The NBA Board of Governors will reportedly vote next week on exploring the addition of teams in Las Vegas and Seattle; MLS moves its championship game to a Friday; and DAZN is reportedly “finalizing” a deal with Top Rank Boxing. Plus news on Fox Sports, the World Cup of Hockey, ESPN and Joe Siddall.
NBA Board of Governors to reportedly vote next week on exploring expansion
The NBA board of governors will vote next week on whether to explore expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle, according to a report by Shams Charania of ESPN. Citing sources with knowledge of the discussions, Charania said there is “momentum” toward moving forward with soliciting bids. Any eventual expansion fee is projected to run between $7-10 billion, per Charania, and the teams would reportedly join the NBA for the 2028-29 season.
Both the initial vote to explore expansion and any later approval would require the votes of 23 out of the 30 owners. Expansion to both cities would diminish league equity to 1/32 from 1/30 and presumably affect the annual payout from the national media rights deals. The NBA has not added new franchises since 2004 when the Charlotte Bobcats joined the league at a $300 million expansion fee.
Las Vegas has hosted the NBA Cup semifinals and championship game for the last three seasons, hosted the NBA All-Star Weekend in 2007, and has been the home of the NBA Summer League since 2004. Seattle has not held an NBA regular-season game since the Supersonics moved to Oklahoma City after the 2008 season, but several preseason exhibitions have occurred in the last few years. Both cities have had WNBA teams that have won championships, along with modernized arenas that regularly host NHL games and other sporting events.
There have been rumors of expansion for the last several years, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver said over the summer that the league would be “malpracticing” if it did not figure out the future of local television rights beforehand. John Ourand of Puck reported last month that the league had started talks with streaming companies interested in a local rights package, some of whom include Amazon Prime, Apple, DAZN, ESPN and Google/YouTube. The goal, per Ourand’s report, would be to create such a package by next season.
MLS Cup to be played in Friday prime time window next season
The MLS Cup will be played on a Friday night this season instead of taking place in its usual Saturday afternoon slot, it was announced Monday. The championship match has traditionally aired in early December, but will shift later in the month to Friday, Dec. 18 due to the league’s FIFA World Cup pause delaying the second half of the season. While the move would typically mean less college football competition, December 18 is likely to be the first day of the College Football Playoff.
The MLS Cup has never taken place on a weeknight in its 30-year history. It has been played on a Saturday for the last six years, starting towards the tail end of its last media rights deal.
Apple TV is embarking on its first year of offering MLS game broadcasts outside of the double paywall structure it had previously used for “MLS Season Pass.” The “MLS Season Pass” offering was abandoned as part of the league and streamer reworking their rights deal, which is now set to end ahead of schedule in 2029. Coverage will also be carried for a fifth consecutive year on FOX, which is in the final year of its existing rights agreement with the league.
The 2026 season will be the last year in which the MLS schedule runs from February to December. MLS is altering its season to a summer-to-spring format beginning in the 2027-28 campaign. As a result, the MLS Cup will not take place in December after this year, instead occurring in May. It should be noted that MLS will hold a shortened season in 2027 lasting from February to May before beginning the 2027-28 schedule in July. The championship match will thus avoid any competition from the NFL or college football, something that has virtually never been the case since debuting in 1996.
DAZN reportedly “finalizing” deal with Top Rank Boxing
DAZN is reportedly “finalizing a deal” with Top Rank Boxing, according to a report by Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports, bringing the boxing property to the streamer after an eight-year run with ESPN. Glasspiegel noted that Ring Magazine had been first to report the news and subsequently deleted its story.
In that report, the magazine said the DAZN deal was “for substantially less money” than the previous agreement with ESPN, which was for about $85 million annually. The new deal, per Ring, would include eight to 10 fights per year at a rate of $1 million to $1.25 million per event. It remains unknown when this new deal would officially begin, but it would expand a combat sports slate on DAZN that already includes Matchroom Boxing, Riyadh Season and Top Rank.
If the sides finalize a deal, it would culminate a lengthy process for Top Rank after its run with ESPN ended in August. Last October, Top Rank launched the “Top Rank Classics” FAST channel on which it streamed classic events and new bouts. The channel is accessible on Pluto, Roku, Tubi and Vizio and started with a main event between Mikaela Mayer and Mary Spencer in late October.
Glasspiegel cited sources who said that Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery did not have “preliminary interest” in partnering with Top Rank on a rights deal when approached. Top Rank has also reportedly spoken with ProBox TV about potentially having some of their fighters on its platform “from time to time.”
Plus: Fox Sports, World Cup of Hockey, Joe Siddall, ESPN on ABC
- Fox Sports broadcasters Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen will call the Fanatics Flag Football Classic on Saturday, marking the first time the two broadcasters have worked together since the 2023 NFL season. Burkhardt and Olsen previously served as the lead Fox NFL broadcast team and called Super Bowl LVII together; however, the duo separated when Tom Brady started his role at Fox in the 2024 NFL season. Since that time, Olsen has called games with Joe Davis. Brady will compete in the flag football game alongside Fox NFL colleague Rob Gronkowski and other current players and influencers.
- NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Monday the league plans to take broadcast rights for the World Cup of Hockey tournament to market immediately and believes there will be “robust interest.” The NHL revealed that Calgary, Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta and Prague, Czech Republic will host the World Cup of Hockey tournament in February 2028.
- ESPN coverage of the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament will feature reporters at all four ABC game sites for the first time, the network announced Monday. Alyssa Lang (Baton Rouge, La.), Molly McGrath (Columbia, S.C.), Holly Rowe (Storrs, Conn.) and Jess Simms (Ann Arbor, Mich.) will take part in coverage beginning this Friday.
- Former Toronto Blue Jays C Joe Siddall will move into the analyst role formerly held by Buck Martinez on Blue Jays television broadcasts this season, according to a report by Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun. Siddall is reportedly slated to call between 125 and 130 games this season and will work with play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman on Rogers Sportsnet. Siddall filled in for Martinez when he was on medical leave last season and also appeared in studio.