The news started as one final Woj bomb, but for Adrian Wojnarowski, the move to leave ESPN is all about going home. 

The venerated NBA news-breaker is leaving the sports media giant halfway through an estimated five-year, $35 million contract to become the GM of the men’s basketball program at St. Bonaventure, his alma mater. 

To the uninitiated, this might seem like a deeply odd move, especially to Wojnarowski’s stunned colleagues back at ESPN. Why leave millions on the table to work at one of the smallest schools in Division I athletics, located in a remote part of western New York, and one still figuring out how to compete in a fundamentally changed and more financially driven world of college sports? 

But Wojnarowski has been deeply entrenched with the school, and particularly its basketball program, in the three-plus decades since graduating. He’s been a major benefactor to St. Bonaventure, was the school’s commencement speaker in 2022, is a regular sounding board for men’s basketball coach Mark Schmidt, and most recently, has played a leading role in forming and building the Bonnies’ NIL (name, image, and likeness) collective, Team Unfurl. 

The Bonnies also enjoy one of the most committed alumni groups of any school in the country. Full disclosure: I, too, am part of that alumni base, and am very familiar with that fervor. I overlapped for one year at St. Bonaventure with Wojnarowski. My wife and I worked at the school newspaper with Wojnarowski and his wife, Amy, and my daughter is currently a senior there. 

Now, the 55-year-old Wojnarowski is jumping at the chance to take that alumni passion to an entirely different level.

“After all these years of reporting on everyone’s teams, I’m heading back to my own,” Wojnarowski tweeted Wednesday.

Changing Landscape

The new position for Wojnarowski, meanwhile, also leans heavily in to a rapidly evolving GM role for college sports programs—a spot that did not broadly exist until just a few years ago. Historic shifts in NIL and media rights, realignment, and the transfer portal, however, have prompted a fast-growing number of schools to create such a position. At St. Bonaventure, Wojnarowski’s duties will include not only managing NIL opportunities, collectives, and the transfer portal, but also fundraising, aiding in recruiting, and helping oversee the program’s relationships with the broader basketball community. 

“Woj is the perfect person to fill this new role, combining his intimate knowledge of St. Bonaventure and our Franciscan values with a deep network of relationships he has built across the worlds of professional and intercollegiate basketball,” said Bob Beretta, St. Bonaventure athletic director. Beretta, also an alumnus, started in the role in June. “The fact that the preeminent journalist in his field is willing to walk away from a lucrative media career to serve his alma mater in a support role is a testament to his love and passion for Bona’s.”

—Eric Fisher

Rogers Communications is making a serious claim as the most powerful team ownership entity in all of sports.

The Toronto-based media and telecommunications giant, already the owner of MLB’s Blue Jays, has reached an agreement to up its stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment from 37.5% to a controlling stake of 75%. The $3.46 billion agreement involves Rogers buying a 37.5% stake owned by Bell, another Canadian telecom power, and it values the entire MLSE portfolio at about $9.2 billion. 

More than a simple equity transaction, though, the deal sees Rogers tighten its grip across Canadian pro sports. Once the deal closes, expected to be in mid-2025, the company will have the following assets under its control:

• MLB’s Blue Jays
• NHL’s Maple Leafs
• NBA’s Raptors
• Toronto FC of MLS
• Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League
• SportsNet, a major Canadian sports network
• Toronto’s Rogers Centre and Scotiabank Arena
• Naming rights to sports venues in Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver
• National NHL media rights in Canada
• Local media rights to the NHL’s Canucks, Flames, and Oilers
• Partial local media rights to the Maple Leafs and Raptors
• Several minor-league franchises and esports teams

“MLSE continues to appreciate significantly, and together with our sports and media assets, we plan to surface more value for our shareholders long-term,” said Tony Staffieri, Rogers president and CEO. “This agreement also ensures long-term Canadian ownership and investment of these iconic teams.”

Larry Tanenbaum, MLSE chair and recently reelected as the chair of the NBA Board of Governors, remains a minority owner of the company, and he also owns the WNBA expansion franchise in Toronto. As part of the deal, Bell will also retain partial access “at fair market value” to Maple Leafs and Raptors games for its sports broadcaster TSN. 

Other Groups

There are several other notable multi-team owners across the industry, including Stan Kroenke, owner of the NFL’s Rams, NBA’s Nuggets, NHL’s Avalanche, and the Rapids of MLS, among other assets. Fenway Sports Group has MLB’s Red Sox, the NHL’s Penguins, and Liverpool FC of the Premier League in its portfolio. City Football Group Ltd. is a major operator in soccer around the world, led by its flagship team, Manchester City, four-time defending champions of the Premier League.

But none of those entities have as singular a presence as Rogers now holds in Canada.

“Live sports and entertainment are a critical part of our core business strategy,” Staffieri said. 

The WNBA announced its third expansion team in the last 12 months—but it wants one more.

On Wednesday, the WNBA revealed that its 15th franchise will debut in Portland in 2026 together with a Toronto-based team, following the Golden State Valkyries, which join the league next season. 

In April, commissioner Cathy Engelbert declared she is “pretty confident” the league will expand from its current crop of 12 teams to 16 teams by 2028. So with one slot available, the question remains: Where will that team play? 

Potential Choices

Engelbert has laid out Philadelphia, Nashville, Denver, and South Florida as possible options for another expansion franchise.

Last year, Engelbert toured Denver to see whether the city would be fit for a team, though that has yet to materialize. 

The revival of past franchises could also be explored—and one that fans have been clamoring for is the Houston Comets, the inaugural champions. Considering Engelbert mentioned South Florida as a potential location, the revival of the Miami Sol, which existed for only three years, may also be in the cards.

Boston had expansion market buzz following a sold-out game in TD Garden between the Connecticut Sun and Los Angeles Sparks last month, though they were not mentioned by Engelbert.

Geographically, because the WNBA already has several teams on the West Coast, and in the Midwest and Northeast, it would make sense for the league to target Florida, Texas, Colorado, or the Mid-South region.

Changing History

If the league fulfills Engelbert’s 16-team goal, it would tie the most number of franchises the league has ever had. The WNBA, which launched with eight teams in 1997, had 16 teams from 2000 to 2002.

Financial constraints caused several teams to fold or relocate, with the league hovering between 13 and 14 teams from 2003 to 2009 before settling into 12 teams in 2010. The league would not want to repeat history.

But it does feel different this time around—even though The Washington Post reported earlier this year that the league is still losing tens of millions every year. 

In July, the WNBA, alongside the NBA, signed a media-rights deal worth $2.2 billion over 11 years. The WNBA will also receive an influx of funds from its expansion team fees, and this historic season has driven up ticket sales by over double digits across all franchises.

Front Office Sports keeps you updated on the latest NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals shaping college sports. Here’s who is cashing in now:

• Athlete: Travis Hunter
• Sport: Football
• School: Colorado
• Brand: NerdWallet

The deal: Colorado’s dual-threat star is the first NCAA football player to sign up for personal finance company NerdWallet’s Smartest NIL Deal Ever, which requires athletes to commit to a smart money action. As part of the deal, Hunter will put 20% of the money he earns from it into a savings account. Hunter, a projected top-10 pick in the 2025 NFL draft, is third among all athletes on On3’s NIL 100 list with a valuation of $3.1 million.

NerdWallet has signed deals with two other athletes in the past—NCAA women’s basketball star JuJu Watkins and 2024 NBA draft pick Rob Dillingham.