Дэлхийн аваргын тэмцээний финал АНУ-д 60 сая гаруй үзэгчдийг татаж, түүхэн дэх хамгийн их үзэлттэй хөлбөмбөгийн тоглолт боллоо. Энэхүү амжилт нь 2026 оны тэмцээний үр нөлөөг тодорхойлж, хөгжөөн дэмжигчид, сурталчилгааны байгууллагууд болон Олон улсын хөлбөмбөгийн холбоо (FIFA)-ны хувьд хөрөнгө оруулалтын өгөөж өндөр байсныг харууллаа.
Тэмцээний явцад “ус уух завсарлага” зэрэг шинэлэг өөрчлөлтүүд нэвтэрсэн нь тоглолтын динамикт нөлөөлж, телевизийн сурталчилгааны орлогыг нэмэгдүүлсэн байна. Мөн Эрлинг Хааланд зэрэг тоглогчид АНУ-д болсон тэмцээний үеэр олон улсын хэмжээнд илүү танигдаж, өөрийн брэндийн үнэлэмжийг өсгөсөн нь онцлох үйл явдал болов.
ESPN-ийн зүгээс NFL сүлжээг худалдан авсантай холбогдуулан зарим ажилтнуудыг цомхотгосон нь спортын салбарын бизнесийн томоохон өөрчлөлт боллоо. Үүний зэрэгцээ WNBA-ийн комиссар Кэти Энгельбертийн ажлын байрны тогтвортой байдал, Леброн Жэймсийн шийдвэр болон SEC-ийн лигээс тусгаарлах боломжтой хувилбарууд нь спортын ертөнцийн анхаарлын төвд байна.
Нью-Йорк хотод болсон “Fanatics Fest” цуглуулагчдын арга хэмжээнд Том Брэди, Жейсон Судейкис, Жастин Бибер зэрэг алдартнууд оролцож, спортын соёл болон бизнесийн уялдааг харууллаа. Түүнчлэн Телемундо сувгийн тайлбарлагчдын “Гоол” хэмээн хашхирах хугацаа 52 секунд хүрсэн нь тэмцээний оргил агшнуудын нэг байв.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic’s weekly sports business cheat sheet.
Name-dropped today: Gianni Infantino, Erling Haaland, LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Karl Ravech, Cathy Engelbert, Sophie Cunningham, Tom Brady, Jason Sudeikis, the Khoslas, Justin Bieber, Josh Kerr and more. Let’s go:
Driving the Conversation
Wrangling with World Cup takeaways
When the news broke last night that Sunday’s thrilling World Cup final was the most-watched soccer game ever televised in the U.S. — more than 60 million viewers across Fox and Telemundo, putting it in an elite stratosphere of attention reserved for the NFL — one takeaway from the 2026 World Cup was clear:
Everyone invested attention.
That’s a pretty good starting point for any analysis of this event. Beyond TV, fans spent money on tickets (and everything else), brands spent on marketing and, at least qualitatively, everyone seemed pretty satisfied with their ROI. (Especially FIFA.)
But I’m also left with a whole lot of questions. Helpfully, my colleagues have just reported out a foundation of some answers:
• We were in a familiar place after the U.S.-hosted World Cup in 1994. Very different moment in time, obviously, along with a very different infrastructure around soccer. But it was impactful. How might 2026 be different?
• “Hydration breaks” were the most evident change to the game’s dynamics, on the pitch and for Fox’s bottom line, with a windfall of ad revenues. Are “Americanized” innovations like the mid-half (a.k.a. “quarter”) breaks here to stay?
• The tournament created new mega-stars. To be sure: Erling Haaland was already a soccer star, but he elevated to a higher tier while in the U.S. What next for Brand Haaland?
• With all of this kinetic energy generated by tens of millions of fans in the U.S. becoming enraptured by soccer, can MLS (finally) capitalize? Or do we all turn our attention to these world-class players we just watched … in European leagues?
• And for all the frustrating ploys, has FIFA emerged stronger than ever? (Gianni Infantino seems certain to stay in power.)
Fan attention whiplashes pretty quickly. We’re already on to LeBron’s decision, NFL training camps and college football machinations. But we’ll always have the summer of 2026. I think it will stand as an indelible memory for an enormous number of fans.
And, sooner than you think, we’ll have the summer of 2028 in L.A.
Get Caught Up
Big talkers from the sports business industry:
New layoffs at ESPN: When ESPN acquired NFL Network in the deal that saw the league get 10 percent of ESPN, it was expected that the overlap between ESPN’s production capability and NFL Network (based across the country in L.A.) might yield to staff cuts. Those came yesterday. Among the notable on-air folks to be let go, long-timer Karl Ravech was a surprise to many.
LeBron Watch: Soon? (No?) As a flex of pure power and influence, this extended Decision has been one of the most impressive demonstrations in league history.
Betting expert Sam McQuillan published an interesting analysis on his Substack yesterday: LeBron’s decision has generated a $200 million-plus market across Kalshi and Polymarket, “more money than either platform has ever taken on an NBA game.” (And, as McQuillan noted yesterday, “despite months of trading, the market hasn’t reached anything close to consensus,” which is unusual.)
WNBA All-Star weekend: Engelbert’s last stand? In the latest “No Offseason” WNBA newsletter, Sabreena Merchant and Annie Costabile noted: “There is no bigger story heading into All-Star weekend than commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s job security.”
More: “What should be a season marked by memorable celebrations of the league’s 30th year has been marred by poor officiating, harassment issues and Engelbert’s seeming inability to be proactive in addressing any of it.” (PS: Subscribe to No Offseason here.)
Tennis stars’ prize money dispute, cont’d: The players have found a really clever wedge issue — participation in the wildly popular new U.S. Open mixed-doubles event.
MLB Opening Day 2027: March 24, the earliest ever. It’s quaint to put that out there, knowing the season’s start (if not its entirety) is in jeopardy.
The SEC’s “breakaway” options: “According to multiple sources, the idea is real and not just a leverage play. Still, if it happens, there are also ranges of how drastic an SEC breakaway would be.” Nuclear option? Mild option? Something in between? Seth Emerson has an awesome explainer on a topic I have been thinking about for years.
Other current obsessions: Tom Brady’s kayfabe era … Our Zapruder-style film breakdown of the World Cup final trophy presentation mayhem … 64-team World Cup hive, unite … the Sophie Cunningham “point” business implications … WFAN, WEEI, WIP coming to SiriusXM? I’ll hang up and listen … Lionel Messi tributes … my colleague Josh Kloke watching his kid watch the World Cup for the first time …
What I’m Wondering
Fanatics Fest, in review
After last week’s extensive MoneyCall discussion, the New York collectors event was indeed a cavalcade of celebrity appearances, corporate activations and collectibles haggling.
My colleagues were at the Javits Center, covering the entire weekend. What were their favorite parts?
• Larry Holder: “Old ‘Saturday Night Live’ compadres Jason Sudeikis and Seth Meyers competed in a card-buying challenge during Thursday’s opening night.”
• David Betancourt: “Tom Brady nailing a Steph Curry-esque logoman shot during the basketball portion of the Fanatics Games competition.”
• Brooks Peck: “The last thing I expected going into this event was to be standing next to an absolutely locked-in Justin Bieber as he dominated Fanatics Games challenges, but that’s what happened on Saturday.”
Grab Bag
Data Point: 52 seconds
That was the longest duration of an individual “Gooooool!” call by announcers on Telemundo throughout the World Cup. I know that because my colleagues on our data team tracked each individual goal call and then did all sorts of cool stuff with that.
One more: $5,619
Another banger from our data team: They got seven fans to share — in granular, line-item detail — how much it cost them to attend the World Cup. One example:
OK, one more absolutely incredible piece from our data-visualization team: They logged the kaleidoscope of fan reaction shots from TV and sorted them. Just take a minute to check this out.
Name to Know: Josh Kerr
Still wrapping my head around the 28-year-old Scot’s record-setting mile run last weekend, a boon for him and his lead sponsor, Brooks. (Here’s how he hit 3:42.66s.)
Kerr talked with my colleagues Liam Tharme and George Edwards. He told them what he thought was the defining moment of the race, when he heard the bell with 400m to go:
“There was a lot of negotiation with my own body and my mind. I wanted to go, but I knew it was not the right time to push, because I was running fast enough.”
One more: The Khosla family, name-dropped last week as the future/would-be owners of the Seattle Seahawks. Get more familiar with them, thanks to Nicki Jhabvala.
Beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition
Puzzle No. 667
Dan’s time: 00:21
Try the game here!
Worth Your Time
Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute:
A car crash nearly killed ESPN NFL Draft expert Matt Miller. Then came the fraud allegations.
Two more:
• MLB teams were using AI to make in-game decisions. I mean … did it actually help? Claude, should we throw the sinker or the splitter?
• One more interesting World Cup question: Looking ahead to 2030, there is a tussle between co-hosts Spain and Morocco over who will host the final. Who wins *that* battle?
Back next Wednesday! If you have any colleagues, friends or family who might enjoy this weekly analysis of the latest in money, power and attention in sports, can you text or email them this link to sign up to receive it in their inbox every Wednesday for free? And check out The Athletic’s other newsletters, too.
