The Orioles have hired former Mariners President of Business Operations Catie Griggs to the same role in Baltimore. 
 
Griggs will be the first woman to hold that title for the Orioles just as she was the first to lead any MLB club’s business department when the Mariners hired her in July 2021. She is expected to begin in Baltimore on Aug. 19, where she will work for David Rubenstein, Michael Arougheti and the rest of the new ownership group, Charm City Sports Partners.
 
“I am genuinely thrilled to be joining the Orioles organization. Supporting this storied franchise, the city of Baltimore, and our passionate fans is an incredible honor,” Griggs said in a statement. “I look forward to contributing to the team’s success both on and off the field.”
 
“It is our belief that Oriole fans and the Baltimore community will benefit from the unique experience and perspective that Catie brings,” Arougheti added. “That experience will be especially valuable as we begin work to reimagine Oriole Park at Camden Yards.”

The Hurricanes have named Doug Warf as their new team president, where he will "oversee the Hurricanes’ business operations and the operation of PNC Arena." Warf succeeds Don Waddell, who was the Canes’ president and GM until leaving to join the Blue Jackets. Warf recently served as president of Raleigh-based investment and management firm MDO Holdings. From 2007-17, he served as Exec Dir of the Hurricanes Foundation (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 7/8). Warf previously spent 16 years on the Hurricanes staff, "starting in sales and working his way through marketing from intern to VP" (CBS17.com, 7/8).

USA Water Polo named USA Volleyball CEO Jamie Davis to the same role, effective Oct. 1, following unanimous approval by the NGB's BOD. Davis will replace Christopher Ramsey, who is retiring after serving as CEO since 2006. Davis will depart USA Volleyball in late September after an eight-year run. Prior to his time with USA Volleyball, Davis was President at Fanatics. He has also served as President of the Comcast-owned Versus and in a variety of roles with News Corp., ESPN and Deloitte (USA Water Polo). Davis started his TV career in 1991 as manager/finance for CBS Sports. In 1994 he became VP/business operations for Fox Sports. In that role, he helped the network add rights to the NHL and MLB (SBJ)

Attendance at the first week of Wimbledon was down by 3.7% from last year "as rain interrupted play on several days" at the event. The total Week One attendance was 282,955, "10,726 less than a year ago." Friday’s attendance was "the lowest for a first Friday, excluding the pandemic-restricted 2021 tournament, since 1998." A total of 36,630 fans attended on Friday, when rain "delayed the start of play by two hours and also stopped matches from being played on the outside courts in the evening." The comparable figure last year was 42,279 (AP, 7/8).

Court No. 1 was "noticeably not at capacity" to start the tournament's second week, "with with large sections of empty green seats clearly visible during the first game of the day." Courts being "slow to fill up" is not uncommon particularly around lunch time," but there "remained rows of empty seats for the match" with blocked of "between 10 and 15 empty seats" remaining midway through the second set. Rows of empty seats were also "noticeable for for Emma Raducanu’s fourth-round defeat by Lulu Sun on Centre Court" (London TELEGRAPH, 7/8).

N.J. gambling regulators have fined DraftKings $100,000 for "reporting inaccurate sports betting data to the state," one of the "most sternly worded rebukes they have ever issued" for what it called "'unacceptable conduct' that demonstrated weaknesses in the company’s business abilities." The errors resulted in regulators "having to post corrected financial data for several months," something that "had not happened in 13 years." The mistakes involved "overstating the amount of money wagered on multi-tiered bets, or parlays, and understating other categories of wagers." DraftKings told regulators that "an update to a newly created database contained a coding error that resulted in the miscategorization of certain bets." The company has told the state it has "corrected the coding error, has discussed the significance of the error internally, trained staff and created additional monitoring, among other steps" (AP, 7/8).

Ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs announced plans to "buy its first Super Bowl spot" after naming nice&frank as its new U.S. lead creative agency. Häagen-Dazs is set to get its Big Game moment next year following another of parent company Froneri's brands, Drumstick, made its Super Bowl debut this year with a spot from Opinionated featuring Eric Andre. Häagen-Dazs U.S. Head of Marketing Rachel Jaiven said, "The Super Bowl is an incredible stage and appropriate time to talk about food. Our decision to participate came down to the growth and opportunity we see in Häagen-Dazs.” Häagen-Dazs is the second brand to confirm an ad buy for the Feb. 9 game on Fox, following Skechers (AD AGE, 7/8).

July 8, 2010 -- LeBron James makes the decision to leave the Cavaliers and join the Heat. With the decision, James transformed the NBA landscape and ushered in a new era of players teaming up via free agency. James joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami and would go on to reach the NBA Finals in four straight seasons from 2010-14. After falling to the Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals, the Heat won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013. LeBron would return to Cleveland in the summer of 2014; the Cavs won their first NBA championship in 2016.

Also happening this week:

• July 8, 2015 -- The Redskins have their trademark vacated on the grounds it may cause offense to Native Americans.
  July 9, 2018 -- Billionaire David Tepper buys the Panthers for an NFL record $2.275B.
  July 10, 1968 -- MLB announces it will split into 2 divisions, the AL and NL, for 1969 season.
  July 11, 1989 -- President Ronald Reagan helps call the MLB All-Star Game.

The International Golf Federation and TMRW Sports announced a partnership focused on harnessing tech to help increase participation in golf by leveraging digital media to engage a broader, younger audience (TMRW Sports).

Sentient Jet reached a multiyear agreement with NBC Sports as the official private jet partner of the American Century Championship, the annual celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, which runs from Thursday to Sunday. As part of its collaboration, Sentient Jet will provide tournament players and exclusive participants with premium, customized access to private jet travel to and from Lake Tahoe (Sentient Jet).

T-Mobile unveiled it has completed permanent 5G coverage and capacity enhancements inside Globe Life Field and across Arlington just ahead of the MLB All-Star Week celebrations (T-Mobile).

Manchester United is reportedly "claiming unfair treatment from the Premier League" due to its commercial income "being assessed by data supplied from Nielsen Sports," whose figures have previously been used by Liverpool (LIVERPOOL ECHO, 7/8).

Unions representing workers at Paris' airports today said that they "had called for a strike the week before the Paris Olympics" over a "dispute about staff bonuses." Unions at state-controlled Groupe ADP had "previously called for a strike on May 19," which "did not cause major disruption" (LE MONDE, 7/8).

If Catherine, Princess of Wales, is "unavailable" to present the Wimbledon trophies this weekend -- as she continues her recovery from cancer treatment -- the Duchess of Gloucester, Birgitte Eva van Deurs Henriksen, has been "earmarked as a likely candidate" to do so. All England Club Chair Debbie Jevans said that they would "give the Princess 'as much flexibility as possible'" in determining whether she is able to fulfill her ceremonial duties (London TELEGRAPH, 7/8).

Serie A club Como 1907 has inked a new partnership with Adidas that will see all the Italian club's teams wear Adidas product beginning in the 2024-25 season. Another element of the agreement will see Como extend its own retail operations both in store and online, locally and globally, including the development of a custom lifestyle range (Como 1907).

U.S. lawyer and Cambridge United shareholder Adam Webb "completed his takeover" of Scottish Premiership side St. Johnstone. This seals the purchase from long-time owner Geoff Brown (SKY SPORTS, 7/8).

The FAI has "apologised" to female former international players, and trainees on a FAS soccer training course, who "experienced alleged unwanted or inappropriate sexual advances from FAI coaches in the 1990s" (IRISH INDEPENDENT, 7/8). Meanwhile, the IRISH TIMES goes with the header, "For the FAI, this has the potential to be the most harmful scandal of all" (7/8).

Longtime Goodison Park stadium announcer Graeme White has "received messages of support" from Everton fans after he revealed that he had been "let go from his position" ahead of the club's historic final season at the facility" (LIVERPOOL ECHO, 7/8).

More:

• Paris Olympics director defends David Guetta snub after DJ expresses shock.

NEW: The Mass. Senate is expected to pass a proposal on Thursday that'd enable the Kraft Group to build a @NERevolution soccer stadium in Everett. The Senate included the measure in a 124-page economic development bill it released Monday. Background here: https://t.co/rGR2czOkiw

— Matt Stout (@MattPStout) July 8, 2024

It’s almost like Netflix is just calling the shots in world golf. This is incredible. https://t.co/D38n06xOqN

— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) July 8, 2024

People were calling for the PGA of America to go in a different direction after the last Ryder Cup, and they went to a different universe.

— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) July 8, 2024

Bobby Witt Jr. announced he will be participating in his first MLB Home Run Derby‼️ pic.twitter.com/eDuH5xdJZG

— ESPN (@espn) July 8, 2024

Prime sports drink volume has dropped a remarkable 26.3% over the last month, according to @bevinsights.

Many believed it would be hard to maintain past growth, but didn't expect it to plummet like this.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 8, 2024

Posting these for visibility since some of you don’t want to take my word for it. 🤷🏼‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/LzONdh739r

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) July 8, 2024

Here’s the video proof (see story) of billionaire financier and Orioles owner David Rubenstein in the cage. “They were pitching like 2 mph,” he said. pic.twitter.com/dRdOFbGa3S

— Jeff Barker (@sunjeffbarker) July 8, 2024

British Summer

Brad Pitt in Burberry at Silverstone pic.twitter.com/NUTR8tFpAK

— Burberry (@Burberry) July 8, 2024

Per the @baseballhall: Boggs, Eck, Pedro, Papi and Rice are scheduled to attend the induction ceremonies later this month, as are 88-year-old Sandy Koufax and 86-year-old Juan Marichal. Pretty cool.

— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) July 8, 2024

14 years ago today, LeBron James made "The Decision" to take his talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat 👀 pic.twitter.com/YncVvA8Cav

— ESPN (@espn) July 8, 2024

EA released the first look at gameplay for the EA Sports College Football 25 video game, featuring cover athlete and Univ. of Michigan RB Donovan Edwards and YouTuber Bordeaux.

63%; 43% -- The 16th Annual Vacation Confidence Index survey found that 63% of Americans plan on attending an ticketed event this year, with 43% of those Americans planning on attending a sporting event (Allianz Partners USA).