Afternoon Edition

October 19, 2026

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The price for a get-in ticket for the World Series opener Friday reached $2,809 on Monday. The game, which will pit the Brewers against either the Rays or Guardians, will be at American Family Field in Milwaukee. That figure is up by 41% over the last three days and 165% over the past week, according to TicketData.

—Eric Fisher

First Up

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is expected to be sidelined through at least the remainder of this NFL season after being diagnosed with blood clots.
Five of the top seven college football teams in the AP poll lost over the weekend, the most losses among that group since 1936 when the poll was created.
Despite recent attacks targeting Riyadh, several major sporting events are still scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks.
E! and USA Network will air a red-carpet-style pregame show ahead of Game 2 of the WNBA Finals on Monday called “Live From the Orange Carpet: WNBA Finals.”

World Series Game 1 Tickets Reach Super Bowl Level Prices

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Game 1 of the 2026 World Series is still four days away, but Fall Classic fever is spreading quickly through Wisconsin.

The ticket resale market for the Brewers’ World Series opener Friday at American Family Field in Milwaukee is reaching historic levels, with get-in pricing Monday standing at $2,809 per seat. That figure is up by 41% over the last three days and 165% over the past week, according to TicketData.

The get-in figure also exceeds a comparable ticket market for Super Bowl LX in early 2025 in New Orleans, which settled at an entry point of about $2,600, as well as many recent World Series that had get-in prices of around $1,000 per ticket.

The strong demand for Brewers tickets isn’t limited to the World Series opener. Game 2 on Saturday has a similar get-in price of $2,793. Lower-level seats for either Game 1 or Game 2 generally start on the resale market for more than $4,000 a ticket. A potential Game 6 and Game 7 back in Milwaukee also have resale markets starting at more than $2,100.

Unusual Fandom

The Brewers have clinched their first World Series berth since 1982, and the ongoing ticket frenzy showcases a level of excitement that transcends what might have been expected from MLB’s smallest media market. Milwaukee ranked 11th in league attendance this year with a total draw of 2.79 million, and the Brewers have exceeded 2.3 million in their home draw in every non-pandemic season since 2006.

Helping boost that turnout has been a consistent run of competitive Brewers clubs that’s included eight postseason appearances in the last nine seasons.

“Those fans, they’re passionate,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after clinching the National League pennant. “They wanted this, and our players sensed how bad they wanted it. That gives them energy and motivation. It makes a difference. We won the most games in baseball again this year, and it gives us a home field advantage. That does matter.”

The Brewers will face either the Rays or Guardians following the completion of the American League Championship Series. Tampa Bay holds a 3–2 series lead and could clinch its first AL pennant since 2020 in Game 6 scheduled for Monday night at Tropicana Field.

Game 1 of the World Series, meanwhile, also prompted the NBA’s Bucks to move the start time of their home opener Friday against the Bulls at Fiserv Forum from 7 p.m. CT to 3 p.m. CT, avoiding a conflict with the baseball game.

“The Brewers’ return to the World Series for the first time in 44 years is a special moment for Milwaukee and sports fans across Wisconsin,” the Bucks said in a statement. “We’ll be cheering them on as they begin their World Series run.”

A similar situation occurred in Toronto last year, as the Blue Jays’ run to the 2025 World Series prompted several schedule changes for the NBA’s Raptors and NHL’s Maple Leafs.

Turning Soccer’s Moment Into Momentum

The 2026 World Cup brought unprecedented attention to soccer across North America, but for Major League Soccer, the bigger opportunity is what comes next as the league continues to sustain historically high fan demand. With record growth across attendance, viewership, social, digital engagement, player investment, and fan acquisition, MLS is entering its next chapter with momentum that extends well beyond the tournament.

For brands, that creates an opportunity to build lasting connections with a young, diverse, and increasingly engaged fan base. Chime is among those betting on that trajectory, using its MLS partnership to connect with fans through tentpole events, player-led storytelling, community activations, and experiences designed to make the brand part of the culture surrounding the league.

Read the full article.

ONE BIG FIG

Walk-Away Pay

Patrick Breen-Imagn Images

$1.3 million

That’s how much former Arizona State hockey coach Greg Powers is being paid to leave the program, according to a report from The Arizona Republic on Monday. That figure reportedly includes 75% of what’s left on his contract, plus $85,000 in bonuses the school had yet to pay out. Powers and ASU parted ways last week, almost two months after a military-inspired workout left player Matthew Mayich on life support. Mayich’s family, along with several players, had pushed the university to launch an independent investigation. They derided Powers’s exit as “more like a negotiated agreement than accountability.”

LOUD AND CLEAR

Polymarket Defense

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

“This is dehumanizing, disgusting, and dangerous.”

—Attorney Cheyenne Hunt wrote in an Instagram post about the market on Polymarket’s international platform letting users wager on whether any of the seven male defendants accused of raping a Cornell student in 2024 will be charged with a felony sex crime. Hunt’s post has racked up roughly 6,900 likes and 548 comments. The market, which had more than $451,000 in volume, is not available on Polymarket’s U.S. app.

“To the celebrity ambassadors for Polymarket, do you really want to be associated with this?” Hunt said in her post. LeBron James is one of the biggest celebrity endorsers of the prediction market.

Polymarket defended its product in a statement to Front Office Sports, saying the Cornell case, “and sexual assault on college campuses more broadly, are deeply important issues, and markets bring objective, data-driven insight into how a matter like this is moving through the legal system, on a topic that deserves far more transparency and honest attention.”

AI in Sports: Everyone Is In

AI adoption is accelerating across the sports industry, but meaningful returns remain elusive. A new joint report from Front Office Sports and Teamworks, based on a survey from hundreds of sports organizations, examines how teams, leagues, and athletic departments are investing in and using AI.

While 90% of organizations expect their AI usage to grow, just 15% report a clear, measurable ROI. The report explores what separates organizations seeing returns, including dedicated AI budgets, centralized ownership, and organization-wide implementation. It also examines where sports organizations are using AI today, what they want from the technology, and how they plan to invest in the year ahead.

Read the full report to see where sports stands on AI and where it’s headed.

STATUS REPORT

Two Up, One Down, One Push

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Tennessee ⬆⬇ The Volunteers were fined $500,000 for football fans at the nearly 102,000-seat Neyland Stadium storming the field on Oct. 17 after No. 14 Tennessee beat No. 6 Alabama 26–10. Alabama will receive the fine money. Tennessee has won its last three games against Alabama in Knoxville dating back to 2022.

New York ⬆ Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the launch of an exploratory committee to consider hosting the 2042 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and New York City. The state hasn’t hosted the Olympic Games since 1980, when Lake Placid played host to one of the most famous games in American sporting history: the U.S. men’s hockey team’s “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union. The committee will reportedly include Mets owner Steve Cohen and Yankees president and U.S. President Donald Trump’s college sports czar Randy Levine.

Chris Ballard ⬇ The Colts pulled the plug on their GM just a day after an embarrassing 26–20 home loss to the previously winless Titans dropped them to 2–4 on the season. “Our standard is to compete for championships, and I believe a change in leadership is necessary to meet that standard,” owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon said in a statement Monday. Ballard joined Indianapolis in 2017, and the team made just two playoff appearances during his tenure, which included four different head coaches.

TGL ⬆ The indoor team golf league cofounded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy is expanding to 35 full-time players for its third season, which begins Dec. 27 and will run through March. With expansion franchise Motor City Golf Club joining TGL this season, the league’s seven teams will each have 5 players on their roster, up from six teams with 4 players each (24 full-time) in Season 2. Final rosters will be announced Tuesday.