Major League Baseball, the first U.S. sport to have its own streaming service, is now trying to solve issues created by the streaming era.

The league has hired Sinclair executive Billy Chambers to a new position tasked with determining how best to manage the league’s backbone relationship with local media.

• MLB has long relied on regional sports networks to broadcast the bulk of its games.
• Sinclair bought around 20 networks from Disney in 2019 for more than $10 billion. Since then, it has written down the market value of the debt from that purchase twice as cable subscriptions dwindle.
• Cable subscriptions peaked at 105 million in 2010, but have dropped around 5% per year since 2019 and now sit at 72.2 million. 

MLB is reportedly looking into creating a streaming offering that would allow fans to watch both local and out-of-market games. Its MLB.tv service blacks out games available on local and national broadcasts where the viewer is located.

Rise of the Robots

The league will use an automated strike zone in all 30 Class AAA parks in 2023.

Half of AAA games will have all calls made by the automated system, while the other will use a challenge system similar to that of professional tennis.

Successful trials could lead to one of those systems being adopted at the Major League level.

The owner of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights has a rapidly growing presence in European soccer.

Bill Foley has finalized a deal to purchase a 33.3% stake in Ligue 1 club FC Lorient. The team, which was founded in 1926 and promoted from Ligue 2 in the 2019-20 season, is currently in sixth place in the 20-team table.

• Foley is expected to take full control of Lorient at a later date. 
• He was approved as the new owner of Premier League club AFC Bournemouth on Dec. 13.
• He claimed at that time to also be in talks for a club in Belgium’s top league.

Foley intends to build a multi-team network to facilitate player transfers.

“The next step will be a South American team — whether it’s Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, or Argentina, I’m not sure yet,” he explained. “I need to make sure the economics are right.”

Man City Model

Certain soccer team owners have become more interested in a multi-team model in which some operations are centralized and players can be transferred between clubs relatively easily.

The model is perhaps most associated with City Football Group, which owns or partners with 11 clubs including Manchester City, New York City Football Club, Melbourne City, and Yokohama F. Marinos.

The billionaire owner of a tech-focused gym equipment brand won’t be selling shares anytime soon. 

Technogym owner Nerio Alessandri has offloaded roughly $550 million of the company’s stock in the past six years to rebalance his wealth but has halted any future plans to sell more shares. 

“We have the control of Technogym, and we have diversification at the same time,” said Alessandri.

• Alessandri has about a third of his $1.3 billion wealth in Technogym stock as of Jan. 13. 
• Before the share sales, Alessandri had invested over 60% of his fortune in the company. 
• In 2008, he sold a 40% stake in Technogym to now-defunct Candover Investments. 

Technogym has solidified its footprint in sports as the official gym equipment supplier of the last eight Olympics, but the company continues to expand its reach. It has been named a supplier for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals and the San Paolo Next Gen ATP Finals. 

Twenty-eight of the 2022 World Cup’s 32 teams used Technogym equipment.

B-2-B Bounceback

Known as one of the first gym equipment brands to integrate a heart-rate monitoring system, Technogym benefited from a lateral fitness equipment market that reached $5.8 billion in 2021. 

Technogym generated $540 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2022, compared to $460 million for the same period the year prior.

The company profited from strong business-to-business sales, which reached $412 million during the period — a 30% increase year-over-year.

An iconic European soccer stadium could be demolished as part of a redevelopment plan. 

Old Trafford — the home field of Manchester United since 1910 — could be torn down as the Premier League club considers a multitude of options for upgrading the iconic venue and increasing its capacity from 74,000 to more than 80,000.

• An option for Man U includes expanding Old Trafford’s South Stand. 
• A South Stand expansion would face the logistical issue of a public railway behind it.
• Another option is renovating all four stands within Old Trafford’s current construction. 

Man U’s last and “least likely” option is building an entirely new stadium — a growing trend in soccer. 

AC Milan and Inter Milan have plans to build a new $1.3 billion stadium slated to open in 2027. Chelsea is reportedly looking to build a new stadium, while Everton has already broken ground on a $694 million stadium set to open in the 2024-2025 season.

Long Wait

Chelsea is considering a new venue due to expensive repairs at the club’s home field, Stamford Bridge stadium. In May 2022, Chelsea was bought by a consortium led by Los Angeles Dodgers, Lakers, and Sparks owner Todd Boehly for $5.2 billion. The group plans to invest $2 billion in Chelsea from its takeover deal with plans of a new stadium for The Blues.

Construction of a new stadium could have Chelsea play at London’s Wembley Stadium for up to five years.