MoneyCall Newsletter 📈 | This is the first edition of The Athletic’s weekly sports business newsletter. Sign up here to receive MoneyCall directly in your inbox.

Welcome to MoneyCall, the essential sports business newsletter! In case you’re wondering why we’ve launched this weekly project:

Sports business has never been more dynamic, competitive or intriguing. Who is battling for attention, earning investment and creating opportunities? My goal is to help you make sense — and get ahead — of the stories, trends and names that matter most.

I’m the Sports Business editor here at The Athletic, and 2025 will be my 30th year working in and around the sports industry. I might be curating this effort, but our unique edge is being able to tap into the authority and access of our entire team, bringing you into the middle of the biggest conversations every Wednesday, plus select other times.

Hope you find it valuable, and feel free to reach out to me at moneycall@theathletic.com.

Driving the Conversation: What will happen in 2025?

Is Tom Brady one-and-done in the Fox NFL broadcast booth? After his upcoming first Super Bowl as a broadcaster, would he really walk away from the rest of his 10-year, $375 million contract?

Yes, predicts my colleague Richard Deitsch — so Brady can focus more fully on being a part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. (I am fascinated by how Brady can be entangled in finding a new head coach and still be an effective broadcaster. More on that next week!)

That’s a bold call to start the year. I also have a list of my own sports business predictions for 2025. Here are three I particularly like:

1. Potential No. 1 WNBA Draft pick Paige Bueckers instead returns to UConn for a multi-million-dollar NIL deal. (h/t Sabreena Merchant)
2. Ferrari wins its first F1 Constructors’ Championship since 2008.
3. Deion and Shedeur Sanders become an NFL HC/QB package deal.

But from the actual experts …

To commemorate the debut of MoneyCall, I got in touch with some of my colleagues across The Athletic to get their predictions:

• “The Celtics will sell at a valuation under $5.5 billion, which would be $1.5 billion more than the Suns’ record-setting sale in 2022.” — Mike Vorkunov
• “For the second year in a row, the women’s college basketball title game will pull in a larger TV audience than the men’s.” — Chantel Jennings
• “FIFA get their dream scenario when both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi declare their intention to play at the World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in 2026.” — Adam Crafton
• “By year’s end, the WNBA and WNBPA will agree on a new CBA that more than doubles the current $250K maximum salary.” — Ben Pickman
• “TNT continues its push to land more college sports rights by signing a modest deal with the new Pac-12, which is adding Boise State and others in 2026.” — Stewart Mandel
• “A 34-team NHL is starting to seem like a matter of ‘when,’ not ‘if.’ And we expect Atlanta and Houston — huge markets with at least some boxes checked — to emerge as the favorites.” — Sean Gentille
• “The NCAA announces an increase from 68 to 72 teams in the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, starting with the 2025-26 season.” — Joe Rexrode
• “Saudi Arabia will continue its slow/fast investment strategy in tennis, and after holding the WTA Tour Finals this past November, will nail down a deal for another big tournament.” — Matt Futterman
• “Following Norfolk State (Michael Vick) and Delaware State (DeSean Jackson), at least two more HBCU football programs will hire former NFL stars to be their head coaches. I think Ed Reed will get another job at some point.” — Jason Jones
• “All F1 teams will hit a minimum value of $1 billion, bolstered by a new commercial agreement between the sport’s stakeholders coming into force in 2026.” — Luke Smith

Also, a launch day bonus: The Out/In List!

Here’s another 2025 preview item, my annual look at trends, expectations and guesses in the sports business universe:

Get Caught Up

• The debut of Tiger’s simulator-heavy golf league. “Maybe I’m too optimistic, but the stage and crowd have the potential to create sincerely fun moments with the clock ticking. My fear is this broadcast had to be too much of a ‘We made a league!’ coronation.” — Brody Miller, on last night’s opener of TGL, the indoor, made-for-TV pro league. If you want to be informed, this is the read for you.(Another interesting start-up: Building on widespread enthusiasm for women’s volleyball, League One Volleyball Pro — “LOVB” — debuts tonight, featuring Salt Lake City vs. Atlanta at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+.)

• Jason Kelce’s late-night talk show debut, reviewed: “They don’t need the canned bits and actors — they have Kelce, in all his authenticity and talent for holding a conversation.”

Other current obsessions: Ilona Maher, a top draw … the Premier League’s January transfer window … Luke Littler, best teen athlete in history? (Keep reading for THAT list.) … the North Dakota State football dynasty is back … 2025 NFL coaching hot seats … LiAngelo Ball, hip-hop star …

TA Edge

Wait, wait, wait: Is Notre Dame … likable now?

Fighting Irish football has always been good business. They have a passionate, nationwide fan base that gets to brag about being independent, which this year also means: “We keep all $14 million of our CFP winnings so far, rather than divvy it with a conference.”

They also have an equally passionate, nationwide legion of haters, who’ve long countered by pointing out pesky details like: “You haven’t won anything meaningful since 1988.”

And yet! Behind well-respected head coach Marcus Freeman, a defense-first identity and *whispers* even a little bit of a Cinderella vibe as they approach tomorrow’s CFP semifinal against Penn State, the Irish are enjoying an unusual moment when most fans … don’t totally hate them?

This morning, The Athletic published a fantastic feature all about this phenomenon (probably my favorite thing I have read all week), and I remain so curious — and, yes, thrown off — that I had to check in with its author, Ralph Russo, to ask:

Why the new love — or at least begrudging respect — for Notre Dame football? (And, honestly, when will it end?)

Russo: America has warmed up to this team unlike any Fighting Irish team I have seen in my 25 years of covering college football. I think it comes down to two key elements:

Freeman comes across as eminently likable and chill, a stark contrast to his predecessor, Brian Kelly. And a lot of fans have turned their ire toward the SEC, and were happy to see the Fighting Irish stick it to that league’s arrogant defenders by beating Georgia last week.

(My guess: If Notre Dame does win its first national title in 36 years, the like affair will come to a screeching halt as fans remember why they rooted against the Irish for all those years.)

Notre Dame is a key part of what I would contend is the most compelling five-day stretch of football in the sport’s history. Elaborating on that now:

Grab Bag 💰

A quick-hit mix of analysis and speculation.

The Elevator Pitch: Best. Football week. Ever.
There has never been a better stretch of football than what is coming up tomorrow through Monday: two CFP semifinals, plus NFL wild-card weekend.

Any other multi-day football weekend, including the perennially stuffed Thanksgiving weekend, has lacked the stakes — and the NFL’s playoff mega weekends have lacked this lead-in of unprecedented college games.

The sheer depth of consequence spread over five days puts us in uncharted territory.

Winning the Week
The CEO of TKO Group Holdings — parent company of both WWE and UFC — enjoyed Monday night’s successful WWE debut on Netflix, which has industry observers (including me) wondering whether a high-dollar Netflix bid on at least some of UFC’s upcoming TV rights is inevitable.

Power Rankings
Inspired by Luke Littler:

1. Pele
2. Simone Biles
3. Littler
4. Chloe Kim
5. LeBron James

Beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition
Today: 4/4, one mistake

Vicious clue: “Move”

Try the Connections: Sports Edition beta here!

Need Your Prediction
What will the Celtics’ sale price be?

• Below $5.5B
• Above $5.5B
• No sale til 2026

Click here to predict!

Worth Your Time

Great business-adjacent reads from The Athletic for your downtime, commute or tab collection.

Who is the top pro sports front office of 2024?

Spoiler: The Oklahoma City Thunder led The Athletic’s ultimate Front Office Rankings, a year-long project that involved polling executives and coaches across the major four American pro leagues to determine which front office earned the most respect and — let’s be honest — envy. Highly recommend checking out this deeply reported list, both to see who slots where and for the exclusive insights by competitors about their rivals.

For example, one NBA assistant GM put it succinctly: “OKC, they’re so well positioned, Jesus Christ, for the next five years.”

Two more:

• “Forced to play elite programs just to make ends meet. They’re the Washington Generals of college basketball, paid to lose spectacularly every time they take the court.” – Sam Blum on Mississippi Valley State basketball
• “Passion for LIDOM baseball in New York was undeniable both then and now, giving Peligro an ongoing purpose in Washington Heights’ vibrant Dominican community.” — David Betancourt, on the ultimate Dominican baseball fan store

📫 Back next Wednesday! Text your colleagues this link so they can get MoneyCall every Wednesday for free. And check out The Athletic’s other newsletters, too.

(Top photos: Michael Reaves, Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)