Shares of Manchester United Ltd. MANU climbed 4.7% in premarket trades Tuesday after British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe clinched his 25% minority stake in the iconic English soccer club. Manchester United announced the agreement on Christmas Eve, with Ratcliffe acquiring 25% of the Class B shares held by the American Glazer family, which owns the club, and up to 25% of Class A shares. The Glazers and Class A shareholders will receive the same price of $33 a share. The deal values the club at $5.4 billion, falling below initial hopes of $6 billion, according to Bloomberg. Ratcliffe will also provide an additional $300…
Going back decades, if you wanted to buy or sell a stock on the open market, you had to pay a 2% commission to buy and a 2% commission to sell. Then the advent of discount brokerage, led by Charles Schwab Corp. SCHW, +1.64%,
made lower commissions available until eventually, with improved technology and efficiency, the entire industry changed to enable the average investor to avoid commissions completely.
But the internet hasn’t done much to reduce the cost of selling a home in the U.S. Sellers typically pay a 6% commission to a real-estate agent to list and sell a home, with the seller’s agent splitting that commission with the buyer’s agent. But all of that may change because of a verdict this week in a class-action lawsuit in federal court against the National Association of Realtors.
Aarthi Swaminathan covers the case, what may happen next and the implications for home sellers and buyers:
Real-estate advice from the Moneyist
MarketWatch illustration
Quentin Fottrell — the Moneyist — works with three readers to answer tricky real-estate questions:
Jon Gray, the president of Blackstone Group, spoke with MarketWatch Editor in Chief Mark DeCambre and said he expected the Fed to succeed in bringing down inflation without pushing the U.S. economy into a deep recession.
The U.S. Treasury yield curve has been inverted for nearly a year.
FactSet
Normally, longer-term bonds have higher yields than those with short maturities. But the yield curve has been inverted for nearly a year, with 3-month U.S. Treasury bills BX:TMUBMUSD03M
having higher yields than 10-year Treasury notes BX:TMUBMUSD10Y.
There has been elevated demand for long-term bonds, as investors have anticipated a recession and a reversal in Federal Reserve interest-rate policy. When interest rates decline, bond prices rise and vice versa.
As you can see on the chart above, the yield curve was narrowing until mid-October. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes were close to 5% on Oct. 19, but they have been falling the past several days as the three-month yield has remained close to 5.5%.
In the Bond Report, Vivien Lou Chen summarizes the action as investors react to the Federal Reserve’s decision not to change its federal-funds-rate target range this week and to other economic news.
For income-seekers looking to avoid income taxes, here’s a deep dive into municipal bonds, with taxable-equivalent yields and a deeper look at those within four high-tax states.
Ford’s good news — in the bond market
Ford Motor Co.’s debt rating has been lifted by S&P to investment-grade.
By now you have probably heard the term “Magnificent Seven” used to describe stocks of the tremendous tech-oriented companies that have led this year’s rally for the S&P 500 SPX
: Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.52%,
Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +1.29%,
Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.38%,
Nvidia Corp. NVDA, +3.45%,
Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +1.26%
GOOG, +1.39%,
Meta Platforms Inc. META, +1.20%
and Tesla Inc. TSLA, +0.66%.
With Tesla’s recent decline, that company is now the ninth-largest holding in the portfolio of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY,
which tracks the benchmark index. Here are the top 10 companies held by SPY (11 stocks, including two common-share classes for Alphabet), with total returns through Thursday:
Five of these stocks (including the two Alphabet share classes) are still down from the end of 2021. SPY itself has returned 14% this year, following an 18% decline in 2022. It is still down 7% from the end of 2021.
After the market close on Wednesday, PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL, +1.89%
announced quarterly results that came in ahead of analysts’ expectations, and the stock soared 7% on Thursday even though the company lowered its target for improving its operating margin.
Consumers drive mixed reactions to earnings results
Apple Inc. reported mixed quarterly results.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Here’s more of the latest corporate financial results and reactions. First the good news:
And now the news that may not be so good:
Harsh verdict for SBF
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
AP
It might seem that some legal battles never end, but it took only a year from the collapse of FTX for the cryptocurrency exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, to be convicted on all seven federal fraud and money-laundering charges brought against him. The charges were connected to the disappearance of $8 billion from FTX customer accounts.
Here’s more reaction and coverage of the virtual-currency industry:
Want more from MarketWatch? Sign up for this and other newsletters to get the latest news and advice on personal finance and investing.
The summer and fall of 2023 have offered music fans endless opportunities to drop big dollars on concerts. Artists ranging from pop icons like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift to newer acts like Olivia Rodrigo have announced tours or hit the road, giving fans a reason to splurge on tickets, merchandise and rhinestone cowboy boots.
The latest hitmaker to confirm they’re hitting the road is Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, who announced the dates for his “Most Wanted” North American tour on Oct. 19.
Some fans who participated in the tour’s presale were surprised to see the prices. Several took to social media to express their sticker shock, noting that even nosebleed seats were listed at a few hundred dollars each. The exact prices could only be viewed by select fans who were granted access to the sale.
“Benito should’ve named this tour ‘most expensive tour’ cause what are those prices,” one user posted.
Another called Bad Bunny “disrespectful,” and posted a screenshot showing nosebleed seats going for $300 and a floor seat priced at $1,101.95.
Americans have spent big on entertainment this summer and fall, shelling out on recreational expenses like movies, shows and travel. A study from QuestionPro found that concertgoers who went to Taylor Swift’s The Eras tour spent an average of $1,300 per show, including tickets, clothing, merchandise, food, and travel.
That kind of spending has fueled the country’s still-pumping economy, which grew at a 4.9% clip in the third quarter.
That being said, dropping four figures on one ticket can put a serious dent in your savings — or your credit-card balance. But who among us hasn’t considered blowing our budget to scream our favorite songs in a packed stadium? MarketWatch talked to experts for advice on how to bounce back from doing just that.
United Talent Agency, which represents Bad Bunny, did not respond to requests for comment. Ticketmaster directed MarketWatch to an FAQ page about tickets and ticket prices on their website.
Step 1: Don’t freak out
First things first, “take a deep breath,” said Emy Lee, a former accountant and spending coach with more than 40,000 followers on TikTok. A one-time purchase like a concert ticket likely won’t ruin your finances for good, she said — but it can pose a much bigger risk if it sends you into a cycle of shame and overspending.
“I see this in my clients, too: somebody will make a big purchase, and then they beat themselves up for it and feel guilty,” she said. “Then they just keep spiraling and making impulsive purchases.”
There’s nothing inherently wrong with spending a lot of money on a concert ticket, said Kimberly Palmer, a personal-finance expert at NerdWallet.
“For a lot of people, buying a concert ticket, even though it’s a huge splurge and outside of their normal budget, is not necessarily a bad choice. It’s spending money that really aligns with their values,” she said. “What’s a good choice for you is not necessarily something that can be answered just by looking at numbers or your budget or your income.”
Tours for huge artists like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift can also create a huge sense of FOMO, Lee noted, piling on even more pressure to snag a ticket no matter the cost.
Jack Heintzelman, a certified financial planner from Needham Heights, Mass., recommended giving yourself some grace.
“Life happens! This is completely okay and very common,” he said over email. “That’s what we save money for in the first place.”
Step 2: Make a plan
After you’ve cleared your head, it’s time to make a plan. The steps to getting back on track financially will look a little different depending on how you paid for the ticket.
Did you put the purchase on a credit card? Then you’ll want to make a plan to pay down the balance as quickly as you can, Palmer said — ideally by the end of the month, before it starts accruing interest.
But even if it will take a little longer, you should prioritize those payments, she said.
“You want to make sure you have a plan where you’re paying it down so it doesn’t snowball and become an even bigger amount of debt,” Palmer said. “You can get hit with late fees, and it can quickly get out of control.”
That’s especially important in a high-rate environment, where interest rates on many credit cards are especially high.Last year, the average late payment fee for credit cards was $32.
If the cost of the ticket came out of your savings account, you’re not in danger of the debt ballooning over time. Still, Palmer said, you should focus on replenishing your savings so you’re still in a good position to weather any emergencies that come your way.
“That could mean setting aside a small amount from every paycheck until you feel comfortable again,” she said.
Step 3: Move on
After making a plan, it’s time to start thinking about how to avoid overspending like this in the future, experts said.
“Planning is way easier than recovering as far as big purchases go,” Lee said.
That doesn’t mean you have to sit on the sidelines every time your favorite artist comes to town. In fact, part of smart money management is spending intentionally on the things that are truly important to you, Palmer added: “For plenty of people, buying that concert ticket is going to bring them a lot of joy.”
But sticking to a monthly budget will help you make big purchases with confidence, experts noted.
Building a budget often starts with tracking your income and expenses to understand just how much money you’re making and what you’re spending it on. The primary part of your budget should cover your needs. What’s left over can be split between savings and variable expenses — like entertainment.
“Entertainment gets tricky, because a lot of people feel that it’s a need because it makes you happy,” Lee said. But most often, it should be considered a variable expense.
After you have a sense of where your money is going, you can trim unnecessary costs, and allocate a portion of your income each month to saving or other financial goals.
Heintzelman recommended automating a portion of your income to deposit straight into your savings account.
“That savings will start to build up and be available for that next ‘unexpected’ expense that comes up,” he said over email. “If you automate your savings you can be less stressed about these times where you have to spend down your emergency reserve, because you know you’ll build it over time.”
Sometimes, making a savvy financial decision will entail finding a more cost-effective way to celebrate your favorite artist.
That could mean something like skipping the concert in favor of throwing a themed party at home, Lee said. You can still get dressed up and dance to your favorite songs with your friends — just with cheaper concessions and no lines for the bathroom.
Keeping a budget and making a financial plan will save you a lot of stress in the future, Palmer said. Sticking to one now means you can buy another ticket stress-free when the next tour comes around.
“Focusing on making a budget means you have a framework for these decisions,” she added. “It takes the guilt out of the equation.”
The ending of the partnership between the artist Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, in October 2022 appeared to come after weeks of his comments about Jewish people and Black Lives Matter, but the New York Times is reporting that the relationship was troubled from the very start.
At a meeting on the collaborative creation of the very first shoe in 2013, Adidas ADS, -0.10%
ADDYY, -0.03%
designers were stunned when West rejected all of the ideas that were presented using fabric swatches on a table and a mood board, the seven-month investigation found. Instead, West, the Times reports, grabbed a sketch and drew a swastika in marker.
The move shocked the Germans in the room. Germany has a strict ban on displaying the symbol of the Nazi era apart from for artistic purposes. Adding to the sense of horror, the company’s founder — Adolf, or “Adi,” Dassler, who died in 1978 — was a Nazi Party member, and the meeting took place close to Nuremberg, where leaders of the Third Reich were famously tried for crimes against humanity.
“A year ago this week, Adidas threw in the towel.”
West’s fixation on the Nazi era continued, the Times reports, when he later told a Jewish manager at Adidas to kiss a portrait of Adolf Hitler every day. He also told Adidas workers that he admired Hitler’s use and command of propaganda.
West also brought porn to the workplace and made crude, sexual comments at meetings, according to the Times report. Before the swastika episode, West, according to the Times, had made Adidas executives watch porn at a meeting in his Manhattan apartment.
In 2022 he reportedly ambushed executives with a porn film. Other workers complained to top managers that he had made angry sexual comments to them.
The artist, said to have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also frequently cried or became angry during meetings, according to the Times investigation. In one instance in 2019, he reportedly moved the operation designing his shoes to Cody, Wyo., and ordered the Adidas team to relocate. In a meeting to discuss his demands with executives, he threw shoes around the room, the Times reports.
Adidas sought to adapt to this behavior, given how valuable the West-established Yeezy brand was to the company, locked in a perennial battle for both revenue and buzz with its U.S.-based rival Nike Inc. NKE, -2.04%.
Yeezy sales would rapidly surpass $1 billion a year and help Adidas resonate with young American customers.
Managers launched a group text chain they called the “Yzy hotline” to discuss his behavior. To reduce stress on individuals, the company is said to have rotated managers in and out of dealing directly with West.
Over time, meanwhile, Adidas sweetened the terms of West’s deal. Under a 2016 contract, he was entitled to a 15% royalty on sales with a $15 million upfront payment as well as millions of dollars in Adidas stock. In 2019, a further $100 million a year was earmarked for marketing, but, in reality, West could spend those funds at will.
When a decision was reached to sell the product — in release batches — with some of the proceeds directed to charity and most of the rest flowing to Adidas, West, even then, was entitled to royalties.
After bottoming in October 2022, Adidas shares have mounted a 67% comeback, with relief over the company’s not having had to book a damaging loss on the Yeezy line one factor in the restoration of investor confidence.
Adidas is quoted as having told the Times that it “has no tolerance for hate speech and offensive behavior, which is why the company terminated the Adidas Yeezy partnership,” while West reportedly declined requests for interviews and comment.
The Times investigation is said to have been based on access to hundreds of previously undisclosed internal records.
The NCAA started allowing college athletes to make money from their name, image and likeness in 2021, after decades of student-athletes saying it wasn’t fair that they didn’t receive any money while the games they played in generated millions of dollars — especially football and basketball contests. And today, many of these athletes are not just making some extra cash on the side — they’re making millions.
These NIL deals are negotiated by college athletes and their representation, and typically involve leveraging an athlete’s brand and influence through promotional means. For example, a car dealership near a university campus may ask the college’s high-profile quarterback to do a commercial for them in exchange for a monetary payment or a car. Similarly, an athlete can make money from social media, depending on how big their following is.
Football players are among the college athletes who make the most money from NIL deals, followed by men’s basketball, women’s volleyball and women’s basketball. That’s because college football and basketball have multibillion-dollar TV contracts to broadcast games, while most other sports generally have lower visibility.
With that in mind, here are the college athletes who make the most money from NIL deals according to On3’s proprietary NIL algorithm, which is based on NIL-deal data, performance, influence and exposure
10. J.J. McCarthy, $1.3 million
J.J. McCarthy of the Michigan Wolverines in action against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Getty Images
As the junior quarterback for the Michigan Wolverines football team, McCarthy is one of the six college football QBs in the top 10 of NIL earners.
McCarthy sports 276,000 followers across his social-media platforms, and has deals with Alo, Bose and Bowman.
Tie-8. Bo Nix, $1.4 million
Bo Nix of the Oregon Ducks throws a pass against the Stanford Cardinals.
Getty Images
The senior QB for the Oregon Ducks has led his team to a perfect 5-0 start this season.
Nix has 219,000 followers on social media and NIL deals with 7-Eleven, Bojangles and Celsius. Nix is considered one of the top players in the nation and has the third-best betting odds to win college football’s Heisman Trophy on DraftKings DKNG, -2.52%
sportsbook.
Tie-8. Spencer Rattler, $1.4 million
Spencer Rattler of the South Carolina Gamecocks warms up before a game against the Tennessee Volunteers.
Getty Images
The South Carolina Gamecocks senior QB has one of the more robust NIL profiles in the nation. He has deals with Mercedes-Benz MBG, -1.23%,
Leaf trading cards and Raising Canes.
Rattler also has 578,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram META, -0.71%
and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
7. Angel Reese, $1.7 million
Angel Reese of the LSU Lady Tigers during the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament championship game.
Getty Images
Reese was one of the breakout stars of the women’s March Madness basketball tournament this year. The Louisiana State University hooper led her team to the 2023 title and famously flashed a “you can’t see me” gesture in the title game.
Reese has brand deals with Airbnb, PlayStation and Intuit TurboTax INTU, -0.50%
and has appeared in ads for Amazon AMZN, +0.01%
and Pepsi Co.’s PEP, +0.59%
Starry. She also has 5.2 million followers across her social-media platforms.
During LSU’s magical title run last season, Reese set an NCAA single-season record with her 34th double-double against the Iowa Hawkeyes and was named the most outstanding player of the Final Four.
Reese is one of just two female athletes inside the top 10 in On3’s NIL valuation tracker, and the top college basketball player on the list.
6. Travis Hunter, $2.3 million
Travis Hunter of the Colorado Buffaloes signals first down after a catch against the TCU Horned Frogs.
Getty Images
Hunter was one of the college football players who transferred to the University of Colorado from Jackson State last season to follow coach Deion Sanders.
Hunter, a five-star sophomore prospect, plays on both offense and defense — as a wide receiver and a cornerback — a rarity in a high-level college program. He has 1.9 million followers on social media, a successful YouTube GOOG, -0.08%
channel, and endorsements with Celsius Energy Drink and 7-Eleven.
Hunter entered the 2023 college season as the most highly touted NFL prospect at Colorado, and Deion Sanders contends rival schools have attempted to poach him via lucrative NIL deals.
“People offered Travis Hunter a bag — about $1.5 million to try to lure him and buy him out of the transfer portal,” coach Sanders told 247Sports over the summer. “But Travis is not the kind of guy that can be bought. He isn’t built like that. Travis is a relational young man that is built on relationships and stability. And that’s what he wanted and desired. That is why he decided to ride and stay with us.”
If and when Hunter decides to declare for the NFL draft, he will likely have a multimillion-dollar contract as a rookie that could dwarf his collegiate NIL earnings.
5. Caleb Williams, $2.7 million
Caleb Williams of the USC Trojans warms up before a game against the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Getty Images
The University of Southern California QB is seen as a generational NFL prospect and the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, but he isn’t the top NIL earner.
Williams has 347,000 followers on social media, and brand deals with United Airlines UAL, -1.24%,
Alo and Beats by Dre.
Once the USC junior QB declares for the draft, his rookie contract will likely be set above $37 million, per Spotrac’s estimates.
4. Arch Manning, $2.8 million
Arch Manning of the Texas Longhorns warms up prior to a game against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Getty Images
The Texas Longhorns freshman QB is one of several top NIL earners whose family plays a role in their fame. Arch Manning is the nephew of Super Bowl champion QBs Peyton and Eli Manning, and the grandson of former NFL QB Archie Manning.
Despite being a backup quarterback with no recorded statistics, the younger Manning has 277,000 followers on social media and has a brand deal with Panini. That deal involved him autographing an extremely rare one-of-one Prizm Black card that was auctioned off for $102,500, which was later donated to charity.
Manning was a standout high school recruit, ranked No. 5 in the nation in the 2023 class, and could have an NFL future.
3. Livvy Dunne, $3.2 million
Olivia Dunne of LSU looks on during a PAC-12 meet against Utah.
Getty Images
Dunne is the only college athlete in the top 10 of NIL earners who doesn’t play basketball or football. The junior LSU gymnast is the top female NIL earner in the nation and has brand deals with Vuori clothing, Body Armor KO, +0.62%
and American Eagle Outfitters.
Dunne is the second most-followed college athlete on social media with 12.1 million followers on Instagram, TikTok and X combined.
For many years Dunne was seen as the poster child for NIL deals, and she said earlier this year that she could make as much as $500,000 from a single post.
“What I love with certain brands is getting long-term brand deals,” Dunne said on the Full Send podcast in June. “Those are probably the best because you build a relationship with the brand and they want you year after year.”
2. Shedeur Sanders, $4.8 million
Shedeur Sanders of the Colorado Buffaloes celebrates as he walks off the field following an NCAAF game against the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Getty Images
University of Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders has become a phenomenon in the sports world. The 21-year-old junior made headlines after throwing for 510 yards and four touchdowns in Colorado’s season-opening shocker against No. 17–ranked Texas Christian.
Colorado has become the center of the football world since Shedeur’s father Deion took over as coach. Coach Prime’s team is currently 4-2 — the team was 1-11 last season, good for last place in its conference.
The quarterback has more than 2.3 million followers on social media, and has already inked several deals with big brands, including with yogurt producer Oikos 0KFX, -1.13%,
Gatorade and Mercedes-Benz. He has shown fans some of his new Mercedes cars on social media, too.
Overall, Shedeur Sanders’s NIL value currently sits at $4.8 million, according to On3, up from $1.5 million at the beginning of the year — that’s the highest value in all of college football. For context, that’s nearly twice the average NFL player’s salary.
1. Bronny James, $5.9 million
Bronny James playing at his high school, Sierra Canyon.
Getty Images
James has perhaps the most famous family member of any person on this list. He is the son of NBA legend LeBron James, and is currently set to begin his freshman basketball season at USC.
The younger James has yet to play a game at his new school, but will immediately be one of the most well-known players in college athletics. James has 13.5 million social media followers, the most of any college athlete, and has brand deals with Nike NKE, +1.10%
and Beats by Dre AAPL, -0.06%,
two brands his dad is also repped by.
Bronny James suffered cardiac arrest in July during a basketball practice and had to be taken to the hospital. But he’s on the road to recovery, and hopes to play basketball this season.
“Bronny is doing extremely well,” the older James said last week. “He has begun his rehab process to get back on the floor this season with his teammates at USC. (With) the successful surgery that he had, he’s on the up-and-up. It’s definitely a whirlwind, a lot of emotions for our family this summer. But the best thing we have is each other.”
Taylor Swift continues to boost the NFL’s profile.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football game between the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs averaged 27 million viewers, making it the most-watched TV show since Super Bowl LVII in February, according to NBC’s PR team.
Swift attended the Chiefs’ 23-20 win and was shown on the television broadcast several times, alongside celebrities Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Swift has a new public friendship and rumored relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and the interest in that topic has led to increases in TV ratings for the two games Swift has attended, and to boosts in sales of NFL merchandise.
Swift’s massive fanbase has influence across all ages and all types of people, but she is particularly popular among women and girls, and that group is who propelled NBC CMCSA, +0.34%
and Sunday Night Football to such lofty viewership heights.
“Viewership among teen girls (age 12-17) spiked 53% from the season-to-date average of the first three weeks of SNF, while the audience among women aged 18-24 was up 24%, and women 35+ increased 34%,” NBC said. “The collective growth resulted in an approximate viewership increase of more than 2 million female viewers.”
Viewership peaked at an estimated 29.4 million viewers between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. Eastern, as the Jets attempted to claw their way back in the second quarter of the game. Last year’s Sunday Night Football games averaged 19.9 million viewers, according to same-day data released by Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
In preparation for Swift’s attendance, NBC used a Swift song, “Welcome to New York,” as the theme music for its video promo of the game, which was viewed roughly 8 million times.
Since Swift was first linked to Kelce, the Chiefs tight end has enjoyed the Taylor Swift effect. For example:
The “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce” podcast, featuring Kelce and his brother, shot up to No. 1 on Apple’s podcast charts last week.
Kelce’s social-media influence has flourished, with his Instagram followers jumping from 2.7 million followers to 3.8 million in about two weeks.
Kelce had one of the top five highest-selling NFL jerseys last week, and sales of Kelce merchandise spiked 400% on Fanatics, the NFL’s official merchandise seller.
With his confidence and his aphorisms, to say nothing of his coaching skills, Deion Sanders has led the University of Colorado football program to a 3-0 record and a top 20 ranking.
Just weeks into his first season at the helm in Boulder, Sanders, known as “Prime Time” when he played in the NFL — and MLB — and now called “Coach Prime,” has already made his Buffaloes the most talked-about team in college football.
Colorado was 1-11 last season, good for last place in its conference.
Last weekend’s game in Boulder, against in-state rival Colorado State, drew 9.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched late-night college football game ever on ESPN DIS, -1.55%.
It also attracted star power to Boulder, with rappers Lil Wayne and Offset, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and NBA players Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard on hand.
The success and the publicity are making many people in Sanders’s orbit wealthy.
Colorado’s top three NIL — or name, image and likeness — earners this season are coach Sanders’s sons Shedeur and Shilo, and Travis Hunter. All three players transferred to Colorado from Jackson State last season, an HBCU.
His top players have cashed in on newfound fame with NIL deals to the tune of millions of dollars.
Perhaps most notable among them is his son, junior quarterback Shedeur Sanders. The 21-year old made headlines after throwing for 510 yards and four touchdowns in Colorado’s season-opening shocker against No. 17–ranked Texas Christian. Since then, he’s thrown six more touchdown passes in two further victories.
The quarterback has more than 2 million followers on social media and has already inked several deals with big brands, including with yogurt producer Oikos DANOY, -0.84%,
Gatorade PEP, +0.21%
and Mercedes-Benz MBG, -0.15%
Through his stellar play, Shedeur attracted the attention of another noted quarterback, Tom Brady, who inked the dynamic collegian to an endorsement deal with his clothing company, Brandy Brand, last October.
“I think he needs to get his a— in the film room and spend as much time in there as possible,” Brady joked with the young quarterback during a recent recording of his podcast, “Let’s Go.”
Overall, Shedeur Sanders has an NIL value of approximately $5.1 million, according to On3’s proprietary NIL algorithm, up from $1.5 million at the beginning of the year — that’s the highest value in all of college football. On3’s algorithm considers NIL-deal data, performance, influence and exposure.
While Shedeur Sanders is the headliner at Colorado, he’s not alone in mining the NIL vein. Travis Hunter, a five-star sophomore prospect, has an On3 NIL valuation of $2.2 million, the fourth highest among all college football players. Hunter’s NIL value was $1.7 million at the beginning of the year.
Hunter plays wide receiver on offense and cornerback on defense, a rarity in a high-level college program. He has 1.8 million followers on social media, a successful YouTube GOOG, +0.23%
GOOGL, +0.18%
channel, and endorsements with Celsius Energy Drink and 7-Eleven.
Hunter entered this season as the most highly touted NFL prospect at Colorado, and Deion Sanders contends rival schools have attempted to poach him via lucrative NIL deals.
“People offered Travis Hunter a bag — about $1.5 million to try to lure him and buy him out of the transfer portal,” coach Sanders told 247Sports over the summer. “But Travis is not the kind of guy that can be bought. He isn’t built like that. Travis is a relational young man that is built on relationships and stability. And that’s what he wanted and desired. That is why he decided to ride and stay with us.”
Sanders’s other son on the team, Shilo, is also a top NIL earner. A senior defensive back who took an interception 80 yards and into the end zone during the Buffaloes’ win over Colorado State, Shilo’s NIL value, per On3, sits at $719,000. He has NIL deals with Porsche DRPRY, +0.10%
The NCAA started allowing college athletes to profit from their names, images and likenesses in 2021, ending a years-long crusade by student athletes. Football has been the college sport attracting the most NIL deals, followed by men’s basketball, women’s volleyball and women’s basketball, according to NIL platform Opendorse.
“NIL money, that’s a real part of college football now,” former University of Colorado and NFL football player Tyler Polumbus told CBS shortly after Sanders took the coaching job at Colorado. “I never thought that Colorado would be able to live in that world and compete in that world, but with Deion Sanders it becomes a whole new land of opportunity.”
Sanders, the coach, is getting paid, too, of course.
In addition to the $33.5 million he made while playing in the NFL (to say nothing of the nine big-league baseball seasons in which he was an active player), coach Sanders is on a five-year contract with the University of Colorado worth $29.5 million, as reported by the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, with various escalators tied to performance.
If Sanders continues to have success at Colorado, he’s likely to field even richer offers from bigger-time football schools. At Jackson State, his salary reportedly was just $300,000.
The wealth coming to Sanders and his top players, including his own offspring, is also accruing to the school and brands attached to “Coach Prime.”
The university has sold out all home games on the current schedule — a first in program history — and he’s selling tens of thousands of $67 “Prime 21” sunglasses, which won’t ship until December. He’s also helping sell merchandise at Colorado’s bookstore — it’s up 819% this fall vs. 2022 — and several varieties of Colorado-themed Prime gear are sold out at Nike’s NKE, -0.86%
online store.
Also on Sanders’s radar: trademarks. The six-time NFL All-Pro, two-time Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer has filed for trademarks on “Coach Prime,” “Prime Effect,” “Daddy Buck” and “It’s Personal,” according to attorney Josh Gerben of Gerben Intellectual Property.
Colorado plays at the University of Oregon on Saturday afternoon. The Ducks are ranked No. 10, while Sanders’s Buffaloes, unranked in the preseason, have climbed to No. 19.
Oregon is a 21-point favorite, according to DraftKings oddsmakers, but 81% of all bets have been placed on Colorado.
“Super apps” have never truly existed in the United States, and it is apparent at this point that they never will.
That isn’t stopping some executives and investment analysts from still dreaming of becoming one-stop shops for their users’ needs, something only a small handful of apps in Asia have managed to do. The most prominent is Elon Musk, the Tesla Inc. TSLAchief executive who purchased Twitter last year and has proclaimed that he will turn it into an “everything app” called X that resembles super apps in China.
Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. AMC tumbled 13.9% toward the lowest price seen since January 2021 after the movie theater operator disclosed an equity distribution agreement in which the company could sell up to 40 million common shares. That would represent up to 7.7% of the common shares outstanding. The shares sales, if any, may be “at the market offerings” or could be to sales agents through block trades. The stock, which underwent a 1-for-10 reverse stock split on Aug. 24, was on track to open at the lowest price seen during regular-session hours since Jan. 15, 2021. It has tumbled 66.7% over the past three…
The U.S.-listed shares of Manchester United PLC suffered a record beating Tuesday, after a report that the iconic English football club was set to be taken off the market.
Manchester United MANU UK:MNL fell 18.2% on the day to log its biggest one-day selloff since the company went public in August 2012. The previous record drop was 13.8% on March 12, 2020, at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Vlatko Andonovski has resigned as head coach of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, according to multiple reports Wednesday, following a disappointing early exit from the Women’s World Cup.
The soccer blog 90min first reported Andonovski’s departure, and the news was confirmed by ESPN and The Athletic late Wednesday. ESPN reported the U.S. Soccer Federation is expected to make an official announcement Thursday.
“‘I never bet on the Ryder Cup. While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game.’”
That was golf star Phil Mickelson responding to allegations he wagered more than $1 billion on football, basketball and baseball over the past three decades, and attempted to bet on the Ryder Cup, too.
The claims were made by professional gambler and Las Vegas businessman Billy Walters in a book due out on Aug. 22, “Gambler: Secrets from a Life of Risk.” Walters said Mickelson placed hundreds of bets with him for exactly $220,000 and 1,115 bets for precisely $110,000 over the span of three decades. Walters claims that Mickelson also asked him to place a $400,000 bet on the U.S. team to win the 2012 Ryder Cup, a request that Walters said he declined, according to excerpts of the book reported by The FirePit Collective.
PGA Tour players are prohibited from wagering on events under the organization’s Integrity Program.
“I have also been very open about my gambling addiction,” Mickelson continued in his statement shared on social media. “I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me and I feel good about where I am now.”
Mickelson did not specifically address Walters’s claims that he wagered over $1 billion on sports, or that he lost more than $100 million on his bets during the multi-decade span.
Walters is viewed as one of the more successful professional gamblers in recent memory, with sportsbooks limiting the amount he could wager at their establishments. He was convicted of insider trading in 2017 and served five years in federal prison. Mickelson was named in that insider-trading case; he was not accused of wrongdoing but agreed to pay back close to $1 million earned on a stock tip he received from Walters.
Representatives for Mickelson did not respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment for this story.
Mickelson was one of the first professional golfers to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf last year. He was offered roughly $200 million to join the Saudi-backed league, according to the Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine. The PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit reached a landmark merger agreement in June that aims to create a single operation that would “unify” golf.
Some fellow professional golfers reacted to the alleged gambling issues by taking a few swings at Mickelson.
“At least he can bet on the Ryder Cup this year because he won’t be a part of it,” golfer Rory McIlroy said on Thursday. McIlroy, one of the PGA Tour’s staunchest defenders in its battle against LIV Golf, has been critical of Mickelson and LIV on multiple occasions.
Golfers including Mickelson and Dustin Johnson have been criticized for joining LIV Golf and turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia’s human-rights record. According to the U.S. State Department, Saudi Arabia has in recent years been linked to multiple human-rights violations, including unlawful killings; executions for nonviolent offenses; forced disappearances; torture and cases of cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners and detainees by government agents, among other offenses.
Golfer Jordan Speith, a three-time major championship winner, said people in the golf world were “surprised” by the recent headlines about Mickelson.
Mickelson’s alleged gambling predates the summer of 2018, when the Supreme Court lifted a U.S. ban on sports betting, allowing states to create legislation to legalize gambling. Since then, 34 states allow some form of legal sports betting, according to the latest tally by the American Gaming Association.
“We didn’t have a good problem-gambling infrastructure in place prior to the expansion of sports betting, and we still don’t,” Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, was quoted as having told the Charlotte Observer in February.
U.S. sportsbooks accepted $93 billion in sports bets in 2022, according to the American Gaming Association’s Tracker, a massive jump from the $57.22 billion wagered in 2021.
Banc of California Inc.’s proposed agreement to acquire PacWest Bancorp. helped send regional-bank stocks considerably higher on Wednesday. But even after a two-day increase of 12% for its shares, the acquiring bank remains the favorite name among analysts covering regional players in the U.S.
The merger agreement was announced after the market close on Tuesday, but the rumor mill had already sent Banc of California’s BANC, +0.62%
stock up by 11% that day. Then on Wednesday, shares of PacWest Bancorp PACW, +26.92%
shot up 27% to $9.76, which was above the estimated takeout value of $9.60 a share when the deal was announced. The merger deal, if approved by both banks’ shareholders, will also include a $400 million investment from Warburg Pincus LLC and Centerbridge Partners L.P.
A screen of regional banks by rating and stock-price target is below.
With PacWest closing above the initial per-share deal valuation, it is fair to wonder whether or not its shareholders will vote to approve the agreement. In a note to clients on Wednesday, Wedbush analyst David Chiaverini called Banc of California’s offer “fair, but not overwhelmingly attractive,” and wrote that PacWest was “a likely seller before the mini banking crisis occurred in March.”
While Chiaverini went on to predict the deal’s approval by PacWest’s shareholders, he added that he “wouldn’t be surprised if there were some dissent among a minority of shareholders [which could] possibly open the door to the potential emergence of a third-party bid.”
More broadly, Odeon Capital analyst Dick Bove wrote to clients on Wednesday that the merger deal, along with increasing involvement of private-equity firms in lending businesses, the expected enhancement of regulatory capital requirements for banks and other factors could lead to more consolidation among smaller banks.
He went on to write that we might be entering a period for the banking industry similar to the 1990s, “when rules were being changed and acquisitions were rampant,” which “created new investment opportunities.”
The SPDR S&P Regional Banking exchange-traded fund KRE, +4.74%
rose 5% on Wednesday but was still down 17% for 2023, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, +0.02%
was up 19%, both excluding dividends.
KRE holds 139 stocks, with 98 covered by at least five analysts working for brokerage firms polled by FactSet. Out of those 98 banks, 45 have majority “buy” ratings among the analysts. Among those 45, here are the 10 with the most upside potential over the next 12 months, implied by consensus price targets:
Any stock screen can only be a starting point when considering whether or not to invest. If you see any stocks of interest here, you should do your own research to form your own opinion.
The 2023 Women’s World Cup is being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
Matches will be held in nine cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Hamilton. The championship match will be held in Sydney.
What is the time difference between New Zealand/Australia and the U.S.?
The tournament’s location presents a major time difference for viewers in the U.S.
Wellington, New Zealand, is 16 hours ahead of New York, and 19 hours ahead of Los Angeles. And Sydney, Australia, is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
Most of the group stage games will start late at night or early in the morning for east coast viewers.
What channel is the Women’s World Cup on?
For U.S. viewers, the World Cup will be broadcast by Fox FOX, -0.98%
and games will appear on the flagship Fox channel, Fox Sports 1, as well on Telemundo in Spanish.
Fox is part of nearly all major cable bundles, and cord-cutters can stream the games on YouTubeTV, FuboTV FUBO, -4.83%,
Hulu + Live TV, and Sling TV.
When does the USWNT play?
As noted above, the USWNT plays its first group stage game on Friday, July 21, against Vietnam at 9 p.m. EST.
The U.S. will then compete against the Netherlands on July 26 and Portugal on Aug. 1, and then compete in the knockout stage if they advance.
Who won the last Women’s World Cup?
The U.S. won the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, after beating the Netherlands in the final, as well as the 2015 World Cup in Canada.
The U.S. has a total of four Women’s World Cup titles, the most of any nation in the world, while the U.S. men’s team has never won the World Cup.
When was the first Women’s World Cup?
There have only been eight Women’s World Cups in history with the first tournament occurring in 1991, while the men’s version of the tournament first started in 1930.
Only four countries have won the women’s tournament: the U.S., Germany, Norway and Japan.
Who are the Women’s World Cup favorites?
Below are the betting odds for the 2023 World Cup from DraftKings DKNG, +1.30%
Sportsbook prior to the start of the tournament:
USA: +250
England +250
Spain +450
Germany +650
France +1000
Australia +1200
Sweden +1400
Netherland +2000
Brazil: +2500
Canada: +3500
Japan: +3500
Norway: +4000
Denmark: +6500
Italy: +8000
New Zealand: +15000
For those not familiar with oddsmaking, a “+” symbol indicates an underdog. For example, a $100 bet placed on a +450 side would net a $450 profit, in addition to getting back your original $100.
What is the Women’s World Cup prize money?
The 2023 Women’s World Cup has $150 million in prize money, up 300% from the $30 million in total given out in 2019.
While a significant increase, the amount is still much lower than the $440 doled out at the 2022 men’s tournament in Qatar. FIFA, which organizes the World Cup, said it’s an “objective” to achieve pay parity between the men’s and women’s tournaments by 2027.
What’s the latest on the gender pay gap in U.S. soccer?
As stated above, pay equity for tournament prizes is not the same for World Cup winners between the men and women’s tournaments, but what about in the U.S.?
U.S. women soccer players last year reached a landmark agreement with the sport’s American governing body to end a six-year legal battle over equal pay, a deal in which they are promised $24 million plus bonuses that match those of the men.
The U.S. Soccer Federation and the women announced a deal that will have players split $22 million, about one-third of what they had sought in damages. The USSF also agreed to establish a fund with $2 million to benefit the players in their post-soccer careers and charitable efforts aimed at growing the sport for women.
The USWNT routinely advocated for pay parity during tournament appearances over the past decade.
In addition to equal pay, high-profile players on the USWNT like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd, among many others, have publicly opposed forms of discrimination off the soccer field. These causes include advocating for gender rights, LGBTQ+ rights, voting rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.
That’s how Victor Wembanyama introduced himself the day before the NBA draft, when he conducted his first news conference before NBA media. But to talent evaluators, Wembanyama has already emerged as one of the top NBA prospects of a generation with his dominant play for a French professional team this season, and his tantalizing upside on the basketball court.
The 19-year-old, 7-foot-5 Frenchmen — who goes by “Wemby” — was selected with the first pick in the NBA Draft on Thursday night by the San Antonio Spurs, and the team could be set for a huge financial windfall from Wembanyama’s arrival.
The Spurs could see an increase of roughly $8 million-$10 million in season ticket sales, an added $5 million-$10 million in incremental ticket revenue from higher and dynamic pricing, and another $5 million-$10 million in corporate sponsorships, according to Dr. Patrick Rishe, the director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis.
“All told, the impact on team revenues in 2023-24 will likely be somewhere in the $20-$50 million range,” Rishe said, while adding that the Spurs may also be able to leverage Wembanyama’s arrival when negotiating its next local TV contract.
Another economics expert thinks Wembanyama’s financial impact on the Spurs could be even higher.
“$80 million a year to the Spurs for the next few years, that was roughly equal to the increase in revenues that we saw when LeBron James moved back from Miami to Cleveland,” Victor Matheson, economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross, told MarketWatch.
NBA first-round draft picks like Wembanyama sign a four-year contract upon entering the league. After that, the team that drafted the player has a significant edge in retaining him on his next contract because they are allowed to give him larger pay raises than any other club. Because of this, young players who turn into superstars rarely leave the teams that drafted them for the first seven years of their career, meaning Wembanyama could pay dividends to the Spurs in the hundreds of millions of dollars if he stays with the team.
While the Spurs are not for sale, some think Wembanyama’s presence alone will increase that value of the team, which was roughly $2 billion as of 2022 (or 20th in the NBA).
“I suspect that just the cachet of having this player on your team would be the sort of thing that would entice an owner potentially to pay more for the team, because owners in sports aren’t just about dollars and cents, they’re about dollars and cents, and the prestige and the ego that go along with owning an NBA franchise,” said Matheson.
The NBA has complex revenue sharing agreements among teams to help level the financial playing field between the small-market and big-market teams. Because of this agreement, not every dollar Wembanyama makes for the Spurs goes directly to the team.
So it’s clear that Wembanyama could provide a major financial boost for the Spurs. But his immediate impact on the NBA overall might seem small, considering the league made over $10 billion last year, according to Statista. But another area where Wembanyama could help the NBA in a huge way is by unlocking a new audience for NBA games: France.
“A guy like him can certainly open up new markets for you. So obviously, we have had top players from France before like Tony Parker, but this might be maybe a level beyond that,” Matheson said. “And if you could open up a 60 million person country, and all of a sudden make the NBA must-see TV in Paris and not just in the United States, that’s where you can really generate a lot.”
Matheson compared Wembanyama’s arrival to that of China’s Yao Ming coming into the NBA, and Japan’s baseball star Ichiro Suzuki’s arrival in the MLB, which both opened up massive international markets that those leagues didn’t already have a big presence in.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that drafting Wembanyama could add as much as $500 million to the value of an NBA franchise.
But some sports industry experts see Wembanyama’s impact as more muted, noting the possibility that he maybe doesn’t live up to the incredible hype, as well as the limitations of San Antonio’s smaller market size compared to cities like New York.
“This could be a significant turning point for the fortunes of the Spurs, both on and off the court, but it is worth remembering that players are different ‘assets’ than, say, arenas,” Michael Leeds, professor of economics and director of graduate studies at Temple University, told MarketWatch. “There is a lot of uncertainty among even top picks.”
He recalled how Sam Bowie was chosen ahead of Michael Jordan during the 1984 draft, yet Jordan became a superstar, while Bowie did not have much of a basketball career. “A player’s career can be derailed for a lot of reasons,” Leeds added. “I do not think that Wembanyama will have that much of an immediate impact on the financial fortunes of the Spurs.”
The Spurs are also hurt by their market size in San Antonio, which some say limits their financial upside compared to a bigger market like New York or Los Angeles. San Antonio is the 24th biggest TV market (out of 30) among NBA teams, according to Sports Media Watch.
“The San Antonio market is small and has demographics that generally don’t support the NBA,” Emory University marketing professor Michael Lewis told MarketWatch. “There are markets that could benefit greatly from a generational talent, but the Spurs seem unlikely.”
“It helps the franchise but over the long run players move from place to place,” added Sal Galatioto, the president of Galatioto Sports Partners, who has facilitated over 30 sales of professional sports teams — including the sale of the Golden State Warriors in 2010. “Players get hurt. Players aren’t as good as you think they are.”
Galatioto cited the recent sale of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets at a $3 billion valuation as evidence that franchise appraisals are getting higher, and not much of that increase is based on what happens on the court.
“When was the last time Charlotte won anything?” he asked.
LOS ANGELES — Wyndham Clark always carried the message from his late mother to “play big.” Nothing was bigger than Sunday when he held off Rory McIlroy with one clutch shot after another to become a U.S. Open champion.
The final act was two putts from 60 feet on the 18th hole at Los Angeles Country Club, and the 29-year-old Clark pumped his fist when it settled a foot away. He tapped that in for an even-par 70 and a one-shot victory over McIlroy and so many other stars.
Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, couldn’t catch him. Neither could British Open champion Cameron Smith or Rickie Fowler, who played in the final group for the third time in a major and watched an exquisite performance by Clark, playing for only the third time on the weekend in a major.
Clark let loose his emotions at the end, looking to the blue sky in tears and covering his face with his cap as he sobbed on the green. He thought about quitting golf a decade ago when he struggled with the loss of his mother, Lise, to breast cancer. She was who kept him steady in good times and bad.
This was as good as it gets for Clark, who broke through for his first PGA Tour victory only six weeks ago against an elite field at Quail Hollow.
“I just felt like my mom was watching over me today,” Clark said after hoisting the silver U.S. Open trophy. “I worked so hard and dreamed about this moment for so long. I just felt like it was my time.”
For McIlroy, it was more disappointment in his quest to end nine years without a major.
He opened with a birdie and didn’t make another the rest of the way. McIlroy played a final round that typically wins a U.S. Open — 16 pars, one bogey. Just not this one. Even as Clark showed signs of cracking during the rugged closing stretch, McIlroy missed fairways and didn’t give himself any reasonable birdie chances.
It was similar to St. Andrews last summer at the British Open, when he hit every green and couldn’t buy a putt. Instead, he’ll face more questions about when he’ll win another major.
“When I do finally win this next major, it’s going to be really, really sweet,” McIlroy said. “I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”
Scheffler missed too many putts early on the back nine and needed help from Clark and McIlroy that never arrived. He also closed with a 70 to finish third, a month after a runner-up finish in the PGA Championship.
Fowler set a U.S. Open record with 23 birdies, but just like so many other majors when he had a chance, he was in reverse before he ever got going — three bogeys in the opening seven holes. He never made up the ground and shot 75.
This day belonged to Clark, who showed remarkable poise and self-belief, not to mention an extraordinary short game and a fairway metal he won’t soon forget.
Already with a two-shot lead, he was a yard away from an easy birdie on the par-5 eighth when his approach hit a steep bank of the barranca to the left. Barely able to see his golf ball, Clark took a whack and the ball advanced a few inches deeper into thick grass.
He hammered it again, this time over the green, 70 feet away down a firm and scary putting surface. He chipped that to 3 feet to escape with bogey.
“That up-and-down was the key to the tournament,” he said.
More such shots followed. On the par-3 ninth, he was on the bank of a bunker and chipped away from the flag, using the slope expertly to get it to within 7 feet for another big save. And then he clipped a pitch from a tight lie left of the 11th green to 4 feet for par.
The signature shot was his fairway metal from 282 yards on the par-5 14th to 20 feet that set up a two-putt birdie, giving Clark a three-shot lead with four to play.
But he made the only bogey of the day on the par-3 15th, then found a bunker left of the 16th fairway and whacked his hand on his putter when he missed a 7-foot par putt. His lead down to one shot, he got up-and-down from left of the 17th green to keep the lead.
The USGA allowed thousands of fans to circle the fairway short of the 18th green with so few grandstands, creating a big theater for Clark’s finish.
Fowler, still chasing his first major, returned to the 18th green to hug Clark.
“I went back in there and just said, ‘Your mom was with you. She’d be very proud,’” Fowler said.
Clark finished at 10-under 270 and along with $3.6 million — his second such cash prize in the last six weeks — he moves to No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings.
Smith shot 67 to finish fourth. Tommy Fleetwood became the first player with two rounds of 63 in the U.S. Open and finished in a tie for fifth with Fowler and Min Woo Lee (67). Fleetwood also shot 63 at Shinnecock Hills in the final round of 2018.
When Andrew Pessano was looking to create a state-of-the-art indoor pickleball facility in southern New Jersey and take advantage of the surging interest in the sport, he considered building it from scratch. But he and his partners realized it would take at least two years and likely cost well over $1 million.
So, Pessano and his team found a different way to achieve their goal: They leased a vacant big-box space — formerly home to a Burlington BURL, +0.44%
store, in fact — and turned it into Proshot Pickleball, a membership facility replete with eight cushioned courts, viewing decks, a pro shop and a players lounge.
Pessano says that since opening in mid-February, he’s already signed up more than 300 paid members. “The first couple of months we’re busy, busy,” he adds.
Proshot Pickleball could be something of a model for the future of what is often described as the fastest-growing sport in the country; a game that shares elements with tennis, ping-pong and badminton. In short, pickleball could soon be coming to that vacant space in your local mall — or to that abandoned big-box store. (Consider all those soon-to-be-empty Bed Bath & Beyond locations.)
“Pickleball ‘will help America’s malls to become the social hub they once were.’”
The trend is already happening: A recent retail-outlook report from JLL, a company that tracks the commercial real-estate market, points to pickleball facilities in locations ranging from a former Saks Off Fifth store in Connecticut, to a shuttered Belk department-store location in Georgia.
Pickleball “court owners are targeting malls for expansion,” says the report.
Of course, no one is saying that pickleball won’t continue to be played in parks and other public spaces, or even people’s driveways. Inherent in the game’s appeal, say fans, is that it can be played just about anywhere. But there are notable factors driving the move into malls and other retail locations.
Begin with that surging interest in pickleball. Nearly 9 million Americans are now playing the game, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association reports — an astounding year-over-year increase of 85.7%.
All those players need places to play, but the lack of available public court space in many cities and towns has led to all sorts of skirmishes, with issues arising when players use tennis facilities or take up space in playgrounds. As one parent complained about the pickleballers when the turf war erupted at a New York City playground: “It’s not a coexistence, it’s a complete and utter takeover.”
That leaves more room for operators of private facilities, like the pickleball court owners that JLL cites, to enter the picture — and many concepts, even chains, are starting to emerge to address the demand. But where should they go? Again, building from scratch can take a lot of money, and time.
“Nearly 9 million million Americans are now playing pickleball, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association reports — an astounding year-over-year increase of 85.7%.”
Meanwhile, mall operators and landlords of other retail spaces, such as big-box stores, are continually looking for new concepts to bring into their spaces, especially as brick-and-mortar retail stores fight to stay relevant and afloat at a time when online shopping has become the norm for many Americans.
In turn, those concepts are more often about “experiences” rather than shopping, says James Cook, a research director at JLL. Think museums, golf simulators and pickleball.
It’s about redefining the retail landscape, Cook says. “The idea is this is something new and unique,” he adds of these emerging types of mall/big-box tenants, including pickleball facilities.
Mike Leigh, author of “Zen and the Art of Pickleball,” sees an especial logic to pickleball in malls. These retails spaces are all about bringing people together, something that is all too easily forgotten in a point-and-click world of online shopping. And pickleball is a game that’s inherently social because of its close-up nature.
So the two make a natural combo, Leigh says: Pickleball “will help America’s malls to become the social hub they once were.”
CityPickle, a New York City-based operator of pickleball facilities, opened a pop-up venue at the Hudson Yards development last year.
CityPickle
Still, there are plenty of arguments to the contrary, so this is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
America’s malls and other retail hubs have their share of empty spaces, but the situation may not be as dire as it seems, Cook says. The points to the current retail vacancy rate of 4.2% being “at historic lows,” noting that there’s been considerable recovery since the darkest days of the pandemic.
Moreover, he says, higher-end malls are doing especially well — and it’s those spaces that tend to be a good fit for experiential concepts like pickleball. In other words, these malls may like the idea, but they aren’t necessarily begging for tenants.
Plus, Cook says pickleball facilities can need lots of space — concepts often have a food-and-drink component for pre- and post-game socializing. And facility operators like to have outdoor space, if possible, for the warmer months. Such requirements can pose challenges in a traditional mall setup, he says.
“I think [pickleball] only works in some specific instances,” he says.
Pessano, of South Jersey’s Proshot Pickleball, points to another issue: If the space’s support columns aren’t situated far enough apart from one another, it will make it difficult to have enough courts to make for a viable business. And the ceiling height can’t be too low, either, he adds.
These discouraging realities notwithstanding, it appears pickleball operators will continue to consider abandoned mall spaces and big-box stores as a good option to create much-needed court space. Take CityPickle, a private operator that already set up a pop-up facility in New York City’s Hudson Yards mixed-use development in the past year, and is looking to establish permanent court spaces in the Big Apple and elsewhere.
CityPickle founders Mary Cannon and Erica Desai say they are considering abandoned retail locations as possibilities. They like the open space these places provide, and they say that landlords appreciate having tenants that bring the kind of buzz and energy that a pickleball facility offers.
The sport, often described as a cross between tennis and ping pong, has exploded in popularity over the past few years. Nearly 9 million Americans are now playing the game, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association reports — a year-over-year increase of 85.7%. Many towns across the U.S. are allocating federal COVID-19 aid to build pickleball courts. And the Wichita City Council recently voted to spend over $6 million on a pickleball complex.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jon Rahm turned the longest day into his sweetest victory, starting Sunday with a four-shot deficit in the morning chill and finishing in fading sunlight as the fourth Spaniard to become a Masters champion.
Rahm closed with a 3-under 69 to pull away from mistake-prone Brooks Koepka. He won by four shots over Koepka and 52-year-old Phil Mickelson, who matched the low score of the tournament with a 65. He is the oldest runner-up in Masters history.
It was Mickelson who declared Rahm would be among golf’s biggest stars even before the Spaniard turned pro in 2016. Rahm now has a green jacket to go along with his U.S. Open title he won in 2021 at Torrey Pines.
“It was obvious to me at a very young age that he was one of the best players in the world even while he was in college,” Mickelson said. “To see him on this stage is not surprising for anybody.”
Rahm made up two shots on Koepka over the final 12 holes of the rain-delayed third round and started the final round two shots behind. He seized on Koepka’s collapse and then surged so far ahead that Mickelson’s amazing closing round — the best final round ever at Augusta National for the three-time Masters champion — was never going to be enough.
Nothing was more satisfying than an uphill climb to the 18th green to claim the green jacket on a day when Spanish stars aligned. Sunday is the birthdate of his idol, the late Seve Ballesteros, and this is the 40-year anniversary of Ballesteros winning his second Masters title.
Rahm embraced his wife and two children, and as he walked toward the scoring room, there was two-time Masters champion José María Olazábal in his green jacket for the strongest hug of all and a few words that included Ballesteros.
“He said he hopes it’s the first of many more,” Rahm said in Butler Cabin. “We both mentioned something about Seve, and if he had given us 10 more seconds, I think we would have both ended up crying.”
Sergio Garcia was the low amateur in 1999 when Olazábal won his second green jacket, and then Garcia won in 2017, the year Rahm made his Masters debut.
Not to be overlooked was just registering to play this week. Caddies are assigned numbers on their white coveralls in numerical order for when their players check in. Rahm’s caddie, Adam Hayes, had No. 49 — 4/9, the birthday of Ballesteros.
Stars aligned, and Rahm played some world-class golf. And to think he began the tournament with a four-putt double bogey on the opening hole.
This Masters had a little bit of everything — hot and humid at the start, a cold front with wind that toppled three trees on Friday, putting surfaces saturated from rain on Saturday and a marathon finish Sunday as Rahm and Koepka went 30 holes.
Koepka helped to pave the way with one miscue after another, losing the lead for the first time since Thursday afternoon when he chipped 20 feet past the hole from behind the par-3 sixth and made his second bogey. There would be more to come.
“Just some days you have it, some days you don’t, and today wasn’t one of those,” Koepka said. “But I feel good, and I expect to be there the other three (majors).”
Koepka went 22 consecutive holes Sunday without a birdie — from the par-5 eighth hole in the morning of the third round until the par-5 13th in final round. By then, he was three shots behind and Rahm all but sealed it with his next shot.
He hit a low cut around a tree from right of the 14th fairway and it caught a slope just right on the 14th green and fed down to 3 feet for a birdie. When Koepka three-putted for bogey, it was a matter of finishing.
Rahm hooked his tee shot into the trees on the final hole and didn’t reach the fairway. No matter. He played up the fairway, hit wedge to 3 feet and tapped in for the victory.
The leaderboard was littered with major champions and a tinge of Saudi-funded LIV Golf. Mickelson and Koepka both are part of the rival circuit. Former Masters champion Patrick Reed, another player who defected to LIV, closed with a 68 and tied for fourth with Jordan Spieth (66) and Russell Henley.
Tiger Woods wasn’t around for the finish. He withdrew Sunday morning before the third round resumed, saying plantar fasciitis in his foot was aggravating him. Woods also withdrew after three rounds of the PGA Championship last year in similarly cold, windy conditions at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Mickelson barely contends over 54 holes in the 48-man LIV Golf league. And then he played like the six-time major champion who two years ago became the oldest major champion at age 50 when he won the PGA Championship.
He stuffed his tee shot on the par-3 sixth, birdied the seventh and then finished in style. His approach to the 17th came within inches of going in for an eagle, and he pumped his first when his 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th dropped for a 65.
It matched his lowest score ever at Augusta National — he shot 65 in the opening round in the 1996 Masters and was at his Sunday best.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t enough, but it was really a lot of fun for me to play at this level again, and it’s encouraging for me going forward the rest of the year,” Mickelson said.
Rahm called it an incredible day, especially with his father coming over from Spain. He concluded his remarks at the trophy presentation on the 18th green by saying, “Happy Easter. And rest in peace, Seve.”
He then made the sign of the cross, kissed his finger and pointed to the blue sky.
Should we save a spot in the baseball annals for the “climate-ball” era? Climate change and its impact on home-run-favorable thinner air may earn a place in recorded history alongside Major League Baseball’s dead-ball era and the notorious black eye on America’s pastime when steroids juiced the power game.
The way that climate change heats up the air is sending an extra 50 or so home runs a year over the fences, and fans can expect several hundred more home runs per season with future warming, according to a new study out…
