FIFA is making changes that will take a major chunk out of agents’ earnings.

The organization that oversees international competition in soccer intends to limit agent commissions to 3% of player salaries and 10% of transfer fees.

Top agents have threatened legal action if FIFA goes ahead with the plan.

• FIFA said that agents scored $500.8 million from transfer fees this year, a slight increase from 2020’s $497.5 million sum, despite total international transfer spending dropping from $5.2 billion in 2020 to $4.3 billion in 2021.
• In one unspecified incident, an agent earned 118% of the transfer fee paid by a German club to a French one.
• FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that training clubs earned around 1% of global transfer spending in 2019, while agents took home 10%.

Intermediaries Everywhere

FIFA also said that in 48 instances, both teams and players involved in a transfer paid a representative. On deals under $500,000, the median agent fee was 18.8% of the total.

The Premier League and European Club Association have both lobbied for more stringent rules on agents. FIFA had removed limits on agent compensation and other regulations concerning who could act as an intermediary — but is now reversing course.

The Tokyo Olympics faced a raft of problems related to the global pandemic, but the final bill came in well under previous estimates.

The Summer Games cost organizers an estimated $13.6 billion, $1.8 billion below a prior prediction of $15.4 billion.

Much of the reduction was due to lower staffing levels, as no fans were permitted to attend. However, that same restriction cost the Olympics $800 million in ticket sales. 

• The Tokyo Organizing Committee predicted a total cost of $6.4 billion when first making its bid for the Games in 2013. Those costs ballooned due to construction and the decision to postpone the event for one year.
• Japanese sponsors invested around $3 billion, and some have reportedly complained that they saw little to no return on their investment.
• The International Olympic Committee, which profits off broadcast rights and sponsorships, contributed $800 million, while an additional $500 million came from Olympic partners.

The organizing committee paid around $5.9 billion to host the games — roughly equal to total revenue.

Final Costs Still TBD

Organizers said that final figures would not be available until spring 2022 due to ongoing work on venues and certain contracts that need to be finalized.

The Tokyo Games were previously estimated to top London’s $15 billion spent in 2012 as the most expensive Olympics ever.

Golf’s popularity picked up during the pandemic, and nearly two years later, the sport is still swinging for the stars.

In 2020, golf had its biggest net increase since 1997 at 60 million-plus rounds, with 3 million people taking the course for the first time. Roughly 500 million rounds were played last year.

This year, the National Golf Foundation found that the total number of rounds played in the U.S. will surpass the number of rounds played in 2020 by 4% to 5%.

Investing In The Sport

From professional golfers to local golf courses, businesses everywhere want a piece of the success.

• The PGA Tour’s purse jumped nearly 14% for each event, totaling $427 million, thanks to new sponsors and broadcasting deals. The LGPA’s purse jumped 12% to almost $86 million.
• Lamborghini, known for its sports and luxury vehicles, announced the development of golf carts in October.
• In November, SoftBank’s Fortress Investment Group purchased Accordia Golf for $3.5 billion.

Companies already established in the golf industry are benefiting, too.

The PGA Tour Superstore, the industry’s largest retailer, told Forbes that its business has been up roughly 70% over the last two years. Last month, Callaway Golf reported that its third-quarter revenue increased 80% year-over-year to $856 million.

The Omicron spike in COVID cases could spoil a pre-pandemic certainty for the gym industry: members flooding in to start on fitness-related New Year’s resolutions. 

The seven-day moving average of COVID cases cataloged by the CDC is at its highest point since January 2021. Business tracking firm Placer.ai said gym visits trended upward between Thanksgiving and the first week of December compared to 2019, but recent preliminary data has shown a dropoff in foot traffic.

While the recovery of brick-and-mortar gyms has been slow, it’s better than the doldrums of early in the pandemic.

Gym Rebound Threatened 

• Planet Fitness, the nation’s largest publicly traded gym company, has seen revenues surge and is back in expansion mode, adding as many as 120 locations by year’s end. Its stock is up 60% from March 2020. 
• Globally, gyms, studios, and in-person fitness classes saw a 37% revenue decline in 2020, per the Global Wellness Institute. GWI projected consumer spending on physical activities — which includes fitness facilities — to reach $907.7 billion in 2022, surpassing 2019. 
• Crunch Fitness opened its 400th location in November, and visits to existing gyms have increased 63% from September 2020 to October 2021, per Placer.ai.

Mask mandates have been brought back in several jurisdictions, but the industry doesn’t expect anything close to the dramatic drop that ravaged fitness facilities in 2020.