Saudi Pro League clubs spent nearly $1 billion on bringing new players to the competition in the recently concluded summer transfer window.

The $957 million spent by SPL clubs was a record for the league — more than any other except for the Premier League, which spent $1.39 billion, according to a new report from Deloitte. 

The SPL was responsible for almost half of overseas transfer fees received by EPL clubs, shelling out $312 million for players like Ruben Neve ($59 million), Aleksandar Mitrovic ($56 million), Fabinho ($50 million), and Riyad Mahrez ($37 million).

SPL clubs sent $148 million to Ligue 1, $122 million to Serie A, $116 million to La Liga, and $32 million to the Bundesliga.

Saudi Spending Just Getting Started

Saudi Arabia’s disruption of European soccer has been a major topic as new seasons began across the continent.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was particularly concerned with the SPL’s pursuit of his star player, Mohamed Salah. The attempts came shortly after Saudi club Al-Hilal paid $98.5 million to facilitate Neymar’s transfer from French side Paris Saint-Germain.

“The budgets are in place for a number of years,” SPL board member Peter Hutton said recently. “I don’t see this slowing down.”

Meanwhile, the SPL has been exploring potential paths to competing in the UEFA Champions League, and Saudi Arabia has asked European soccer leaders for assistance in the country’s bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup.

The Tampa Bay Rays have renewed hope for a stadium deal after nearly two decades of fruitless efforts to develop a successor facility to Tropicana Field. 

Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg — who has faced years of criticism over a seeming inability or unwillingness to complete a local stadium deal — said he is “highly optimistic” of finally reaching an agreement on a $1.2 billion ballpark in St. Petersburg by the end of the year. 

Sternberg also said he’s willing to pay more than half of that stadium cost, a notion that has led the owner to seek out investors in return for minority equity in the team. That pursuit, however, has turned into months worth of unsolicited inquiries about buying a majority stake in the Rays — something that doesn’t currently interest Sternberg.

“When you’re talking about people raising potentially hundreds of millions of dollars, they’re going, ‘Well, maybe we can buy the whole damn thing.’ So they take a run at you,” Sternberg said to the Tampa Bay Times.

Beneath Sternberg’s hopeful outlook, though, was a revived threat that the team could ultimately leave the Tampa area if the stadium deal isn’t completed. 

“If I can’t get something done here, the best buyer will be somebody from somewhere else, and the team will be sold,” he said. 

Despite again fielding MLB’s fourth-smallest payroll and ranking 27th in average attendance, the Rays have the American League’s second-best record, are poised for a fifth straight postseason appearance, and haven’t had a losing season since 2017. 

Financial penalties are likely to be much steeper for NBA teams who rest healthy players this coming season. 

The NBA’s board of governors is set to vote on new rules Wednesday that would see teams fined well over $1 million for certain load-management offenses, according to multiple reports. 

NBA commissioner Adam Silver currently has the right to fine teams on an individual basis if he feels they’re not acting in the best interests of the league.

For years, fans and media have criticized the league for allowing teams to sit star players during the 82-game regular season, even when fully healthy. The new guidelines are built to combat those moves, especially for nationally televised matchups and in-season tournament games.

If the rules are passed, teams may not rest more than one healthy player who has made an All-Star or All-NBA team in the previous three seasons in any game — and must play all their healthy stars during games on national TV or the in-season tournament.

It’s All About TV Money

In 2024, the NBA will begin negotiating new media rights deals that would take effect in 2025. A guarantee that its best players will be on the court could help the league in its attempts to reach $75 billion in media revenue.

Additionally, the in-season tournament debuting this fall could be sold as its own package of games — a move which would place even more importance on NBA star power.

The turbulent, often dysfunctional nature of Italian soccer has now extended to uncertainties surrounding the long-term future of Serie A’s most decorated club.

The ownership group of Juventus has pushed back on a local report claiming it was preparing to sell the club in the wake of poor recent financial performance — a rumor that spiked the club’s shares nearly 5%.

Owned for the last century by the Agnelli family via holding company Exor, Juventus was valued at $2.16 billion by Forbes this year — making it the 11th-richest soccer club in the world. Juventus’ 36 Serie A titles are the most in league history.

Tough Business

Juventus’ plight is just the latest precarious situation plaguing the increasingly complicated business of Italian soccer, where the promise of international investment often runs up against the reality of local roadblocks.

Since 2019, the other two most popular clubs in Italy, AC Milan and Inter Milan — which are respectively owned by American firm RedBird Capital Partners and Chinese company Suning Holdings Group — have been planning to build a new $1.3 billion stadium together, replacing the 96-year-old San Siro stadium they currently share. 

But now, the clubs are both considering separate projects because local officials are blocking their joint plan. “It’s challenging because, in Italy, it’s difficult to build anything,” AC Milan co-owner Riccardo Silva told Front Office Sports. “In the last 20 years, only two stadiums were built. It’s all very complicated.”

Meanwhile, Serie A has had to delay negotiations for its next set of media rights deals as recent bids were not meeting the $1 billion-plus threshold the league seeks.