Lockout Looms Large For MLB

“No one’s talking about it, but we all know that they’re going to lock us out for it, and then we’re going to miss time,” New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso said Monday at the All-Star Game.

July 15, 2025

A Lockout is Looming Over MLB in December 2026, With a Salary Cap Fight Possibly at the Center
AP News’ Ronald Blum writes, “Looming over baseball is a likely lockout in December 2026, a possible management push for a salary cap and perhaps lost regular-season games for the first time since 1995.

“Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and some owners have cited payroll disparity as a problem, while at the same time MLB is working to address a revenue decline from regional sports networks. Unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL, baseball has never had a salary cap because its players staunchly oppose one.”

“No one’s talking about it, but we all know that they’re going to lock us out for it, and then we’re going to miss time,” New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso said Monday at the All-Star Game.
^{AP News}

MLB Interested in Players Participating in L.A. Olympics, But Games' Baseball Schedule Puts Lague in July Bind
Yahoo Sports’ Andy Backstrom writes, “Baseball, which has not been included in three of the past four Summer Olympics, is scheduled for July 15-20 during the 2028 iteration of the Games, and Dodger Stadium will host, as announced Monday by LA28, the competition’s organizing body.

“Mid-July, of course, is when MLB holds its annual All-Star Game. A host city hasn't been announced for the 2028 All-Star Game and its festivities, and neither have corresponding dates, but a potential scheduling conflict is apparent. If the 2028 All-Star Game follows the cadence of past Midsummer Classics, it would land right around the Olympic opening ceremony on July 14…”
^{Yahoo! Sports}

MLB All-Star Game Host Braves Seek to Unlock ‘Undervalued’ Stock
Sportico’s Eric Jackson writes, “This is the first time the Midsummer Classic will be played at Truist Park. The field’s surrounding mixed-used development called the Battery, also owned by the Braves, has garnered attention from the sports industry since it opened in 2017, as other franchises have looked to build similar real estate portfolios and generate additional revenues.

“The Braves, MLB’s only publicly traded team, believe that their baseball district is a differentiator from other sports-related assets and should be further reflected on the stock market. Atlanta Braves Holdings holds a market cap of $3 billion, slightly less than Sportico’s recent valuation of $3.71 billion for the MLB club and its real estate.”
^Sportico

Austin FC Valuation Crosses $900M as New Investors Join Cap Table
Austin FC recently added five new minority owners, all local businesspeople, in a series of transactions that assigned the MLS club an enterprise value of more than $900 million, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The new investors are Jenny Just and Matt Hulsizer, the co-founders of PEAK6 Investments and prior backers of a few European soccer teams.
^Sportico

NBCU Closes Upfront With Record Ad Commitments
NBCUniversal wrapped its 2025-26 upfront negotiations with what the company says is its highest-ever ad sales volume, surpassing all previous upfronts. The company declined to share exact financials but in 2023 it secured north of $7B in commitments with sponsors.

NBCUniversal is the first major media company to close its upfront negotiations, and said major growth was driven by sports and live events, with the NBA as a major factor.
^{Sports Business Journal}

Home Run Derby Audience Jumps 5%, But Still Short of Most Post-Pandemic Years for ESPN
Monday night’s Home Run Derby audience jumped 5% from last year, with ESPN/ESPN2 drawing 5.72 million viewers for the win by Mariners C Cal Raleigh over Rays 3B Junior Caminero. That’s up from 5.45 million last year for Dodgers OF Teoscar Hernández’s win, but that event competed with the Republican National Convention (where Donald Trump announced his VP pick). Last year also did not benefit from full out-of-home data as this year’s did. The Derby is down 6% from two years ago, when a win by Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. drew 6.11 million.
^{Sports Business Journal}

MLS Bringing 2026 All-Star Game to Charlotte
MLS is bringing its 2026 All-Star Game to Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. It will be the first time since 2018 that the league has held the tentpole event in a non-soccer-specific stadium. MLS Commissioner Don Garber will be in Charlotte on Wednesday for a formal announcement, which comes a week prior to this year’s All-Star Game at Q2 Stadium in Austin.
^{Des Moines Register via Sports Business Journal}

Rays to Play Playoff Games at Steinbrenner Field
The Rays “will get to remain” in their interim home at Steinbrenner Field should they make the playoffs, despite the small capacity, which has been 10,046 during the regular season. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “It’s a unique situation. It’s different, but that’s where they’re playing. That’s where they’re going to play their games.” Manfred said that there “will be discussions about potentially expanding capacity by adding seats.” He added that the “competitive benefits of playing at home as opposed to a neutral site was a factor.”
^{Tampa Bay Times via Sports Business Journal}

City of Cleveland Asks Judge to Halt Browns’ $2.4B Brook Park Stadium Plans
Attorneys for the city of Cleveland have asked a judge to “order the Browns to stop all work” on the team’s planned move from its downtown stadium to Brook Park, claiming the team “violated” their lease, according to Adam Ferrise of the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER. Attorney Justin Herdman argued in that the lease violation means the city “would be entitled to remedies beyond monetary damages,” including the ability to “halt the team’s work” to build a $2.4B covered stadium for the 2029 season.
^{Cleveland Plain Dealer via Sports Business Journal}

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NIL Collectives Face Uncertain Fate as House Attorneys, CSC Bicker
Sportico’s Michael McCann writes, “The House settlement was supposed to bring clarity and calm to big-time college sports, but attorneys who negotiated the deal already disagree on what it means for NIL collectives. The disagreement won’t imperil the multibillion-dollar truce, but it’s an early test of an arrangement crafted by attorneys who may have agreed on language but not on what the words mean…

“At the heart of the debate is interpretative disagreement about NCAA Bylaw 22.1.3, which governs the involvement of so-called associated entities in NIL deals.” 
^Sportico

SEC Lands Starring Role in Netflix College Football Docuseries
SEC: Any Given Saturday is produced by the same company that created Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Box to Box Films. “I didn’t know much about college football,” Paul Martin, who is from the U.K. and executive producer of both series, told Front Office Sports after a screening of the first episode at SEC media days.

“There was a conversation that if we were going to do something in college football, the SEC just seemed like the obvious place to start. We work quite closely with Netflix, kind of pulling it together, and they were always very keen that the SEC was where they kind of wanted to start.”
^{Front Office Sports}

Pro-NCAA Bill Takes First Step Toward Being Introduced on House Floor for Vote
The Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act, introduced last week by six House members (including two Democrats), would codify terms of the House v. NCAA settlement and hand power back to the NCAA to set athlete compensation rules—something the governing body and power conferences have been lobbying for since at least 2019. The bill has been endorsed by both the NCAA and the power conferences in separate statements. 
^{Front Office Sports}

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