SBJ Unpacks: How the World Cup final is bigger than the Super Bowl

Tonight in Unpacks: Heading into the FIFA World Cup championship match on July 19, SBJ’s Alex Silverman reports on how one of the world’s most-watched sporting events is a potent platform for business in one of the world’s most lucrative commercial markets.

Also tonight:

• Vet Tix eyes Bank of America deal as harbinger of activations to come
• How Jameis Winston became Fox’s World Cup wild card
• PGA Tour mapping out media plans amid structural shift
• What an NFL flag venue may look like

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Joe Lemire wraps up the week with thoughts on the World Cup, NHL Gary Bettman feeling no pressure to renew media deals, the modular nature of a potential NFL flag football home and more.

Seeking to explain the scale of the World Cup to Americans, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has repeatedly characterized the tournament as “104 Super Bowls.” But if that’s the case, how should the World Cup final itself be understood?

Derek Aframe, the Octagon executive vice president overseeing activation and hospitality for seven FIFA sponsors, said brands have approached the competition as “104 Super Bowls leading into the uber-Super Bowl.” Alex Lasry, CEO of the New York/New Jersey Host Committee, went even further, calling the weekend “bigger than a Super Bowl or Final Four weekend” and likening the event to “a mini United Nations” with “every celebrity coming.”

No matter what you call it, the world’s most-watched sporting event is culminating in the New York metro area, one of the world’s most lucrative commercial markets. That makes the Sunday, July 19 match — and the days leading up to it — a uniquely potent platform for reaching consumers, entertaining high-level clients and rewarding partners.

With the matchup still unset, a get-in ticket price of nearly $9,000 puts the event in rarefied air: in excess of any recent Super Bowl and on par with the most expensive of the New York Knicks’ NBA Finals home games.

But the high get-in cost tells only part of the story. At the top end of the market, FIFA and its official hospitality partner, On Location, are selling luxury and official access.

In-stadium hospitality

While matches throughout the tournament have seen various levels of usage of premium spaces, On Location President Paul Caine said “every element of what is available will be utilized” for the final. Bill Lohr, general manager for Delaware North Sportservice at MetLife Stadium, estimates that 10,000 to 15,000 of the 80,663 final attendees will be in some form of premium space.

Listed hospitality packages for the final currently range from $9,500 for a ticket with pregame hospitality outside the stadium gates to $34,500 for a Trophy Lounge+ package that includes prime sideline seating.

Beyond those offerings, On Location is arranging a limited number of “Platinum Experiences,” which Caine described as “white-glove, door-to-door service.” These bespoke packages can include transportation, VIP parking, escorted stadium entry, concierge attention, lounge access, gifting, hotel and restaurant planning and, for some final guests, access to the field during the trophy ceremony.

Caine said On Location has been “managing our inventory in anticipation of the demand continuing to grow,” with very limited premium packages remaining. Like general tickets, prices for premium packages have increased significantly since the start of the tournament last month.

For FIFA sponsors, whose rights fees can reach $200 million for a four-year cycle or $100 million for the World Cup alone, the process of allocating their limited number of final tickets is far from straightforward. Hospitality for the final requires specific planning because of the exclusivity and value of the tickets.

Ricardo Fort, a sponsorship consultant who has worked at Visa and Coca-Cola, said sponsor hospitality at the final requires months of planning, internal approvals and compliance checks before a guest list is finalized. Top-level partners may have hundreds of tickets at their disposal, including access to their own suite, while supplier-level sponsors typically have allocations in the dozens.

“We have our key strategic partners across the board, and that includes clients, our key B2B partners,” said Andrea Fairchild, senior vice president of global sponsorship strategy at Visa. “That includes our merchant partners, it includes our client bank partners and it really runs the gamut of, strategically, our B2B business and who we work with.”

Aframe, who in his role at Octagon assists some clients with their hospitality programs, described the process as a delicate balance of planning and remaining flexible.

“It’s coordinating with FIFA, coordinating with the brands and making sure that everything’s taken care of for guests,” Aframe said. “We may help develop criteria, but obviously the brands and clients decide that. What we’ve always talked about is always trying to have a few in reserve for that last-minute opportunity to give someone a chance to go, or to anticipate who might be playing who so we can factor that in.”

For Delaware North, which will have close to 3,000 employees handling food, beverage and merchandise offerings throughout MetLife Stadium, the World Cup final is poised to rival the $11 million in sales the venue generated during the 2014 Super Bowl.

While American football is more optimized for concessions sales because of its longer event window and frequent stoppages in play, Lohr said the venue has been breaking concessions records with each successive World Cup match. The final should provide Delaware North with an even longer runway, with gates scheduled to open four hours before kickoff — up from three for previous matches — and all pre- and post-match hospitality tents expected to be in use.

The food and beverage available in MetLife’s premium spaces throughout the World Cup has already been high-end, but the menu for the final will be elevated further. While Delaware North may add items once the finalists are known — and is prepared to accommodate special requests from VIPs — the core suite menu for the match has been finalized for months.

In prior rounds, main meat entrees have included USDA Prime New York strip and beef tenderloin. For the final, the menu features an A5 Wagyu New York strip. Instead of salmon crudo or crab cocktail, guests will be offered a caviar and blini tasting.

Still, Lohr said Delaware North is making sure traditional stadium fare is available even in MetLife’s most premium spaces.

“What we’ve found through the tournament — we’ve had seven games now — is that some of them are looking for smashburgers or chicken fingers or hot dogs,” Lohr said. “So you have to make sure that you mix those in with all the high-end and fancy foods that we’re doing.”

Beyond the stadium

After five weeks of matches across three countries, the World Cup’s business ecosystem will converge on New York City next week, with activity expected to intensify Thursday after the semifinal matches in Dallas and Atlanta.

For the first time, FIFA is working with U.K.-based marketing firm iLUKA Collective to create a central VIP gathering space called FIFA House at GH on the Park, a luxury event venue overlooking Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan. In addition to invited guests expected to include brand executives, soccer administrators and government officials, FIFA is selling full-week passes for $10,000 and individual session passes for between $1,100 and $2,000.

“The IOC’s ‘Clubhouse’ has happened for as long as I can remember — super exclusive, super expensive if you want to buy a pass, but also super useful because if you need to host someone, this is a place to go,” Fort said. “So, I think it’s a good initiative from FIFA, and the price is just a reflection of the price point for this World Cup.”

Sponsors are also expected to stage their own houses, dinners and private events around Manhattan, turning the weekend into a Super Bowl-like circuit for clients, executives and partners.

Fanatics’ four-day sports convention, Fanatics Fest, will also be a focal point. In addition to a lineup of athletes and celebrities that includes LeBron James, Tom Brady, Serena Williams and Jay-Z, FIFA will have a major presence at the Javits Center and will hold its official final press conference there on Friday.

For the public, the NYNJ World Cup 26 & Telemundo Fan Village at Rockefeller Center will be a primary hub of activity. Amanda Morris, director of marketing for The Home Depot, said the iconic and central location made it a natural spot for the brand to stage its largest final-week activation.

The Home Depot will also have a presence at Central Park, the site of the host committee’s public watch party with Global Citizen, which is also producing the halftime show. Between Rockefeller Center and Central Park, Lasry expects to attract “a few hundred thousand people” during final week.

Logistical complexities

Getting fans from New York City to MetLife Stadium has been a logistically complex undertaking throughout the World Cup.

With virtually no parking available in the surface lots around the stadium and limited spaces available at the adjacent American Dream shopping complex, organizers have pushed fans toward either the $98 round-trip New Jersey Transit train or the $20 host committee shuttle bus service.

Despite those constraints, ingress and egress have been largely smooth. Earlier MetLife matches saw 97% of fans scanned before kickoff, and crowds cleared from the property in two-and-a-half hours or less.

For the final, the degree of difficulty will increase because of heightened security measures tied to the expected attendance of President Donald Trump, other heads of state and celebrities.

Even with more VIPs expected to arrive by private transportation — including via the door-to-door service provided by On Location — Lasry said organizers are still treating the World Cup final as a “public transit event first.” Shuttles will begin five hours before the game instead of four for past matches.

“Make your final experience the entire day — just be there early, get ready for the final and have fun,” Lasry said.

Has Bank of America produced the surprise collectible of the FIFA Men’s World Cup? Quite possibly, as its free BofA Fan Bands have led to charm chasing around the 11 U.S. host cities.

While those bracelets have garnered fervent attention, another Bank of America donation has led directly to families attending World Cup games — and will continue to do so through the final. The financial institution gave $2 million to nonprofit Vet Tix to provide free tickets for military members and first responders.

That figure, which Vet Tix contributed $250,000 on top of, led to the purchase of more than 4,900 World Cup tickets, according to Chief Strategy Officer Steven Weintraub.

Last month at SBJ’s Brand Innovation Summit in Chicago, Bank of America’s Brad Ross explained how its large-scale efforts around the games needed to fit its identity. “We’re not Nike or Adidas on the field of play, and we’re not Powerade on the sidelines, refreshing the players,” the company’s head of global partnerships and social media marketing said. “So we have to think about our role as a bank and what we can do in the space. I think that’s all about the work that we’ve started to build around access, being a convener, the economic impact that something like the FIFA World Cup brings.”

For Weintraub, he hopes brand-associated deals like this one become more prevalent in the company’s future. The organization, founded in 2008, has become a mission-focused landing spot for live event tickets. For sports, Vet Tix has been a go-to resource for operators who need butts in seats or donors looking to give out lasting memories to people who have served the nation.

Companies often talk about genuineness in marketing, but that’s hard to nail when talking nationwide or even international messaging. Vet Tix produces eventgoer testimonials that Weintraub said can then be used by brands. “These brands want to resonate with the consumers,” Weintraub said, “and the authenticity of our mission can’t be any more authentic than what it is.”

Vet Tix has gone from providing 2,500 tickets in its founding year to nearly 8 million last year. Its site features 2.7 million verified accounts, according to Weintraub. In the last few years, Vet Tix has integrated with major ticketing platforms such as Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and AXS to streamline the process of moving tickets from rights holders into the Vet Tix platform.

Users can acquire tickets with the help of virtual coins accrued from Vet Tix; testimonials, and other actions, are rewarded with said coins. They then “win” the tickets via a lottery-style gamified experience in which the more tokens wagered increases the chance to secure their seats. Vet Tix members pay only a nominal delivery fee pending for their sports venue visit, according to Weintraub, which helps Vet Tix operate and acquire more tickets.

A key to Vet Tix’s success, Weintraub said, is its sole focus on providing bucket-list opportunities to military members. Their users aren’t required to submit essays on why they’re deserving of a chance to attend the Super Bowl. They’re not paraded around as a fundraising prop. They’re going to the game to make a memory.

“Go to the event, have a good time with your family and friends,” Weintraub said. “That’s all we ask. If you’re military, you don’t need to wear your uniform. Go do your thing.”

FEVO’s new AI agent also a tribute

In my three years covering tech for SBJ, I’ve been pitched on many AI agents. And in that time, I’ve never seen one used as a tribute to honor someone.

So the announcement of AI agent Gibson, from e-commerce platform FEVO, which rolls out officially in August, simultaneously perked my ears and plucked my heartstrings. Gibson’s goal is to streamline offer creation, according to FEVO President Betty Tran-Rennon, through a natural-language interface in which Gibson turns conversations into action.

While the build was quick — Tran-Rennon said it took roughly three months — the real struggle was the name. “FEVO Agent” was too plain, and other options considered sounded like superhero names, she said. So Tran-Rennon opened the naming exercise to the whole company. Two FEVO employees separately reached out to her and asked about Gibson.

The suggestion was perfect, Tran-Rennon believed, and made her teary-eyed. Gibson Harnett worked in business development at FEVO, joining the company in 2022. He was the youngest employee at the company, and in a remote workforce spanning the country, he became an energetic bright spot for the New York City contingent. Harnett was diagnosed in May 2023 with Stage 4 clear cell sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer that affects young adults. He worked for the company until returning home and passing on Jan. 4, 2024.

One of Tran-Rennon’s favorite memories with Harnett was on a staff outing to a Bulls game, where Harnett’s excitement to be there would have resonated with even the most jaded sports operator. Tran-Rennon said FEVO got the blessing of Harnett’s parents ahead of the agent’s launch. And now Harnett still gets to be part of FEVO’s future.

“He made such an impact on FEVO with legacy campaigns and just his spirit,” Tran-Rennon said. “He reminded me of why we do what we do.”

Ethan Joyce can be reached at ejoyce@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

Jameis Winston has cleaned stadiums with Japanese fans, brought out a live goat in a Lionel Messi Argentina jersey, suited up in full Viking gear with faux mammoth fur to teach streamer IShowSpeed the Norwegian Viking row chant and led the American Outlaws in full-throated “U.S.A.” chants.

It’s the kind of loose, personality-first role you’d expect at a FIFA Fan Festival or a local watch party, not direct World Cup coverage on Fox Sports.

For Fox Sports, the N.Y. Giants QB is serving as a roaming, social-first correspondent for its 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage. Winston’s assignment is to work fan culture and to generate short clips that travel on TikTok, Instagram and X more than they do in traditional studio windows. Inside Fox, executives viewed Winston someone who could “build a bridge between the general sports fan and the World Cup” and invite casual viewers to learn the tournament in real time alongside him, said Fox Sports Exec Dir of Digital & Social Nick Rago.

“Before the Super Bowl in 2025, we met with our leadership and said we didn’t want to do something that had already been done,” Rago said. “We identified Jameis that year as someone who was, by every metric we could count, the number one NFL player on social, just for his virality, his moments and his Jameisisms.”

Winston first truly hit Fox’s social radar with his “eating a W” moment, which aired on Fox and became an early signal of his viral potential. But the path to his current Fox role began taking shape at a more conventional place for Winston: Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. Fox and Winston teamed up there on a week of social content that had him asking players questions at Super Bowl Media Day and parading down Bourbon Street in a pedicab and interacting with fans. Multiple clips went viral, generating nearly 800 million digital views, and helped Fox and Winston win Sports Business Journal’s Best in Sports Social Media at the 2025 Sports Business Awards at the N.Y. Marriott Marquis Times Square in N.Y.

“Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans was really a unique opportunity,” said Joe Hernandez, founder & CEO of Just Win Management Group. “It was a lot of man-on-the-street type of content, seeing Jameis immersed in the culture of New Orleans. The fans loved it. It went viral pretty often, and we saw how well that kind of social content fit today’s landscape.”

Hernandez, who has represented Winston since the QB left the Buccaneers for the Saints in 2020, runs a small agency. Just Win, founded seven years ago, has about 20 clients between pro and college -- like Cardinals RB Trey Benson and Bills WR Keon Coleman -- and operates with a team of about five individuals spread across the country, but primarily based in South Florida. He and Winston were teammates at Florida State when the Seminoles won the 2013 BCS National Championship.

When Fox’s World Cup plans took shape, Hernandez and Winston did not wait for a call.

“There ended up being mutual interest, but it is definitely something we brought up to them,” Hernandez said. “The worldwide component of the World Cup and the different cultures jumped out to us. We thought it was a really cool opportunity to continue the success we had at the Super Bowl, just on a bigger scale.”

The World Cup series has followed a similar strategy from Super Bowl LIX and seen similar success. Across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, Winston’s fan-interaction segments often reach six-figure view counts, including 4.9 million views on Instagram for the clip of him cleaning alongside Japanese supporters and 817,000 views for a video with Mavericks F Cooper Flagg at a Norway match.

Rago said Winston’s World Cup content has “blown every expectation out of the water” and is a major contributor to what Fox is calling a record 8 billion and counting social views for its World Cup coverage this summer. Fox is still calculating Winston’s exact share of that total, but Rago described him as “a major part” of the number.

The World Cup work sits within a broader media and commercial run for Winston. He co-hosts “The Other Football” with former NFLer Rob Gronkowski, has appeared on “Men in Blazers” talking soccer and has partnered with Lids, Tubi, Meta and Meta AI, Oakley, Rhoback, RYL Tea, EA Sports, Netflix, Carl’s Jr., Playmaker and the Puppy Bowl.

“There is definitely a ton of interest coming in from brands,” Hernandez said. “We’ve been very selective and have turned down a lot of offers and things like that. His time is extremely valuable. He has never been more popular.”

Winston, 32, is still positioning this within an active career. Hernandez said the quarterback is usually up around 4:30am during the World Cup, training his football skills first, then juggling shoots, games and family time with his wife and two children. Fox, for now, is keeping any long term broadcast speculation at arm’s length, as is Hernandez. Still, Hernandez expects him to have a successful career after football.

“Whatever he does, he will thrive,” Hernandez said. “He would make for a great NFL head coach, or great GM, or great broadcaster if that is what he wants to do.”

The PGA Tour has not decided whether it will go to market early for its media rights, with the current deals set to expire after the 2030 season. The tour and its Future Competitions Committee (FCC) for nearly a year have been working on the changes that will be implemented in 2028, and the common perception in industry circles was that the tour would definitely go to market and sign new media deals based around those changes.

CEO Brian Rolapp said Thursday that hasn’t been decided. “We may go early, we may not,” Rolapp said when asked if the tour would try and negotiate new deals ahead of a potential early renewal by the NFL.

“Our focus is on creating the best possible media product for PGA Tour,” Dhruv Prasad, the tour’s chief commercial officer, told SBJ earlier this week. “And the value proposition will take care of itself in due time if we provide fans and viewers with the best product. … So how that manifests over time against how it scrubs against our media deals for right now, that’s not our primary objective. Our primary objective is to build value in our media offering that’s going out to fans.”

Throughout the nearly year-long process, the FCC consulted with its media partners -- CBS, NBC, USA Sports and ESPN -- around many of the planned changes and their impact on the broadcast product. Prasad noted the tour took “specific recommendations” from those partners.

“We didn’t take every recommendation, we didn’t implement every recommendation, but we certainly kept those in mind,” Prasad said. “And I think our partners would tell you, hopefully [they] would agree with this, that we’ve delivered on a lot of the things that they asked for and that they recommended.”

If it does not go early, the tour plans to go to market near the end of the 2028 calendar year, when it can pitch media partners on a full season of what the new PGA Tour actually looks like.

“We have a lot of conviction that the changes that we are going to make are going to improve the value proposition for our media partners and for fans of the PGA Tour,” Prasad said. “And if we’re right about that, then there will be more value for everybody and how we then distribute the product.”

Until 2028, the tour plans on utilizing options in its current deals as needed, as evidenced by its recent announcement to add windows on ESPN around this year’s FedExCup Playoffs.

As for what those future media deals could look like, one can look to the NFL as a potential roadmap in terms of its diversified platforms, Prasad said. While 20 years ago NFL games could be found on only a handful of networks, they’re now splashed across myriad platforms, a strategy implemented by Rolapp. This season, NFL games can be consumed on Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, among others.

“That [NFL] experience is clearly relevant to us here in terms of diversifying platforms and expanding distribution,” said Prasad, who himself came over to the tour from the NFL.

He noted platform expansion for the tour could exist in two forms: Via current partners (think NBC/Peacock or CBS/Paramount+), but also new entrants who aren’t coming at sports distribution from a linear perspective.

“They’re sort of coming at it from both sides,” Prasad said. “And I think both will be true for the PGA Tour into the 2030s.”

Signature showcase

As for the current season, the tour wrapped up its eight-event 2026 Signature series at the Travelers Championship in late June. It did see a small rise in Signature event viewership year over year (+10%), though that comes with the caveat of Nielsen’s addition of Big Data, plus out of home viewing. Overall, the tour’s eight Signature tournaments in 2026 averaged 2.794 million viewers on broadcast TV (Saturday and Sunday), with Sunday coverage averaging 3.4 million.

The Signature series schedule went through some notable change this year: The tour canceled The Sentry in Hawaii (which was played in 2025) but also added another Signature tournament: The Cadillac Championship. That tournament was hampered by attendance and weather issues, only averaging 2.151 million viewers for the final round.

The tour’s first two Signature events of the season, and maybe its most prominent in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational -- also had head-to-head Winter Olympics competition this year.

With the change in Nielsen measurement, year-over-year comparisons are difficult to make. Another way the tour is examining its viewership is how it stacks up against the greater sports landscape. Below are the tour’s eight Signature events from 2026, their final-round viewership and where they ranked.

• AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: 3.297 million viewers had it as the 20th most-watched sporting event of the week (Feb. 12-15), but only three non-Olympics broadcasts topped it (Daytona 500, NBA All-Star Saturday, NBA All-Star Sunday).
• Genesis Invitational: 3.274 million viewers made it the 21st most-watched sporting event of the week (Feb. 19-22), but fourth most-watched among non-Olympics windows.
• Arnold Palmer Invitational: 3.182 million viewers (3.3 million with NBC’s TAD) made it the third most-watched sporting event of the week (March 5-8).
• RBC Heritage: 4.350 million viewers made it the fourth most-watched sporting event of the week (April 16-19).
• Cadillac Championship: 2.151 million viewers made it the 20th most-watched sporting event of the week (April 30-May 3). Fifteen of the top 20 that week were NBA Playoffs games, while the Kentucky Derby held the top spot.
• Truist Championship: 3.382 million viewers made it the 13th most-watched sporting event of the week (May 7-10), with the top 12 all being NBA postseason games.
• Memorial Tournament: 3.339 million viewers made it the seventh most-watched sporting event of the week (June 4-7), trailing only NBA/NHL finals games and the Belmont Stakes.
• Travelers Championship: 4.007 million viewers, making it the 21st most-watched sporting event of the week (June 25-28). That number rises to 4.2 million with NBC’s TAD. Travelers was the only event in the top 25 that wasn’t a World Cup match.

Year over year, the tour’s full-field tournaments (non-Signature events) are averaging 2.255 million viewers on broadcast (Saturday and Sunday), up 27% over 2025 (Big Data vs Panel). For all events, Golf Channel’s four-day average in 2026 has been 727,000 viewers, a 28% increase over 2025 (Big Data vs Panel).

Renderings and a flythrough animation are providing the first look at a concept for an NFL flag football league venue.

The indication, according to a source that shared the images with SBJ, is the stadium will be a modular one, not a permanent build. The source said the leagues will debut in a single city, before later expanding to more locations in future seasons. Peter O’Reilly (NFL EVP/Club business, International & League Events) told The Athletic earlier this year that the men’s and women’s pro flag leagues will launch late spring or early summer of 2027 in advance of the sport’s inclusion in the 2028 L.A. Olympics.

The league doesn’t have a name or logo yet; the video says “Pro Flag League,” but that’s a placeholder until a permanent name and brand identity are finalized.

The images and video show an intimate, three-level outdoor stadium with thousands of seats, several prominent premium seating areas facing midfield, and at least one large videoboard in an upper-seating bowl corner.

Adjacent to the stadium is a flag football field, presumably for public use, and vehicles on display, likely representing automotive sponsor activations. A smaller building next to the secondary field appears to be either a merch store or a premium space or bar/restaurant of some sort. And a large stage facing the stadium bookends the property.

The renderings and flythrough video are being used in various presentations made about the league, as well as in requests for proposals seeking potential host cities and architectural firms. A modular structures vendor will eventually be sought, too.

The sports industry’s comfort with temporary and modular structures has grown dramatically in recent years, and these concept renderings indicate the NFL will lean on an impermanent structure to get its fledgling flag league off the ground. Should it adopt a touring model, the stadium’s modular nature will become even more important.

The NFL selected TMRW Sports, the parent company of TGL, to run the flag football league back in February. TMRW developed the TGL’s tech-heavy SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., but that unique venue is geared toward broadcast. This flag league concept appears, at first glance, better suited for the in-person attendee, but like SoFi, it may have an abundance of novel tech.

It’s not clear how much of TMRW Sports and the NFL’s $160 million flag football league pot will go into the venue. Sources told SBJ’s Ben Fischer in April that Ariel Investments, Bessemer Venture Partners, Blue Pool Capital, Dynasty Equity, Silver Lake and Sixth Street all provided $15 million of that total, while each NFL team owner kicked in a million.

• In his This Week at the World Cup column, SBJ’s Alex Silverman looks at the menu that’ll feed fans in premium suites at the tournament’s July 19 championship match.
• In this week’s Talent Pool agency roundup, SBJ’s Irving Mejia-Hilario reports that NBA star Kawhi Leonard signed with Harrison Gaines of Slash Sports, replacing Impact Sports’ Mitch Frankel, for his representation.
• The first 5,839 ABS challenge attempts have produced 53% overturns through July 9 games, as SBJ’s Mike Mazzeo examines the system’s first season of big-league use on the eve of MLB’s All-Star break.
• The Bucks picked an over-the-air provider for the 2026-27 season, writes SBJ’s Tom Friend: Rincon Broadcasting Group’s MY24 in Milwaukee.
• Longtime sports exec Dan Migala is becoming the chief impact officer for LAZ and the head of innovation for Transwestern and will split his time between the two roles, reports SBJ’s Bret McCormick.
• Battle royale video game PUBG and the Kick streaming platform enlisted UFC fighter Max Holloway for a promotion during the build-up to his fight against Conor McGregor, including wearing a neon-branded vest at Thursday’s UFC 329 press conference in Las Vegas, writes SBJ’s Adam Stern.