Hawaii's golf crisis | The sports world's biggest philanthropists | A sports media disrupter

Plus: A Spanish soccer minnow with a huge overseas following

Sports Business

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who along with his wife has given $1.4 billion to charity in his lifetime, and Nike cofounder Phil Knight ($1.2 billion) rank among America's 25 most philanthropic billionaires. See the full list here.

When the pandemic interrupted the college basketball season last spring, three team managers who suddenly had some extra time on their hands decided to start a business. The Players Trunk now has more than 200 ex-college athletes from more than 80 programs selling jerseys, sneakers and other gear to fans on its website.

Soccer

Eibar has the second-smallest stadium in La Liga, but thanks to winger Takashi Inui, the team has a huge following halfway around the world.

MLS's Montreal Impact have been rebranded as Club de Foot Montreal. The team's creative co-director explains how it arrived at the new name and look.

Arsenal Fan TV, with an impressive following on YouTube and on social media, is mounting a genuine challenge to traditional media outlets.

France's Ligue 1 is facing another disaster. Canal+, which had looked like the league's savior, is handing back the rights to televise two games per week—and proclaiming that the days of broadcasters subsidizing Ligue 1 are over.

Hege Riise, a famed midfielder who led Norway to the 1995 World Cup title, is the first world champion player ever to coach England's national soccer team.

Baseball

Former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez faces new accusations in a years-long civil action that finally has an end date in sight.

Auto Racing

Tyler Reddick is still kicking himself months after the end of his rookie season in Nascar's Cup Series. He tells us why he expects better for 2021.

Boxing

Devin Haney doesn't have a signature victory like his lightweight rivals Teofimo Lopez, Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, but for now, he's content commanding bigger purses than all of them.

Featured Story

The pandemic has produced a golfing boom, with more than 55 million additional rounds played last year versus 2019, but that hasn't extended to Hawaii, which has been decimated by restrictions on tourism. Play throughout the islands is down more than 35% compared with 2019. "We can't sustain the long-term economic base without tourism," Golf Channel analyst Mark Rolfing tells us. For more on Hawaii's golf crisis, read the full story here.

Hot Reads

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Upon Further Review

Venture capitalist Rob Gough found his "holy grail" this month: a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card he bought for $5.2 million. The deal broke a sports card record set only in August, when Dave Oancea sold a Mike Trout rookie card for $3.9 million. Oancea, or Vegas Dave, is a gambling influencer with millions of social media followers, but if you dig into his past and his picks, you'll find a shady hustler who sells a service that has little, if any, value for his customers.

The Last Word

“What matters to me is going out and winning races.”

Alex Bowman

Alex Bowman, who replaced Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2018, now has the unenviable task of replacing another Nascar legend at Hendrick Motorsports: Jimmie Johnson. A two-time Cup Series race winner, Bowman is ready to show why he deserves this ride. For more on how the new driver of the No. 48 Chevy is handling the pressure, read the full story here.