2 days Ago By Irishexaminer.com
A - Athlete remuneration : Some threads to pull at: the ongoing college sport debate in the US, Olympic athletes on the road to LA28, female footballers. A savvy generation of athlete creators being asked to actively promote their sports - and who know their value. But who pays? B - Bargaining: The WNBA players’ (Caitlin Clark and friends) decision to open up negotiations on a new deal will play out in 2025.
A league still totting up losses, but on the rise; money flowing into teams, growing mainstream appeal - a lockout now would be a momentum-killer. C - Club World Cup: Fifa President Gianni Infantino’s pet project, mocked & dismissed by many, but likely to be a handy ramp-up for soccer in the US pre-2026 and well received by competing clubs & fans outside the fatigued European elite. DAZN’s free-to-air global deal is a future case study.
D - Dublin (hosting the Lions, talking to the NFL) and other cities to keep tabs on: Kigali (F1 talks, big ambitions); Madrid (NFL/F1 incoming); Greater Bay Area/Macau (NBA’s return to China), Milan (a year out from the Winter Olympics); Tirana (hosting the start of the Giro). E - Exit strategies: Private equity money has sloshed about sport for years now and the major players - Arctos, Silver Lake, CVC, RedBird - are well established, but is 2025 when the industry starts to ask a billion dollar question: what happens when (not if) they cash out? F - Ferran (Soriano): Manchester City v Premier League is the year’s biggest fixture. Whatever the verdict, a game-changing story - and likely only the start.
We rarely hear from City Football Group CEO Soriano or PL CEO Richard Masters but they’ll be central characters in a major melodrama. G - Goodison Park : New owners and, come August, a new home for Everton. Another venerable and distinctive ground passes into history, replaced by another new state-of-the-art Premier League stadium.
Fits the brand, but is all English football starting to look a bit identikit? H - Hamilton (Lewis): The world’s most famous racing driver fulfils a dream to drive the world’s most famous (red) racing car. Hamilton in a Ferrari will be box office - and don’t be surprised if it all just clicks. More headlines guaranteed for F1, in Italy and around the world.
I - In-house: More of the Premier League’s vision for its post-IMG era should emerge. More widely, expect more consideration of what leagues/teams decide to outsource (content, hospitality, merchandise, ticketing); and for more invention and solutions from existing specialists. J - Jerry Bruckheimer: Apple and Brad Pitt’s F1 movie, produced by Top Gun’s Bruckheimer, is out in June after two years of filming in and around the series.
Can Sonny Hayes (Pitt’s character) and a splash of Hollywood glamour help F1 find yet another pocket of new audience? K - Kynisca: Via investments, donations, acquisitions, Michelle Kang’s Kynisca – owner of London City Lionesses amongst others - is setting the pace in women’s football. Building out a true multi-club model and carving out the women’s side of existing clubs will surely be a feature of 2025, for both Kynisca and another investment group, Mercury/13. L - LVMH - After its Olympic sponsorship ‘takeover’, F1 and ownership of Paris FC (with Red Bull) is next for the luxury giant, one of several high-end brands tapping into high-end sport (see Chanel doing the Boat Race).
Not a category for everyone, but expect lavish activation. M - Johnson (Michael): The sprint legend’s Grand Slam Track debuts, promising to profile and pay athletes. Alexis Ohanian’s Athlos is another track disrupter.
Friends or new foes for World Athletics, which takes its World Champs to Tokyo? And what of the future of field events? N - Netflix: Everyone’s watching - and sport’s trying to decode its live events plan, as it follows up Tyson/Paul and live NFL with global WWE and (in 2027 and 2031) the Women’s World Cup in the US. Might UFC be its next substantial rights play? O - Online fragmentation: Life comes at you fast via WiFi. This may even be the last year as we know it for TikTok (unlikely).
As social audiences splinter and upstart platforms emerge, keeping count and making sense of fanbases will require more agility and creativity than ever. P - Presidency: Thomas Bach’s successor at the IOC will be elected in March. Seb Coe? Juan Antonio Samaranch (again)? Kirsty Coventry? Whichever of the 7 contenders gets the vote, a to-do list of Olympic proportions awaits - from gender to AI, geopolitics to engaging Gen Alpha.
Q - QVC (and other companies to have on your radar): Brands doing interesting things in sport (or perhaps about to) include the likes of Riyadh Air, Genesis, Nemiroff, Celsius, Drip, Chevy and Vuola. Get to know their marketing and sponsorship teams without delay. R - Rugby union: Ready and waiting (desperate?) to be disrupted, the men’s game is peppered with talk of a global breakaway league.
Easier said than done. The women’s game, meanwhile, heads for a World Cup in England which should, delivered well, be another breakthrough moment. S - SURJ: The sports arm of Saudi’s Public Investment Fund is never far from conversation and the sports industry has CEO Danny Townsend on speed dial.
For all the talk, there’s been deliberate, considered approach to investments - the fruits of that labour may be seen this year. T - TGL: Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new indoor golf league launches in January, after a year’s delay. They’re not alone.
Snowboarder Shaun White’s Snow League and 3x3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled are well-backed start-up products entering an already-cluttered market. U - Urn: In a year when the sell-off of Hundred teams may dominate English cricket, the Test format takes centre stage again in November as England tour Australia - a long-form rivalry for the ages, even in a short-format world (as cricket looks towards the 2028 Olympics). V - Venu: Litigation may hold up the planned launch of Disney, Fox and Warner Bros.
Discovery’s joint venture slim sports streaming bundle. But even the concept highlights the way established broadcasters (in the US and far beyond) are scrabbling to reinvent for a streaming age. W - White House: Donald Trump is back (spoiler alert) and in a period of global turmoil, sport will at some level feel his impact - indirectly, in the geopolitical shake-up, and maybe more directly as the darling of the UFC and as a golfer with an eye on ending the LIV-PGA saga.
X - Xero (and other women’s football-only sponsors): New brand entrants and new categories will bed in as Switzerland hosts the Euros in the summer. Also look out for FIFA confirming the host of the 2031 Women’s World Cup (a Netflix-inspired US/Mexico bid may be worth watching). Y - YouTube: After a breakout year according to those who hadn’t noticed its creeping dominance of mobile and TV screens, get your YouTube strategy right (podcasts, watchalongs, BTS, live where needed, tasty snackable clips) and you’ll soon bump into an audience.
Skip ad. Z - Zeitgeist: It’s a transient, fast-forward age, where striking the right tone can be deceptively tricky, especially for fickle fans, but capture it however you can - with the help of music, memes, influencers, fashion, whatever - and your team or league of choice will be doing something right in 2025..
