The NFL Runaround

SBJ’s Ben Fischer writes, “That [season expansion] puts sponsors, licensees, media rights holders, the teams and the league itself in the position of knowing those steps are likely to occur eventually, but with far less clarity than they’d hoped about exactly when and how.”

September 4, 2025

NFL Season Preview: It’s A Big Year For …
SBJ’s Ben Fischer writes, “The 2025 season might appear to be a quiet one for the business of the NFL. There were no team sales this offseason, no new stadiums are debuting (Buffalo and Nashville will open venues in 2026 and ’27, respectively; Cleveland and Washington could soon follow) and no new media partners have been added. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t important changes coming. For the following people and entities, it’s a significant season:

“NFL owners and executives’ stated goals of expanding the regular season to 18 games and doubling their international footprint require a deal with the NFLPA, which is more concerned about recovering from the most tumultuous period in its history than bargaining.

“That puts sponsors, licensees, media rights holders, the teams and the league itself in the position of knowing those steps are likely to occur eventually, but with far less clarity than they’d hoped about exactly when and how.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

Sources: Alabama, U.S. Navy Ink On-Field Logo Deal
SBJ’s Ben Portnoy reports: “Sponsor logos are coming to Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, as Alabama is set to announce a partnership with the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base (MIB) Program that will include activations around Crimson Tide football, sources told Sports Business Journal.

“The deal, which was negotiated by Learfield’s Crimson Tide Sports Marketing, will see a logo for the joint initiative -- ‘Build Giants Alabama’ -- displayed on the 25-yard lines at Saban Field. The agreement also includes in-venue messaging from Nick Saban. The field logos are slated to be in place when Alabama takes on UL-Monroe on Saturday. Terms of the deal were not immediately available…”
^{Sports Business Journal}

American Express Replacing Visa as NFL Credit Card/Payment Sponsor in 2026
SBJ’s Terry Lefton reports: “Sources with knowledge of the deal said the terms are seven years for around $910 million, although one involved source insisted the total deal was “closer to $950 million.” Visa’s current NFL rights expire at the end of March. That means it will have a lame-duck year as an NFL corporate sponsor; ironically, one that will conclude with the Super Bowl in and around Visa’s HQ city of San Francisco.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

The Volume Replaces DraftKings With Hard Rock in Multimillion-Dollar Deal
FOS’ Michael McCarthy and Ryan Glasspiegel write, “While DraftKings and FanDuel continue to sponsor scores of podcasts and shows across digital media, Colin Cowherd’s content network The Volume is going with a different betting partner. The Volume has forged a multimillion-dollar partnership deal with Hard Rock Bet, Front Office Sports has learned.”
^{Front Office Sports}

NBCU Scores Super Bowl Ad Sellout, Highest Grossing NFL Season Ever 
ADWEEK’s Bill Bradley writes, “Days before the 2025-2026 NFL season kicks off—as well as the 20th season of Sunday Night Football—NBCU is announcing its highest-grossing season ever, with overall revenue increasing across its platforms. In addition, the company has sold out all ad inventory for Super Bowl 60, airing on Feb. 8, 2026, on NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo. The company also sold out 90% of its NFL inventory outside of the Super Bowl. With the news, NBCU achieves a Super Bowl LX sellout around a month earlier than Fox announced its sellout for Super Bowl 59.”
^ADWEEK

IndyCar Sees Double-Digit Audience Gains in First Season With Fox
SBJ’s Adam Stern reports: “Fox Sports says it averaged 1.362 million viewers for the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series campaign that wrapped up last weekend, the best performance for the property since 2008. This year, the Indianapolis-based open-wheel racing property switched to Fox channels exclusively after airing on NBC Sports’ networks since 2019. Heading into the ’25 campaign, Fox promoted the series heavily including with multiple national Super Bowl spots that in total value matched or even exceeded the roughly $20M-$25M that the network was expected to pay IndyCar in annual licensing fees.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

‘RIP Streameast’: Largest Illicit Sports Streamer Is Shut Down
A coalition of media companies and Egyptian authorities announced Wednesday that they’d taken down live sports-focused piracy network Streameast, which they said had hosted 1.6 billion visits across 80 associated domains over the past year.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) called Streameast “the largest illegal sports platform anywhere.”
^{Yahoo Sports}

Chicago Stars to Spend at Least the 2026 NWSL Season on Northwestern’s Campus
SBJ’s Bret McCormick reports: “The Chicago Stars will play the 2026 NWSL season at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium, the lakefront stadium on the campus of Northwestern Univ. The stadium’s capacity was temporarily built out to 12,000 last year to host the Northwestern football program, which is playing on the lakefront again this fall before moving to the new Ryan Field when it opens for the 2026 college football season.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

T-Mobile Arena to Remain Vegas Home for TKO Group
SBJ’s Adam Stern reports: “While new venue projects are being rumored for the Las Vegas area, TKO Group Holdings will continue to call T-Mobile Arena its main home for the foreseeable future after reaching a contract extension with the facility. This morning, TKO will announce it has renewed its partnership through 2030 with the arena, which is owned by a joint venture between MGM Resorts International and AEG. UFC will continue to host a minimum of four events annually at the arena, the same number as the prior term, while WWE will newly commit to holding two there during the same period.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

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Investing in College Sports a Legally Risky Move for NFL Owners
Sportico’s Michael McCann writes, “As the NFL opens the door to private equity, its owners, along with owners of other major leagues’ team franchises, might see opportunities to invest in college sports. Many NFL owners are connected to private equity firms. Washington Commanders controlling owner Josh Harris, for example, is co-founder of Apollo Global Management. Las Vegas Raiders minority owners Egon Durban of Discovery Land Company and Michael Meldman of Casamigos are both co-founders of private equity groups.

“The merits of investing in college sports are another story. To the extent private equity groups buy equity in conferences, acquire a share of a college’s media rights and other sources of licensing revenues or otherwise obtain a stake, those groups run the risk of forming economic relationships with college players and becoming defendants in lawsuits, NLRB petitions and other court filings.”
^Sportico

Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy Discussing Partnership With Big 12
The Big 12 Conference had a call with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy on Wednesday morning, with commissioner Brett Yormark and all 16-member athletic directors present, league sources confirmed to The Athletic. And while there is no official contract between the Big 12 and Barstool, the conference is looking to capitalize on Fox’s new partnership with Portnoy and Barstool by engaging with the brand moving forward.
^{The Athletic}

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