Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic’s weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.)
Name-dropped today: Cheryl Reeve, Meg Linehan, Trinity Rodman, Apple TV, Steph Curry, Springfield, Paul DePodesta, Chaim Bloom, Craig Kessler, Sky Sports, Eric Butorac, Uwe Seeler, Ndamukong Suh, Mr. Mint and more. Let’s go:
Driving the Conversation
Our U.S. women’s sports cities ranking
What makes an amazing women’s sports city? My colleague Meg Linehan correctly elevates “vibes,” astutely pointing out:
“It’s an overused word these days, but it suggests something intangible in addition to all the things that can be quantified: the number of pro teams in a city, the strength of NCAA programs, if a lower-division team has broken through in a big way. If there’s a women’s sports bar (or two, or even three!) in town; how available a team’s merch is, and how many folks you might spot on the morning commute of a game day wearing it.”
That quote comes from an ambitious project, in which The Athletic’s staff evaluated and selected the top 10 women’s sports cities in the U.S. Before you keep reading, want to try to guess No. 1?
…
It’s the Bay Area. Marcus Thompson II has an ode to the Bay’s women’s sports scene that is a must-read. “The Bay doesn’t just support women’s sports, it centers them,” he writes. “It elevates them. It multiplies them. It invests in them.” (If you live in the Bay Area or are partial to any of its teams, you should text it to all of your friends.)
You might not have guessed our runner-up: Minneapolis, which has its own unique relationship with women’s sports, as we heard in Ben Pickman’s interview with Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve.
The entire list is fascinating — as is our list of very worthy contenders just outside the top 10 this year, including incredible cities like Toronto, Omaha, Austin and Cary, N.C.
The options for fans to engage with women’s sports locally have never been better: new teams, new facilities, new investments, new sports bars, new merch. To be sure: It’s not driving demand; it’s reflecting demand.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of today’s MoneyCall, you’re invited to take our fan survey to have your say on the best women’s sports cities.
Get Caught Up
Big talkers from the sports business industry:
- YouTube TV and Disney: Standoff resolved. Last Friday, Andrew Marchand brought the platform’s 10 million subscribers the welcome news that, after two weeks, the impasse keeping ESPN off YouTube TV was finally over. It’s worth asking: What, if anything, did we learn? Mainly, the decades-long power dynamics between Disney and distributors (certainly THIS distributor) was upended by YouTube parent Alphabet’s sheer market cap. That doesn’t bode well for a few years from now when they come back to the table. Tangentially related: Our reader survey about illegal streaming was fascinating.
- The Big Ten’s ongoing private-capital snafu: The commissioner of the Big Ten really wants that $2.4 billion deal. Michigan and USC trustees, not so much. The cash behind the capital, UC Investments, is putting the deal on hold. Stewart Mandel correctly pointed out that the size of the 18-team conference has gone from a feature to a bug, at least in terms of its ability to navigate a complicated situation like selling a portion of itself to private investors.
- NWSL Championship: The Trinity Rodman Dilemma. As the Washington Spirit play for a title versus upstart Gotham FC, there is a situation looming: Can the NWSL navigate the rare “two things *can’t* be true” scenario of balancing salary-cap stability with retaining superstars like Rodman, who has interest from deep-pocketed European clubs?
- MLS flips its calendar: This has been in the works for a while, and it puts MLS on the same schedule as men’s pro leagues across the rest of the world. Sensible!
- Steph Curry leaves Under Armour: It was always sort of awkward; the split just makes it official. As friend of MoneyCall Daniel-Yaw Miller wrote in his essential SportsVerse newsletter, the brand kind of blew it with the most marketable player of the slightly-younger-than-LeBron era. What next for Curry? My colleague Jason Jones lays it out.
- Related: Nike gave Cade Cunningham his own “signature shoe,” a deal typically reserved for the most elite and marketable athletes. As an unc, I was skeptical, but my 17-year-old son quickly corrected me that the move is well-deserved.
- Women’s Pro Baseball League finds a home: I’m torn between seeing the wisdom in having a home base (in Springfield, Ill.) and wondering why the WPBL wouldn’t go with a Savannah Bananas-style “barnstorming” model.
Other current obsessions: The NFL’s long-distance kicking revolution … Padel as a growth sport … Paul DePodesta’s return to MLB, decades after the “Moneyball” era … “Premflix” … The Tkachuk bros’ new podcast … Curacao!
What I’m Wondering
MLB work stoppage: Why risk it?
MLB GMs are convening this week in New York (where I’m filing MoneyCall this week, coincidentally), and the intersecting tracks of competitive balance, payroll questions and labor strains were on the agenda. My colleague Evan Drellich has a deeply reported story on the state of things, mostly hubbed around this question:
If MLB is flying high right now, why does it seem to be surging toward a work stoppage in 2027?
As Drellich writes: “The question now: How will the same decision-makers inside MLB weigh change against the potential for missed games?”
Drellich quotes St. Louis Cardinals exec Chaim Bloom:
“You just don’t want to remove yourself from the stage for any length of time. We also know that there’s definitely a lot of issues and concerns on every side of this.”
Drellich’s full story is worth your time.
Grab Bag
Data Point: $1.1 million
That’s the WNBA’s latest offer to players for a “max” salary, up from a previous offer this fall of $850K (and up from the existing max of roughly $250K).
My gut reaction is that breaking the “million” line is great optics for the league, but that would still dramatically underpay the biggest stars. They need their own version of the “Beckham rule” that lets teams blow past the salary cap to sign top draws.
The league’s proposal also offers a new minimum salary of $220K, up from $66K, a meaningful jump. (The $220K is notable to me because it is … right around what offseason alt-league Unrivaled offers its players.)
Exclusive Q&A: Craig Kessler
Hired in May, the 39-year-old LPGA commissioner provides some thoughtful answers to my colleague Gabby Herzig’s questions about the unique challenges and opportunities in front of the LPGA.
(TIL: The LPGA still had some events airing on tape delay, like it’s the NBA Finals in 1981. Tape delay! Thankfully, that’s over in the new deals.)
Branding Fails: ‘Halo’
In the annals of sports-branding fails, we might not see a launch and cancellation as quick as Sky Sports’ tone-deaf TikTok channel dubbed a “lil sis” (cringe) to the main brand, called “Halo.” The quick hook to take it down was merely the least dumb thing here.
Name to Know: Eric Butorac
The tennis exec in charge of the provocative U.S. Open mixed doubles setup this year is now the director of the entire tournament, an appointment that bodes well for the Open maintaining an innovative approach.
Book Release: ‘The Soccer 100’
My colleagues have written an incredible guide to the greatest players in the history of the sport. Come for the top (Messi!), stay for the depth (No. 100 Uwe Seeler).
Your next watch: Ndamukong Suh’s ‘No Free Lunch’
My colleague Suh talks with Jameis Winston about the pressures of navigating a huge new pro contract with the support system that helped you earn it.
💬 Winston: “When I first came to Tampa Bay, I was giving my cousin, like, close to $300 just to take out the trash. But for him, that was motivation. Because he was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna take out the trash. I’m gonna use that. I’m gonna start a drive for Lyft, I’m gonna start finding my way.’ He used that $300 to pay for his own apartment. Like he was in the hustle mode.”
Worth Your Time
A great business-adjacent read for your downtime or commute: How Nigeria’s World Cup dream died.
Two more:
Back next Wednesday! Text your colleagues this link so they can get MoneyCall every Wednesday for free. And check out The Athletic’s other newsletters, too.
