownership groups.” Another player who supports this is Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, who said that he believes some players in the NBA are underpaid.

While I’d never say that Brown and Curry, who are both on contracts worth more than $200 million, are underpaid, there’s an argument to be made that high-achieving NBA players should be able to earn their way to receiving franchise equity. The NBA is the most star-driven professional sports league in the United States, and iconic players can raise a franchise’s value. Curry’s career with the Warriors is a great example of this.

When Joe Lacob’s ownership group purchased the team in 2010, the year after Curry was drafted, they paid a price of $450 million. In October 2025, the team was valued at $11 billion. Curry’s time with the team, which has included four championships, two MVP awards, and a 3-point-driven revolution in how the sport is played, ignited this explosion in franchise value.

A player, like Curry, who spends their iconic career with one team, will inevitably be a part of that franchise’s brand for the rest of its history. It’s only right that such an impactful player should be able to join the ownership group, even while still playing out the final years of their on-court career.

If the NBA and NBPA allow this to take place in the next CBA, it would certainly come with challenges. To name just two, the league would have to rework its salary cap structure and determine which criteria makes a player eligible to be offered equity. Executed properly, this change would incentivize great players to remain with their teams without hindering role players’ earning potential. This is an important step in captivating the next generation’s interest in a league that built its popularity on superstars building legacies with their respective franchises.

Jabari Chiphe is a 2026 MBA candidate at Washington University Olin Business School.

• The Yankees reported nearly $224.9 million in aggregate ticket sales and suite license revenue for Q1 2026, down slightly from Q1 2025 ($226.7 million), though there were no home games played during the first quarter this season as opposed to three last season, reports SBJ’s Mike Mazzeo.
• Longtime former PGA of America partnerships executive Luke Reissman founded LDR Partnerships, a brand and property consultancy, after leaving the organization on April 1, notes SBJ’s Josh Carpenter.
• David Manica, known for designing high-end sports venue experiences, and mixed-use entertainment developer and operator The Cordish Companies will build The Residence, a 4,000-square-foot high-end bar in the heart of K.C.’s Power & Light District, notes SBJ’s David Broughton.