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From Patronage to Partnership: What today’s most effective brand-sport collaborations have in common

From Patronage to Partnership: What today’s most effective brand-sport collaborations have in common

Sports marketing is as old as time. Wealthy benefactors in ancient Rome advertised their sponsorship of elite athletes and sporting events, chiseling...

friday 4

Sports Business Journal

Matt colangelo

Your brand’s next media buy: A pickleball court and a golf league

Your brand’s next media buy: A pickleball court and a golf league

In my 40s, I recently came back to competitive golf and tennis after drifting away from them for more than a decade. At first it felt like nostalgia....

19.03.2026 2

Sports Business Journal

Mollie partesotti

The data was clear: How we could have seen the Olympics hockey spotlight coming

The data was clear: How we could have seen the Olympics hockey spotlight coming

As the 2026 Winter Olympics unfolded, fans around the world tuned into unforgettable moments that became part of public dialogue. Whether it was the...

18.03.2026 3

Sports Business Journal

Risa Isard

It is time to share the WNBA’s success with the players

It is time to share the WNBA’s success with the players

The WNBA and the players association (the WNBPA) are negotiating a new agreement. The league has offered players large salary increases and a larger...

17.03.2026 4

Sports Business Journal

Donna lopiano and pamela seidenman

March Madness, NIL and ambush marketing: What brands should include in their deals with collegiate basketball stars

March Madness, NIL and ambush marketing: What brands should include in their deals with collegiate basketball stars

It’s here. The time when brands are finalizing social content calendars and pushing through NIL deals with student athletes as part of March...

16.03.2026 2

Sports Business Journal

K.j. russell and david mccarville

When streaming feels like cable all over again

When streaming feels like cable all over again

When I wrote in SBJ last March about why sports fans could finally move on from legacy TV, the landscape felt more straightforward. Streaming promised...

16.03.2026 3

Sports Business Journal

Davey Chadwick

College athletics didn’t break — they evolved

College athletics didn’t break — they evolved

President Donald Trump convened college athletic directors and other prominent figures at the White House last Friday to discuss the state of college...

13.03.2026 3

Sports Business Journal

Kenge stevenson

College and media evolution: Fans crave the story before March Madness arrives

College and media evolution: Fans crave the story before March Madness arrives

March Madness still does something almost nothing else in sports can do. It makes the entire country care about basketball, all at once. For a few...

12.03.2026 6

Sports Business Journal

Dan porter

The NCAA has abdicated leadership, and college sports is paying the price

College sports are broken, but not for the reasons that dominate most headlines. Name, image and likeness policies did not fracture the system, even...

11.03.2026 5

Sports Business Journal

Douglas Scott 

Can regulation and fintech save sports from financial ruin?

England’s Premier League clubs amassed around £6.3 billion in revenue in 2023-24, according to Deloitte, and grassroots sports still manages to...

10.03.2026 6

Sports Business Journal

Andrew Smith

Millions of dollars in NIL violations? The 2004 law no one saw coming

The Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act (SPARTA) is a 2004 law that many in college athletics overlooked until the Federal Trade Commission...

09.03.2026 3

Sports Business Journal

Jada allender and kevin kuhm

Road to World Baseball Classic paved by the Negro Leagues

Many of us will be rooting for the red, white and blue — others will push for Mexico, Japan and the 17 other countries that will be represented. But...

09.03.2026 9

Sports Business Journal

Bob kendrick

Careers in Sports: Expansion of women’s sports has positively influenced the sports job market

When an expansion team in a sports league is announced, the first thing people usually think of is the incoming players and coaches. There will be...

09.03.2026 4

Sports Business Journal

Justin Winters

Evolution and influence of MIT Sloan: Franchises are playing catch-up on measuring durability of fan relationships

In 2020, at the height of a global pandemic that had grounded its fleet, American Airlines did something that seemed counterintuitive: It borrowed...

05.03.2026 8

Sports Business Journal

Eric Spitz

Rise of the independent: D2C digital distribution is leveling the playing field for leagues

For decades, the gatekeepers to success for sports leagues were linear broadcast networks. Airtime was limited, and your chances of reaching a...

04.03.2026 6

Sports Business Journal

Jake nishimura

Bigger than soccer: The World Cup will decide the next decade of global events in America

We’re less than 100 days from kickoff to the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the stakes are higher than ever — not just for soccer, but for the future of...

03.03.2026 5

Sports Business Journal

Alex lasry

College sports legislation is missing a critical ingredient: Representation for college athletes

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in the NCAA v. Alston case and the U.S. District Court’s approval of the settlement in the...

02.03.2026 8

Sports Business Journal

Brigen l. winters and jeff w. kroh

Paralympics will unlock value in a segment primed for growth

The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics were a big success filled with unforgettable moments, drawing a strong global audience. But sport executives...

02.03.2026 6

Sports Business Journal

Dawna Callahan

When data isn’t enough: What brands can learn from F1’s trust in instinct

In April at Monza, sudden rain turned a routine Formula 1 race into a decision-making test. As Max Verstappen pushed through one of the circuit’s...

27.02.2026 4

Sports Business Journal

Joe Wright

Is the AI category a new paradigm in sports partnerships?

It may be tempting to think of the emerging AI sector as just another brand category enjoying a short-lived boom before the winners emerge and...

26.02.2026 5

Sports Business Journal

James tollington

These are the biggest influences shaping sports experiences right now

Let’s be honest, the biggest moments in sport have never been just about the score. It’s about the atmosphere, the legacy and the narratives that...

25.02.2026 5

Sports Business Journal

Alex buxton

Employing the values of sports diplomacy to reconcile differences and build capacity

Sports diplomacy is a rapidly evolving umbrella concept, with a historical precedent in the United States and across the world. With the lead-up to...

24.02.2026 6

Sports Business Journal

Bryan Thompson

Anticompetitive behavior has driven the evolution of college football and the CFP

In late January we finally learned the 2026 CFP system will be fundamentally unchanged from 2025. While other conferences ceded to the SEC and Big Ten...

24.02.2026 3

Sports Business Journal

Richard Sheehan

YouTube evolving as mainstay of how we consume sports

Every generation has its sports TV destination. In the 1960s, the three broadcast networks held sway. Then the NFL, Fox, ESPN and, recently, Amazon...

23.02.2026 10

Sports Business Journal

Ed Desser And John Kosner

Give us a sporting chance in painting this 2036 picture

One of the great pleasures futurists traditionally enjoy is the lack of follow-up by anyone on the seer’s outrageous prognostications. This...

23.02.2026 6

Sports Business Journal

Rick Burton And Norm O’reilly

Elbows Up: How a change in competition law could reshape the NHL in Canada

What does a recent change to Canada’s competition law have to do with hockey? Potentially, quite a lot. As of June, amendments to the Competition...

20.02.2026 8

Sports Business Journal

David Sterns

If women’s sports is a movement, why are Paralympians still left out?

Have you heard of Brenna Huckaby? Maybe you’ve seen her in “Sports Illustrated,” as the first Paralympian to appear in the Swimsuit Issue. But...

19.02.2026 4

Sports Business Journal

Jamie Mittleman And Dani Aravich

Media companies must embrace the era of athletes as creators

The traditional hierarchy of sports media is being flattened, and athletes are at the center of this shift. For decades, leagues produced the games,...

18.02.2026 8

Sports Business Journal

Dave Dembowski

After the whistle blows: Why culture, not winning, is the real asset in youth sports

Youth sports has quietly become one of the most discussed sectors in private equity. What was once a fragmented, community-driven ecosystem of local...

17.02.2026 5

Sports Business Journal

Justin Miller

How many arms does YOUR octopus have?

I was reminiscing with some colleagues about my NBA days and the early days of TMBO when a thought occurred to me. We were focused on ticket sales,...

16.02.2026 6

Sports Business Journal

Bill Sutton

Leagues must solve media access puzzle to ensure fan base growth

This era is both the best time and the worst time for fans to watch sports. Fans can watch games from around the world on devices they carry in their...

16.02.2026 7

Sports Business Journal

Chad Menefee

Breaking the cycle: How colleges can rein in the coaching carousel

By December 2025, universities had committed nearly a quarter-billion dollars in buyouts to football coaches they no longer employ — a record high...

13.02.2026 10

Sports Business Journal

Jon Israel

College athletics is facing a Deloris Jordan moment

Forty years ago, Michael Jordan’s mother insisted her son receive a share of every shoe sold with his name on it — not just a standard endorsement...

13.02.2026 30

Sports Business Journal

Jordan Banegas

The ‘Headset Arbitrage’: Why the market still misprices NFL coaching assets

In 1997, Garry Kasparov stared across a chessboard at IBM’s Deep Blue and realized the game had tilted on its axis. The greatest mind in chess was...

12.02.2026 7

Sports Business Journal

Filipp Velgach And Adam Ziv-El

Youth Sports: Prioritize diversity of movement, not specialization

There is a growing gap in playability for young athletes who show unique skills. They are singled out to join traveling teams and elite squads before...

11.02.2026 6

Sports Business Journal

Andy Dolich

Pivotal 1994 World Cup set the stage for soccer’s rise in U.S.

Editor’s note: The following excerpts are from “The Big Bounce: The Surge That Shaped The Future Of U.S. Soccer,” by Alan Rothenberg (Triumph...

10.02.2026 10

Sports Business Journal

Alan Rothenberg

What two conferences teach us about governance and private capital

When Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) cautioned Big Ten presidents about opening Big Ten Enterprises to an outside investor whose “primary goal is to...

08.02.2026 6

Sports Business Journal

Clay Grayson

Market forces behind Super Bowl pricing: A three-year comparison

The get-in price for Super Bowl LX in the Bay Area is second highest in the post-pandemic era. As of Feb. 4, secondary-market tickets are hovering...

06.02.2026 10

Sports Business Journal

Mark Didonato And Tom Raffin

Super Bowl LX will expose a two-front war, and other predictions

Everyone agrees that Super Bowl LX will likely be the most-streamed Super Bowl in history. That part is obvious. What’s more interesting is how...

05.02.2026 10

Sports Business Journal

Bryan Goski

K-12 schools are the next pioneering sports sponsorship opportunity

As sponsorship rights costs continue to rise across collegiate and professional sports, brands are being forced to rethink where long-term loyalty is...

05.02.2026 10

Sports Business Journal

Karl Mawhinney