The PGA Tour’s negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund just got a lot more interesting.

Endeavor, Fenway Sports Group, and Henry Kravis, the billionaire founder of private equity firm KKR & Co., are exploring investing in the PGA Tour, according to Bloomberg. Those potential investments could be alongside the PIF — or even offer a completely new opportunity altogether.

The PGA Tour confirmed that PIF negotiations have “resulted in unsolicited interest from other investors,” which could be a move to potentially quell concerns from politicians.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held its second hearing exploring the potential impact of Saudi Arabia’s investment in the PGA Tour. In July, PGA Tour COO Ron Price and policy board member Jimmy Dunne testified in front of that same subcommittee.

Under the framework agreement previously announced, the PIF could invest at least $1 billion — and potentially much more — into the PGA Tour. A Dec. 31 deadline has been set to reach a definitive agreement, although there’s nothing stopping the two sides from pushing that date back.

Court Adjourned

A federal judge has dismissed both defamation cases from Patrick Reed — a former PGA Tour player who now plays for LIV Golf — against 18 total defendants. 

The judge listed several reasons for dismissing the litigation against Golf Channel, analyst Brandel Chamblee, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and others for combined damages worth at least $1 billion.

The Big 12’s four new schools are seeing significant financial gains early into the first year and football season with the conference. 

BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF became official members of the Big 12 in July, with the three former AAC members paying exit fees of $18 million to break contracts and leave early (BYU had no exit fee as a FBS independent).

Going into the final weekend of September, the four schools have seen varying spikes in ticket sales, merchandise purchases, and donations.

• Beyond selling out its 40,000 football season tickets in April, BYU’s women’s soccer and volleyball teams set single-game attendance records in the first month of their seasons.
• Cincinnati recorded $65.7 million in donations during fiscal years 2022 and ‘23, compared to $37.4 million the prior two years.
• Houston season ticket sales are up about 42% to 27,000, and the school has raised nearly $70 million for construction of a $140 million football operations center.
• UCF is projecting record football season attendance and has sold a record number of men’s basketball tickets.

In 2024, Texas and Oklahoma will depart the Big 12, while Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah will join to make a 16-team conference. In 2025, a new $2.28 billion media rights deal with ESPN and Fox will begin — bringing further revenue gains for the new and current schools alike.

A formal vote on the Oakland A’s proposed relocation to Las Vegas is now targeted for November.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred intends to bring the measure before team owners for ratification during league meetings scheduled for Nov. 14-16 in Arlington, Texas. Approval requires support from at least 23 of 30 clubs. 

If approved, the move would formalize MLB’s first club relocation since the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals in 2005, and just the second in the last 51 years after the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers in 1972. 

Las Vegas will be the A’s fourth home since the franchise’s 1901 founding after prior stops in Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Oakland. An MLB relocation committee led by Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio has been actively reviewing the relocation application. 

The A’s proposed ballpark along the Las Vegas Strip, however, has been beset by a series of obstacles in advance of a planned 2028 opening — most recently a new petition by an education advocacy group seeking to put the project’s public funding on a statewide ballot. 

Still, the move will almost certainly be approved, particularly as MLB’s relationship with the city of Oakland has reached new levels of toxicity. The A’s will finish the season with the league’s lowest attendance and worst record, while efforts toward a new ballpark in Oakland never reached fruition.

Betting Channels

MLB is actively preparing for alternate game feeds that directly embed live wagering capabilities.

Such an endeavor is thematically similar to other emerging watch-and-bet efforts such as Genius Sports’ new BetVision, which will allow NFL bets within a live video player for the first time. 

Serie A giant AC Milan has filed a formal proposal with local officials to construct a new 70,000-seat stadium, a dramatic step away from prior plans to build a new facility on the team’s current site — and one designed to create a much more sustainable future for the club.

AC Milan currently shares Guiseppe Meazza Stadium at San Siro with local rivals Inter Milan. The two clubs previously intended to build a $1.3 billion “Cathedral” project on that site, but ran into a series of political and regulatory issues — most notably a block on the demolition of San Siro. The clubs abandoned the effort earlier this month.

The new proposal involves the development of a new facility in the Milan suburb of San Donato, along with a mixed-use development including a club museum and store, team headquarters, a hotel, and an entertainment district.

“This is a preliminary step in the evolution of this process, but, at the same time, it is further proof of our ownership commitment to guaranteeing continuous growth for AC Milan both on and off the pitch,” said Paolo Scaroni, AC Milan chairman.

Economic Sustainability

The emerging stadium plan is also a sizable step toward economic sustainability within Serie A, which in recent years has been beset by a wide range of facility and financial issues. Earlier this month, AC Milan co-owner Riccardo Silva told FOS that “in Italy, it’s difficult to build anything.”

But last year, U.S.-based private equity firm RedBird Capital purchased AC Milan in a $1.3 billion deal that also involved the New York Yankees and LeBron James, so this new stadium push represents one of the club’s most significant moves since.