NBA team valuations | Nascar's youngest team owner | Amazon's latest sports plays

Plus: The 300 college teams set to play football this spring

Auto Racing

Matt Tifft can no longer drive in Nascar because of an epilepsy diagnosis, but he's found a way to remain in the sport, as the Cup Series' youngest owner.

Football

Tom Brady showed up in style at the Buccaneers' Super Bowl boat parade, aboard his own custom yacht. Here's a look at the $2 million vessel.

More than 300 college football teams across 35 conferences are scheduled to hit the gridiron this spring after skipping the fall season.

Soccer

Serie A Femminile is set to become Italy's first-ever professional women's league in any sport. The shift to classifying players as employees means major changes are in store.

Behind a CEO who has spent most of his career in theme parks, TOCA Football is moving past training centers, with plans for "the world's first soccer entertainment venue." It's betting that a social soccer setting could be as appealing as Topgolf.

Sports Media

La Liga, changing direction, is selling its matches to Amazon's Prime Video Channels platform in the U.K. Amazon isn't stopping there: AWS is now the NHL's official cloud, AI and machine-learning infrastructure provider, with big plans for the league's broadcasts and video archives.

Golf

Cadi is providing kiosks to public golf facilities, many of which are otherwise ill equipped to sell equipment effectively. The kiosks, which evoke Redbox movie rental booths, house equipment offerings from brands like TaylorMade, Callaway and Titleist—and the early returns have been promising.

Esports

The Call of Duty League had one of the most volatile inaugural years a sports league could possibly have. As the 2021 season begins, the league's commissioner explains how it is stabilizing itself.

Cricket

Beyond superpowers India, England and Australia, Test cricket is fragile, and lower-tier programs hoping to participate in the format are pleading for a larger slice of the International Cricket Council's financial pie. "We do lose a lot of money—about $300,000 to $400,000—to host a Test series," Zimbabwe Cricket's chairman tells us.

The delay of the launch of The Hundred, a new city-franchise-based cricket format that aims to attract new audiences in the U.K., has only reinforced the organization's digital-first strategy.

Featured Story

The allure of an NBA franchise is strong, even after a year in which the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the league. Team values are up 4% on average, and while that is the smallest gain since 2010, the NBA's financial outlook remains bright. The Knicks maintain their grip on the top spot in our ranking despite being mired in mediocrity—but there is a newcomer at No. 2. See the full list of the NBA's most valuable teams here.

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Upon Further Review

Adidas is ready to dump Reebok, 15 years after it acquired the Boston-based brand to help it compete in the American market. Reebok has underperformed, but in our most recent ranking of the world's most valuable sports brands, it still came in at No. 10 among business brands. Where did Adidas place? How about Nike? See the full list here.

The Last Word

“Once I was in the door, I loved it. It was the closest thing to playing a game.”

Chiney Ogwumike

Chinenye "Chiney" Ogwumike was the top pick in the 2014 WNBA draft and immediately became an All-Star, but serious injuries in her first two seasons forced her to rethink her career. While she is expected to be back on the court in 2021, she has also become a well-known ESPN broadcaster. She's even executive-producing an ESPN documentary about the 2020 WNBA season. "My goal is to open up doors for others that look like me," she tells us. Read more about Ogwumike’s rise off the court.