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Afternoon Edition

December 17, 2024

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More than three years after one ambitious proposal for a European soccer Super League withered, another has sprung. What’s new about the Unify League, how would it work, and what stands in its way?

As the year nears its end, we have two questions for readers: What were the news events and storylines that most interested you in 2024? And: What are your biggest predictions for the business of sports in 2025? Send us a sentence or two about either question—or both—by replying to this email. The best submissions will be featured in a future newsletter.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], and Colin Salao [[link removed]]

96-Club European Super League Proposal Unveiled, but Critics Remain [[link removed]]

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Plenty of soccer fans hate the idea of the European Super League in the sport. FIFA and UEFA bitterly fought the concept. Nonetheless, the notion is back—and bigger than ever—with Tuesday’s announcement of a 96-team Unify League.

A22 Sports Management, a company originally formed to aid the development of the ESL, introduced a restructured concept for a pan-European club competition with the Unify League that expanded from a prior, planned men’s competition with 64 teams.

The new proposal, being submitted to FIFA and UEFA for official recognition, arrives almost one year to the day from a ruling by the European Court of Justice [[link removed]] that prior restrictions around the ESL were “unlawful.” In the proposed new structure, the 96 teams would be divided into four “leagues”: two top tiers of 16 clubs each, and two lower ones with 32 clubs each. Top-performing clubs in each league would then advance to knockout rounds, and the four-level structure contemplates annual promotion and relegation among the tiers.

“Now is the time for all stakeholders, including UEFA and FIFA, to bring real innovation that prioritizes fan experience and affordability, player welfare, and match competitiveness,” said A22 CEO Bernd Reichart.

The original ESL proposal died in 2021 in the face of heated public criticism across Europe, but LaLiga rivals FC Barcelona and Real Madrid still spent more than two years [[link removed]] in an extended legal effort to revive it. Now in this retooled incarnation, the Unify League will be based in no small part on a direct-to-consumer streaming service, called Unify, which will offer free, ad-supported distribution of matches as well as an ad-free subscription option.

“Our extensive engagement with key stakeholders revealed a number of pressing challenges facing the sport including increasing subscription costs for fans, an overloaded player calendar, insufficient investment in women’s football, and dissatisfaction with the format and governance of the current pan-European competitions,” Reichart said.

Rough Reaction

Though some clubs, including those two LaLiga giants, have supported the Unify League concept, the Spanish league itself had some of the most blistering initial criticism of the new concept.

“Those from A22 Sports are back with a new idea: they produce formats as if they were churros, without analyzing or studying the economic and sporting effects on the competition,” LaLiga president Javier Tebas tweeted [[link removed]] in Spanish. “The television model they propose only favors the big clubs (and they know it…) while endangering the economic stability of the national leagues and their clubs.”

Kirk Cousins’s Struggles Loom Over Falcons Future (and Salary Cap) [[link removed]]

Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

The Falcons snapped a four-game losing streak Monday night, squeaking by a two-win Raiders team with a 15–9 victory. But Atlanta’s $180 million quarterback, Kirk Cousins, continued to struggle, setting up a pivotal closing stretch for the Falcons (7–7), who remain one game back of the Buccaneers in the NFC South—and creating some interesting offseason decisions for the franchise’s front office.

Cousins has passed for 3,508 yards this season, including 18 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. Back on Oct. 3 against the Bucs, Cousins passed for a league-high 509 yards and four touchdowns. But on Monday, he completed 11 of 17 for just 112 yards, one touchdown, and one interception against Las Vegas.

“He’s got to play better,” first-year Atlanta head coach Raheem Morris said after the game. “I don’t think that’s a mystery,” added Cousins, who signed a four-year, $180 million contract [[link removed]] with the Falcons in the spring that includes $100 million in guaranteed money.

Escalating the drama is the presence of rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who Atlanta selected with the eighth-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft [[link removed]], just more than a month after signing Cousins.

Time to Pay Up?

If the Falcons decide to move on from Cousins as their starting quarterback in 2025, it will be expensive for a team that has just one playoff win since its Super Bowl LI collapse against the Patriots after the 2016 season.

Cutting Cousins would cost the most. After the 2024 season concludes, the quarterback will carry a dead cap hit of $65 million ( all figures via Spotrac [[link removed]]). A post–June 1 release designation would give Atlanta the ability to move $25 million of that salary cap penalty to the 2026 season.

The NFL’s 2024 salary cap is a record $255.4 million [[link removed]], and it is expected to increase again next year.

Trading Cousins could be more palatable. However, Cousins has a no-trade clause, so he would have to agree to his new destination. If a new team was willing to take on the full $27.5 million base salary Cousins is owed in 2025, the Falcons would be on the hook for a dead cap hit of only $37.5 million (of which $25 million could be spread out to 2026 with a post–June 1 trade). But any willing trade partner may seek to have Atlanta pay a portion of the quarterback’s 2025 salary.

The $35 million salary for Cousins in 2026 and 2027 is not guaranteed. The QB will be an unrestricted free agent in 2028—and will turn 40 before the season.

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NBA Cup Needs Time, Tradition to Earn Fans’ Interest [[link removed]]

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LAS VEGAS — In the days leading up to the Emirates NBA Cup final between the Thunder and Bucks, the energy around T-Mobile Arena has been tame. Most sports fans in the area surrounding the NBA Cup site [[link removed]] were rocking Falcons and Raiders gear for Monday Night Football.

The NBA envisions its new in-season tournament as a flagship event early in the regular season, but through two iterations, it has yet to capture the interest of fans. Declining viewership [[link removed]], low ticket prices, and a lack of buzz show that.

However, the Cup cannot be declared an abject failure through two years. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said European soccer tournaments inspired the NBA Cup [[link removed]]. A prime example, then, would be one that shares a primary sponsor: The Emirates FA Cup in England.

Perhaps the simplest reason the FA Cup has turned into a meaningful soccer tournament for teams, players, and fans alike is because of tradition, as the men’s FA Cup has been around since the 1871–1872 season. Time and tradition is the common thread among famous sports tournaments that are not necessarily tied to the grand prize, like the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup in golf or the Davis Cup in men’s tennis.

Meanwhile, newer tournaments like the Laver Cup [[link removed]] in men’s tennis have also not had glowing receptions from the audience, as many have questioned their purpose.

Player Buy-In

One thing the NBA Cup has going for it is that players clearly care about winning [[link removed]]. The prize of more than half a million dollars per player on the winning team has enticed them to win—but players and teams have expressed the importance of winning and using the tournament as a stepping stone.

“This is the closest environment you can get to playoff basketball right now,” Bucks wing Gary Trent Jr. told Front Office Sports [[link removed]].

The buy-in from players may be the most important starting point for the NBA right now, especially as its All-Star Game—another midseason tentpole event, which the league announced Tuesday will feature a new format in February— has experienced a steep dip in viewership [[link removed]] due to the contest’s lack of competitiveness. The game has drawn fewer than six million viewers in each of the last two years [[link removed]] when it used to hover around eight million in the 2000s and more than 10 million in the 1990s. It should be noted this is not a problem unique to basketball, as the NFL and NHL have struggled mightily with the interest and format of their own All-Star events.

Bucks guard Damian Lillard, an eight-time All-Star, even said that potential NBA All-Star Game changes could work if it provided some kind of “incentive” for players similar to the NBA Cup.

In the meantime, the NBA Cup can lean on the success of the added business it has secured from this tournament. Aside from securing a name sponsor in Emirates, the tournament was a key factor in its $77 billion media-rights deal [[link removed]] and partnership with Amazon Prime Video.

It has also provided added programming for teams around the league. The Bulls have yet to qualify for the knockout rounds, but told FOS the NBA Cup has helped them secure additional sponsorship opportunities with partners like Motorola while also tripling the team’s social media impressions compared to its average for themed nights.

STATUS REPORT Three Up, One Down

The Columbus Dispatch

College GameDay ⬆ ESPN saw record TV ratings for its weekly college football pregame show this fall, averaging 2.2 million viewers each Saturday morning—a 6% increase from 2023.

NBC ⬆ The NFL has flexed Week 17’s Falcons (7–7) at Commanders (9–5) matchup into Sunday Night Football. Dolphins (6–8) at Browns (3–11) moves out of prime time and into the 4:05 p.m. ET window on CBS.

Rich Rodriguez ⬆ West Virginia will pay its new football coach $3.5 million [[link removed]] in 2025 and allocate $7.5 million for assistant coaches and support staff.

Colorado ⬇ Devin Rispress, who was a top recruiter for Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders the past two seasons, has left to take a similar position at Florida State [[link removed]].

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The WNBA announced its first-ever regular-season international game will be played in Vancouver in August 2025.

The Atlanta Dream and Seattle Storm will play in the third WNBA Canada Game on Aug. 15 at Rogers Arena. The 2023 Toronto and 2024 Edmonton games, which both sold out, were held during the preseason. The Storm lost to the Los Angeles Sparks 84–79 in that Edmonton game. The WNBA also played international preseason games in Mexico in 2004 and England in 2011.

Check out the Women’s Sports content hub [[link removed]] to read the full article [[link removed]], and stay up to date on all things women’s sports.

Conversation Starters Las Vegas Aces star and three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson is signing a six-year extension with Nike [[link removed]] that will be one of the richest shoe deals in women’s basketball. The new 12-team College Football Playoff could create Cinderella stories like we see annually in March Madness. Listen to more [[link removed]] in the latest Under Review with Adam Breneman. On Tuesday night, LIV Golf and PGA Tour stars will battle for a $10 million cryptocurrency purse [[link removed]], as Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka face off against Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. Editors’ Picks Michael Vick in Talks With Sac State As NFL Legend Looks to Break Into CFB [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]The Hornets’ university president recently met with Vick. Conor McGregor Says He’s Boxing Logan Paul in India With Backing of One of World’s Richest Families [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]McGregor hasn’t fought in UFC since 2021 and hasn’t boxed since 2017. A ‘Wave’ of Sports Content Is Coming to TikTok [[link removed]]by Jeff Benson [[link removed]]The next generation is consuming sports in a different way. DISCLAIMER

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