Y! Sports Biz: We've got a golden ticket

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Y! Sports Biz: We've got a golden ticket

Dylan Dittrich Staff writer

Fri, Jul 31, 2026 ·

4 min read

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👋 Happy Friday!Another busy biz week comes to a close in the wild world of sports. Thanks for following along.

In today's edition:FIFA feels the sting of rejection, a league of their own returns, Adidas loses from World Cup win, Liverpool tours the States, Shohei Ohtani is the envy of Willy Wonka, and more.

Time to show you the money...

❌ The FIFA boycott begins

UEFA and its member associations followed through with their opposition to FIFA's plan to sell a minority interest in a new commercial entity, rejecting the proposal and withdrawing their participation from future FIFA competitions until it's abandoned.

Us, too:Concacaf soon joined UEFA in opposition, albeit without announcing a boycott, and the Asian Football Confederation pledged its solidarity on Friday morning.

The nays have it:The vehement opposition from those three federations leaves FIFA president Gianni Infantino with a steep hill to climb to rescue not only the proposal but perhaps even his job. FIFA's seismic plan was effectively killed within days of its introduction, as voices around the world declared that football was not for sale.

Not so fast:While the matter of private investment could die on the vine, a broad desire for funding growth is unlikely to die with it. The commercialized 2026 World Cup was the saltwater that — instead of quenching the thirst — only intensified it.

🏟️A league of their own

The ranks of U.S. women's sports leagues will grow this weekend with the launch of the Women's Pro Baseball League . Unlike 70 years ago, when women's baseball last played professionally, the WPBL enters a thriving landscape for pro women's sports.

🏀 WNBA

The WNBA's success is evident in its viewership, attendance, and groundbreaking CBA. Leading into the All-Star break, viewership was up 12% year-over-year, while attendance had grown 13%. Both figures are unrecognizable relative to the start of the decade, as is player pay, with the average WNBA salary up 450% since 2020.

⚽️ NWSL

Through the first half of its season, the NWSL is averaging 11,044 fans per match, up 10% over last year. If sustained for the full season, it would be the fourth consecutive year over 10,000.

🏒 PWHL

The PWHL averaged 9,304 fans per game in its third regular season, up 28% over the prior year and 71% over the inaugural season. In June, the league welcomed its first outside investment, reportedly amounting to over $100 million.

Plus:

⛳ LPGA:This weekend's British Open will pay a record $10 million purse, completing a clean sweep of record prize money at this year's majors.
🥎 Softball:The AUSL's title game became the most-viewed professional softball game on record, averaging 732,000 viewers on ABC last weekend.
🏈 Flag football:Sunday's title game for the girls high school division drew 1.12 million viewers , proving why the NFL and TMRW Sports are partnering to launch a pro league.
⚽️ World Cup:Netflix is reportedly paying $200 million for the U.S. and Canadian broadcast rights to the 2027 Women's World Cup.

📉 Adidas loses investors in winning World Cup effort

Adidas was on the winning team in the World Cup, outfitting both Spain and runners-up Argentina. In fact, some labeled the Three Stripes a World Cup winner for its product assortment, activations, and general omnipresence. The stock market, however, dubbed the brand's World Cup performance a loser on Thursday.

Adi-down: Shares fell nearly 19% intra-day after the company reported Q2 results that were record-setting on the top line but missed expectations in operating profit. While cooler heads ultimately prevailed into the close, the stock still ended the day down 11.5% on German markets.

World Cup boost:The company delivered record quarterly revenues at €6.7 billion, up 14% year-over-year on a currency-neutral basis.

The tournament was a significant driver of sales. Adidas sold nearly 18 million World Cup-related jerseys, producing a 35% increase in apparel revenue.
Compared to the 2022 tournament, the company sold approximately four times as many Argentina jerseys, and three times as many Mexico and Germany jerseys.
Performance sales were up 39% overall, buoyed by 74% growth in football but also bolstered by the relentless strength in running, up 28%.

Yes, but:Those record sales did little to appease a market looking for more. Most notably, operating profit of €574 million came in nearly €50 million below expectations.

Huge expenses:Marketing expenses increased by 30%, and operating overhead was up 12%. While marketing expenses are expected to moderate in future quarters, their magnitude (and the corresponding earnings miss) spooked investors.
Stagnant lifestyle:Despite the World Cup strength, footwear sales were up only 1%, and the lifestyle category was up just 2%. The weak performance, though perhaps cannibalized by soccer, raises questions about the brand's post-World Cup strength.
Underwhelming outlook:For the full year, the company expects net sales to grow 9-10%, an improvement versus prior guidance. But given the 14% growth in the first half, it implies a marked second-half slowdown. Operating profit guidance was unchanged.

Bottom line:From the outside looking in, it seemed like Adidas was operating from its strongest position in recent years. Apparently, it looked that way from the inside looking out, too, as the company called it an "unbelievably strong" quarter. But the market is not easily pleased. It wants to know what happens now that the World Cup confetti has fallen.

⚡Lightning Round

🏒 Celebrini NHL's highest paid:Move over, Leo Carlsson. Your weeks-long reign as the NHL's highest-paid player is over. Macklin Celebrini signed a five-year, $94 million extension with the Sharks, with an average annual value of $18.8 million. The deal will pay Celebrini 16.6% of the cap when it begins in 2027-28.

💰 Underdog sold:Betting company Underdog will be sold to London-based IG Group Holdings in a deal worth $1.1 billion up front, with the potential to grow to $1.3 billion with earnouts. The company's position in prediction markets, where it boasts its own exchange and the third-highest regulated notional volume flow in the U.S., was a key factor in the deal.

📺 Sunday Ticket returns to DirecTV:DirecTV and Everpass have reached an agreement to make DirecTV a sales, marketing, and commercial distribution partner for EverPass content, including NFL Sunday Ticket. EverPass became the exclusive commercial platform for the service after the 2025 NFL season, which — before today's announcement — would've required bars using satellite equipment to switch to EverPass streaming hardware.

🏀 LeBron's Last Dance?LeBron James and ESPN are reportedly close to a documentary deal that would take viewers behind the scenes of his time with the 76ers, according to The Athletic. James' business partner Maverick Carter, however, denied that they are pursuing their own "Last Dance," noting that LeBron doesn't know when his last season will be.

See what else is trending on the Yahoo Sports Business Hub .

⚽️ Liverpool surfs American World Cup wave

After the World Cup, MLS told the world that they would take it from here, but that hasn't stopped a small armada of football clubs from descending on our shores to capitalize on American soccer momentum. Leading the fleet is Liverpool, which is in the midst of a three-game preseason swing through the U.S.

Putting the "red" in red, white, and blue:Liverpool's supporters span the globe, but the U.S. is home to 26 million of them, according to club data. That support translates into robust commercial results. The U.S. is the club's No. 1 international retail market, representing 26% of international sales. But still, American market development has not yet reached the first-half hydration break, to borrow parlance from FIFA.

"I think we're in the very early stages of growth here," Liverpool's Chief Commercial Officer Ben Latty told Yahoo Sports. "For us as a football club, I think there's a lot more we can do. There's huge potential for us to be the club of U.S. sports fans."
The Premier League's growing U.S. popularity was evident even before the World Cup, with a broadcast deal reportedly worth $450 million per season, the most lucrative American deal of any soccer league. But the next phase of growth begins now.

Bring the club to fans:These tours represent an opportunity to deliver the club to existing fans abroad and also to mint new ones. As Liverpool aims to capitalize on the post-World Cup buzz, they differentiate by bringing more than just the 90-minute game that will be forgotten once the NFL season begins.

"This is about creating a legacy and leaving a legacy," Latty explains. "We really put people to work when we're out here because we believe it's important to show up as a club rather than just a football team."
That work involves significant community outreach. For example, the club brings coaches to conduct soccer schools and former players to visit hospitals and do community work.

You'll never scroll alone:Once a fan is created, they're never far from the fabric of the club, at least digitally. The club generated 1.5 billion social engagements and 14.7 billion video views in the 2025-26 season, multiples higher than even the most popular U.S.-based teams.

Bring brands to the world:North American brand partners have begun to recognize a contrast between their international growth ambitions and their sports marketing spend, which creates opportunity for partnership.

"There's so much that's spent in sports marketing in the U.S. on naming rights for a venue, or on local MLB and NFL deals," Latty explains. "A lot of these brands that are investing into the U.S. sports market are global brands, yet their investment has been very domestic-focused."
For brands in that position, shifting their spend overseas often walks a narrowing path toward football, the Premier League, and the Premier League's most globally followed clubs, bringing Liverpool into scope.

Full-time:Just as our American sports leagues head abroad in pursuit of growth, soccer's elite are coming here to do the same. But aided by the sport's international popularity, they're more advanced in those efforts, flattening the globe for fans and brands alike with World Cup tailwinds at their back.

📆 This Day in History: The End of MLB's Spoiled Summer

Baseball is America's summer pastime. Just as American as apple pie and baseball itself, though, is a good old-fashioned baseball labor struggle. MLB and its players periodically return to the familiar bitterness of negotiations like alumni visiting their beloved but undoubtedly haunted summer camp.

On this day in 1981,a mid-season MLB strike lasting 50 days and canceling 712 games came to a merciful end, closing another chapter in a long and still-growing history of baseball labor negotiations.

The stakes:Central to the conflict was compensation related to free agency, which was only introduced in 1975. Owners bemoaned free agency's destructive effect on competitive balance and the excessive spending that ensued.

Their proposed solution was to institute a system that would compensate teams that lost key free agents. Those teams could choose an unprotected player from the signing team as a replacement. The players opposed that fix, contending that it would substantially suppress free-agency offers.
Ultimately, the compromise was to create a pool of unprotected players from all teams. Teams that lost a premium free agent could select from that pool, rather than from one team's roster. While that clunky fix ended the strike, it was ultimately eradicated in 1985 and replaced by a draft-pick compensation system.

The fallout:League attendance fell 20% in the remainder of the 1981 season. The Padres admitted fans for free for the reopening game, drawing 52,608 people; the remainder of the homestand averaged 6,000 fans. The World Series, a marquee Yankees vs. Dodgers matchup, delivered 9% less viewership than the same pairing three years earlier. Both attendance and viewership did return to growth in 1982, however.

Here we go again:Here we sit, 45 summers later, with owners eager to impose a salary cap in the name of competitive balance. Among the secondary chips on the bargaining table: abolishing the qualifying offer system and associated draft-pick compensation, which players feel suppresses contract offers. Round and round, we go…

🤑 Over/Under: Ballmer's Billions

(Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Microsoft stock gained 15.5% in Thursday's trading, adding nearly $450 billion in market capitalization.

Over/Under:According to an estimate from Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, did Clippers owner Steve Ballmer's net worth increase by over or under $10 billion with Microsoft's Thursday surge?

💰 Ohtani's golden ticket sells for $11 million

Charlie Bucket can keep his golden ticket. It's child's play compared to Shohei Ohtani's Dual-Gold Logoman Autograph card.

Pricey pull: The card , which commemorates Ohtani's back-to-back MVPs, was the subject of a short-lived nationwide chase that saw collectors rifling through packs of 2026 Topps Chrome Baseball in pursuit of a life-changing piece of cardboard. All the while, deep-pocketed collectors were issuing bounties, beginning at $6.5 million and rising as high as $13 million.

That's right:If you happened to pull the Ohtani from a pack, you were due an eight-figure payout.

But alas:A lucky Boca Raton-based collector unearthed the redemption card (the card itself is not actually inserted into packs) on Thursday morning and sold it for a reported sum of $11 million by Thursday afternoon.

The card was purchased by Secure Collectibles, a consortium that includes supercollector Shyne and Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary.
Last August, that group paid $12.9 million at auction for a signed Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant Dual Logoman card , which stands as the most expensive sports card ever sold.

Quick work:Given the bounties, the mounting public attention, and the rising interest in the card market's most coveted assets, perhaps the seller could have earned more through a traditional auction process. But $11 million will do for a day's work.

Over/Under answer:Over! Bloomberg's most recent update had Ballmer at a $19 billion gain in net worth.

Thanks for reading! Wanna talk shop? Follow me on X and Linkedin , or drop me a line: dylan.dittrich@yahooinc.com .

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