Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic’s weekly sports business cheat sheet.
Name-dropped today: Victor Wembanyama, Louis Vuitton, Josh D’Amaro, Carlos Alcaraz, Aaron Rai, Jenny Nguyen, Katherine Legge, Caitlin Clark and more. Let’s go:
Driving the Conversation
Welcome to Wemby’s world
With his Game 1 performance in the NBA’s West finals, Victor Wembanyama just solidified himself as the premier must-see spectacle in sports. That’s amid a jam-packed sports year including the Winter Olympics and World Cup, no less.
His 40-point, 20-rebound conference finals debut Monday — putting him in the “legendary playoff performance” S-tier on his first try — was riveting.
Here is a 7-foot-4 “alien” dominating the defending champs (and reigning two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), complete with an effortless, Steph Curry-style, logo-adjacent 3-pointer in crunch time.
The Wemby appeal transcends:
He ranked fourth among all NBA players in jersey sales this season — behind Curry, Luka Dončić and Jalen Brunson, but ahead of LeBron, Anthony Edwards and SGA — a rarity among basketball big men.
Fans usually see themselves in guards; they can also appreciate 7-4 unicorns. Fans typically gravitate toward U.S.-native players; Wemby is quickly becoming the most exciting French export since champagne.
That is good news for NBC over the next two weeks, for ESPN if the Spurs advance to the NBA Finals and for the NBA as it finishes up the first year of its eight-year, $70-some billion TV rights deals. The 22-year-old will anchor the lineup for the next decade.
It is great news for Nike, which sponsors him (if no signature shoe just yet); for the holding company LVMH, which signed the hometown hero to its Louis Vuitton brand back in 2024; and for Fanatics, which has an exclusive memorabilia deal with him. (Fascinating data point from The Athletic contributor Ben Burrows, who noted that Wemby is already the athlete with the sixth-most graded cards ever.)
Last week, the Spurs announced nine developers selected to oversee a new $1.3 billion stadium and sports district project, which they might as well call La Maison Que Wemby Construite (“The House That Wemby Built”). Earlier this week, the team announced it will play regular-season NBA games in Paris in January, which follows a successful Spurs Week Paris tour last February.
From growing the game globally to growing the number of fans who (begrudgingly) will tune in to streaming platforms, the wider sports-industry economic impact of Wemby — let’s call it “Wembanyamics” — is almost as fascinating as the player himself.
When the Spurs and Thunder play Game 2 tonight on NBC (8:30 p.m. ET), die-hard NBA fans might be tuning in for the next iteration of what has immediately become the best rivalry in the league, featuring its two best young players. But Monday night felt like a tipping point. Curious casuals will now be tuning in, too, to see the latest Greatest Show in Sports.
Get Caught Up
Big talkers from the sports business industry:
Tottenham relegation cri$i$ reaches endgame: As a reminder, the other Spurs’ financial picture is a bit grim, and that is before any estimated opportunity cost of their possible relegation from the Premier League to the Championship. (Meanwhile: Spare a thought for West Ham, who go down if Spurs stay up.)
(On the furthest other end: Arsenal. Here’s the inside story on how the club built itself into championship form.)
World Cup countdown: 22 days. So what’s it like to be a ticket broker? Mixed bag!
NFL schedule release winners:
• NBC and its sports honcho, Rick Cordella, for securing what should be the most-watched game of this (and perhaps any) NFL regular season (Bills-Chiefs on Thanksgiving night).
• New Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and ESPN for getting arguably the network’s best “Monday Night” slate ever (perhaps not coincidentally, in a year the company is airing the Super Bowl for the first time).
• Netflix and its sports impresario Gabe Spitzer for expanding its reach to include that Week 1 Thursday night game in Australia.
• Owner Stan Kroenke and his L.A. Rams, who are not just the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl, but are appearing on national TV more than any other team.
College football’s 24-team playoff expansion: Pro-expansion Big Ten commish Tony Petitti has a quote that is going to drive the bus on this issue: “We feel strongly about it.” But Stewart Mandel has a provocative perspective out this morning, showing it’s really about the college football rivalry between ESPN and Fox.
(Related: Take our survey — how big *should* the college football playoff be?)
NFL owners’ meeting key takeaways:
• Nashville to host 2030 Super Bowl. (Just checked in at No. 15 in Sports Business Journal’s 2026 Best Sports Business Cities list.)
• Minneapolis to host 2028 NFL Draft. After record-breaking crowds in Green Bay and Pittsburgh — and 2027 in D.C. expected to top both — a bit of pressure on the Twin Cities.
• International expansion: Could get to 10 games in 2027. And just keep in mind the league’s dream is 18 international games per season, one per week.
• More flag football momentum: The new NFL-backed pro leagues (men and women) will launch in 2027, powered by the folks who created golf’s innovative, sim-powered TGL.
It’s being matched by an incredible groundswell at the high school level, with state after state approving girls’ flag football as a varsity sport, usually backed by the nearest NFL franchise. Just this month: New Jersey, Kentucky and North Carolina. (Meanwhile: The NCAA just yesterday set the table for women’s flag national championships as early as spring 2028.)
PWHL expansion, continued: San Jose, Calif., added, which makes 12 teams in the league — and a total of four added during this most recent spree, along with Vegas, Detroit and Hamilton, Ont.
Other current obsessions: Carlos Alcaraz in Vanity Fair (but missing Wimbledon 😖) … the backstory of the groundbreaking Jason Collins SI essay … the 10-foot inflatable Messi on sale at Lowe’s … Arkansas restoring its canceled tennis program … Aaron Rai’s whole vibe … that Knicks comeback last night (whew) …
What I’m Wondering
Should we buy a women’s sports bar?
OK, not quite. But the Sports Bra — the O.G. women’s sports bar launched in Portland, Ore., now expanding to five additional franchised locations with an eye on dozens more in the next few years — is opening up its new $1.2 million investment round to anyone who wants to buy a piece. (Not investment advice!)
That’s the topic of Asli Pelit’s “Down to Business” column this week, and having paid close attention to the Sports Bra when it first opened (and, later, as it announced its franchise plans in Las Vegas, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Boston and the other Portland, in Maine), I’m so intrigued.
After getting prior early investment from Alexis Ohanian’s 776, former WNBA star Renee Montgomery and others, why crowd-fund this round? Let’s hear from founder Jenny Nguyen:
💬 “This is what the raise is about, it really is the future of the Sports Bra, and it’s in the hands of the community. We want people to become longtime fans and supporters of the Bra to finally have that opportunity to get in the game and own a piece of the bar.”
Keep reading for another 45 seconds, then take this week’s MoneyPoll and let’s consider together if I should buy a stake. I was thinking of it as a gift to my daughter to commemorate her first year in organized sports.
Grab Bag
Name to Know: Katherine Legge
She will attempt to become the first woman to complete the famous Indianapolis auto-racing “Double” — driving the Indy 500 and the Coke 600 on the same day. (Related: Caitlin Clark is the Indy 500 grand marshal, an obvious choice.)
Data Point: $300 million
That’s roughly what Southampton lost the chance of earning if they won the Championship’s play-off final, after the club was expelled from the game due to a spying scandal. They were replaced by Middlesbrough, who will play Hull City on Saturday for the right to be promoted to the Premier League and the vast lucre that comes with it. (Keep reading til the end for another great read on this one.)
Power Ranking: NFL sched videos
After last Wednesday’s convo …
1) Chargers (as ever)
2) Titans (ditto)
3) Seahawks
4) Colts
5) Giants
See the full 32-team ranking here. (Cardinals … yeesh.)
Related: Behind the scenes with the Rams as they put together their video (which finished No. 6 in our rankings … solid!).
‘And/Both’ of the Week
The Boston Celtics’ TD Garden earned the plurality of votes from NBA players as the home of the “most passionate fans” and “most obnoxious fans.” Full player survey results here.
MoneyPoll
Should I put $250 into buying me and my daughter a sliver of ownership in the Sports Bra? (Answering the poll is exclusive to readers who get MoneyCall via email – if you’re not a subscriber, it’s easy and free to sign up, and it conveniently shows up in your inbox on Wednesday morning, hours ahead of the web version.)
Last week’s MoneyPoll results: 49 percent of respondents predicted LeBron James will return to the Lakers next season, while the others were split between him retiring and playing elsewhere.
Beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition
Puzzle No. 604
Dan’s time: 00:49
Try the game here!
Worth Your Time
Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute:
How WAG jackets took over the NHL playoffs: “When Flyers goalie Dan Vladař made the final shootout stop against the Hurricanes to send his team to the playoffs, Alex Sanheim knew she needed to get to work. After celebrating at the arena with fellow wives and girlfriends, she huddled with a few of them to mock up ideas.”
Two more:
The inside story on Cadillac’s F1 U.S. debut, from TA’s Madeline Coleman.
Another inside story, on the Southampton “Spygate” scandal that cost them a spot in the EFL Championship’s “$300 million game” that determines a winner that gets the lucrative promotion to the Premier League, from a crackerjack side of five TA reporters in the U.K.
Back next Wednesday! Text your colleagues this link so they can get MoneyCall every week for free. And check out The Athletic’s other newsletters, too.