Who will define the sports business agenda in 2026?

Hello and welcome to the sports podcast. New year, new me, no thanks, there's a reason it's called a comfort zone. So while I revert to type and display the usual lack of ambition for good news is it's going to be a much more interesting 12 months in the world of sports business. We're kicking off the year by looking at the 10 people we think will be shaping the agenda in 2026, including a media mogul, a former theme park executive and a peace prize winning president. We'll also be putting our collective neck on the line with some bold sports business predictions for 2026. The panel reveal their new year's resolutions that 100% be sticking to, not backed by popular demand as the quiz nobody asked for, and that's the sports pro podcast, the show breaking down the story, shaping sports. Here with me again, and ready to hashtag lock in for 2026 is sports pro editor Steve McCaskill, fellow Steve. Fresh true is latest hit of Alpine air, it's sports pro reported Josh Symbols or Josh. Hello Ed. And my fellow bear of back pain, it's sports pro's head of editorial sound card, hello Sam. We've been casted onto this sofa as a result just to kind of separate the ones with the bad backs when the ones you don't have. It's extra comfy this one, I'm enjoying it. We've got a lot to cover in this episode, so let's crack on shall we? Our 10 influences of 2026 list has been released. It features our picks of the figures we think will define the sports industry year ahead. Question one, can you name them all? No, I'm joking, don't worry, I know some of you say we're going to struggle with that off the top of your head. I should be able to do it, I just published it, but yeah, let's not put that to the test. No, let's start the year off mostly. Yeah, we should all know them right Josh. Yeah, no, for sure. In no particular order, I will name it because we do all know them obviously, but for everybody. For those that don't, not naming names, it is we have in over ticker order mark, a layer of the chair of global sport group, Valorite Camilo, chair of the Winnie's tennis association, Nefiza Collier, basketball player for the Minnesota links, Chief Executive of the zone, Shea Segev, Scott O'Neal, Chief Executive of Liv Golf, Chief Commercial Officer of Formula One, Emily Preza, David Addison, Chairman and Chief Executive of Paramount Skydance, Custocometry President of the International Olympic Committee, Eddie Q, Senior Vice President of Services at Apple and Donald Trump, President of the United States of America. I almost want to spin to a one nothing, paying Trump right at the bottom of that list. I was wondering if you comment on that as I say in no particular order. I almost want to spin a wheel to decide who to talk about first, but given we're recording this a few weeks before the Winter Olympic starts, Eddie, we should kick off with Kirstie Coventry. She's the first woman, first African to be elected president of the IOC. This is her first full year in the job, including the person who holds arguably the most powerful position in global sport, perhaps, isn't a massive shock. But Sam, why is this a big gift for the IOC and Coventry, as in Kirstie, not the city in England? It's a big big gift for the city in England, if they get the further championship, but it's been wasted as well. But no, I think you kind of summed it up there. There's going to be quite a lot of attention on Kirstie Coventry in her first full year, given like partially because of the fact that she is the first female president of the IOC, and also because that role does not change hands very often. So, yeah, there'll be quite a lot of attention paid to how she steers that organisation in a post-Thomas back world. There's also the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics happening, as you mentioned, starting February, which kind of is the first games to take place on her stewardship, but a lot of the planning for that was taking place. Before she was elected, the kind of delivery of that now is very much down to the organiser committee. So, you can't really judge her too much on that, but I think we're really going to see some interesting developments this year, is what's her stance on Russia and Belarusian athletes returning to the Olympics, what's her stance on things like Israel, what's her stance on gender eligibility rules? We've got something coming on that in early 2026, supposedly, and also will the host city selection process be a little bit more transparent underconventry than it was maybe underback, which was one of the complaints if you remember. 2032 was awarded fair, discreetly, conversations taking place behind closed doors, commentary hit pause on that process in June last year, kind of to bring IOC members into the next little bit more, which is one of the things that they've been asking for. So, I think, basically, yeah, what we're going to see over the next 12 months is essentially what an IOC underconventry looks like, essentially, and whether she truly is the sort of continuity candidate that people anticipate she would be or whether she's going to put her own stamp on it. Yeah, I think the host selection for 2036 is going to be, it's going off a real indicator of where the IOC is going, and where the Olympic movement is going, we've had a couple of selections now, which again, we're done, I guess, via negotiation rather than through a note of the open process, partly through necessity. There are a few cities bidding for the games due to the scale of it, but you're seeing a bit more interest now, and there's some very ambitious nations wanting to get the rights to host 2036, so it'll be really interesting to see how that is done, and where the games do end up, because there's the Saudi Arabia, India, very keen. I think that's going to be a real, I guess, a bell weather of what's going to happen and what under her stewardship. It is a sizable intro. It's fair to say, Josh, what about you? I'm actually, for people watching, I'm really moring your posture, actually. It's actually, I mean Sam's house. Yeah, I know you say, me, Sam has a slouch on the circle, and then you are looking alert, giving Joe heart a run for his money. I feel like I'm about to deliver some good old bad news, but no, I am, I think. Yeah, support is pretty dull in the pocket. Yeah, I know. It's a caveat. Not the last. It's the first guest appearance. I mean, Sam and Steve have sort of laid out the priorities and all the things that she's going to tackle, and on top of that, we saw significant change with regards to the Olympic partner programme as well, some long-standing partners left, and some new ones enter as well, so whether we see more change to that, or it may seem probably not, because given that a lot of those deals are so tied to games, maybe not, but yeah, I'm sure there will be a lot of brands in the companies that are looking at what the IOC does and whether or not they want to again commit to sort of doing deals or continue extend deals and such. So, yeah, I don't know. I mean, we've really seen her make a decision in terms of discontinuing or not even proceeding with the Olympic esports games, so that's maybe an indicator of how wanting to prioritise the existing things that the IOC are running as opposed to sort of launching new events. So, yeah, there's a lot we're going to learn about, so is the IOC in her first year of direction. So, yeah, keen to see how she goes. I think Josh's point as well, as you mentioned, the Olympic esports games, something that's quite a big decision already, but I get the impression that she's not going to be continuing the status quo quite in the same way that people anticipate to do. She was obviously referred to as the continuity candidate, but I think kind of in some of her first public appearances, she's been quite firm on certain issues. She was very firm on Trump, quite immediately after getting elected. As I say, there's been sort of like some decision already on the return of Russian athletes, at least at the youth level, and this probably isn't a great way to measure it, but this probably says a lot about the algorithm on my ex account, but she did pop off in a promotional video, promoting the Winter Olympics, and I don't know, there was just a little bit more youthful energy from country than what you got with back, which probably isn't that hard, but it did just kind of like, she's about 30 years ago. She is, but it kind of just spoke, I don't know, you can kind of just see maybe there's a new energy being injected, and I'm not saying that she's suddenly going to start taking a political stand on issues that back was famous for not doing, and she's obviously still sort of like, toe that line of political neutrality, but I think she probably is going to be a little bit more open with the media, and there is going to be that transparency that maybe she did promise, and going to the role. First unnecessary quiz question of the year, and much like dogs making a random appearance of the protest, it probably won't be the last. Coastal commentary was elected president of the ISE after winning a majority on the first ballot with 49 votes, who was second, and how many votes did they get for a bonus point? Second was Sam Ranch? Correct. And guess how many votes? Gosh. I can open that to the floor. How many did commentary get there? 49. 49. 27. Very close. 28. Yeah, so yeah, Sam Ranch was sexy and I almost got that. Always glad I didn't. I feel like you didn't know it. I don't even want to forget it slightly wrong, so I wouldn't like to show you that. Fun time. Yeah. Soko got eight votes, and then a few others got, yeah, the rest got two, four, four, two between them. So yeah, it was a very decisive victory. Much quicker, I remember at the time, and we anticipated, but we were, we were getting the live stream ready. Does that know she won it? Like, what? What? We were locked in for multiple rounds. Yeah, we were. We went for white smoke to emerge, since what much for show was it? Yeah, exactly. I promise I won't be doing questions for every influencer, but the Winter Olympics is one of the biggest events of 2026. Another is the FIFA World Cup, which of course has been co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico. And President Trump has been very keen to put sport front and center of his return to the Oval Office. Steve, why is that? Why is it? I mean, it's a global platform for him to project himself on, so it's, you know, it's in the form of soft power as well, and another way to, again, to, I guess, it projects his vision of the US as well, and if we talk about, you know, we've got the World Cup, you also have the L.A.28 Olympics. And Trump is being, is pretty more so than any other World Leader, I can imagine, part to World Cup. You know, I can't recall the parallel, and, and, you know, I know that Mark Arne and the Mexican President were there for the draw, but it was the, it was the Trump show at a venue that's been recently been renamed in his honor. So, and look, you know, if FIFA often comes into a host nation, makes loads of demands with regards to, to tax, you know, to, in terms of what it wants, it has access. That relationship has been slightly reversed this instance, in terms of Trump saying that he will take games away from cities, which he believes are unsafe, which constantly happen to be those with, remember, Democrat politicians that he has, has issue with, and FIFA has said, yeah, he does have the power to do that, which I cannot imagine another instance, but that would have been a, a possibility, it's in, you know, it's his FIFA show. And even more intriguing, this is the first time that FIFA is taking control of the organization of the tournament. It's not in the hands of an organizing committee, so that's why he's been so, I guess, visible during this, the interest world cup next year, and again, would you have the Olympics in a, in a couple of years' time in another, one estate governed by one of his political adversaries in Gavin Newsome, in California, so that'd be interesting so that plays out. So, yeah, it's about the soft power, it's about the projection of himself and his vision for the U.S., and we mentioned already winner of the FIFA Peace Prize, which at the time of recording I'm seriously starting to question the credibility of. Well, he'd be the first person to be awarded, and the first person to be stripped of the, the FIFA Peace Prize, and, yeah, it's, I think that's the, it's kind of ironic, isn't that the first, the first world cup to have 48 teams, you know, the most inclusive world cup ever is, you know, going to be impacted by probably, like, fairly insular policies that Trump has been impacting, you know, his, his administrations, visa and immigration policies, and there's so many questions around that, there's some, the fans of some nations might have difficulty even getting to the tournament, given the restrictions that are currently in place, I know this isn't directly linked to Trump, but obviously there's a lot of talk about ticket prices at the moment, and how extortionate those have become, and the accessibility of the event, and I think it's just quite interesting that, you know, after, after Russia and Qatar, there were probably quite a lot of hopes that we'd have an unpolitical world cup in 2026, but that certainly doesn't seem to be the case, and I'm sure FIFA and its partners weren't envisioning that these would be the storylines dominating the news as we approach kickoff, especially because this tournament has long been talked about essentially as the moment that football or soccer is truly going to catch on in the US, and I feel like that narrative is maybe starting to, yeah, become a little bit less prominent now that Trump is back in office. And I mean, when the tournament was awarded, and, you know, often till maybe a few years ago, it didn't really look like this was going to be the case, but as Steve said, all of a sudden, it is once again going to be the Trump show, and his presence at this world cup, I think it would be pretty ubiquitous. Yeah, I know we had to talk about 2026, but it's also we're touching on the LA-2028 Olympic Games. Josh, is this, however Trump choose to show up, is his presence at the world cup kind of provide a preview of what the world, and also the IC can expect at the Olympics in two years time, two to the years time? Yeah, I mean, he's not an only that, actually, I just remember that the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup, so we're going to be co-hosted by the US as well. And I know that from just reading reports, it seems like cities aren't sure whether they want to bid for games, and I wonder whether the ongoing political uncertainty plays a part in that as well. But, you know, looking at a year further, the LA-2028 Games, he's already spired with LA City officials when it comes to policing in the city in general. And, you know, I'm sure that he will have a strong voice on how those games are run, whether you know, the likes of Casey Wasserman want him to or not. If you think about, I mean, already we're talking about sort of travel or potential travel restrictions for some countries for 2026, the Olympics, I'm sure you're welcome to do. A lot more countries than that. And whether the IC then going to have to sort of, you know, circumvent or play along and try and work with the White House is going to be interesting to see. But yeah, he's so unpredictable that sort of all these sporting organisations are sort of having to sort of change on the fly effectively, which makes him, yeah, definitely an influence on what given that, you know, everything he does sort of seems to have a massive impact. I think only Donald Trump, unpredictable as saying, "Water's wet, isn't it?" But I do definitely take your point. We've got one athlete on the list this year, and it's, as I mentioned, it's WNBA Sturnefisa. Collier, sticking with you, Josh, as I know, you've covered the WNBA and indeed unrivaled Bospole League in detail. She's a lot more than a basketball star, isn't she? And that's why she's included in our list. Yeah, I mean, she's obviously a very well-conversed player on the court, but just away from the court, seeing the VP of the players union, so had had tremendous say in the ongoing, as a time recording ongoing, CBA negotiations, you know, she boldly, some might say, called out the commissioner in October, cited sort of a breakdown in their personal relations and sort of trust. And she, in C-N, has seemingly got a lot of support from the league as well because a lot of players seem to back up her comments. So we talk about, we've talked, I mean, we've written extensively how the growth of women's basketball and sort of that trajectory that it promises to sort of hit, well, whether those players are going to feel all of those benefits and gain all of those benefits from the increased revenue, that's what they're fighting for and that's what Collier's certainly putting her voice on the line for. Given her position as well as sort of the founder of Unrivaled, you mentioned that's just started this month, it's, and the way that they've chosen to run our league giving players equity and like a massive increase in pay compared to the average salary in the WNBA, it seems that she's determined to sort of leave a very lasting impact for women's basketball players and yeah, I don't, I can't think of too many athletes who have that sort of voice and say in terms of how they're the financial conditions and sort of the playing conditions that their future can and I was going to feel. She's reshaping the future of women's basketball from the inside, and that's kind of the world we live in now, in sports anyway, where athletes taking much more hands on roll, whether it's commercial deals or in this case, you know, you know, governance, how big a presence is she going to have then in the next 12 months in terms of particularly with the CBA as well, the WNBA? Oh, massive, I think it's, I mean, I think everyone wants women's basketball and through me to be successful, I mean, it would be, in my view, catastrophic, if there is a labour stock pitch at this point in the leagues, I guess the leagues journey, you know, the cutting about for her part, you know, once, you know, once sustainable growth, it's been a journey of, I guess it's been a slow build as a big catalyst in recent years and the, you know, the range is increasing, the probability it isn't, but if you look at, I'm calling on the players points, if you know, that they yes, they're building things for the future, but I think some ambassadors, it's a short career, you know, they will feel they deserve to benefit here right now, if the league is benefiting from their star power, their abilities on the court, then why shouldn't they benefit? Why should just be future generations, and I think that's the crux of it, so it is very interesting when you compare the U.S. to other leagues and that, you know, you have the draft system, which some might argue keeps, keeps wages down, reduces the rights of the athletes, but you have really strong players unions in the men's and women's professional leagues. And that provides a lot of power to the players who have positions of authority in the association. So huge, huge responsibility, huge amount of influence, it's going to pay, you know, it's not over the top, say, up in Massero in the future of WRA and how it does continue that steady growth. It's in droid of a 30, 30 plus years, and when worries going next, because there's a real real opportunity to join that top tier of leagues, perhaps more so than any other of the challenge properties in the U.S. And she called, was she labelled the WRA's leadership as the worst in the world? I think what she did over the past sort of like two months and what she would kind of continue to do over the next 12 months, because I think also like a lot of our listeners, especially though based in Europe might not be that aware of Nafisa Collar and what's going on in the WNBA. And I think actually what she's doing is kind of like redefining the power dynamics a little bit between league administrators and athletes themselves. She's kind of shown in partnership with obviously Brianna Stewart in launching on Rivald that there is kind of another way. And I think in women's sports, especially that is kind of like leveraged at the athletes have. And when she called out Kathy Engelbert and used the term that you just used there, that was because she knew that she had leveraged, she knew that she's kind of tried to put a piece as well. She'd built up that trust with on Rivald's, yeah, with her kind of like just her status within the game as well as one of the sort of like biggest, biggest stars in the WNBA. So I think just kind of that's also where her influence is going to be felt. I think it's kind of, it's not just about what happens with this CBA, which will be kind of one of the biggest deals of this year. But I think it's also going to kind of have a big impact on the future of female athlete compensation in terms of how that, what the outcome of that is because, yeah, as I say, on Rivald is kind of showing that there is another way and it is a way of kind of applying pressure to the kind of existing basically hold the power at the moment and just assign they do need to kind of listen to their athletes and change their else, they're kind of going elsewhere and they may even start something for themselves. Well, exactly and I think her stance is kind of reflective of the expectations for women's basketball now, high standards, better pay, better conditions and an audience appetite as well. We've got three media figures on the list, but Steve, I know you were particularly keen to talk about David Ellison, not the best end of the year for him with the Netflix deal and we'll get to that obviously, but is it fair to say he's going to play quite a large role in deciding what the future of media is going to look like? In the next 12 months, will he be on that? 100% I think irrelevant of what does happen with WBD. We're talking about Trump before, he is an ally of Trump. I think if you look what's happened, if you look at the, well, US broadcasting and the global broadcasting general is about to, on the go, a period of consolidation. There's going to be lots of people to get deals over the line and if there's one thing that the Trump administration has shown, it's that it sees these as almost transactional. So it's like, what can you do for me to get this over, you know, for me to give this approval? And so if you look at that, you know, look what's happened, the CBS news in terms of the editorial output there, you know, that's a consequence of that, that to play. Now, how that relates to sport is, if you've got someone shaping the future of US media, it's going to impact how sports visions operate, how media organizations apply to sport with regards to the, the BD deal. I don't think it is over yet. I think a lot of hurdles to overcome the, sure that the net six deal has been approved by the BD's board, but, you know, this, the way public markets operate means they just don't make a hostile, hostile bid. I don't, I think that's going to rumble well into 2027 to be quite, to be quite honest. In the next 12 months, you're going to see lots of machinations behind the scenes in terms of where the US broadcast market is going, it's the biggest media market, the world biggest sports market in the world. And it's what happens there is going to influence other parts of the world too. So even if that Netflix deal doesn't quite, it's very Netflix, so the BD deal doesn't go online. It's going to have a massive impact and, you know, he's one of the biggest, I guess, deal makers, game changers in the US today. I think also, like, if you, if you really, you know, as you said, like, there's a long way to go on this on what happens with WBD and that will be, yeah, there's a story that defines 2026. But if, if Paramount were to kind of pull it off eventually, as you say, that combines sports portfolios, which include, like, the NFL, the masters, you know, college football playoffs, MLB, NHL, that's a kind of, that's a portfolio that is rivaling ESPN at that point. And you, I don't know, obviously, hypothesized quite a lot in terms of what the executive structure would look like on the back of that. But if they were to pull it off, Ellison becomes one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful person in the US sports media, to be honest, on the back of that. So I think it's pretty fair to, fair to say that, yeah, he 100% is going to be one of the big influencers for this year, and then you've also got, obviously, the rights and acquisitions that they've just made with USC, Champions League as well. And then, you know, a, a smaller kind of maybe footnote in this conversation, but an important one for our industry is the potential impacts that Paramount might now start to have in the European media rights market. I don't think many people saw them coming for the Champions League rights at the end of last year, but obviously they have big intentions of growing the subscriber base for Paramount Plus. Say, be interested and see what kind of moves they make over it over on this side of the world. Yeah. And as Josh, I know, big, they're, they're like sizeable room, interesting, Australia as well. And so even regardless of that deal, I mean, if that deal does come off that, again, there's another game change. I mean, you can sort of, you're a sport coach, you get started to mix TNT sports in the UK and Latin America. So independently of that deal, and because of that deal, there are a few people that can have such a big impact on sports media in the next 12 months. Quick question before we take a break from part one, David Ellison has been a producer or executive producer on how many mission impossible films for any advances on fall. How many mission impossible films has it been? Eight. Because I think there's eight in total. Okay. I would say six. No points. Five. Go to protocol, rogue nation, fallout, dead reckoning, part one and the fun reckoning. There you go. Well, they're the good ones or, I mean, there's if I've seen them all, I did, I did, I did watch the last one on a plane, actually, it was all right. I mean, mission impossible to has doesn't just get themed tunes, so no further questions you're on it. That'll do for part one. If you want to read profiles on all of our 2026 influences, headspotspro.com, we'll be back just after this. We're now chained into the sports pro podcast. Blog to part two of the sports pro podcast. We've rattled through our influences for 2026. Now it's time to hear each of our water type predictions for the year. Sam, I'll come to you first as yours and the world, Scott O'Neill, one of our influences. And it's the PJ tour and live goalful move on from their merger. Yeah. Yeah. Why that? Um, yeah, sorry, Scott, um, but. Welcome on the podcast. Yeah. I think it's just built off basically what we've seen over the past 12 months, to be honest. We haven't really heard much about this merger since the first half of last year. Even Trump, who said that it would be one of the things that he could get done very quickly hasn't been able to find a solution. And then, as you say, what we've seen in the past 12 months has got O'Neill come in as the chief executive at live, um, who, he obviously joins with a very strong reputation from his time at Harris, but Harris, but it's a sportsman's team and in the kind of culture that he implemented there, um, but and there's also kind of, I'd say, a more sort of like amicable face and figurehead for the tour than Greg Norman, perhaps was, um, when he was in charge. But we've also seen the PJ tour hire a new chief executive. We've seen live golf, uh, do a raft of commercial activity, um, you know, it deals with Salesforce, HSBC, at the same time, we've had the DP World Tour making big commercial moves, renewing that size of sponsorship deal, um, AWS, uh, coming in on a fairly sizable partnership as well. And then at the same time, you've got the PGA tour undergoing a sort of like major competition review being led by Tiger Woods, you've got Brian Rolap talking about scarcity. Um, so in amongst all that, I just don't really feel like those are the actions of three organizations expecting to, uh, become one anytime soon. Um, and I think especially when you look at live now, uh, you just had Brooks Keppker become the first kind of major profile exit. There's quite a few contracts coming up for renewal, um, there were rumors or reports at the end of last year about, um, cash flows at the public investment funds. There was significance, something that was lost I'd hear, yeah, yeah, significant losses again for live last year. So, and all of a sudden, so they're maybe looking a little bit weaker. So I just don't, as I say, I can't really see that merger happening in the way that it was kind of first promised in 2023. And Rory McElroy is another one to sort of question the long term, uh, yeah, he's obviously is fairly, fairly close to it as, um, he's always been fairly outspoken on the issue. And he's sort of been saying as, yeah, at the start of this year that he's not entirely sure how much longer live can continue without making a return. Um, I'm sure it's got an ill now, but that better than us. But, um, yeah, that's kind of what's led to my prediction essentially. Steve or Josh, do either, either, or both of you want to play devil's advocate and say, Sam's barking up the wrong tree or what, what are your thoughts on his prediction? Penny for John Ram's thoughts. Uh, he briefed what it was going through. Many millions of the enemies, I mean, yeah, um, no, I just wonder if I'll have a point that Sam made that I think really does need a bit of a double down. And that is Brian Rillap that he was, I think most people consider he would have been a replacement for Roger Gidell at the NFL if we would have Roger Gidell stood down tomorrow. And so that's, you know, unless he's been told that's not happening anytime soon, which probably isn't. And you don't join an organization, the pdator, if you don't think that, you know, it's going to be, you don't have job security, if it's going to be, I'm not saying that, you know, who'd be ousted and you're in into a merger, but it's a huge appointment for the pdator. And I think that's a huge vindication of it's another indication of who the indicator of where it thinks things are going. And yeah, new TV deals in the pen of each other, new sponsorship deals in pen of each other is seeing live golf become more like a traditional golf organization by going to 72 whole tournaments. Yeah, I don't think it's as clear card as it was as shocking as it was when it was first announced. I don't think it would be a shock if it's just going to continue. Yeah, I think the sort of third. No, I was going to, I mean, the only thing I want to add is I wonder if those running their respective tours have as much interest in emerging anymore because the pj tour now has that investment from the strategic sports route, I think they're calling it, but like Fenway and Arthur Blank, that sort of consortium of US sports team billionaires. So it's not as if the pj tour now are reliant on needing more investment, given they've just received some. And you mentioned sort of the p, uh, those reports that the study pif may no longer look at making big outlays or in the short term. Um, and given they've, you know, other projects like the, you know, smart city and I think that was a coffee chain that says to run into some difficulties. Um, you wonder whether, because I think part of the was the pif were invested in the commercial entity and you wonder whether they have as much interest now in doing so. So it almost feels as no now, like a merger, if it was to happen, it would be obviously for the players for the, you know, broadcasters and sponsors would, would welcome it, but I don't know. I wonder what if, if those running those respective tours still see the business case for it, there's still as invested in it from a financial sense as well as an emotional sense, because yeah, like you said, it seems like both tours I'm very happy now to sort of continue doing their own thing. So that I wonder if those running it have any interest in merging it. I feel like there's a chance to a prediction within a prediction, almost like saying that the WBD deal will be done before the future of the major golf tours will be decided. It just feels like it's even messier to sort out now and, you know, really strong executives on both sides of the table know how on earth would that resolve itself if a merger were to happen. Like the only thing I would say is like that competition review that the PGA tours currently undergoing, like Rolap keeps using the word scarcity. So I'm going to make an educated guess that the PGA tour calendar is going to shrink and does that then open up space for, you know, live tournament somehow to be integrated in some way, shape or form. I don't know, maybe that's why they're sort of making this move to 72 holes and whatever. I don't know if that sort of an avenue towards that, but yeah, it just still seems way too messy to kind of be resolved, especially over the next 12 months. Steve, your prediction is a bit broader and it's sport will find even more unconventional ways to bring content to market what unconventional ways sprung to my view. Carrier Pigeon, Annalal Radio, Graviving, Bibo, what were they? Steve on the Cascala's Linton profile. I'm acquiring rights personal. That's actually unconventional at that time. Yeah, my commentary on everything. I think, you know, there's been lots of talk about the future media rights and how the old models are. I mean, some of us are saying they're not dying. I think Pay TV or Free Toyota TV is still going to be hugely important for the years to come, especially across the different channels. I mean, the BBC is not going anywhere, Sky Sports isn't going anywhere, ESPN is not going anywhere. But what we are seeing is for properties that aren't that top-top tier, it's making less sense to be stuck on, with all respect to this channel to Quest or something like that. I don't see how it's going to find an audience. So you need to go away with audiences and, you know, we're looking at dealers like the Bundesliga in UK with the overlap with Mark Goldbridge and YouTube channel. That's just a new way to find an audience. There was lots of, I guess, I think pieces like, oh, this stream was beaten, Sky, to the Bundesliga. That's not it. If Sky wants those right, it would have bought them. And the Bundesliga would comment that, but they're looking to find, you know, in your ways to find an audience. You're seeing live games being streamed through EAFC, because that's where an audience is. You're seeing CASA TV, you acquire rights from Brazil, you're seeing Zachnani and France acquire rights for pretty, you know, not, not, when CASA TV is working with people on the World Cup, that is top tier. Zachnani is working on, you know, for a French or a 21-football, more than one of the other things. These aren't insignificant rights. Yes, they're not top-top, but they're going, they're trying something else to find an audience, trying to find, I guess, you know, two different things with the concept, because there is so much out there, the audience is so splinted and they want things where they are. And that's an opportunity for someone. So I think we're going to see this year more than previous years, just more experimentation. We're seeing, you know, this is not the end of the traditional might-meter-wise model. Let's get that clear. But it's definitely, we must be seeing some of the things that people who have predicted five, ten years ago start to happen. And I'm re-entered to find out what will happen. I mean, I don't know, let's say, exclusive rights on Strava or something like that. You know, that's the sort of thing I'm thinking of, you know, to find an audience either find engaged or a new one. And I'm interested where the industry goes. Is it about sort of embracing the chaos and the, I mean, unorthodox nature of the, of the broadcast business of broadcasting in the moment, perhaps? I mean, I imagine if you're a lower tier sports property, this is not a huge opportunity actually to support audiences if you don't have to lean into the traditional model too much. So that's a question for the room. There's an element of like being ready to seed some control as well. And especially over kind of like, I think editorial control is like, that's one of the things that I found really interesting about like the Bender's League is deal with. Mark Goldbridge, for example, like he's very outspoken, anyone who's sitting somewhere. So there's stuff on, yeah. Everyone's seeing clips of his stuff on social media. And it's kind of like, you know, what's what's the boundary with that kind of thing, you know, to what extent can they kind of criticize what they're watching while they're watching the long and that kind of stuff. But, um, together is an element of like embracing the chaos. I think like the interesting thing is just going to be what the next evolution of this is, I guess, you know, the, obviously last year it was kind of broadcasts on influencer own channels. I wonder if like this year we might start to see, um, we've seen it already a little bit. But like if we start to see some rights holders, broadcasts, some of their live content through like athlete and the channels, for example, like if you've got, for example, especially in sports where you maybe have an athlete whose profile is really sort of seems to be bigger than the profile of the sport itself at this stage of its sort of commercial development. Then maybe that would be an opportunity. So I know, for example, could you have like some rugby sevens games broadcast on a loan on a loan of theirs, um, TikTok or like something like that? Um, I feel like that would be kind of, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw something like that happening this year as the kind of next evolution of it. But, um, yeah, I think that's maybe probably the way that we're going. Yeah, I think athletes are becoming their own media platforms. We want our own data platforms that absolutely makes sense. I think another trend we could see is not quite royalty free, um, rights, but, you know, you make the, you make all your assets available to content creators as streamers to athletes and just see what happens. Obviously, there should be some safeguards in there. But I think I have something fever-tried a couple of years ago by partnering with us, you know, as part of a creator program. Um, just, you know, if creators or athletes have this following, it makes sense to use them. Yes, you might lose a bit of direct control. You might lose a bit of direct monetization, but in terms of reach, you have to monetize and engage fans through other means. That's hugely valuable. mentioned, uh, athlete profiles and broadcasting and that sort of teases up quite nicely for your prediction. Josh, you put the next women's sports star will come from volleyball. It was obviously a very, uh, busy year for volleyball in 2025. Um, why volleyball specifically has the sports, what is it laser? That's true. I should declare I'm an amateur volleyball player. Um, that's my bias to cover it. Um, I guess and, uh, this is centered around the US. I know volleyball's pretty popular in Europe, um, like in Italy and in, um, in various countries. And obviously they, I think the world championship is a recently in China as well. So, um, has a footprint in Asia as well. But 26 in the US, um, you have league on volleyball, still short in this love. Um, I may just say, love just to confuse everyone. Uh, for this neck confused as last year. It is. It is. I believe in love. I don't know how you will. Um, that's then underway in the second season, um, with significant momentum. Uh, after, and we, you know, I remember last year we talked about some leagues that were debuting in 2025 and under the radar, uh, love had a pretty solid debut season. Um, and if welcomed, it brought a marriage. Um, well, hopefully it's a long lasting one. Are you used? That's, uh, but they welcomed Kim Kardashian's, Kim's brand as a commercial partner, um, uh, chase the financial company. Um, they've also signed up, uh, Versante, the USA Network and they've now made a sort of game of the week, uh, program for Wednesday to sort of show with marquee matches. Uh, they've welcomed, uh, investments from the San Antonio Spurs, ownership group, the Houston Texans, ownership group. Um, and they've got players to expand further, like Alex C's, uh, Hanyans, uh, come on, what the LA team, um, and so, uh, San Francisco team is welcoming. So, um, yeah, it, we talked, we've referenced sort of the scale of the US sports, uh, machine, um, and I think we increased exposure, uh, increased both on broadcast and commercial, um, and yeah, we increased investment and, uh, just, you know, ambition to sort of expand further, I think love has a good chance of doing so, um, equally there is also the pro volleyball federation, uh, and existing league that's now merged with major league volleyball. There was a chance we're going to have four US volleyball leagues in 2026, um, that's now become a three because, uh, those two have merged, um, but again, um, you know, they, they have, uh, broadcasted with CBS, so they already get exposure on the main, on the main network, um, and, yeah, and I've seen this of social following, this sort of climb, uh, considerably. So I think with all those sort of places, all those sort of pieces sort of filled, I think someone a US volleyball, uh, women's player probably, um, is especially, is a good chance of becoming a major star, especially given that I think ESPN nurses have said that their college volleyball season was the most watched, the 25, 25 seasons, the most watched, uh, on their platforms. Um, so similar to in that, the way Caitlin Clark sort of came up and, uh, college basketball then sort of became a, you know, national phenomenon. Um, I think that's a good chance of someone from, uh, the volleyball world sort of follows suit. For the non- volleyball players in the room, do we think Josh is on to something, or do we think a household name is going to come from, uh, sports that are sort of further along, particularly on the winning side, like your footballs and your, your basketballs. I think like, uh, I, I see there's some, there's some similar dynamics basically in, or there's some dynamics and volleyball, which I think could, uh, help Josh's prediction come to fruition. Um, if you think about women's basketball and the reason why someone like Caitlin Clark and even now like paid backers have become so popular, um, is partly because of the growth of, uh, uh, N.I.O. and also just the sort of, um, yeah, the popularity of that sport at the college level and women's volleyball is another sport that is really, really popular, um, in college, in colleges in the US. So if you have kind of some athletes who, you know, are leaning into that a lot more, um, building their social media profile, I think now that you then have that kind of professional, um, landscape developing in the way that Josh just kind of summarized and with some, like, really significant investors in that, you know, this Lexus Haney and his Josh Sir, David Blitzer, um, is investing one of the teams as well. So like, I'm serious, um, you know, investors who have, traditionally been involved in men's sports and spending big money, um, I think that does kind of, you know, there's a few factors there that could contribute to, to an athlete from volleyball, kind of, yeah, kind of going on that similar sort of trajectory and maybe coming out of, coming out of nowhere a little bit in the way that others have over the past few years and catching us all off gods. Um, I think, because I think also, you know, if you, you talk about football, obviously, they're all going to continue to be stars from football, but I think a lot of those we know about already, whereas I think some of the most interesting ones that have emerged in recent years, um, they're kind of those stories that you don't know much about and kind of them sort of cast poles in that different way. Final prediction, and I would say we say the best to last, but it's mine. Uh, it's the NFL will open the door to bigger, private equity investment. We've seen multiple deals be struck. Uh, I would say the interest for an institution investors within steady. I don't think there's been a deluge of deals. Um, one of the reasons is that for me is the relatively modest stake size on offer, which can put off certain investors who like to be quite a bit more hands on. Uh, Roger Gell has hinted that, uh, they might allow private equity funds to buy more in the future. He suggested it might be years. I think it's going to be sooner than that. Uh, for me, it's not be as decision for a league that wants us to remain ahead of everybody else when it comes to driving value. Um, does anybody think differently? Or no, I think we're going to look to see the NFL try and renegotiate its broad cast deals. Maybe as soon as this year, that's going to, uh, achieve a lot, a lot more value. That's going to increase the value of individual franchises even further, make them more impossible to sell. And I think you're going to see owners want to, uh, release some of that value and benefit from it. So, yeah, I can, this, obviously happen. I think the, the only question is whether they open the process up to more firms. Of course, you have to get that approval process. Uh, yeah, absolutely. I think to stay ahead of the other, other leagues, you know, you look at, if looking at, uh, NBA with its new, its new TV deals, um, baseball is about to go through its, um, the round of negotiations. So, yeah, stay ahead of the curve, benefit from those broadcast deals. Again, the NFL acts and interests of its, of its owners. So, yeah, no brainer really. Yeah, I think also, um, what we're going to see irrespective of whether it's in the NFL is just so much private, private, actually investment in sport this year. You can see they're all tooling up, but, um, we mentioned that Marco Lara was one of our talent influencers for, for this year, he's kind of, he's chairing CBCs, new global sport group, um, CBC, actually, one of the, one of the firms that are permitted to invest in the NFL as part of the consortium. So, maybe that's, um, one route that they'll be looking at, um, that they have kind of like been more interest in leagues. But I think there's now, we're kind of like about to see a bit of a new era, I guess, of like, private equity investment in this sport. You've had that sort of post-COVID cut price deal-making period, whereas now you've got an increased number of firms who are actually recognising the value of it, um, and also not just with teams and teams and leagues, but we're so like sported Jason organizations, like we've seen agencies become like really hot property now, so I think maybe that's another area that we're going to start to see more investment this year. I'm, I'm only clear mentioned COVID there, I think the resilience of sport during COVID has what exactly on the reasons why they're looking to invest in, in sport. It seems, yeah, there's a high, let's say, a high entry point for the most blue chip properties, but pretty, pretty resilient, they can offer good returns, particularly for properties that are at a growth phase that do the cloak, they can increase their broadcast deals, and again demand for sport, especially team sport is relatively inelastic people, you know, I guess there's an affordability point, and that's true, but in terms of fandom, yeah, it's, it's not really going to go away too, too easily. You all agree with me? Excellent. Well, for the love we start the year. Hey, we never disagree on this podcast, and that's maybe that should be on New Year's Resolutions, disagree more. Yeah, it wasn't just the four of us who gave our predictions, several other sports pros, gate theirs as well, say to sportspro.com to read those. Before we go, who has an unrealistic New Year's Resolution they want to share, they will, that they will have to stick to now that they've said it to the world. I just said mine, I'm going to disagree with you all more. Not drink more or exercise, lad. Yeah. So realistic unrealistic. The lines blur with you, Steve, and big. Well, my, my New Year's Resolution is to not simply pay someone to do household tasks. I can do. Bainfully middle class as I'm red full, I think. I can do it. I'm showing I can do it, but when it comes to something, well, you know, someone's going to do it better. The only exception is I'm going to get someone to mount my new TV that I can't tell. Sorry? Oh, sorry, I see install it, yeah. That's mirrors and televisions. No, I'm not doing that, but I, I, uh, I wouldn't store that standard, you know, priorities. So you haven't deleted the task wherever after a suit? No, I'm getting a proper, a proper aerial man to, uh, to do my, uh, my television, but, you know, a sunbreak your other TV. Uh, he did, yes, and part of the reason it has to go high is because to get out of his, his throwing range. But Boat's Renew Bell has come the first British Born NFL quarterback, but less so, uh, for my consumer electronics. He's given up on the dark stream, then. I mean, that's a, that's a good one, but, uh, you know, get that NFL money, you know, you Josh. Mine sounds considerably more lazy than Steve's, I think. Mine was just. Tame someone to mount a TV. I can, really lazy, priorities. I mean, mine was just to read more for pleasure, read more, uh, I mean, I read all sort of content. Yeah, I was going to say read sports was content, obviously, but, uh, uh, but, uh, but I mean, reading more, yeah, more books, because I find when I go home, especially over the winter break, I find I go home and then sort of end up re-reading all the books. I used to read it as a teenager, so I feel like I need to do that a bit more. It's from, yeah. Yeah. Mine's actually two different from Josh's. I just, uh, less time on my phone, doesn't mean on, um, especially, especially an hour before bed thing. That's, uh, that's what, that's something we can all, we can all name for, but, uh, yeah, and substitute that time with reading, probably. So we can track your progress by your screen time on last scene on teams. Yeah, yeah. Judges yours by good reason and mine by my band balance. So, uh, yeah. How about you? Yeah. How about you, Ed? Surely, uh, it's just more exquisives, isn't it? Good. Mine is the same as last year, which shows you how well last year's went and it's stretch more. Not on this podcast list. That's physically not like my sibling, my elasticity when it comes to sort of flexibility work and stuff. Although that would be, you know, you know, maybe quite helpful, but no, you know, get get the lunges in, get the downward, get downward dogs, I think, you know, become more supple, basically. There definitely be a way we can try that, I think. Uh, by mechanics on the podcast and YouTube, we can we follow your posture throughout the year. So I try and do a squat at the start of every episode and we can sort of see how low I can get. I mean, over the period, over the year, you did that before and we said no. That is it. No, I'm not in for nut. No, bad idea. Enough, Steve. Got dano, my, sorry. So, Orlando, Steve, yeah, okay. Steve's finally raising his voice. Well, I'll make sure to keep you all on track with my progress. 34, going on 84, but that'll do for today. We're up and running for the year. It's all plain sailing from now. I promise. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Ed. Thank you, Josh. Thanks Ed. And thank you, Sam. Here's Ed. Thanks for tuning in. Catch you next time. Leave us a nice review if you can. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at editor at sportspromedia.com and make sure to check out our other podcast, Stream Time, New Era, and Mike's Out. The SportsPro podcast is produced by Dano Ling. Our executive producer is Manny Gill. This episode was recorded at SportsPro Towers in London. [Music]