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Jessica Berman, National Women’s Soccer League
No sports property has done more to capitalize on the recent explosion of business interest in women’s sports than the NWSL under Commissioner Jessica Berman. In just two years on the job, Berman has overseen exponential growth in franchise values, sponsorship interest, media rights revenue and relevance in the American sports consciousness.
With franchise values already on the rise after Michele Kang’s $35 million purchase of the Washington Spirit in 2022, Berman initiated expansion following that year’s NWSL season. She awarded three new franchises in 2023 to ownership groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, Utah and Boston, two of which paid a record $53 million to join the league. The previous round of expansion teams, Angel City FC and the San Diego Wave, paid $2 million apiece under Berman’s predecessor.
The $53 million peak price has been topped twice since by existing franchise sales, including $63 million for the Portland Thorns and $113 million for the Wave. With a boardroom of more deep-pocketed owners willing to invest in its clubs, the league is now poised to grow at an even faster clip.
Berman’s most significant task in 2023 was forging a new media rights deal amid significant headwinds in the sector. After earning $1.5 million a year under the previous deal, Berman signed pacts with four national media partners — CBS, ESPN, Amazon and Scripps — worth a combined $60 million a year (a figure that includes rights fees, production costs and marketing commitments). The deals offer the league more exposure than ever, giving a new cohort of sports fans the opportunity to get hooked on women’s soccer.
Courtesy of the Washington Commanders
Josh Harris, Washington Commanders and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment
The idea that new ownership can change the fortunes of a professional sports franchise isn’t a revelation, but Josh Harris’ record-setting $6.05 billion purchase of the Washington Commanders is a textbook case. The Maryland native’s takeover of the franchise from longtime owner Dan Snyder has inspired confidence that, for the first time in a long time, the future is bright in the nation’s capital.
Harris has been a power broker in professional sports for more than a decade as co-owner of the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia 76ers alongside David Blitzer, as well as an investor in Premier League soccer club Crystal Palace. But the NFL is a different — and much more expensive — beast.
To purchase the Commanders, Harris assembled approximately 20 limited partners, including Blitzer and Magic Johnson, and beat out a pair of competing bids led by fellow billionaires. It took months to get the deal over the finish line.
Harris scored major wins in his first season at the helm. Sponsors that had departed under Snyder returned, local governments are jockeying to be the home of the team’s next stadium, and attendance increased a league-best 10%. He also invested $40 million in upgrades to the team’s current home, FedEx Field.
In addition to the Commanders deal, Harris and Blitzer purchased a stake in Joe Gibbs Racing.
Major League Baseball
Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball
The 2023 introduction of the pitch clock will go down as one of Commissioner Rob Manfred’s most significant contributions to baseball. It reduced the average nine-inning game time to 2 hours, 40 minutes, the shortest since 1985, and a 24-minute drop compared to 2022. The pitch clock also played a role in improving overall attendance, which reached 70.7 million in 2023, a year-over-year jump of more than 6 million. Two other rules changes introduced in 2023 — wider bases and a limit on shifting defensive positions — improved game action, including increased stolen bases and batting averages.
The World Baseball Classic also produced a win for Manfred in 2023. The event, which MLB operates, broke WBC records for viewership, merchandise sales and attendance; the tournament’s overall attendance of 1,306,414 was the highest in the history of the tournament by 20%. The WBC Final between Japan and the U.S. on Fox Sports properties drew 5.2 million viewers, the most-watched WBC game in the U.S. by 69%.
Manfred also ensured the shifting regional sports network landscape would not inhibit fans’ ability to watch games with the creation of a local media department, which last year stepped in to produce and distribute games for the Padres and Diamondbacks after their rights reverted to MLB from Diamond Sports Group.
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Jorge Mas, Inter Miami CF
Years of behind-the-scenes legwork by Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas paid off in 2023 when the world’s most prolific sports star, Lionel Messi, agreed to take his talents to South Beach through at least the 2025 MLS season. With Messi on board, Mas and Inter Miami have redefined what is possible for an MLS club.
With the help of the league and its corporate partners, Mas sold Messi on the game-changing opportunities available to him in the U.S. Spurning the Saudi Pro League’s $400 million-a-year offer and overtures from Barcelona, Messi agreed to a contract with Inter Miami worth between $50 million and $60 million a year, which includes his salary, signing bonuses and equity in the club. Under a side deal with Apple, Messi also receives a cut of international subscription revenue for the MLS Season Pass streaming service.
Inter Miami immediately capitalized on Messi’s arrival last July, winning the inaugural Leagues Cup — the franchise’s first trophy — and more than doubling total revenue in 2023 to $125 million. The club is forecasting more than $200 million in revenue this year, thanks in part to new lucrative sponsorship deals with global brands such as Royal Caribbean, Chase and the Switzerland-based Fracht Group, and an unprecedented preseason tour to South America, the Middle East and East Asia.
The club also broke ground in August on Miami Freedom Park, a 131-acre development featuring a 25,000-seat soccer stadium. Lemartec, a subsidiary of Mas’ construction company MasTec, is the contractor on the project.
USA Today Sports
Mark Walter, Los Angeles Dodgers and Guggenheim Partners
Mark Walter’s 2023 was marked by two deals that shook the sports business landscape. The first came in late June, when the Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner purchased the Premier Hockey Federation, paving the way for the Professional Women’s Hockey League to launch in North America at the start of 2024. The PWHL features six charter teams, all of which are owned by the Walter Group, competing for the Walter Cup, the league’s championship trophy.
The PWHL’s inaugural season has demonstrated its significant business potential; it began with a game between Toronto and New York on Jan. 1 that drew a Canadian television audience of 2.9 million viewers. Attendance records for a professional women’s ice hockey game have been set multiple times since.
The second deal — Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers that includes $680 million being deferred — was the largest for an athlete in professional sports history. Ohtani can opt out if Walter (or Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations) is no longer with the team, a relatively uncommon clause to be featured in a player’s contract. The Dodgers, already a top revenue earner among MLB’s 30 clubs, immediately began reaping the business benefits of landing baseball’s biggest global star, including a wave of new Japanese sponsors that signed with the club shortly after it landed Ohtani.
Big 12 Conference
Brett Yormark, Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference will kick off its first football season with 16 members this fall. That the conference even exists is a credit to Commissioner Brett Yormark.
Yormark, who’s been in the commissioner’s chair since 2022 after stints with the Brooklyn Nets and Roc Nation, has brought stability to the Big 12 amid rampant realignment. He oversaw the additions of Utah, Colorado, Arizona State and Arizona during the collapse of the Pac-12, while helping to mitigate the losses of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC. Cincinnati, UCF, BYU and Houston had previously agreed to join the Big 12, moves that were effective in 2023.
Beyond expansion, Yormark has overseen deft plays in the marketing realm, combining entertainment and sport in a way that hasn’t always existed in college sports. Ventures included Nelly performing a halftime show at the Big 12 football title game, Shaquille O’Neal deejaying a set at the men’s basketball championships, and the conference partnering with WWE for activations surrounding its football championship. Yormark also spearheaded a new PSL program that will allow fans to secure premium seating at the conference’s men’s basketball tournament through 2031, an endeavor that’s expected to bring in roughly $30 million.
This year also marked the first Big 12 Pro Day, an NFL Combine-like event that allowed Big 12 standouts to work out in front of NFL scouts during the draft process. The event was sponsored by the Air Force Reserve.
