The NHL's highest-paid players | A new football league puts fans in charge | An arena remodel aided by the pandemic

Plus: The NWHL plots a path to viability behind a new TV deal

Pro Football

Fan Controlled Football, a league set to launch next month, will allow fans to call every play in real time. Fans can also buy a piece of their favorite team through a private investing platform—and this is no ceremonial stock certificate.

Hockey

In the NWHL, the pre-eminent women's pro outfit since the Canadian Women's Hockey League folded in 2019, the highest-paid player earned $20,000 last season—a painfully low figure even in the world of women's sports. Clearing a path to livable wages is a priority for Tyler Tumminia, who is off to a promising start as commissioner.

Pro Basketball

The Suns had planned to complete 60% of their arena remodel in the 2020 off-season and save the rest for summer 2021, but with fans forced to stay home, the pandemic has sped up the construction schedule considerably. Owner Robert Sarver talks us through the arena's new features.

Baseball

Hank Aaron—the home run king who rewrote the MLB record book and blazed a trail for generations of ballplayers, including one older player, Ernie Banks—died last week at 86. Al Downing, the pitcher who gave up his record-breaking 715th homer, has nothing but admiration for Aaron. Former commissioner Bud Selig, who had confided in Aaron since 1958, remembers "a man of grace, a man of patience, a man of tolerance" while another of Aaron's friends of 50 years hails him as a civil rights leader. His minor league teammates recall a slender and unorthodox 19-year-old, and the season in Puerto Rico that helped set him on a Hall of Fame path.

Soccer

Sports Innovation Lab, the research firm led by Olympic hockey gold medalist Angela Ruggiero, believes Manchester City is well ahead of American sports teams at engaging the modern fan.

Austin FC has a new name for its new arena, which expects to begin hosting events in June. The team's president explains how a patient approach to the naming-rights deal paid off.

Auto Racing

Wayne Taylor, the defending champion car owner at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, enters this weekend's race with a new vehicle and a driver roster that's different from top to bottom. The reasons he felt compelled to overhaul a wildly successful team are complex, but sentiment plays a big part.

Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics appear to be at great risk of cancellation, threatening Japan's economic recovery and the push to close the gender gap in sports like skateboarding, surfing and freestyle BMX. If the Games do go on as planned, fans can look forward to a record amount of Spanish-language coverage from NBCUniversal. "We're not going to do every Olympic sport there is—no golf, not a lot of swimming, not a lot of gymnastics—but we'll do a lot of sports our audience is interested in," Telemundo Deportes' president tells us.

Featured Story

The NHL's ten best-paid players are expected to make $125 million this year, including $23 million off the ice—a sizable drop from last year, with falling team revenues compelling players to forfeit 20% of their salaries. Still, the league's top earner is set to make a relatively robust $16 million, aided by new endorsement deals. Who's No. 1? Click here to see the full list, with Alexander Ovechkin (pictured) clocking in at No. 4.

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Upon Further Review

Major League Baseball has inked a new sponsorship deal with LoanDepot, a key source of revenue while the league grapples with the absence of fans. The even better news for team owners is that the lack of game-day revenue has not yet significantly impacted team values: In our most recent ranking of MLB's most valuable teams, published a month after the Covid-19 lockdowns began, the average team value was up 4% from 2019, to $1.85 billion. See the full list here.

The Last Word

“If you recognize an opportunity and truly believe in it, you have to commit wholly to it.”

Justin Marks

Justin Marks never found success as a Nascar driver, but he has a vision for the sport, and now, as a founder of Trackhouse Racing, he can start making that vision a reality. He's already shattering Nascar norms with the way he is handling equipment and his idea for the team's garage. Oh, and rap star Pitbull owns a piece of the team. For more on Marks' plans to revolutionize Nascar, read the fully story here.