Even in a season of declining viewership for the NFL, Fox is reaching unprecedented levels for Super Bowl LIX advertising sales. 

The network has sold roughly a dozen 30-second ad units for at least $8 million each, according to industry sources and multiple reports. That’s a record level that builds meaningfully off prior sales for the game hovering around $7 million per unit. 

In November, company CEO and executive chair Lachlan Murdoch said Fox was “already sold out and at record pricing,” for Super Bowl LIX, a highlight of a solid quarterly earnings report. Since then, however, a larger-than-normal number of ad buyers have dropped out of the game—including insurance company State Farm, which bowed out amid the recent wildfires in Southern California. That, in turn, has helped allow Fox to resell that recaptured ad inventory at even higher rates, with the network dipping into a company waiting list started last spring.

Super Bowl LIX between the Chiefs and Eagles is set for Feb. 9 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. 

The NFL’s Power

Before the 2024 NFL season, Super Bowl LIX ad sales had stayed generally in line with recent years, and some industry executives even suggested the event was broadly approaching peak-level pricing—even as the NFL’s title game each year is the single-largest event in U.S. television. 

The league has since had a more downbeat season in viewership, battling against the tough comparisons of a banner 2023 and posting declines across the regular season, wild-card round, divisional playoffs, and NFC championship game. 

So beyond the ad inventory Fox gained the ability to resell, what else explains the recent spike in Super Bowl pricing? The NFL remains by far the biggest attraction in the entire media industry and still holds an ability to aggregate audiences like nothing else—in or out of sports. The league’s 2024 viewership declines, meanwhile, also are far less than heavy retreats seen elsewhere, particularly on cable television.

The continued splintering of entertainment audiences, particularly as traditional TV now holds a minority of overall viewership, makes the massive scale of the Super Bowl only stand out more. 

Also helping Fox is a recent surge in viewership for other sports and events in the network’s rights portfolio, including MLB’s World Series and college football. 

As college football becomes more like a professional sport, expenses are starting to rise for schools with some of the country’s top programs.

During the 2023–2024 fiscal year, operating expenses were $325 million for Texas athletics and $292.3 million for Ohio State, according to USA Today. Those are the two largest operating expenses ever reported.

The Longhorns also brought in $331.9 million in operating revenues, marking the first time that a Division I public school has reported more than $300 million in both revenues and expenses in the same year. 

Ohio State’s revenue generation fell short, leading to an operating deficit of $37.7 million. That’s at least partially a result of a $14.6 million decline in ticket revenue that resulted from only six home football games in 2023 (compared to eight in the 2022 season) and from $8.5 million in severance costs connected to the school’s firing of men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann in February 2024, per USA Today.

Numbers Games

Ohio State beat Texas in this year’s College Football Playoff semifinals en route to the Buckeyes’ second CFP national championship. 

Last season, in which the operating expenses and revenue above were recorded, Texas reached the four-team CFP after winning the Big 12 (its last season in the conference), while Ohio State finished the regular season ranked No. 7.

Texas joined the expanded, 16-team SEC last summer, while the Big Ten grew to 18 teams.

It didn’t take long for several more dominoes to fall in the WNBA offseason.

Two days after a three-team deal sent Kelsey Plum and Jewell Loyd away from the franchises that drafted them, Brittney Griner chose to move on as well. The 10-time All-Star agreed to a one-year deal with the Atlanta Dream, ESPN reported Tuesday. Financial terms have not yet been reported, but Griner made $150,000 last season with the Phoenix Mercury.

The 6-foot-9 center is by far the most impactful free-agent signing for the franchise, which has consistently been at the bottom of the WNBA in attendance. This is due, in part, to playing its home games at the Gateway Center Arena, which has a capacity of just 3,500, the league’s smallest. 

But the franchise has also failed to finish with a winning record since 2018—and Griner’s addition to a core consisting of All-Star wings Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray puts the Dream, who finished 15–25 last season, in position to break the drought.

From the Sun to the Valley

Griner’s announcement came just hours after it was announced that the Mercury were finalizing a deal to acquire Alyssa Thomas from the Connecticut Sun via a sign-and-trade, ESPN reported.

The Sun will also send out Tyasha Harris in exchange for Natasha Cloud, Rebecca Allen, and the No. 12 pick in the 2025 draft, according to Howard Megdal of The Next.

Thomas, a 6-foot-2 forward who was on the All-WNBA first team for the last two seasons, was drafted in 2014 by the Sun and had spent her entire career in Connecticut. 

She was an unrestricted free agent before receiving the core designation from the Sun—which is a one-year deal worth nearly $250,000, akin to the NFL’s franchise tag—earlier this month. A sign-and-trade was the only option for Thomas to move out of Connecticut, and she chose to play for Phoenix, according to The Athletic. 

Thomas joins Kahleah Copper in Phoenix, who, together with the now-traded Cloud, was publicly recruiting free agents to join the Mercury by promoting the team’s $100 million practice facility. The former Sun star told The Next in September the team had to share its practice court at Mohegan Sun Arena with a 2-year-old’s birthday party ahead of a playoff game.

“Mohegan has to do better,” Thomas said. “[It’s the] ultimate disrespect.”