Despite a 99-day lockout that delayed the season, Major League Baseball is set to eclipse its 2019 revenue.

“It’s safe to say that we’ll be higher than we were in 2019,” MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden told Forbes. 

• The league earned $10.7 billion in the last pre-pandemic season.
• Garden estimates that league attendance will finish the season at around 95-96% of 2019 levels, blaming the pandemic for reduced crowds earlier this year.
• He also said that this year will see the “most merchandise sold in the history of our sport, both domestically and internationally.”

Original Streamer

MLB is celebrating its 20th year of its MLB.tv streaming service, which broadcasts games not covered by local or national channels. Every other major league has followed suit, with the NFL finally joining the fray this year with the launch of NFL+.

Garden predicted that “In the next 20 years, [today’s MLB.tv is] going to look as archaic as what we did 20 years ago.”

This year, MLB linked up with two other streaming services, striking broadcast deals with Apple for $85 million annually for seven years and Peacock on a two-season deal worth $30 million annually.

The league is working to arrange its rights deals to show in-market games on MLB.tv.

It looks like the NFL and its teams won’t have to compensate Oakland for losing the Raiders in 2020.

Oakland was seeking $240 million in damages after the storied franchise was allowed to move from Oakland to Las Vegas – which the city claims violated federal antitrust law. But on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the city’s appeal of a lower court ruling without comment. 

The Raiders’ former home city sued the league and its 32 teams in 2018. The Miami Dolphins were the only team not to approve the Raiders’ relocation to Las Vegas.

The city claimed the NFL restricted the ability of Oakland “and other host cities to maintain and sponsor an NFL club at competitive prices.”

• Oakland claims the league sent the Raiders to Vegas after the city refused to meet the league’s “exorbitant” demand for public money to build a new stadium.
• The compensation demand was for lost tax revenue and capital invested in the Oakland Coliseum.

In December 2021, a panel from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Oakland, claiming the “city’s damages are highly speculative and would be exceedingly difficult to calculate.” 

In March, Oakland’s attorneys appealed to the Supreme Court.

Vegas Value

The Raiders have paid off their $325 million relocation fee and are reportedly valued at $6.5 billion. The team, which paid $1.9 billion for Allegiant Stadium, has $1.3 billion in debt.

Despite having the third-lowest capacity in the NFL at 65,000, the team led the NFL with $119 million in net gate revenue in 2021, excluding luxury suites.

The Asian Winter Games are headed to the desert.

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that it has been awarded hosting duties for the 2029 games. The Asian Games feature member countries of the Olympic Council of Asia. 

• The 2029 event will be the first Asian Winter Games since 2017. The event has been held eight times since 1986, four of which were in Japan.
• The games will be held at Trojena, a project announced in March featuring plans to build a ski resort and other attractions in a mountain range near the Gulf of Aqaba coast with elevations ranging from 4,900 to 8,500.
• Saudi Arabia plans to complete the Trojena project by 2026.

The country has had to address security concerns around another flagship sporting event: March’s Formula 1 race in Jeddah. 

Missile strikes related to Saudi Arabia’s ongoing conflict with Yemen occurred within approximately 10 miles of the race during practice sessions. The race went forward after teams and organizers discussed canceling it.

Project NEOM

Trojena is part of an incredibly ambitious $500 billion project planned in Saudi Arabia that includes a futuristic city called The Line. 

The NEOM project is working with Mercedes’ Formula E and McLaren Racing’s Formula E and Extreme E teams on sports and sustainable technology.

Video game publisher MY.GAMES has been sold to Leta Capital managing partner Alexander Chachava in a deal valued at $642 million. 

The Amsterdam-based company — which has more than 150 games in its portfolio for PC, consoles, and mobile devices — was previously owned by Russian tech giant VK Company.

• Chachava secured the deal for MY.GAMES after a “multi-stage selection procedure.”
• He has acquired all assets of the publisher, including its studios and game products.
• In 2021, MY.GAMES generated $44.4 billion in revenue — 44% of VK’s total revenue.

VK will still maintain a position in the $197 billion global gaming market despite selling MY.GAMES. The company plans to shift its focus toward developing its gaming service, VK Play.

Launched earlier this year, VK Play is now Russia’s largest video game platform. 

One of Many

Chachava’s deal adds to a growing number of gaming-related acquisitions. 

In January, Microsoft agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard in a deal worth $68.7 billion, making the Washington-based tech giant the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue. 

The same month, Sony agreed to acquire video game developer Bungie — the original creator of “Halo” and current developer of “Destiny” — in a deal valued at $3.6 billion.

In May, the Public Investment Fund — Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — acquired a 5% stake in Nintendo for $3 billion, making it the company’s fifth-largest shareholder.