The Pro Football Hall of Fame has a unique structure. 

While most of its inductees played in the NFL, it has no official affiliation with the league. Neither does the Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Co., a publicly traded company that runs the surrounding facilities, overseeing hundreds of thousands of square feet, including the Hall of Fame Village, the recently renovated Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, and a new sports complex. 

This all makes for a tricky balancing act by HOF president Jim Porter since taking over for predecessor David Baker — the legendary figure who gained notoriety for bear-hugging new inductees and retired in 2021.

Canton takes the spotlight on Thursday when the NFL preseason kicks off with the Hall of Fame Game between the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets (8 p.m. ET, NBC). Record crowds are anticipated throughout the weekend’s Hall of Fame Enshrinement festivities, and a large contingent of Cleveland fans are expected to make the short drive to support 2023 inductee Joe Thomas.

Browns-Jets is expected to sell out the 18,000-plus venue — its the most in-demand HOF game ever on SeatGeek, with an average resale price of $228 — and Saturday morning’s Grand Parade could attract a record crowd of more than 250,000 ahead of the enshrinement at noon ET on ESPN, which just extended its broadcast rights for the ceremony beyond 2025.

The first two phases of Canton renovations —  via $600 million in funds — will be completed when a new hotel and football-themed waterpark open in Q3 next year, potentially in time for the 2024 HOF induction, Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Co. executive vice president Anne Graffice told Front Office Sports. A third phase may be announced later this year and could boost total funding toward $1 billion.

“To see what has happened on the campus over the past year makes everybody enthusiastic for the long-term prospects,” Pro Football Hall of Fame chief communications officer Rich Desrosiers explained to FOS.

Life for the Baltimore Orioles is as good as it’s been in nearly a decade. The upstart team’s long-term future, however, remains a source of rising local frustration.

Despite fielding MLB’s third-smallest payroll at just $70.8 million, the Orioles have the American League’s top record, the product of a multiyear roster development plan that has served as a counterpoint to the high-spending but highly disappointing New York Mets.

The city of Baltimore, unsurprisingly, has responded to the Orioles’ surge. A recent weekend series against the New York Yankees drew 114,816, the team’s best three-game draw since 2016 and part of a 29% overall boost at the gate this season — the fifth-best percentage growth in MLB.

This week’s Orioles job fair for various Camden Yards-related positions also drew more than 550 applicants for 160 positions, nearly doubling the normal peak turnout for such events.

But to the increasing vexation of state and city political leaders, the John Angelos-led team still hasn’t completed a long-discussed lease extension for the publicly owned Camden Yards to succeed the current term, which expires this year. The talks have included a broad plan to “expand and revitalize the Camden Yards campus.”

A completed deal would also allow the Orioles to access $600 million in public funds for the development, similar to provisions available to the neighboring Baltimore Ravens.

“I remain perplexed why a lease hasn’t been executed already,” said Maryland Stadium Authority board member William Cole, echoing similar comments last month by state treasurer Dereck Davis, who said, “It’s time to start putting timelines out there so we can get this damn thing done.”

Asked about the issue on Wednesday, Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott referenced Jay-Z: “I have 99 problems — and the Orioles are not one of them.”

A fast-rising issue in many leagues including the NFL, player gambling will carry ramifications no longer confined to internal enforcement structures, but rising to the level of criminal prosecution.

This week, Iowa authorities charged four current and former Iowa State Cyclones athletes, including starting quarterback Hunter Dekkers and current Denver Broncos lineman Eyioma Uwazurike, with allegations including records tampering and placing dozens of bets on Iowa State sporting events.

The Iowa probe also resulted in charges for three other college athletes, including Iowa kicker Aaron Blom, who has been accused of placing 170 bets prior to turning 21.

That developing situation parallels a separate one in Colorado in which Uwazurike also faces a criminal investigation by that state’s attorney general into bets made in violation of state law, which prohibits players from betting on sports in which they are a participant.

Ten NFL players have been suspended for gambling violations this year, including Uwazurike.

Changing Times

Since the landmark 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing states to establish their own sports betting laws, the industry has grown dramatically, and each major sports league expanded its own internal rules for players and coaches. Those rules have primarily focused on tight restrictions on betting on their own sports and banning wagering at team facilities. Many governing bodies, including the NCAA, have since toughened those internal policies.

Dekkers’ attorney Mark Weinhardt argues the issue should stay an internal one.

“This prosecution interferes with and politicizes what is the business of Iowa State University and the NCAA,” he said. “The investigation at the Iowa universities is the tip of an iceberg. Thousands and thousands of college students place bets — usually very small ones — with shared accounts. That is for the schools and the NCAA to police.”

Jamaica advanced from the group stage at the Women’s World Cup for the first time in its history — despite facing staggering financial disadvantages compared to the island nation’s competitors.

Due to a lack of funding from the Jamaican Football Federation — which reported a defecit in 2022 — the women’s team relied in part on two crowdfunding campaigns that have now garnered more than $100,000 to help pay for food, jerseys, equipment, and more. Jamaica’s men’s team didn’t qualify for the most recent men’s World Cup in Qatar.

On Wednesday, Jamaica sealed a spot in the knockout stage after gutting through a scoreless draw with Brazil, which is leaving the World Cup empty-handed even though its soccer federation brought in more than $200 million in revenue last year. While questions remain about overall funding for the women’s team, Brazil has promised to pay its male and female soccer players equally.

Group F winners France — with a national federation budget of about $290 million this past year — also struggled against Jamaica, tying 0-0. Jamaica earned its lone group-stage win against Panama, a similarly lower-funded soccer country, although exact financials are unclear.

Next up for Jamaica is a Round of 16 match against Colombia or Germany — both staples of international soccer with funding close to the likes of their respective continental counterparts in Brazil and France. Jamaica’s players are already guaranteed at least $60,000 each in prize for their performance thus far — totaling $1.38 million.