Deal of the Year

Inter Miami CF signs Lionel Messi

The roots of this deal stretch to 2019, before Inter Miami had even begun playing. Team ownership’s years-long efforts to bring the Argentine superstar stateside have resulted in nothing short of a transformation for Inter Miami and MLS. The deal, ultimately valued at upward of $50 million per year, required outmaneuvering rival bids from European soccer giants and Saudi Arabia, and it ultimately included Messi receiving team equity and a share of revenue from Apple’s MLS media rights deal. As a result of his signing, Inter Miami projects to be the league’s top team in revenue in 2024. Its estimated income of $200 million would be roughly quadruple what it made in 2022 before Messi’s arrival.

Josh Harris-led group acquires Washington Commanders

In selling for $6 billion, the Commanders blew away the prior record value for a team sale ($4.65 billion for the Denver Broncos in 2022). The challenges surmounted in assembling a star-studded ownership group — Magic Johnson, David Blitzer, Mark Ein, Mitch Rales and others — and raising such extensive capital were enormous. The deal’s impact is widespread, with other leagues now allowing private equity to provide liquidity for teams being sold at half the Commanders’ value. The sale immediately began a much-needed refresh for one of the NFL’s most historic franchises, not to mention provided a massive boost to team values across the NFL and the rest of the American pro sports landscape.

NASCAR signs media deals with Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Prime Video and TNT Sports

NASCAR’s seven-year rights deals, which run from 2025 through 2031, are worth $7.7 billion; the $1.1 billion-per-year average value is a roughly 40% increase over the racing circuit’s current rights agreements. That’s an impressive increase and top-line value in a challenging media rights market, including the complexity of involving so many counterparties (hard-fought negotiations dragged on for months longer than anyone had expected). There also is a greater focus on streaming and digital content — Amazon will have exclusive streaming rights to some races, while Bleacher Report and House of Highlights got highlight rights — that will help NASCAR target younger audiences.

NCAA signs media deal with ESPN

This eight-year, $115 million-per-year deal nearly tripled the rights fee for the NCAA. This one was all about women’s sports. More specifically, it highlighted the exploding value of women’s college basketball and volleyball, among other sports. The NCAA bucked the growing trend of fragmented media rights packages by getting a single network to pay for everything (especially following speculation it might break its rights up and/or sell the women’s basketball tournament separately). The deal, the first in Charlie Baker’s tenure as NCAA president, also aligned the men’s and women’s basketball tournament rights so that they will come to market simultaneously.

NWSL signs media deals with CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports

The NWSL may be the hottest property in sports, which is perhaps best exemplified by its set of four-year media rights agreements. While the $60 million-per-year headline value is not just rights fees — it includes production and marketing costs — it represents a tremendous value for the league and its team owners (not to mention that even conservative rights fee estimates represent a nearly 10 times increase over the NWSL’s prior deals). As with NASCAR, the negotiations with so many counterparties and introducing a greater focus on streaming and digital content made landing these deals complex. The greatly increased rights fees also will help support skyrocketing team values and expansion fees as investors clamor for a stake in the league.

NYSE

UFC/WWE merge to form TKO Group Holdings

This one-of-a-kind cultural crossover was a huge ($21 billion) and tremendously creative deal that formed a cash-rich giant without adding debt to UFC parent company Endeavor’s balance sheet (Endeavor continues to own 51% of TKO). What’s more, the combination will enable joint sales efforts for sponsorships, media rights, tickets and venue partnerships — TKO recently landed a five-year deal to bring UFC and WWE events to Anaheim’s Honda Center — while cost efficiencies are expected to trim expenses by as much as $100 million. TKO’s share price is down since listing in September, but controlling owner Endeavor sees opportunity to unlock new value akin to how it tripled UFC’s value since acquiring the property for $4.1 billion in 2016.