The 2023 MLB postseason is shaping up to be one of the more diversely competitive in recent memory — reflecting a very changed landscape across the sport. 

The set of 12 playoff teams does not include large-market, big-spending titans such as the New York Mets and Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and the Chicago Cubs, all of whom traditionally draw many of the MLB’s largest television audiences. But it does include five teams back in the postseason after multiyear absences — Arizona, Baltimore, Miami, Minnesota, and Texas — with each contributing to the league’s overall surge in attendance.

In result, this postseason will exclude the top three teams in MLB payroll but include two of the bottom four, and four of the lowest 10.

“This certainly shows that it’s difficult [for teams] to buy a ticket to the postseason,” ESPN baseball announcer Karl Ravech told Front Office Sports. “There are more than just spend-money ways to have consistency over 162 games.”

As part of a growing trend, other low-spending clubs such as the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians also engaged in postseason chases before fading late. But whether that situation will extend over multiple seasons remains to be seen, as this year’s playoff field also includes the Nos. 4-7 and 9-10 teams in player payroll. 

The wild-card round — with quadruple-headers — is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Another four games are set for Thursday if each of the four best-of-three series goes the distance.

The division series will begin on Saturday in Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, and Los Angeles, as each of those cities’ teams earned a bye. 

“This whole thing is a tournament now. That’s the beauty of this,” Ravech said. “You just get into the tournament, and anything can happen.”

Golf has only benefited from an increasing number of Americans taking up the sport in recent years and a general influx of interest in the professional game.

Now, the LPGA is looking to bring in new financial investment to continue growing the top tour in women’s golf. LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan told the Financial Times that the circuit is close to naming a strategic planning partner that could help bring in outside capital. 

It’s unclear how much the tour is seeking or when a formal investment could be made.

In August, Fenway Sports Management partnered with the LPGA to expand the tour’s marketing opportunities. FSM is part of Fenway Sports Group, one of the U.S.-based entities reportedly exploring investing in the PGA Tour amid Saudi Arabia’s disruption of the men’s game.

Star LPGA rookie Rose Zhang recently told Front Office Sports that she thought theoretical financial investment from Saudi Arabia could help grow the women’s game. Earlier this year, reports of a LIV Golf women’s league surfaced.

More Money For TGL

Michelle Wie West — the now-retired women’s golf phenom — and USWNT star Alex Morgan have invested in Los Angeles Golf Club, one of the six founding teams in TGL, the virtual golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy that will launch in January.

LAGC is owned by Serena Willams and her husband Alexis Ohanian — and also counts Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo among its investors.

TGL is reportedly close to announcing a media rights deal with ESPN.

San Diego’s MLS expansion team doesn’t even have an official name yet, but the club is already making plans for a state-of-the-art practice facility as major construction projects continue around the league.

Spread across 28 acres, San Diego’s 125,000 square-foot campus will include a 50,000- square-foot sports performance center and five soccer fields. Total costs are reportedly expected to reach $150 million. 

The team is set to begin MLS play in 2025, at which point it will become the league’s 30th club. San Diego will play home matches at Snapdragon Stadium, the $310 million, 35,000-seat stadium that opened in 2022 and is home to the NWSL’s San Diego Wave and the San Diego State Aztecs football team.

Coast-To-Coast Projects

Across MLS, game and practice venues have become a top priority for new and longtime clubs alike.

Inter Miami is building a $350 million stadium as part of a $1 billion development project it hopes to complete while Lionel Messi is still on the team. The Seattle Sounders say they’re interested in moving out of Lumen Field — the Seahawks’ 68,000-seat stadium — and into their own soccer-specific venue. NYCFC, which currently plays at Yankees Stadium, is on track to open a $780 million stadium by 2027.

Charlotte FC has a new practice center opening this fall, while the Colorado Rapids are eyeing new development around their home stadium. In addition, recent expansion teams in St. Louis and Austin have coincided with new stadiums in those markets.

Electronic Arts is one of the few major companies to walk away from FIFA and the commercial rights it controls — and the video game publisher is being rewarded handsomely for its choice.

The company has generated more than 6.8 million paid signups for pre-release access to “EA Sports FC,” the rebranded name for the “FIFA” video game series that ran annually for nearly three decades and became the world’s top-selling sports video game. That’s a 25% boost from comparable figures last year. 

The first title in the new series, “EA Sports FC 24,” was released on Friday. 

Last year, EA’s decision to produce a top-tier soccer video game without FIFA branding not only represented the almost unheard-of decision to part from global soccer’s governing body, but also sparked a vitriolic response. FIFA angrily declared that “the only authentic, real game that has the FIFA name will be the best one available for gamers and football fans.” 

Gamers and fans obviously feel differently.

The sales results, however, are hardly an accident, as EA is supporting the debut of “EA Sports FC” with unprecedented marketing support for a new game title. “We are literally rallying the entire company behind this launch more than we ever have in the 40 years of the company’s history around any launch,” said EA CEO Andrew Wilson last month in a call.

EA was able to work around the FIFA branding for the game as it holds separate licensing contracts with more than 700 teams, 19,000 players, 100 stadiums, and 30 leagues across both men’s and women’s soccer. Thus, the content of the game itself is very much in line with recent editions. 

The EA deal was worth about $150 million a year, making it FIFA’s largest commercial agreement outside the men’s World Cup. FIFA had reportedly been looking to at least double that figure in a new deal.