MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly insisted that the league is fully committed to the Tampa market. Now Manfred himself has made a direct, in-person appeal to show how much that’s still the case.

The commissioner has met in recent days with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Pinellas County Commission chair Kathleen Peters, and county administrator Barry Burton to advance the effort to build a $1.3 billion ballpark for the Rays in St. Petersburg. 

That initiative, though seemingly settled last summer, has hit a series of resurgent problems following the devastation in October to the Tampa area, and particularly Tropicana Field, from Hurricane Milton. The county has delayed approval of $312.5 million in public-sector bonds for the new stadium, and so did the St. Petersburg City Council before finally green-lighting its $287.5 million part of the project last week. The county is due to revisit the stadium bond issue on Dec. 17.

None of the principals involved have made a substantive statement on the tenor of those meetings, though Peters did say Manfred spoke of MLB’s support of the stadium deal. The county approval is a critical component of the ballpark project, but even if it’s approved, the Rays have said the stadium is now heading toward a 2029 opening—a year later than first projected and introducing additional costs that the club claims it cannot afford. 

The presence of Manfred, however, provides another affirmative statement on the intention of MLB to stay in the Tampa media market that has now grown to a No. 11 ranking in the U.S. 

Last month, the commissioner made a similarly unequivocal statement during owners meetings, contrasting somewhat from the more mixed messages that many Tampa officials say the Rays have provided. 

“Given the devastation in that area [from the hurricane], it’s only fair to give the local governments an opportunity to figure out where they are, what they have available in terms of resources, and what’s doable,” Manfred said. 

Changes for Next Year

The Rays, meanwhile, have made a series of tweaks to their existing plan to play next season’s home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, normally the spring training home of the Yankees. The 2025 home schedule for the Rays will now start March 28, a day later than first planned, to provide additional time to ready the facility. The new date is still just four days after the Yankees break camp. Even with the change, the Rays still have a heavily front-loaded home schedule, playing 47 of their first 59 games in Tampa to avoid the worst of the area’s extreme heat and rain.

Plans are also beginning to come into focus on what the Rays will be able to do at Steinbrenner Field to monetize their games there. The Yankees said the Rays will have “limited permission to sell regular-season advertising inventory throughout the seating bowl, including stadium concourse walls, the scoreboard, and the outfield walls.”

College football’s transfer portal saw record movement on its opening day, highlighted by several big-time quarterbacks looking to potentially cash in on major NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals—and maybe some new hardware—with new schools.

Around 1,000 FBS players entered the portal Monday, which is nearly double the total from Day 1 a year ago, and it caused an analytics database that many schools use to track movement to temporarily crash, according to 247 Sports.

The biggest headline was Maalik Murphy’s surprise decision to leave Duke after he threw a school-record 26 touchdown passes this season while leading the Blue Devils to a 9–3 record. He won’t play for Duke in the Gator Bowl against Ole Miss on Jan. 2. Murphy, who has at least one major NIL deal with Postmates, transferred from Texas last year and has two years of eligibility remaining.

The Grass Is Always Greener?

Five teams in the College Football Playoff have starting quarterbacks they acquired in last year’s transfer portal: 

• Oregon: Dillon Gabriel (from Oklahoma)
• Arizona State: Sam Leavitt (from Michigan State)
• Ohio State: Will Howard (from Kansas State)
• Notre Dame: Riley Leonard (from Duke)
• Indiana: Kurtis Rourke (from Ohio)

Each of those signal-callers has multiple big-money NIL deals, like the one Leonard signed with Dick’s Sporting Goods after joining the Fighting Irish, following three seasons at Duke.

Heisman finalist Cam Ward, whose Miami Hurricanes narrowly missed out on an ACC championship game appearance and the CFP, was also a major NIL success story this season after transferring from Washington State. Ward, who is now projected to be a top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, signed a deal with Miami apparel provider Adidas this fall, adding to deals he already had with Bose and energy drink brand C4.

So, who could cash in next? 

As of Tuesday morning, one ranking from ESPN listed Tulane’s Darian Mensah, USC’s Miller Moss, Oklahoma’s Jackson Arnold, Liberty’s Kaidon Salter, and Texas A&M’s Conner Weigman as the top five quarterbacks currently available in the transfer portal. Murphy was sixth. 

Another interesting transfer to watch will be Matthew Sluka, who decided to redshirt after leading UNLV to a 3–0 start, due to a dispute over NIL money. The Rebels finished the regular season 10–2 and ended up in the Mountain West championship game but lost to Boise State, which earned an automatic CFP bid and a bye as the No. 3 seed.

The NBA’s downward viewership trend to start the 2024–2025 season has seeped into the Emirates NBA Cup.

Viewership of the NBA Cup’s group play averaged 1.33 million viewers on ESPN and TNT, a 10% dip versus last year, the tournament’s inaugural season. The networks split 14 nationally televised games, with TNT averaging 1.5 million viewers for its eight games and ESPN drawing 1.16 million viewers for its six.

There are several hypotheses regarding the NBA’s early-season viewership decline—including TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal positing that the volume of three-pointers has made the game repetitive. The NBA has also dealt with additional competition this season: A battle of powerhouses in the World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees that drove a seven-year viewership high, the presidential election, and the Mike Tyson–Jake Paul fight—which set historic streaming numbers.

The NBA has also dealt with a slew of injuries to its stars. Luka Dončić, Victor Wembanyama, and Paolo Banchero are some of the key names who have missed nationally televised NBA Cup games.

With the quarterfinals starting Tuesday night, seven more NBA Cup games remain during which the NBA can try to catch up to the 1.49 million viewers the tournament averaged last season. Of the eight teams left, only one is missing its biggest stars—the Magic, who are without both Banchero and Franz Wagner.

The NBA Cup semifinals begin Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. A 4:30 p.m. ET game will air on TNT, truTV, and Max. An 8:30 p.m. matchup will be broadcast on ABC, which will also air the NBA Cup championship game on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. 

Amazon Prime Video will own the rights to the tournament once the league’s $77 billion media-rights deal kicks in.