The NFL just wrapped up an unprecedented wild card weekend that made history around severe weather, new-age media, and postseason formatting.

On Monday, the Buffalo Bills-Pittsburgh Steelers game became the first NFL playoff matchup to be postponed by an entire day, in this case due to several feet of snow hitting the Buffalo area over the weekend. (In 2017, a Steelers-Kansas City Chiefs game was postponed from 1 p.m. ET to 8:20 p.m. because of wintry weather.) The Bills paid shovelers $20 an hour ahead of the game to clear snow inside Highmark Stadium, and when the Steelers arrived in Buffalo, they required a snow plow to accompany their typical police escort to their hotel. This weekend’s move also led to the first time the NFL has played a pair of playoff games on three consecutive days.

And that all came after the Chiefs’ victory over the Miami Dolphins on Saturday night made headlines for frigid temperatures. At -4°, the game in Kansas City went down as the fourth-coldest in NFL history (though it will be remembered, no doubt, for Chiefs head coach Andy Reid’s frozen mustache).

Beyond the weather, Chiefs-Dolphins, which aired on Peacock, became the most-streamed event in U.S. history, averaging 23 million viewers, despite some fans’ outrage last week about the game being available exclusively on the streamer. (That audience number does include viewership from local stations in Miami and K.C., as is standard in reporting for all exclusively-streamed NFL games.) The Chiefs-Dolphins stream beat out last year’s Saturday night wild card matchup between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers, which drew 20.6 million viewers on NBC. Peacock paid $110 million rights to this year’s wild card game, which will be up for auction again this offseason and intended for a streaming audience.

What was already a boom time for sales of Minor League Baseball teams is about to get another jolt.  

The Triple-A Charlotte Knights, the top farm team of the Chicago White Sox, are officially up for sale, with current owner Don Beaver exploring a potential transaction. A deal for the Knights and Charlotte’s Truist Field could potentially reach $100 million, based on recent comps, which would set a new record for an MiLB team sale.

“A few prospective interested parties have inquired about the team and the ballpark,” the Knights said. “We want to vet the interested groups to see if a sale makes sense for Don Beaver and his family.”

The last several years have already seen an increasingly frothy market for MiLB franchises, which may not be the flashiest sports asset to own—but which have shown steady attendance figures that have largely returned to pre-pandemic norms, as well as solid profit margins since MLB parent clubs pay minor league player salaries. Among the top recent MiLB team sales:

• An estimated $70 million deal last month for the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox, part of an aggressive acquisition push by Diamond Baseball Holdings, which now owns 29 MiLB teams—nearly a quarter of the entire affiliated minor leagues. 
• A $90 million acquisition in 2022 of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats and Sutter Health Park by Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and Arctos Sports Partners, believed to be the current standard-bearer for MiLB team sales.

The Knights look to push that further, based in part on a consistent standard as one of MiLB’s top draws (the team was 10th in attendance in 2023, with an average of 6,833 per game) and the 10-year-old Truist Field, located in quickly-developing uptown Charlotte.

The run of MiLB deals is also an outgrowth of MLB’s 2020-21 reorganization of the affiliated minor league, a dramatic move that resulted in the elimination of 40 franchises. That overhaul has arrived with a sharp upgrade in MLB facility requirements for minor league affiliates, a demand resulting in some team relocations and longtime owners deciding to sell. 

Inter Miami will travel to El Salvador this week to kick off the club’s preseason international tour, which will require more than 23,000 miles of travel for six matches in five different countries across 20 days.

The schedule is unprecedented for an MLS team, but it’s the new reality for a franchise looking to capitalize on the legendary Lionel Messi in every way possible. Here’s what the next three weeks will look like for Inter Miami:

• Friday: El Salvador national team, in San Salvador (1,018 miles from Miami)
• Jan. 22: FC Dallas, at Cotton Bowl Stadium (1,402 miles)
• Jan. 29: Saudi club Al-Hilal, in Riyadh (7,799 miles)
• Feb. 1: Al Nassr, in Riyadh
• Feb. 4: Hong Kong all-stars (4,233 miles)
• Feb. 7: Vissel Kobe, in Tokyo (1,794 miles)

After another 7,000-plus-mile flight home, Inter Miami will host one final preseason match on Feb. 15 against Argentine side Club Atlético Newell’s Old Boys, for whom Messi played during his youth career.

Only one other MLS team, Real Salt Lake, is scheduled to venture outside North America this preseason, with three matches on tap in Portugal. Last week, Inter Miami manager Tata Martino confirmed that some of his club’s stars are required to participate in the international friendlies as part of the tour’s contracts. Both Martino and star midfielder Sergio Busquets acknowledged the challenges of balancing the “business side” of the preseason prep with getting in shape on the pitch.

It is unclear how much money the international tour will bring in, but Inter Miami executives have made no secret about their goal to reach $200 million in revenue during 2024, after last season bringing in a record $120 million. Inter Miami begins its regular season on Feb. 21.

Arizona Wildcats student-athletes who may have been worried about the future of their athletic program amid the university’s $240 million budget deficit can breathe easy—for the short term, at least.

As Arizona prepares to move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 this summer, athletic director Dave Heeke recently gave a public update on school finances, saying that there are no immediate plans to eliminate sports, despite previously ominous comments from Arizona president Robert Robbins. In November, Robbins said that “everything’s on the table in terms of dealing with athletics” and that “a lot of tough decisions” would be required.

Beyond Arizona’s university-wide concerns, a large issue stems from a yet-to-be-paid-back $55 million loan that the school provided to the athletic department during the pandemic. To combat the financial problems, Arizona athletics will continue a hiring freeze implemented last fall instead of cutting sports programs altogether. Additionally, all new major construction projects will be paused after the completion of a new golf center, and budgets have been pared back in other areas.

Arizona currently fields 23 varsity teams, six more than the Big 12 average. In its top revenue-generating sports, Arizona football finished 2023 with 10 wins and an Alamo Bowl victory over Oklahoma, while the men’s basketball team holds the No. 8 ranking in the country and is potentially poised for a deep run come March Madness.