Wrigley to Host HBCU Games | Mexico's World Cup Problem

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🍻 Happy Hour - March 25th 🍕 

Join us for Happy Hour with Chicago’s Sports Business Community. Connect with founders, teams, brands, investors, and operators shaping the future of the sports ecosystem. (Food & Drink included) Get you🍻r spot today: https://luma.com/alq6ve1p

💼 Sports Funding & Acquisition Deals (This Week)

🏟 Exclusive: Chicago Park District pitches $630 million plan for a post-Bears Soldier Field CPD is no longer taking a wait-and-see strategy with its post-Bears plans for Soldier Field. For almost five years, CPD has been on defense as the Bears toy with options for a new stadium. But as the saying goes, the best defense is offense. Park District officials refuse to relegate Soldier Field to a massive waste of space, as many other former stadiums have become. Renovation plans center on turning the venue into a concert and special-event hub, which CPD says accounts for most of its revenue anyway. The Bears account for less than 20% of Soldier Field’s annual revenue. Yet, the stadium’s lease with the team includes stipulations that limit how many events it can host during the NFL season. Overall, CPD says it can do much better in optimizing its total revenue once the Bears are gone. Bold words indeed, especially if the Bears remain in Illinois. If they do stay in state and build a domed stadium, they would be a direct competitor to many of the non-football events that the CPD is banking on securing. It will be fascinating to see how the CPD’s plans progress as the Bears decide where they will play post-Soldier Field. Fox Chicago covers the exclusive details on CPD’s plans for Soldier Field.

⚽️ Chicago Fire Sets Groundbreaking Ceremony Next Week For New Stadium At The 78 The Fire’s stadium situation is like Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities when compared to the Bears. There's been little contention or controversy throughout the entire process. Sick of their ‘middle child’ treatment as a tenant at Soldier Field, the Fire have mostly self-funded their new stadium. The first phase of construction began in mid-February with remediation work that could take four to six weeks. Hopes are that the new stadium will be ready for the 2028-2029 season. It'll help kick-start development at The 78 by developer Related Midwest, which has been impatiently waiting for an anchor tenant since buying the 62-acre site in 2016. Breaking ground for the Fire will mark a new chapter in its storied legacy within the MLS. Block Club Chicago discusses the groundbreaking ceremony and its speakers.

⚾️ Wrigley Field to host first Chicago HBCU Baseball Classic this spring It's hard to imagine that one of baseball’s oldest and most iconic ballparks could experience a first after a century in operation. The Friendly Confines has hosted hockey games, soccer matches, the Harlem Globetrotters, and even ski jumping somehow. But not any HBCU games until now. Prairie View A&M University and Alabama A&M University’s baseball teams will take center field behind the Ivy in May. With the HBCU Baseball Classic comes other unique aspects of an HBCU event: marching band performances, tailgating, and fan activations. The game will take place after a Cubs game against the Diamondbacks. For Cubbies interested in a unique experience and hungry for more baseball, entry into the game is free. You might as well just stay in Wrigleyville all day. NBC Chicago provides the date and other details for the HBCU Baseball Classic.

⛹️‍♀️ Chicago Sky’s training facility approaches completion, with increased scale and scope It doesn’t take long to understand the delay in opening the Sky’s training facility. After taking a glimpse at renderings of the state-of-the-art project, it all makes sense. No detail was spared in crafting the 80,000-sq-ft facility, as Sports Business Journal shows. The project's costs ballooned from $40 million to $60 million, and the expected opening date shifted from December to late Spring. The Sky wanted to make a statement not just to its players and fanbase, but to the entire WNBA. The facility features two full-sized courts, a content creation studio, and a family room, among other amenities. The driving force behind the additions, to quote co-owner Nadia Rawlinson, was the mindset of, “...how do we make this even better than what we initially imagined?” Located within Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park, the facility will be a nexus of team-related activities. As the rapid growth of women's sports expands beyond many people’s wildest imaginations, the Sky are nearing the finish line in setting the benchmark of what a training facility should look like.

👟 JuJu Watkins becomes first athlete to co-create a design for Nike LeBron sneakers It's an LA connection made for the ages. Despite not having played a game since last March, Watkins' on-court magic has earned her a distinctive honor. The USC star will take another huge step toward solidifying her name recognition within hoops. “Silver Lining" is set to debut this summer, featuring her creative input to customize the design. A torn ACL has not slowed down Watkins off the court. She has 20 NIL deals, tops among women’s basketball players. Her recent venture into ownership — Watkins became the first college athlete to invest in a pro women’s team after joining the ownership group of Boston Legacy FC in November — shows her eye toward building her business portfolio outside of hoops. Once Watkins fully recovers and hits the court with her Silver Linings, her brand will only grow stronger. Yahoo Sports recaps Watkins' monumental partnership with Nike.

🗻 How Salt Lake City evolved into a sports boomtown — and MLB expansion frontrunner Once Salt Lake City got a taste of the limelight, it wanted a lot more of it. In 2002, the city hosted the Winter Olympics. It was still known as a sleepy, Latter Day Saints-dominated town. But the Olympics were wildly successful. The city set a record for Winter Olympics attendance and earned a $100 million profit when host cities typically lose money. Fast forward to today: the city has three thriving major professional teams, will host the 2034 Winter Olympics, and could possibly get an MLB franchise. Salt Lake City has the blueprint for securing a new franchise: bipartisan support, available land, public funding, and in-progress construction on a mixed-use development that could support a ballpark. Regardless of whether they get a team, the city is revitalizing its Power District through a $3.5 billion project. Even if the rest of the country still views them as a dead spot, Salt Lake City is ready to prove them otherwise. If they earn one of the two potential MLB expansion spots before Commissioner Rob Manfred retires in 2029, it would be icing on the cake that it’s been baking for years. The Athletic takes you on a deep dive into the political and financial players prominent in Salt Lake City’s ascension.

🥊 Netflix announces Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch at Sphere Las Vegas Not sure what you call the sequel to “The Fight of the Century”. That first bout between Mayweather and Pacquiao is still the highest-earning boxing match in history. It earned between 4.4 and 4.6 million PPVs (pay-per-view buys) and generated somewhere between $500 million and $600 million in revenue. Both fighters were at the upper end of fighting age then, with Mayweather 38 and Pacquiao 36. Netflix already made a ton of money on throwing granddad-aged Mike Tyson into a ring with 20-something-year-old Jake Paul. So it figures, why not try this out? It’s doubtful the fight will have anywhere near the hype or fanfare as the first one 11 years ago. But Netflix is banking on the spectacle of Las Vegas’ Sphere and some high-octane marketing to garner enough interest in this retiree bout. Still, boxing purists won’t be happy about another matchup featuring guys with full-grown adult kids. Find out when the fight will stream and other details here.

🌩 LA28 CEO voices strong support for embattled chair Casey Wasserman Anyone whose name appears in the Epstein files instantly becomes a pariah. In Wasserman’s case, his appearance in the files comes from a series of flirty emails exchanged between him and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate. No other evidence of close association with Epstein himself has come out. It has still stirred up plenty of controversy. His agency, Wasserman, has lost several A-list clients, including Chappell Roan and Coldplay. Even LA’s mayor has publicly called for him to step down. Fortunately for him, an outside review cleared him of any further wrongdoing, so the LA28 board has given its vote of confidence to keep Wasserman. Through the board’s leadership, LA28 has already earned 80% of its sponsorship revenue goals with two years to go. No major sponsors have expressed interest in leaving despite the Wasserman revelations. The group was formed in 2017, and Wasserman has played a large role in advocating for the Summer Olympics to return to Southern California. Wasserman may have a tough time retaining clients in his personal business dealings, but with LA28, his position seems safe…for now. Reuters highlights LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover’s comments on the matter and details the preparation for the Olympics.

🇲🇽 What cartel violence means for World Cup games in Mexico and possibility of relocating playoffs A dicey situation could become a logistical nightmare. Once Jalisco cartel leader “El Mencho” was killed by Mexican authorities in late February, it opened up a can of worms for several tied to this summer’s World Cup. At risk is Estadio Akron, located near affected-state Guadalajara. It’s set to host four World Cup matches in June. More worrying is a playoff match scheduled for late March between two countries vying to earn a spot in the World Cup. The outburst of violence — torched cars, armed standoffs with the Mexican army, a prison riot — has spooked FIFA enough to consider whether the match should be moved. It wouldn’t be ideal, though. It would require refunding tickets and securing a different venue, without a typical timeframe to prepare for large crowds. Mexican officials are confident they can restore order before the World Cup kicks off in June. They have made significant progress in calming things down after images and videos showed a chaotic state. One thing is sure: both the Mexican government and the cartels have an incentive to maintain some peace during World Cup season. No one wants to scare away potentially millions in revenue from tourists. That’s bad for legal and illegal business. Here’s what The Athletic has to say about the situation in Jalisco.