SBJ Unpacks: Kentucky Oaks takes a prime-time stage

Tonight in Unpacks: The Kentucky Derby remains horse racing’s top draw, but the Kentucky Oaks is no lightweight event — one Churchill Downs and NBC are keen to grow by putting the race on a Friday night for the first time, as SBJ’s Austin Karp reports in this week’s magazine.

Also tonight:

• MLS, KKR form venture to commercialize Next Pro
• DAZN acquires ViewLift to bolster its case for NBA, NHL teams
• Ford plays ball with Aaron Judge
• Op-ed: Pursuit of gold medals creating ethical gray areas

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour discusses MLS’ intriguing deal for commercial management of its minor-league teams, the dark clouds hanging over LIV Golf as it loses its chairman, the Big 12’s historic private equity agreement and more.

Churchill Downs and NBC Sports are bringing their own version of “Friday Night Lights” to Louisville this week, as the Kentucky Oaks will run Friday in prime time for the first time since it began in 1875. It’s all part of a brand development push to increase national attention for “Kentucky Derby Week,” an effort that Churchill Downs has leaned into over the last decade.

“We’ve got themed days for almost every day of that week,” said Churchill Downs Racetrack President Mike Anderson, referencing Sunday Funday, 502’s Day (Tuesday), Winsday and Thurby that precede the Oaks on Friday and the Derby on Saturday. “We’ve been trying to grow them.”

During a first-quarter earnings call last week, Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen called the slate of events at Churchill around the Derby “comparable to hosting five Super Bowls over the course of one week.”

Carstanjen on the call added that moving the Oaks to prime time “strengthens the event’s appeal” with existing and potential sponsors. “A chance to build that brand with a national broadcasting platform is really, really important for driving wagering, for driving sponsorship opportunities, for driving sponsorship awareness,” he said. “It’s a great springboard to remind people that the Kentucky Derby is the next day.”

The Oaks by itself is certainly no lightweight event. The race for 3-year-old fillies annually draws a crowd north of 100,000, and it has been broadcast on the USA Network in recent years. From 2023 to 2025, the event averaged 304,000 viewers from 5 p.m. ET until its conclusion (roughly 6:10 p.m. to 6:25 p.m.).

On Friday, it will be shown on NBC from 8 to 9 p.m. ET, the same window in which the network averaged 1.38 million viewers for an episode of “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” in 2025. The Oaks will also stream on Peacock.

NBC Sports, which has Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks rights through 2032, certainly has little fear in moving sporting events into prime-time windows. The company showcased the NBA on Tuesday and Sunday nights this past season, and will feature MLB and the WNBA on a number of Sunday nights this spring and summer.

Jon Miller, NBC Sports’ president of acquisitions and partnerships, noted he and his team have frequently been talking over the years with Anderson, Carstanjen and Churchill Downs Inc. President and COO Bill Mudd about making the event feel bigger.

“We realized that the Oaks is an underappreciated, undervalued event that has 100,000 attendants, but up until recently had been relegated to cable and in the afternoon, and just didn’t get the proper attention and exposure that it warranted,” Miller said. “The idea was, well, if we moved it to later in the evening, that would give a lot more people the opportunity to see since Friday is a workday.”

Miller also said a key factor in getting an internal green light from the network’s research, marketing, promotion, sales and affiliates staff was that special events — especially live sports — have shown to be attractive vehicles for driving audiences in the modern media landscape.

“Churchill will put on a spectacular event with all the pageantry that they do,” he said. “And our entertainment division saw the benefit in that, and that’s kind of how we ended up there.”

“We realized that the Oaks is an underappreciated, undervalued event that has 100,000 attendants, but up until recently had been relegated to cable and in the afternoon and just didn’t get the proper attention and exposure that it warranted.”

—  Jon Miller, president of acquisitions and partnerships, NBC Sports

Anderson believes the Oaks has unique elements that will allow it to stand out for casual fans. The race displays pageantry that viewers often associate with the Derby’s Saturday feel.

“We have made it all about the ladies, all about the women, all about the fillies and the race,” said Anderson, noting the Oaks has had a pink theme since 2009. A partnership with cancer awareness groups highlights ovarian and breast cancer survivors as well as cancer research.

Michelle Walkup, the marketing director of Churchill Downs, said she has been working closely with NBC producer Lindsay Schanzer’s team and NBC Sports marketing to make sure the event has a strong female presence, whether it’s the national anthem, the riders-up call, fashion contests and other various Oaks moments.

“Moving the post time and having the prime-time coverage has allowed us multiple opportunities,” said Walkup, who did not want to tip her hand as to the celebrities that NBC viewers may see during the Oaks broadcast.

This isn’t the first major horse racing event that Churchill Downs has hosted under its lights, which were installed in 2010. That year, the Breeders’ Cup ran under the new lights in a first for the storied event. Churchill Downs also had its own six-pack of night races in an effort to drum up track attendance in the fall of 2010.

Since then, there has been consistent chatter about a nighttime Kentucky Derby, but Carstanjen still believes the first leg of the Triple Crown is in the right window.

“Everything about the audience, everything about our ratings, says that we’ve got that part of the equation right for now,” Carstanjen told Sports Business Journal last summer.

Following the Triple Crown this year, Churchill Downs Inc. will turn its attention to improving the marketing and promotion of the Preakness Stakes in Maryland, after agreeing to acquire the Preakness and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes from 1/ST Maryland LLC for $85 million. The deal will give Churchill the intellectual property — including all trademarks and associated rights — for the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

It all comes as the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes face potentially major questions about their scheduling after 2026. Sources told SBJ that the Preakness could have a new spot on the racing calendar and a new broadcast home beginning in 2027.

MLS and private equity firm KKR have agreed to establish a joint venture that will centrally control the commercial rights for most teams in the MLS Next Pro development league. The concept has been in development since early 2024 and received final approval from MLS owners following more in-depth discussion and refinement over the past several months.

The new company, Hometown Soccer Holdings, plans to move Next Pro teams that are affiliated with MLS clubs to nearby mid-sized markets, where the firm will facilitate the construction of multipurpose stadiums with roughly 6,000-8,000 seats. HSH will oversee venue operations, branding, ticketing, sponsorship, merchandising, finance and other business functions for all teams involved.

MLS clubs will have the option of whether to turn over business operations of their development teams to the joint venture or to retain those rights, with most expected to opt in. Those that do will retain control of soccer operations for their Next Pro teams, including coaching, player development, contracts and travel.

“There’s overwhelming interest and support from our clubs that they want to work within this new partnership framework,” said MLS Next Pro President Ali Curtis, who declined to estimate exactly how many teams would participate.

HSH will be operated by longtime soccer executive and former Tepper Sports & Entertainment President Tom Glick and former Galaxy President Chris Klein. They plan to hire central staff based in Charlotte to oversee the operation, as well as on-the-ground business staff in each market as clubs are established.

MLS Next Pro, which is sanctioned as a Division III league in the U.S. Soccer pyramid, debuted in 2022 and is now in its fifth season. The league includes 30 teams, including 27 affiliated with MLS parent clubs and three operated by independent ownership groups in High Point, N.C., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Bridgeport, Conn. Additional independent teams in Cleveland, Jacksonville, Long Island, N.Y., and Grand Rapids, Mich., have been approved to join in upcoming seasons. Operation of the independent clubs will be unaffected by the joint venture.

For the majority of MLS clubs, building a business around their Next Pro teams has either not been a priority or not been viewed as feasible. Many of those teams have played in largely empty stadiums in their organization’s primary market, with Next Pro operations functioning as a cost center for the purpose of player development.

For those teams, opting into HSH will enable them to outsource business operations of their development teams to a centralized entity dedicated to running lower-level clubs.

A few MLS clubs, including Nashville SC and FC Dallas, have made significant investments to commercialize their Next Pro teams in secondary markets, including through stadium infrastructure. Those organizations are likely to continue operating on their own. Others like the Galaxy and Earthquakes have taken a less involved approach, signing short-term licensing deals for their commercial rights to operators in nearby markets.

HSH will take a phased approach to rolling out teams in their new markets, with Glick saying he expects to launch several new teams a year once the process begins. The group has already approached municipalities across the country to gauge their interest in building publicly funded and owned stadiums that would be operated by HSH. He pointed to Mansfield, Texas’ construction of an $88M stadium for FC Dallas’ Next Pro team and Grand Rapids’ construction of a $175M venue for its incoming independent teams as existing examples of this model.

“We think there are really good partnerships that can be built like this with soccer-first, multipurpose venues that are busy, vibrant parts of their communities where professional soccer and other sports and other live events are also happening,” Glick said.

KKR’s investment thesis is underpinned by what executives view as significant untapped demand. Glick said there are more than 100 U.S. markets that are large enough to support professional soccer but don’t have a team.

Curtis and KKR Partner Ted Oberwager cited Nashville SC’s establishment of its Next Pro team in Huntsville, Ala., as a template for what HSH hopes to accomplish across the country. The team plays in a former minor league baseball stadium that the city renovated and repurposed for soccer, averaging nearly 5,000 fans per game through its first three seasons.

“We’ve had examples like in Huntsville of successful teams going out and commercializing, and ultimately you can look at places like Minor League Baseball or USL where there’s vibrant local teams that have great businesses and really provide unique sports and entertainment to cities and towns that aren’t lucky enough to have an NFL, MLB or MLS team,” Oberwager said.

The model is reminiscent of Diamond Baseball Holdings, which has rolled up dozens of Minor League Baseball clubs across the U.S. The key difference is that instead of acquiring existing teams and adapting them to a centralized operational model, the Next Pro teams are effectively blank canvases, allowing HSH to build a unified platform from the ground up.

“We’re going to have one unified platform over time versus buying a bunch of preexisting assets that you have to almost rework,” Oberwager said. “We can have a strategy and a playbook from the very outset and bring everything into it. That creates incremental efficiency and scalability in a way that really you could only do in 2026.”

Specific financial terms of KKR’s investment in HSH were not disclosed. The venture will begin with KKR and MLS as 50-50 partners in HSH, which will own the commercial rights for all participating Next Pro teams. The equity percentages will likely shift as KKR deploys additional capital to facilitate the rollout of additional teams in new markets.

“We have scale capital, sports expertise and a very long-term horizon,” Oberwager said. “This is not going to be done overnight. This is going to take years to realize its full potential. To be able to work with complex situations in a way that is very solutions oriented, I think we were the right partner for them at this moment in time.”

In addition to selling team-level sponsorship for participating clubs, HSH will lead league-level sponsorship sales efforts for Next Pro.

In an interview prior to the MLS season, MLS Commissioner Don Garber acknowledged being engaged in discussions with private equity firms about investment in Next Pro.

“We believe that having a strategic partner for MLS Next Pro will benefit the league and even further stimulate the development of players, which is such an important part of the MLS ethos,” Garber said.

Andalusian Sports Advisors served as financial advisor to KKR and HSH, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP serving as their legal advisor. Moelis & Co. LLC served as financial advisor to MLS, with Proskauer Rose LLP serving as legal advisor.

With DAZN in heavy pursuit of NBA and NHL franchises -- and looking to reverse the perception of being an outsider in the U.S. -- the London-based streaming service has acquired OTT platform ViewLift in a merger that could bolster its position with teams and leagues.

Industry sources said the sales price was roughly $100M and that the deal should close by the end of June. In the meantime, both DAZN and ViewLift will continue their pitches to the 20 teams (13 NBA, seven NHL) that just exited Main Street Sports Group and are looking for 2026-27 local broadcast solutions.

Time is perhaps also of the essence. Many of those teams seem interested in formalizing deals before the May advertising upfronts or soon after, only magnifying the gravity of the DAZN-ViewLift arrangement.

According to ViewLift co-founder and CEO Rick Allen, those 20 available teams will likely have three options to weigh from DAZN-ViewLift. First, the NBA or NHL teams can join ViewLift’s current model, or “ViewLift Classic,” which does not offer a minimum guarantee but powers and monetizes a team’s DTC app. A few of ViewLift’s current clients, for instance, are the Nuggets and Avalanche at Altitude+, the Wizards and Capitals at Monumental+, the Red Sox at NESN 360, the Rockets and Astros at Space City Home Network+, and the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox on the Chicago Sports Network app.

A second option for the 20 teams is heading to DAZN’s streaming subscription model. In recent pitch meetings, sources said DAZN has offered minimum guarantees between $8M and $15M with the idea it would simulcast 10 to 15 games on a local OTA channel or 10 to 15 games in front of their paywall -- to gain traction in local NBA and NHL markets.

“This is an enormous $16 billion, 4,000-person company,” Allen said of DAZN. “Nobody has to worry about the Main Street punch. The [DAZN] checks cash, they will always cash. The backing for this company is astounding.”

The third -- and more big picture option once the deal closes -- is for DAZN to perhaps take ViewLift’s current 15 teams to its streaming service and recruit as many of those 20 ex-Main Street teams as it can. That would create an aggregated hub, similar to what the NBA is trying to develop for its teams as early as next season or at least by 2027-28.

“Every one of those teams has heard from View Lift, has heard from DAZN about, again, those kind of classic versions of their business models,’’ Allen said. “If a team is ready to make that selection, do it, close it up, don’t wait, let’s go do it. If either of those solutions aren’t sufficient to make you jump and take the deal, let’s talk about what it is that you need to see [perhaps through a DAZN hub] to have it fully represent what you hope to achieve with these valuable rights. And let’s find a way to get that done.’’

By pulling off that aggregated hub, in concert with ViewLift, DAZN would clearly be showing the NBA and NHL that it could capably house future national streaming RSNs. That could be the long-term upside of the ViewLift acquisition. The NBA is already in talks with Amazon and YouTube about creating a centralized streaming platform, and, according to Allen, “We are having that same conversation with both leagues.”

For now, the terms of the acquisition are clear. Allen said ViewLift -- which he co-founded in 2008 and says has been profitable for seven straight years -- will “move under the DAZN umbrella,” while DAZN Group CEO Shay Segev describes ViewLift “as an independent company under DAZN ownership.” Allen said his company’s leadership, staff, platform, clients and shareholders will all shift to DAZN.

“We fight above our weight class,” said Allen, unsure if ViewLift will re-brand its name. “We are not the biggest company in America by a long shot. And to be able to put all our credibility, our experience, our proven track record in the American market together with this gigantic global player, it’s just better for them and clearly better for us.”

For DAZN, the deal serves multiple purposes, starting with its statement that ViewLift will “extend its platform into a flexible B2B2C and SaaS model, supporting leagues and clubs that wish to maintain their own direct-to-consumer products, while benefiting from DAZN’s global reach, infrastructure and integrated ecosystem.”

But, relative to its almost relentless pursuit of American sports rights, Segev specifically said, “This announcement is an exciting step forward in DAZN’s U.S. expansion plans.” The company already houses NFL Game Pass and NHL.TV internationally, has exclusive streaming rights to the NBA in Spain and has been ensconced in the U.S. looking for more.

DAZN earlier toyed with investing in or purchasing Main Street Sports Group, although sources said Main Street’s multi-million-dollar debt became the obstacle. DAZN then went independently to the MLB teams that were fleeing Main Street, hoping to be the Main Street replacement from scratch. When the MLB teams went a different direction, DAZN began meeting with the NBA and NHL clubs.

They weren’t alone. Fubo entered the scene, as well, offering a hybrid direct-to-distributer/streaming model with similar minimum guarantees of between $8M and $15M. The free, ad-supported Victory+ -- also offering a minimum guarantee -- began its own serious talks with the T-Wolves and other undisclosed NBA teams. Entities such as Gray Media, Sinclair, Scripps and Nexstar (which recently acquired Tegna) dangled linear OTA options with rights fees likely below $10M, to be augmented by DTC partners such as ViewLift.

Meanwhile, ViewLift’s direct competitors were Kiswe and Deltatre, which purchased Endeavor Streaming last July. It has all turned the pursuit of local sports TV rights into what Allen has called “chaos.”

But the DAZN-ViewLift merger -- with Citigroup advising DAZN and Rockefeller Capital Management advising ViewLift -- is suddenly a whole other model. Sources from one NBA team said they were skeptical of DAZN because it was an unproven commodity in the U.S. and relatively unknown to the general public, as well -- raising concerns about discoverability. So ViewLift could be a conduit.

“They have great respect for our presence in the U.S. market where they aren’t as well known as the rest of the world knows them,” Allen said “They know that we’ve spent an awful lot of time getting to understand the issues of the U.S. pro sports teams and leagues, and they want us to work with them to find the best solutions for those stakeholders.

“It is a transaction of strength with strength.”

Ford was MLB’s most notable offseason corporate sponsorship signing, being the league’s first new auto sponsor in more than 20 years. Now sources tell us that the carmaker is jacking up its car rights further by enlisting Yankees OF Aaron Judge, certainly one of the most sought-after endorsers across the league, if not the most active.

Ford, through its N.Y.-area Tri-State dealer co-op, has been a Yankees sponsor since 2005. As you’d expect with the Yankees, there’s some history there: That same dealer organization had Derek Jeter as a pitchman in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Other Judge endorsements: Big League Chew gum, Nike’s Jordan Brand, Ralph Lauren, Prime Hydration and legal AI platform Legora.

Judge’s on-field contract agent, Page Odle of PSI Sports, negotiated the deal with Ford, agency sources said.

Comps are always intriguing: Shohei Ohtani, the lone MLBer whose stardom eclipses Judge, has been a Porsche endorser since 2023. Makes you wonder which Ford vehicles Judge will be, er, pitching.

The athletic department at the University of Texas is big business. But don’t take my word for it. At the end of last year, CNBC said it was the most valuable athletic department in the country at a $1.48 billion valuation.

Rob Novak, the CFO for Texas Athletics, said that because of the department’s scale, revenue victories come in much more incremental ways. So when Texas found a platform that became the mesh for its customer data and supported sales for women’s basketball ticket sales growth, it was a staggering boost. “To be sold out in all six ticketed sports is the dream, from a fan engagement perspective and from a brand and affinity deal,” Novak said of the aspiration, a grouping that also includes football, volleyball, men’s basketball, baseball, and softball.

Texas is closer than ever to that with the help of Equipe, a data infrastructure startup that emerged publicly in February with the announcement of a $1.5 million investment from Roger Ehrenberg’s Game Changers Ventures.

The main mission of Equipe, founded by Nick Benson and Sajan Gutta, is to turn its customer data platform into a super highway for the various data silos and create golden fan records (a record that the entire tech stack defaults to) for college sports operators. This is a problem many are trying to tackle across the entire industry, but it’s especially tricky in college, where the term “fan” can encompass single-game buyers, season-ticket holders, alumni, donors, and boosters.

The company spent the last year working in stealth at the best proving ground in college athletics, a process that helped to level set the platform for business. “The first few months and even today, there’s always new things that you’re discovering and having to iterate on,” Gutta said. “We try and iterate on our product as fast as possible, and figure that the more we improve it – and the speed we improve it at – it’s going to end up being able to solve every issue they have in the long run.”

Turning a cold outreach into hot sales leads

Equipe’s connection to Texas actually started via cold outreach, which landed in the inbox of a now-departed employee (Craig Tigges, currently CFO at Arkansas). That came at a time when Texas needed a more nimble solution around its data. Ultimately, an official RFP process took place where Equipe outshone others, Novak shared, and the parties went to work.

The biggest help for Texas, both Novak and Assistant AD of Finance Jack Luddy shared, came via Equipe’s segmentation and customized search capabilities. Novak says the financial office now has the speed to get info quickly to the ticketing office or development team so they can act on that data quickly instead of waiting a day or more for reports.

“It’s almost that customer’s Wikipedia page,” Luddy added. “What about them? What have they done in the past? What games have they attended? What can we do for them in the future?”

That view helped the athletics department grow its women’s basketball season ticket holders. When the basketball programs moved from the Frank Erwin Center to the Moody Center ahead of the 2022-23 season, Novak said only 1,700 women’s season ticket holders carried over. Now, after years of work, plus this enhanced effort with Equipe lately, that number has ballooned to more than 6,000. Novak expects to hit that sixth sold-out sport next year, boosted by back-to-back Final Four runs for the women’s program.

To do it, Texas converted people who were infrequent attendees (maybe they only attended marquee games) or were on other sports’ waitlists, just wanting to be a steady presence around Texas athletics. Equipe made those discoveries much easier to sift through.

“There’s a ton of folks that want our kids to succeed and making sure that we know who they are and we’re stewarding them appropriately – thanking them for attending the game, making sure we get a fan survey, making sure we act on those fan surveys, making sure we have activation before the event,” Novak said. “All of those things are so important to Chris [Del Conte, Texas athletic director] on building the brand, building the experience, building the affinity, and this gave us the data to back it up.”

Elite sports in 2026 blend a duality of performance and commercial pressure. This standard is quietly reshaping how ethical decisions are made behind the scenes. From global sponsorships to media rights, the stakes surrounding major sporting events have never been higher. As the business side accelerates, so does the pressure on athletes, coaches, and administrators to deliver results.

The risk asserts itself as questionable gray zones, shrouded by growing silence. As sports organizations continue to invest in performance infrastructure, many are underinvesting in something just as critical: systems and cultures that make it safe to speak up.

The business of winning is creating ethical blind spots

The scale of commercial investment in sport is redefining what’s at stake. Research shows the Paris 2024 Olympics generated approximately $1.34 billion in sponsorship revenue, a roughly 60% increase over Tokyo 2020.

This growth reflects a dynamic environment in which financial and competitive expectations are intensifying. Under that pressure, ethical decision-making often erodes gradually:

• A medical exemption is pushed a little further
• A recruitment practice could skirt internal rules
• Data or reporting is framed to protect performance outcomes

These aren’t always clear violations. Often, they’re rationalized decisions made under high pressure. In these circumstances, many ethical lapses in sports often begin as justified exceptions, but can escalate.

Why misconduct in sports often goes unreported

If ethical lines are blurring, why aren’t more concerns raised internally?

The answer lies in the structure and culture of sport itself. Careers are short. Hierarchies are steep. Reputation is everything.

Across industries, employees already hesitate to report misconduct, often due to fear of retaliation. Just as concerning, research highlights that one-third of employees (33.2%) witnessed retaliation against someone who spoke up, discouraging future reporting.

In sport, those risks are amplified:

• Athletes speaking up can mean lost selection/team placement, reduced playing time, or the end of a sponsorship deal
• For staff, it can mean exclusion from future opportunities in a tightly networked industry

Silence, in this context, is often a calculated decision to protect one’s career.

The cost of silence: From internal issue to public crisis

The problem is not just that misconduct occurs; it’s that it often remains internal until it can’t be contained.

A 2024 study of athletes across six European countries found that many were reluctant to report doping due to fear of retaliation, career damage and a deeply ingrained “code of silence” within teams. Athletes prefer to address issues informally by bringing their concerns directly to teammates or coaches, rather than using formal channels.

It may feel safer to address concerns informally, but it could introduce future organizational risk. If these issues aren’t properly addressed, they could escalate from:

• Internal concern → media investigation
• Isolated incident → systemic failure
• Reputational risk → commercial fallout

Organizations risk losing control altogether when employees bypass internal channels.

Speak-up culture as a competitive advantage

Sports organizations can view ethics as a performance issue rather than solely a compliance one.

A strong speak-up culture can make risks easier to identify by creating an environment where issues can be raised before they develop into full-blown crises. This allows for better decisions under pressure and protects an athlete’s well-being and brand integrity.

Research shows that employees are significantly more likely to report misconduct when they trust that they will be protected and that meaningful action will follow. Trust, like that between athletes and their teams, becomes an ethical and competitive advantage in high-pressure environments.

What sports organizations get wrong about whistleblowing

Many sports organizations continue to rely on informal or incomplete reporting methods.

Research on whistleblowing in sports highlights recurring barriers:

• Fear of consequences, such as for their career or retribution from teammates
• A strong team “code of silence” that promotes “solidarity” and norms of loyalty
• Non-reporting is framed as “not my problem,” often because they feel they can’t influence actions

Athletes also tend to show limited awareness of reporting options and rely on informal channels shaped by team culture. When those channels feel unsafe, concerns are more likely to be suppressed.

This is where many organizations fall short. They assume culture alone will carry the weight of ethics. But culture without infrastructure can fold under pressure.

Building ethical resilience under pressure

To counter these dynamics, organizations must embed ethical infrastructure into the fabric of performance culture.

Key actions for sports organizations:

• Normalize anonymous and confidential reporting
• Provide multiple reporting channels that don’t all go directly to supervisors
• Reinforce anti-retaliation policies with visible, consistent enforcement
• Increase transparency by sharing anonymized insights into how issues are handled
• Train coaches and leadership to recognize subtle or unintentional retaliation

For executives and commercial leaders:

• Treat ethics and compliance as a brand protection strategy
• Align sponsorship and governance expectations with internal accountability systems
• Ensure ethical risk is part of enterprise risk management discussions, beneficial before major events

For team and athlete environments:

• Build psychological safety into daily operations
• Make it clear that speaking up aligns with team success and not disloyalty

Resilience is built into the systems and signals organizations create long before those moments arrive.

The integrity test behind the medal count

The forces driving growth in sport are the same forces increasing ethical risk. The question is not whether sports organizations will face ethical challenges, but whether they can surface and address concerns early.

“Success’” will not be defined solely by podium finishes or revenue growth, but by trust. In a business built on global visibility, integrity is not just a value; it’s a competitive edge.

Shannon Walker is the founder of WhistleBlower Security Inc. (WBS) and executive vice president of Thought Leadership and Strategy at Case IQ.

• The latest episode of the SBJ Sports Media Podcast sees co-hosts Austin Karp and Josh Carpenter break down Disney’s decision to keep ESPN under its umbrella (for now), NFL Draft viewership and push to get Caitlin Clark more time on national WNBA broadcast. Also: Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen previews this weekend’s Kentucky Derby.
• Karp also reports on the NFL Draft’s 12% dip in viewership in this week’s Audience Analysis and that the local audiences for NHL teams grew 15% despite the shifts in the media landscape.
• Notre Dame is set to announce a restructuring of responsibilities atop its athletic department, with Ron Powlus set to be named as its first-ever COO, writes SBJ’s Ben Portnoy.
• The USTA signed Oura to a wide-ranging sponsorship that designates the wearable tech provider as the “official wearable fitness device” of both the U.S. Open and USTA Coaching for the next five years, writes SBJ’s Rob Schaefer.
• Schaefer also notes that the International Tennis HOF signed N.Y.-based wealth management firm Cerity Partners as title sponsor of the Hall of Fame Open.
• SBJ’s Josh Carpenter has a pair of items from golf: CBS will debut a new-to-golf camera technology at this week’s Cadillac Championship, and TGL’s newest team, Motor City Golf Club, is set to debut its brand identity.
• After a record-setting performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Norwegian cross-country star Johannes Høsflot Klæbo signed with Octagon, reports SBJ’s Irving Mejia-Hilario, betting that Olympic dominance can translate into commercial relevance, especially in the U.S.
• In other agency news, Mejia-Hilario also notes that NFLPA agency Upper Edge Sports is working with boutique NIL agency Prime 1 Sports in a partnership designed to create a seamless pipeline for football players from high school and college through the NFL.