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Conor here: A pertinent example of the intersection between politics and finance is last week’s Senate approval of the Protect College Sports Act. Marc Edelman, a law professor at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business, shared insights on the implications of this legislation:
“It permits national agreements on price fixing and wage fixing of athletes’ salaries. This is likely to lead to a greater share of revenue from college sports flowing to coaches, athletic directors, and administrators, rather than to the athletes themselves.”
A piece in the New York Times from March discussed the “best-case scenarios” for private equity’s fusion with college athletics, but failed to mention wage and price fixing.
By Alex Volonte, a graduate research and teaching assistant in journalism studies at the University of Florida. Originally published at The Conversation.
About a year ago, the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” premiered an episode that began to investigate claims regarding the Los Angeles Clippers’ attempts to bypass NBA salary cap regulations. Since then, the podcast team has received a Pulitzer Prize, a National Magazine Award, and an Edward R. Murrow Award for its thorough investigative work surrounding this topic.
On September 2, 2026, the NBA published the conclusions of its investigation into these claims. They determined that the Clippers assisted star forward Kawhi Leonard in obtaining endorsement agreements with four companies tied to the team—while also offering those companies business in exchange—in violation of salary cap regulations.
This resulted in one of the most significant penalties in American sports history: a $30 million fine and the loss of five future first-round draft picks, along with a one-year suspension for team owner Steve Ballmer.
However, while “Pablo Torre Finds Out” was uncovering the Clippers’ maneuvers to avoid the salary cap, established sports media largely turned a blind eye to their investigation—and sometimes even dismissed the podcast’s findings altogether.
This scenario illustrates the rising significance of independent journalism. It also raises questions about the capacity of traditional sports media to adapt to the evolving landscape. As someone researching the increasing entanglement of sports with political and economic power, I can’t help but contemplate whether sports media is adequately equipped for this task.
The ‘Toy Department’ Gets Serious
In the golden age of newspapers, sports sections played a vital role in attracting subscribers, yet they were often labeled the “toy department” due to their perceived lack of seriousness.
Traditionally, the sports page has focused on game reports, injury updates, trade rumors, and opinion pieces. Sports radio excelled in play-by-play commentary, while magazines delved into athlete profiles and in-depth stories about significant playoff moments. Television showcased live game broadcasts and postgame highlights, and books provided detailed insights into coaches and athlete biographies, as well as narratives of unforgettable seasons.
Over time, these varied formats coexisted, creating a balanced media landscape. Occasionally, they produced noteworthy investigative pieces, such as the point-shaving scandal involving Boston College basketball in the 1980s and investigations into performance-enhancing drugs in MLB during the late 1990s.
However, because of the deepening relationship between sports and political finance, holding powerful entities accountable demands investigations that often extend beyond standard sports coverage. For instance, The Athletic’s Adam Crafton undertook extensive research through host-city contracts and public records to reveal how FIFA has transferred World Cup expenses onto U.S. taxpayers.
Still, Crafton’s work represents an exception; much of the oversight regarding the sports industry falls to non-sports-centric outlets equipped with investigative reporting capabilities.
For instance, ProPublica uncovered the tax evasion tactics of wealthy sports team owners in 2021, while Wired exposed that Madison Square Garden, home to the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, secretly deployed facial recognition technology to monitor individuals entering its venues.
The Digital Deluge
The evolving media landscape of the digital era has opened possibilities for podcasters like Torre, yet it has also blurred the lines between rigorous journalism and public relations.
Fans can now access sports news through various platforms and personalities, including social media influencers, podcasters, and YouTube channels.
Simultaneously, the distinction between sports leagues and the media entities covering them has grown hazy. In January 2026, ESPN acquired the NFL’s official TV channel. Today, nearly all major teams boast in-house media teams that compete with traditional outlets by generating their own stories and managing their social media platforms. Notably, John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, also controls the New England Sports Network and the Boston Globe.
Athlete-owned media channels, such as PlayersTV, provide intriguing insights into athletes’ lives and viewpoints, though they inherently have incentives to promote themselves.
Vehicles for Investment
The fragmentation of conventional sports media has paralleled the increasing financialization of sports.
The term “financialization of sports” refers to the growing tendency to view sports teams, leagues, and athletes as financial assets and investment opportunities rather than solely cultural or athletic establishments.
American professional sports leagues function as tightly controlled, closed markets, making decisions about team membership and ownership stakes. Private equity just recently received the green light to invest in professional sports leagues, but their involvement is limited to a maximum of 30% in non-controlling ownership across the five major North American leagues.
This limitation has not rendered sports investment any less appealing, as teams frequently outperform the stock market by substantial margins.
Consider the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers: in August 2026, Mark Walter sold the team for $12.5 billion, setting a record for professional sports sales. This occurred less than a year after he acquired majority interest for around $10 billion, indicating a 25% increase in valuation within a mere nine months.
Looking back even further, Jerry Jones bought the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys for $150 million in 1989; by September 2026, the franchise was valued at $17 billion—an inflation-adjusted return of roughly 4,155%.
Due to such figures, institutional investors like RedBird Capital Partners and Arctos Partners have recently entered the sports investment sphere. On August 11, 2026, MLB’s New York Yankees announced a $2.6 billion financing deal with Apollo Global Management, which includes a future 16% team stake and assigns a valuation of over $12 billion to the Yankees.
Parking Money in What’s Popular
It’s evident why investors are attracted to professional sports.
Live sports are among the few segments of American culture that maintain a high level of mass appeal, cutting across political, racial, and economic lines. Almost all annual top-rated broadcasts and most-watched shows are sporting events.
In addition to financial gains, affluent investors perceive esteemed teams and leagues as vehicles for enhancing their public image through “sportswashing”—leveraging the broad appeal of sports to bolster their reputations.
Nevertheless, the influx of capital has also opened doors for potential financial misdeeds. The Miami-backed investment firm 777 Partners amassed an international soccer club portfolio through a considerable expansion plan funded by broader investment strategies. Yet the firm collapsed in 2025 as a result of accusations from prosecutors of hiding substantial financial issues from creditors and investors, further complicated by the CFO’s guilty plea.
Moreover, the growth of sports betting, fantasy leagues, and prediction markets continues to transform sports into mechanisms for financial speculation, while taxpayers still fund substantial stadium developments despite limited economic benefits and weak public support.
Reforming the Approach
The unexpected success of a reporter like Pablo Torre highlights a crucial lesson for sports journalism.
In an upcoming article for the International Journal of Sport Communication, sports media scholar Roxane Coche and I advocate for sports journalists to take on a more investigative stance in their reporting.
We propose that a foundational understanding of economics would equip sports journalists to analyze financial schemes, review U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents, or grasp the complexities of cryptocurrencies. Additionally, integrating fundamental watchdog journalism techniques—such as analyzing public records, document mining, and fact-checking—into their daily practices could enhance their work.
Sports have never merely revolved around wins and losses; increasingly, we must recognize the intertwined dynamics between politics, finance, fan engagement, and athlete influence that are reshaping the sports industry.
In the past year alone, Josh Kushner—whose brother is the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump—acquired a stake in the Los Angeles Lakers. NBA and MLB players have faced gambling investigations, and FIFA is exploring selling a share of its commercial rights to private investors.
All these developments merit a closer look.
