Afternoon Edition

September 11, 2026

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Ticket prices for the Friday afternoon US Open semifinal dropped to as low as $28, from about $300 at the start of the main draw two weeks ago, according to TicketData—91% lower than just three days ago. The match—between Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov—doesn’t have quite the star power of the night session. That match, featuring Americans Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, still has a get-in price of $300.

—Colin Salao

First Up

The Justice Department’s probe of the Clippers salary cap violation “brings this into new territory,” one source tells FOS.
Georgia will wear all-white uniforms for the first time in school history on Saturday after fans met Kirby Smart’s challenge to triple the Glory Glory site’s subscriber count.
LIV Golf’s bankruptcy is moving forward with the league approved to access an initial $14 million of the nearly $50 million loan from the Saudi PIF.
Taylor Fritz complained about the difference between the Wilson US Open balls used during the tournament compared to ones sold publicly.

US Open Ticket Prices Collapse for First Men’s Semifinal

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters/Geoff Burke

You can watch a US Open semifinal match for about the price of the Honey Deuce.

The get-in price for Session 24 of the US Open—the semifinal match at 2 p.m. ET between Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov—dropped as low as $28, down from about $300 at the start of the main draw two weeks ago, according to TicketData. It’s a 91% dip compared to just three days ago.

The price dip is likely due to the lack of star power between the two players, even though Zverev is the tournament’s No. 1 seed.

TicketData listed its final pre-match average as $40 two hours before the match; pairs of tickets were available on resale sites for $33 shortly after.

The night session match between Americans Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton still has a $300 get-in price. It has dipped by 27% over the last three days—ticket prices often drop on the day of the event—but it’s still above the tournament average of $296 at the start of the main draw on Aug. 30.

Tickets for the women’s final match on Saturday have also dropped in the last day. The get-in price was about $361 before Thursday’s semifinals matches to $290 as of Friday morning. The two U.S. hopefuls, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, both lost their semifinals match Thursday.

Still, the drop-off doesn’t compare to the Zverev–Khachanov match. The finals will feature Aryna Sabalenka, who is looking to become just the third woman ever to win three consecutive US Open titles, against Elena Rybakina, who will take Sabalenka’s spot as world No. 1 on Monday, regardless of Saturday’s outcome.

The get-in price for the men’s final is currently $430, down 22% over the last three days. However, it’s unlikely the match will have as drastic of a dip as Friday’s men’s semifinal given one of Tiafoe or Shelton will be in the match, giving the U.S. a shot at a men’s Grand Slam winner for the first time since 2003.

Friday Night Footy in LA

The sun always seems to shine in both Los Angeles and Denver, but only one can shine during NWSL After Dark. The Denver Summit head west to take on Angel City FC for the first time ever fresh off their second win against Gotham, the reigning champs and table leader. Angel City have dropped just one game in their last seven, and though the Summit managed three goals against one of the league’s stingiest defenses, they will be put to the test again against ACFC’s backline. Angel City leads Denver Summit in the table by just two points, and with both fighting to get above that playoff line, a win for either side could shake up the playoff picture. Tune in at 10 p.m. ET on ION.

ONE BIG FIG

Ohio State–Texas Demand Soaring

Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

$454

That’s the price of the cheapest resale ticket available for Saturday night’s sold-out No. 1 Ohio State–No. 4 Texas game in Austin, according to listings as of Friday afternoon on SeatGeek, the Longhorns’ ticketing partner. The Buckeyes are visiting Texas after winning last year’s showdown in Columbus, which drew a college football Week 1-record 16.6 million viewers on Fox as Arch Manning made his first start for Texas.

The most expensive ticket for Saturday’s matchup on SeatGeek is $42,578 for a seat in the UFCU Field Club, which is a field-level premium seating and hospitality area at the 100,000-capacity Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

LOUD AND CLEAR

Rams Rout

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

“This was the worst version of myself that I’ve put out there.”

—Rams star pass rusher Myles Garrett after losing to the 49ers in Thursday’s Week 1 game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia.

The reigning AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year made no tackles and no impact on the game. The decisive win came after much talk beforehand about the 49ers making the journey to Melbourne a week ahead of the game while the Rams remained in Los Angeles and then made the long trip to get to Australia a day ahead of kickoff. The Rams had been 3-0 in their previous international games under coach Sean McVay. They used a similar strategy in traveling to London last season for a game in which they defeated the Jaguars handily.

“I’ve got to be better. I’ve got to find a way to recover and get back to the player I know I can be and I’ve shown that I’ve been before,” Garrett said.

‘Front Office Sports Tonight’ Launches Sept. 14

Front Office Sports Tonight, the first nationally syndicated daily show built entirely around the business and culture of sports, premieres in less than one week on Sept. 14. Emmy winner Matt Iseman will host the 30-minute show which will air six nights a week. Check the channel finder for the station & air time in your area.

STATUS REPORT

Three Up, One Down

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Cooper Rush ⬆ The veteran NFL quarterback will start for the Falcons in Sunday’s matchup against the Steelers. The team announced the decision Friday, just four days after initially naming Tua Tagovailoa their Week 1 starter. However, Tagovailoa—who Atlanta signed for the veteran minimum ($1.215 million) in March—sustaind an oblique injury during practice Thursday. Rush signed a one-year, $1.3 million deal with the Falcons this offseason.

Solheim Cup ⬆ The U.S. and European teams are tied at four points apiece after the first day of the biennial three-day women’s team golf competition being played this weekend in the Netherlands. Both the morning and afternoon sessions on Friday ended in 2-2 ties. Off the course, fans are not allowed to drive cars to the host site, Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, so roughly 5,000 bikes per day are being utilized by spectators, in addition to shuttle buses.

U.S. Women ⬆ The three group stage games aired on TNT Sports were the three most-watched FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup games on the network. Last Friday’s game with USA vs. China averaged 577,000 viewers; Sunday’s USA–Italy game averaged 1.3 million; and an average of 1.2 million watched Monday’s game against Czechia. The U.S. women are aiming for their fifth consecutive World Cup gold and will next play Spain in the semifinals on Saturday.

ESPN ⬇ The sports media giant is one of many entities caught up in Connecticut’s crusade against prediction markets. The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection this week issued cease-and-desist orders to nine prediction-market platforms, including Polymarket, Robinhood, and Novig (it’s already involved in litigation with Kalshi). Additionally, Connecticut sent subpoenas to media outlets and other companies, including ESPN, which isn’t under investigation but has been “identified as an entity that may provide advertising or digital services to prediction market platforms,” and could “assist” the state in “evaluating the conduct of the prediction market platforms in Connecticut.”

ONE FUN THING

A High School Pro

Jory Nichols Photography

While college football heavyweights wrangle over whether players who have participated in NFL training camps can return to collegiate rosters, elsewhere in the sports universe, some athletes —like Addisyn Baird, an 18-year-old high school senior at The Hill School in Pennsylvania—are treading an inverse path.

Baird made her debut in the Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) on Sept. 3, starting in left field for the Los Angeles Queens and recording a hit, a walk, and a run. Like many other women in the upstart league, Baird has played both boy’s baseball and girl’s softball most of her life. She participated in the WPBL’s open tryout last year, got drafted in the last round, and received a call-up in late August amid roster shifts on the Queens.

Baird is soaking in the opportunity—“there’s huge lines for autographs after our games … it’s been crazy,” she tells Front Office Sports—but she and her family are unsure what comes next after the WPBL season ends later this month. (The Indiana native is also a standout in ice hockey, which she wants to play in college alongside softball.)

“We called the NCAA and were told unequivocally that playing collegiate hockey is fine, since it’s a different sport than baseball,” says Travis Baird, Addisyn’s dad. “But they would not commit to softball being a different sport than baseball.”