On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including the latest with NWSL expansion. The league is meeting with a small handful of prospective groups in New York this week, including ones from both Denver and Cincinnati.
The league currently has 14 teams, with Boston set to join in the coming years. The ongoing expansion talks could produce the 16th team, or more. It comes as team valuations sore, viewership jumps and competition from Europe intensifies. The league and its players union also recently agreed to a multiyear CBA that will ensure labor peace through at least 2030. The last two expansion teams paid $53 million, and the next round will likely cost significantly more.
Next the hosts talk about WNBA star Angel Reese‘s latest sponsorship: with Reese’s peanut butter cups. It’s the latest in a series of fun corporate tie-ups that utilize obvious similarities between athletes and their new partners. And it begs the question: Should Caitlin Clark have a sponsorship with Clark bars?
Next they talk about Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese soccer star, who has more than 900 million followers across social media, just launched his own YouTube channel. It had more than 1 million followers within two hours of the announcement and could quickly grow into a money-maker for Ronaldo. He was the highest paid athlete in the world last year, per Sportico‘s numbers, at $275 million.
They close by talking about the NFL‘s ongoing private equity discussions. The league is set to likely vote on new ownership rules next week, which could formally allow private capital firms to buy small, passive minority stakes in NFL franchises. The NFL is the only major North American sports league that doesn’t currently permit such deals.
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