Y! Sports Biz: This Duck is sitting pretty...

[ASFN Admin]

Happy Friday! From Wimbledon to the World Cup, the sporting world is busy, and the same is true for sports business. Tell your friends and colleagues, there’s no better time to tap in!

In today’s edition: Carlsson makes bank, EA draws ire, European clubs splash cash, remembering the 99ers, introducing Yahoo College Football Fantasy, and more.


Time to show you the money...


BIG BILL

JUST DUCKY: CARLSSON IS NHL'S HIGHEST-PAID​

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(Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)


On Thursday, the Ducks matched the Flyers’ 5-year, $90 million offer sheet presented to Leo Carlsson, confirming that the highest-paid player in NHL history will ply his trade for Anaheim next season. The average annual value of the contract, at $18 million per year, narrowly exceeds the $17 million of the eight-year, $136 million contract signed by Kirill Kaprizov last fall.

What? How? Carlsson, 21, is a rising star coming off career highs in points (67), goals (29), and assists (38) in his third NHL season, but that points tally was good for 57th in the NHL last year, and he has yet to make an All-Star team. How, then, is he about to become the league’s highest-paid player? The answer is a combination of timing and circumstance.

• Timing: Carlsson’s restricted free agency comes at a moment when the upper end of the 2026-27 NHL salary cap is up $8.5 million to $104 million. The cap is projected to rise another $9.5 million in 2027-28 to $113.5 million. Teams’ spending capacity is the highest it’s been, and it’s growing thanks to booming business in the NHL. Gary Bettman recently shared that the league’s annual revenue is between $7.5 and 8 billion, with all revenue sources growing.
• Circumstance: Given Carlsson’s restricted status, the Ducks had the ability to match any offer, so the Flyers presented one (reportedly front-loaded and bonus-heavy) aggressive enough to make them think twice about it. Had the Ducks declined to match, the Flyers would have owed them four first-round draft picks, but it’s evident they believed Carlsson could grow into a player worthy of the contract and the pick investment.

Oops: In an interview last summer, Carlsson said, “I’d take that, for sure” in response to a hypothetical eight-year, $9.5 million AAV contract offer. Now, that’s a hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question, not a formal contract negotiation. But alas, Carlsson made it to restricted free agency and nearly doubled that hypothetical sum.

Same, but different: The situation is evocative of the Celtics briefly making Jaylen Brown the highest-paid NBA player in history in 2023, which was also more a product of timing and circumstance than a declaration that he was the league’s best player. But that’s where the NHL and NBA similarities end.

Tip your cap: First, Carlsson’s $18 million cap hit would’ve ranked 101st in the NBA last season. More practically, though, NBA stars routinely command the maximum amount of the salary cap (25-35%) allotted under the CBA, while the NHL’s max (20% of the salary cap) has been a red line that nobody dares approach (Carlsson’s deal is a little north of 17%).

• Hard vs. soft cap: The NBA’s salary cap is considered “soft,” meaning teams can exceed the cap through exceptions and by paying luxury taxes. The NHL’s, however, is a strict “hard” cap, with no allowances for overspending. Contract allocations are more of a zero-sum game.
• Team impact: NBA outcomes, where playoff rotations may only extend 7-8 players deep, are disproportionately driven by star talent. Those talents are paid accordingly. The NHL’s stars, however, are only on the ice for 30-35% of the game. Teams need multiple competitive forward lines and defensive pairings to chase the Stanley Cup. That’s harder to achieve with one player earning 20% of the money.
• Contract length: While the new CBA limits NHL contract lengths to seven years for re-signing players and six years for free agents, longer contracts have been a deterrent to bigger deals to date. It’s one thing to be saddled with a bad contract for four or five years in the NBA. To suffer for eight years is debilitating.

Looking ahead: The size of the Carlsson deal will challenge much of the conventional thinking detailed above, setting a precedent that more accomplished players may want to exceed. For instance, can fellow restricted free agent Connor Bedard stomach taking less? What about Cale Makar, who would become a free agent next offseason?

Bottom line: Max contracts were previously almost mythical concepts in the NHL. Leo Carlsson, the Flyers, and the Ducks just brought them much closer to reality.


MORE MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS

PRICE TAGS: EUROPEAN FOOTBALL FINANCES​

This week, Deloitte published its Annual Review of Football Finance 2026, an in-depth look at the state of financials in European football, focusing primarily on the 2024-25 season. The report paints a picture of healthy revenue growth with a troubling undercurrent of rising wage costs and volatile profitability. These are the numbers that caught our eye.

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(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)


€40.2 billion

European football surpassed €40 billion in revenue for the first time in 2024-25, with 6% year-over-year growth. Clubs in the “big five” European leagues delivered growth roughly on par with the continent, accounting for €22 billion in revenue, or 55% of the total. Here’s the breakdown in revenue by league: Premier League (€8.1 billion), Bundesliga (€4.3 billion), La Liga (€4.1 billion), Serie A (€3.1 billion), and Ligue 1 (€2.2 billion).

€5.2 billion

Nope, that’s not a Premier League revenue figure. It’s the Premier League’s total wage costs in 2024-25. The transfer market arms race has ensured that effectively no amount of revenue generation can create sustained profitability. Wage costs in the Premier League amount to 65% of revenue, and they have grown faster than revenue both over the last 10 years (7% CAGR vs. 6% for revenue) and since the league’s inception (13% CAGR vs. 12% for revenue).


€2.1 billion

Real Madrid (€1.2 billion) and Barcelona (€975 million) accounted for over €2.1 billion in revenue in the 2024-25 season. That sum represents 52% of total La Liga club revenue. The league’s 18 other teams averaged only €0.1 billion in revenue. While La Liga has some of the strictest cost controls in Europe, slaying Goliath is a feat no David — even Beckham or Silva — can muster. Real Madrid earns 21X more revenue than the league’s least lucrative teams.

-€618 million

France’s Ligue 1 is home to the most perilous financial situation among the five major leagues, with 2024-25 operating losses totaling €618 million. The clubs’ revenue fell 15% to €2.2 billion (just narrowly above Barca and Madrid, but for an entire league), as distributions from CVC’s 2022 investment boosted prior years and the league's domestic media situation deteriorated. Wage costs were down 7% as clubs tightened the belt — which will reduce the quality of the product — but it wasn’t enough to meaningfully reduce the losses.

Ouch: Paris Saint Germain’s revenue accounts for 39% of the revenue total on its own.


PLAY, DON'T PAY

PAY UP TO LEVEL UP​

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(Lewis Storey/Getty Images)


Across the college sports landscape, schools are working feverishly to unearth new revenue opportunities to fund their athletic programs. That pursuit of revenue has spread beyond schools and into the digital realm.

What happened: The sports gaming community is boiling over after the release of EA Sports’ College Football 27, which brings microtransactions to previously offline, single-player game modes that were once thought to be safe harbors from further tugs at the wallet strings.

• Microtransactions have arrived in two game modes: Dynasty (where gamers act as a coach and try to deliver a program to national prominence) and Road to Glory (gamers create a player and aspire to Heisman-Trophy-winning success).
• Players can pay to upgrade their coach’s or player’s skillsets, and previous options to accelerate their development (for free) were removed, at least initially, from this year’s release. Players have bemoaned that, absent spending more money on a game that already costs $70, it’s very difficult to achieve maximum levels of development.

Microtransactions, macro business: Microtransactions are small, in-game purchases that gamers can make to acquire virtual items or gameplay advantages. In sports games, they are most commonly used in online modes like Madden and EA FC’s “Ultimate Team,” where players can purchase virtual currency to acquire packs that will strengthen their rosters. These small transactions accumulate with lucrative effect for the gaming industry.

• A decade ago, in the 2016 fiscal year, “Service and other” revenue, which included microtransactions, accounted for $1.9 billion in net revenue, or 43% of EA’s total. The company’s revenue categorization changed in 2021, so the comparison is not perfectly apples-to-apples, but the “Live Services” category represented 71% of net revenues in the 2026 fiscal year, down from a 74% peak in 2023.
• In 2021, the last time the company shared this detail, Ultimate Team accounted for 29% ($1.6 billion) of total net revenues. The ubiquity of microtransactions in this mode became accepted, but the core gamer who mourned College Football’s 11-year absence longed instead for Dynasty and Road to Glory.

Play, don’t pay: The community backlash has been severe. As of Thursday afternoon, it was a trending topic on X with over 100,000 posts, many including the hashtag #CFBPlayDontPay. Among the outspoken were popular YouTube creators, some of whom had worked with the company previously.

• “I don’t care if I never work with them again,” said YouTube creator Bordeaux to his 575,000 subscribers. “I feel lied to, I feel betrayed, and I don’t believe in the direction the game is going any longer. What EA is doing with microtransactions is going to ruin single-player modes.”
• “These [microtransactions] were effectively hidden from the consumer and especially the creators who got the game early, who now have to answer to the community,” Bengal (615,000 subscribers) alleged.
• Additional unrest reportedly reverberated within EA: According to a report from Insider Gaming, many developers who worked on the game were “livid” with the additions.

Feedback heard: In response to the outcry, EA released a Community Update on Thursday, noting that it would reintroduce features allowing players to control the pace of coach progression in Dynasty. However, incensed gamers were quick to point out that the mode still omits the “Fastest” setting from last year’s game, and there were no concessions made for Road to Glory.

Pay off the mortgage: EA is set to be taken private by a consortium that includes the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake. The $55 billion deal, which is the largest leveraged buyout in history, includes $18 billion in debt financing. If the CFB 27 release is any indication, consumers might expect the company to pull revenue levers harder than a Power 4 school trying to afford a new QB1.

Brands are in the game: In June, EA activated a different monetization engine, unveiling EA Advertising, which allows brands to advertise in gameplay through stadium signage and scoreboards, or partner on custom integrations. The potential applications are endless. For example, Mountain Dew created “DEW University,” a playable school in the game. The advertising business likely functions best with an engaged — rather than enraged — user base.


ICYMI

LIGHTNING ROUND​

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(Luke Hales/Getty Images)


Las Vegas Jacks emerge as expansion candidates: A new group has entered the competition for the NBA’s Las Vegas expansion franchise. The group, which would call the team the Las Vegas Jacks, has already raised $8 billion of a $12.5-13 billion asset target. Its members include Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry Colangelo, former NBA coach Vinny Del Negro, Horizon Sports & Experiences CEO David Levy, and American Century CEO Jonathan Thomas.

The Las Vegas race is heating up, but why so quiet in Seattle? Front Office Sports’ Alex Schiffer explores.

US-Belgium most-watched soccer game in U.S. history: As outlined Wednesday, the soccer viewership records were on borrowed time. Between Telemundo and Fox, England’s Round of 16 victory over Mexico averaged 46.7 million viewers, briefly making it the most-watched soccer telecast in U.S. history. It was swiftly replaced when the final numbers for the U.S. loss to Belgium totaled 50.1 million viewers.

Wow: The 33.1 million viewers on Fox were the third-most for a non-NFL telecast on a single network in the past decade.

‍ Judge rules against NCAA: An Ohio judge granted an injunction that will allow 24 athletes to complete a fifth season of NCAA eligibility. Those athletes, who graduated from high school in 2022 and previously completed their fourth seasons of eligibility, will be effectively grandfathered into the NCAA’s new policy, which allots athletes five years to compete in five seasons. This injunction is the first formal rebuke of the NCAA’s denial of an additional season of participation for athletes in this specific situation.

Key Fenway figure steps down: Fenway Sports Group’s CEO of Football, Michael Edwards, stepped down this morning. A key component of Edwards’ reported remit was overseeing a multi-club ownership model. However, despite exploration, the acquisition of a second club to accompany FSG’s Liverpool ownership never materialized. Is this a signal that FSG hasn’t found value in the complex multi-club-ownership landscape?

Ex-F1 exec launches horse racing league: Former Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, who presided over Liberty’s F1 acquisition, is partnering with Skylark Founder Danny Epstein to launch the Horse Racing League. The HRL will feature 10 teams competing for points over the course of a season, delivering a consistent structure for fans. The league has three founding teams, anchored by Godolphin, WinStar, and an experienced industry trio including Gary Barber, Vinnie Viola, and Chris Pucillo.


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


EQUAL PAY

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: CHASTAIN CHANGES THE GAME​

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(Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)


After Monday’s showing, it’s hard to imagine a World Cup ending in a U.S. triumph… until you remember it’s happened before: The U.S. women have done it four times.

On this day in 1999: Brandi Chastain netted the fateful penalty that won the U.S. the World Cup over China, inspiring a generation of young girls who would eventually win two more.

Tell her what she’s won! For their triumph, the U.S. women won a grand total of zero dollars from FIFA; the organization did not begin awarding prize money for the Women’s World Cup until 2007.

• Instead, the 99ers’ biggest post-victory payday came from a tour they organized independently from U.S. Soccer, which netted them $60,000 apiece.
• U.S. Soccer also raised its bonus pool from $250,000 to $1 million in the aftermath of the victory, which amounted to $50,000 per player.

Times have changed: Contrast that situation to today’s, when the USWNT will pocket a handsome sum for the USMNT’s Round-of-16 ouster in the 2026 World Cup. You read that correctly. The 2022 CBA between players and U.S. Soccer ensures that both the men’s and women’s rosters take home an equal share of the prize money, whether it was generated in the men’s or women’s competition.

• The federation keeps 20% of the winnings, leaving 40% to each player pool. The prize money is distributed among those on the 26-person rosters for the World Cups.
• In this year’s World Cup, the U.S. men generated $16 million in prize money, meaning the women will be due $6.4 million.

Long time coming: The 2022 CBA was the result of an arduous equal-pay battle for the U.S. women.

• While an equal-pay lawsuit was dismissed in 2020, public pressure mounted on U.S. Soccer due to the severity of the pay discrepancy and the women’s incredible on-field success relative to the men’s team. That pressure — combined with the possibility of an unfavorable appeal outcome — led to a landmark settlement in February 2022.
• The $24 million settlement included $22 million in back pay and $2 million in an account for post-career support and charitable efforts. The new CBA was announced three months later.

Looking ahead: The total 2023 World Cup prize pool for the women was $110 million, a far cry from 2022’s $440 million total for the men. While FIFA President Gianni Infantino had previously stated he would like equal prize pools for both competitions by 2027, that is unlikely to happen (a high bar at $871 million).

• FIFA’s 2027 budget includes a $344 million distribution to the women’s game, up 126% from 2023.
• It’s not clear yet how much of that sum will be prize money, but the increase is more than large enough to ensure that the fellas eliminated by Belgium will be the world’s biggest Trinity Rodman fans.

Full circle: The presiding U.S. Soccer President when the 2022 deal was struck? 1999 World Cup Champion Cindy Parlow Cone.


BACK TO SCHOOL

COLLEGE FANTASY FOOTBALL IS HERE!​

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College football is more than just a version of the pro game. It has its own distinct style and culture — and its own massive following on Saturdays. Now, it's getting its own distinct Yahoo Fantasy sports experience.

That’s right:College Fantasy Football is now on Yahoo. It’s the traditional fantasy football you know and love, designed for the college game. Create or join a league now.

Here’s how it works: Like traditional Fantasy Football, Yahoo College Fantasy Football is a season-long game with head-to-head weekly matchups. Drafts, trades, and waiver pickups mirror the traditional game, and the scoring system is familiar, minimizing the learning curve.

Go deeper: College Fantasy Football 101: Learn how to play Yahoo's newest game.

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Build your roster: Assemble your dream team from the nation’s best.

• Draft stars from college football’s biggest programs across the Power 4 conferences and Notre Dame.
• Draft an entire team’s offense for a brand-new roster spot on Yahoo Fantasy.
• Build deeper rosters with more breakout stars than ever before.

Draft day is approaching: Drafts open in August, and scoring starts with Week 1 on 9/3.

Sign up for Yahoo College Fantasy Football!


‍ LET'S PLAY

OVER/UNDER: TADEJ'S TWO-WHEELER​

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Tadej Pogačar descends the Col de Tourmalet on his Colnago during Thursday’s Tour de France stage win. (Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images)


Tadej Pogačar reclaimed the maillot jaune on Thursday, taking a big step toward his record-tying fifth Tour de France title. In December, Sotheby’s sold the Colnago Y1Rs that Pogačar rode to Stage 13 victory and in Stage 16 of last year’s Tour.

Question: Did Tadej’s steed sell for over or under $50,000?

Answer at the bottom…


BIZ VIZ

WEEKEND WATCHLIST​

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(Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)


Welcome to our Weekend Watchlist, where we share the business and money lens through which you can view some of the weekend’s top games and tournaments.


Wimbledon Finals

Karolína Muchová will face Linda Noskova in the women’s singles final (Sat 11am ET, ESPN), while the men’s matchup (Sun 11am ET, ESPN) will be determined in today’s action.

Biz Viz: The prize pool has been the subject of controversy and protest, but the winners will walk away with the biggest payday in Wimbledon history at £3,600,000, up 20% from last year’s £3,000,000. It’s not the 16% of revenue they were hoping for (projections peg it at 14.4%), but it’ll do.

World Cup Quarterfinals

The World Cup’s remaining quarterfinal matches continue today and tomorrow, with Belgium facing Spain on Friday (3pm, Fox), and England-Norway (5pm, Fox) and Argentina-Switzerland (9pm, Fox) both slated for Saturday.

Biz Viz: With a win, each nation can increase its payout by at least $8 million to the $28 million available for finishing 4th. While 3rd ($30 million) and 2nd ($34 million) pay more, the real target (of course) is the title and the $51 million that comes with it.

Genesis Scottish Open

Big names crowd the leaderboard over in Scotland, where Rory McIlroy leads and Matt Fitzpatrick lurks one stroke back. Action continues this weekend (Fri, Golf Channel; Sat-Sun, CBS).

Biz Viz: As an event co-sponsored by the PGA and DP World Tours, the Scottish Open hosts the rare non-major intersection of PGA and LIV talents, with Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton among those in the field. LIV’s funding status remains an uncertainty, and this week’s tournament could provide a glimpse of one potential future for its players.

MLB Draft

The next generation of MLB stars finds a home on Saturday (1pm, NBC/Peacock; 2:30pm, MLB Network/MLB.com) and Sunday (MLB Network/MLB.com) in Philadelphia, with 20 rounds and more than 600 players to be selected.

Biz Viz: With CBA negotiations underway, this could be one of the last drafts we see in this format. MLB’s recent draft proposal included reducing the number of rounds to 12, slashing the bonus pool to $200 million (from this year’s $358M), and eliminating the eligibility of high school players. Whether any of those proposed changes make the final CBA is anyone’s guess, but it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume some kind of change is on the way.


Over/Under Answer: Over!

Pogačar’s bike sold for $190,500. Don’t feel bad if you took the under: The house estimate was $15,000 to $20,000, which is in the ballpark (but perhaps a bit shy) of what his bike configurations would sell for at retail.


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