On Saturday, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant will be pitted against his team’s owner, Joseph Tsai, in the Major League Soccer Cup final.

The Philadelphia Union, part-owned by Durant, will take on Los Angeles FC, whose star-studded ownership group includes Tsai.

• Durant bought 5% of the team with an option to double his stake at a valuation above $325 million, according to team majority owner Jay Sugarman.
• LAFC’s managing owners are Riot Games co-founder Brandon Beck, Apollo Global Management senior partner Larry Berg, and Ares Management co-founder Bennett Rosenthal.
• The team’s stakeholders also include Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Mia Hamm Garciaparra, Nomar Garciaparra, Will Ferrell, and many others with ties to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Golden State Warriors, and private equity firms.

The game will take place at LAFC’s $350 million Banc of California Stadium, which opened in 2018. The facility will soon need a new name: Banc of California reportedly paid $20 million to shorten its $100 million, 15-year naming rights deal signed in 2016.

Parking Prohibited

LAFC fans attending the game will face a unique situation: Parking at the stadium is prohibited because the lot is reserved for the Cal-USC football game at the neighboring Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The team will run shuttles from Dodgers Stadium to the 22,000-capacity Banc of California Stadium.

NASCAR is poised to wrap up its 2022 season this weekend after a bounce-back year in TV viewership.

Heading into Sunday’s NBC Sports coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway, the motorsport averaged 3,031,000 million viewers over 37 races this season.

That’s up 4% from an average of 2,912,000 viewers over the same period last season.

Drivers Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, and Christopher Bell will all be in contention on Sunday for the title, which has a total purse of $10,542,284.

NASCAR’s TV performance hasn’t slowed down with this season.

• FOX Sports averaged 3.7 million viewers in the first half of the season — up 8% from 2021. 
• NASCAR experienced its highest viewership since 2017 during that same time period. 
• NBC shifted some of its NASCAR races to USA Network after shutting down NBCSN. 

NBC’s coverage of the Cup Series title begins at 3 p.m. ET, and the broadcast team will include race analysts Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte; play-by-play announcer Rick Allen; and studio analysts Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty, and Brad Daugherty. 

NASCAR Still Beats Formula 1

NASCAR has been watching rival Formula 1’s growth in the U.S, but it still out-rates F1 by a large margin TV-wise.

Competing head-to-head on Oct. 23, NBC’s coverage of the NASCAR’s Homestead race averaged 2.31 million viewers compared to 1.11 million for ABC’s telecast of F1’s U.S. Grand Prix.

Under Armour got back on track for the second quarter after lackluster results earlier this fiscal year. 

The athletic apparel and equipment retailer generated $1.57 billion in revenue in fiscal Q2 2023, which ended Sept. 30. That’s a 2% increase year-over-year, surpassing Wall Street estimates of $1.55 billion. 

• Apparel revenue reached $1 billion, a 1.9% increase year-over-year.
• Footwear generated $375 million in revenue, up from $329 million in Q2 2022.
• At the end of Q2 2023, Under Armour had $854 million in cash and cash equivalents.
• The company repurchased $25 million of Class C common stock during the quarter. 

Despite the results, Under Armour anticipates continued uncertainty due to inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions. As a result, it lowered its full-year revenue guidance to “grow at a low-single-digit percentage rate” instead of projected 5%-7% growth.

End of an Era 

Last year, Under Armour ended its on-field licensing contract with the NFL as it restructured its business to focus on being “a performance brand.” 

The terminated deal barred Under Armour’s logo from being worn or displayed on the field during NFL regular-season and playoff games.

In May, Under Armour reached a settlement with UCLA after it ended a 15-year, $280 million sponsorship deal, for which it has to pay the latter $67.5 million.

Under Armour has also cut ties with Cal on a 10-year, $85 million deal and with Cincinnati on a 10-year, $50 million deal  for which it paid $9.75 million to exit.

WWE slipped a chokehold of recent controversy to score record results in Q3 2022. 

The Connecticut-based company posted $304.6 million in revenue in Q3, a 19% increase year-over-year. The record results were driven by WWE’s domestic live events, which included “Extreme Rules,” “SummerSlam,” and “Money in the Bank.” 

The events were the most viewed in their histories with respective year-over-year increases of 36%, 20%, and 17% on NBCUniversal’s Peacock. 

• Media revenue reached $233 million during the quarter, a 15% uptick year-over-year.
• Revenue from live events was $35.2 million, up from 28 million in Q3 2021.
• Operating income reached $58.9 million, an 8% decrease year-over-year.
• Free cash flow was $3.5 million during the quarter, down from $44.8 million behind an  increase in capital expenditures. 

In July, longtime WWE CEO and chairman Vince McMahon retired following allegations of sexual harassment, infidelity, and hush-money settlements. 

His daughter Stephanie McMahon and former WWE president and CRO Nick Khan took over as co-CEOs. An investigation by WWE cost the promotion $19.4 million in 2022.

Creating Opportunity 

In 2021, WWE created an NIL program called “Next In Line” — a pathway for college athletes to secure full-time contracts with the promotion upon graduation. WWE bolstered the program in October with the launch of an NIL recruiting tour called WWE Campus Rush.

The tour will visit eight FBS schools, starting with the University of Mississippi and ending with Penn State.