The Tennessee Titans have cleared another hurdle for a new $2.1 billion stadium.

Metro council members approved legislation for the domed stadium on Tuesday in the first of three votes, despite 10 council members voting against the proposal. The second and final votes are scheduled for April 4 and 18.

Adjustments to the final proposal include:

• The Titans are now responsible for additional infrastructure included in the project scope.
• Excess revenue generated from the venue can be used to prepay parts of bonds.
• Metro is capped at $42 million for maintenance to Nissan Stadium.
• The Titans will give the city money every year through the Nashville Needs Impact Fund, to be shared with nonprofits.

Mayor John Cooper said the proposed agreement would “relieve the existing enormous unfunded financial burden on the city, return 60 acres of land back to city control, and keep the Titans in Nashville for the long term.”

A Titans spokesperson said that there have been 34 public meetings regarding the plan since July, and at least 10 more will be held ahead of the second council vote. 

It was previously reported that funding would include around $1.26 billion in revenue bonds, $840 million from the NFL and the Titans, $500 million in state money, and hotel tax revenue. Any cost overruns would be paid by the league and team.

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff still hasn’t inked a new media rights deal — despite eight months of negotiating.

Part of the holdup: The conference will lose its two biggest brands, USC and UCLA, to the Big Ten. 

One source told the Los Angeles Times that the Pac-12 could’ve earned about $200 million more a year than it can expect without them now.

The conference’s current package, which ends in 2024, allows it to send each school between $30 million and $35 million a year from media rights and other conference distributions, according to tax returns. 

But the Pac-12 would be lucky to maintain that number in its next deal, despite having to split distributions between fewer members, one source told Front Office Sports.

The Race for Media Revenue

Meanwhile, all the other Power 5 conferences have secured their futures beyond the 2024 season. 

The Big 12 jumped ahead of the Pac-12, securing a $2.28 billion deal with Fox and ESPN last fall — even though the Big 12’s deal isn’t up until a year after the Pac-12’s.

The Big Ten has a mid-$7 billion deal — the largest conference package in NCAA history — and the SEC isn’t far behind thanks to a package including a 10-year, $3 billion deal with Disney. 

The ACC is locked into its deal until 2036 — and though it contributes to conference payouts that don’t reach $40 million each, its stability has never looked better.

Major League Rugby is reportedly looking for $100 million to grow the sport in the U.S.

The 12-team North American rugby league is raising money to expand its reach, according to Bloomberg.

The league was founded in 2017 and began its sixth season in February.

“The Rugby World Cup — the third-biggest sports event in the world after the Olympics and the soccer World Cup — is coming to the U.S. in 2031, and then the women’s in 2033, and so our league is perfectly positioned to grow and receive a ton of attention and investment,” MLR chief commercial officer Harry Hardy said on Front Office Sports Today.

Hardy said the event’s arrival is “a huge indicator for the potential of the sport in this country, and how the global rugby community sees North America as the next big destination for the sport.”

MLR extended its deal with Fox in January, which will air MLR matches on FS1 and FS2 every weekend during the season, as well as the conference finals and championship match on the main Fox network.

CVC Capital Partners bought a stake in the Europe-focused Six Nations Rugby in March 2021, while Silver Lake bought a stake in top New Zealand club the All Blacks after contentious negotiations.

The Barcelona referee scandal isn’t going away anytime soon. 

Spanish prosecutors have expanded the purview of the case to involve not just the refereeing official Barca is accused of bribing, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, but also the team itself and former president Josep Maria Bartomeu. 

Former presidents Joan Gaspart and Sandro Rosell, as well as current president Joan Laporta, will be summoned as witnesses. However, they can’t face charges due to expired statutes of limitations.

Laporta, who ran the club from 2003-10, took over again in 2020, when Bartomeu resigned amid tax fraud allegations.

Barca paid Negreira’s firm at least $7.4 million for referee consulting and other services from 2001-18. Both the team and Negreira have denied that the payments were to influence refereeing. Negreira sat on La Liga’s refereeing committee until 2018. 

Last month, it was revealed that Spanish referee Xavier Estrada Fernandez filed a criminal lawsuit against Negreira and his son, alleging sporting fraud.

Barcelona enjoyed a 78-game streak, ending in 2018, in which opposing teams were not awarded a single penalty kick — though Barca was given at least 32 during that period. The club also had a stretch of at least 28 games in which players weren’t given a single red card.