The International Olympic Committee has long sought out younger viewers and Paris 2024 might finally have an answer: competitive breakdancing. The sport, officially listed in the medal events program as “breaking,” was added to the Summer Games lineup today.

Youth Appeal: The median age of Olympic viewers rose to 53 in 2016 and viewership in the 18-to-49 age group declined 25 percent the same year. 

• It appears the IOC and U.S. broadcast rights holder NBCUniversal have prioritized younger audiences in the years since, inking content and distribution deals with digital partners like Snapchat, Buzzfeed and Twitter.

Breaking was first proposed by Paris organizers nearly two years ago after successful trials at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Of course, breakdancing first came to prominence in New York City in the 1970s, as a cornerstone of hip-hop culture.

The New Vision: The move follows the recent additions of skateboarding, freestyle BMX and 3-on-3 basketball as official Olympic sports for Tokyo. Skateboarding, sports climbing and surfing were also approved for Paris as the IOC looks to make the games “more gender balanced, more youthful and more urban” in the long term. 

• Parkour could also be added to future Olympics, but debates over who “owns” the sport have led to a major governing body opposing the move. 
• Tokyo 2020 will be the first Olympic Games with near gender-equal participation; 48.8% of participants will be women. Paris 2024 is expected to have an exactly equal number of male and female athletes.

Breaking, sport climbing and 3-on-3 basketball will share the downtown Paris Place de la Concorde as their venue. Surfing will be held in Tahiti, over 9,000 miles away. 

The UFC could cut 60 fighters by the end of this year due to pandemic-related revenue losses and an increase in recent signees from “Dana White’s Contender Series,” the digital series where the UFC president scouts prospects.

Serious Cuts: “Our roster is very inflated right now,” White said following Saturday’s UFC Fight Night.

Middleweight contender Yoel Romero was the first casualty when he was released on Friday after a string of poor performances, with three fights remaining on his contract. White said there’s more to come as the organization looks to cut costs.

Pandemic Pummeled Year: UFC events restarted in May and have run every weekend since July. Those events, however, have been held without fans, creating a massive loss of expected revenue.

• In May, White projected the UFC would lose more than $100 million without ticket revenue in 2020. The organization brought in approximately $900 million in total revenue in 2019.
• UFC’s Fight Island events in Abu Dhabi made waves, including 1.3 million pay-per-view buys for UFC 251. White called it “worthwhile,” but “f—ing expensive.”

Will the cuts help? Trimming the fight roster isn’t abnormal — but it’s typically to a smaller extent. Last year, the UFC paid its fighters just 16% of its revenue, or less than $150 million. That’s a stark contrast to the 48%-50% the NBA, NFL and MLB share with their players.

Meanwhile, dividends totaling more than $300 million were paid out to investors. It was the first dividend payout since Endeavor paid $4 billion for 50% of the UFC in 2016.

A 2021 expansion team has been granted to an ownership group based in the city led by married couple Angie and Chris Long, who are executives at Kansas City-based asset manager Palmer Square Capital Management. The team has secured the rights to Utah Royals FC’s players and draft picks as it winds down operations.

Rewind: The former FC Kansas City folded in 2018 and Utah Soccer LLC purchased the rights to the team, moving it to Salt Lake City. 

• Utah averaged more than 10,000 fans per game in 2019 despite finishing with one of the worst records in the league.
• Owner Dell Loy Hansen put the team, MLS’s Real Salt Lake and the rest of his soccer holding company up for sale in August after being accused of making racist remarks.

Kansas City will reportedly be the first team majority-owned by women to actively play in the NWSL. In addition to the Longs, the group includes Brittany Matthews, the fiancee of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes who once played professional soccer in Iceland and now has her own fitness company. 

• Family Affair: After signing his record contract extension in July worth up to $503 million, Mahomes bought into the Kansas City Royals ownership group. 

Kansas City is at least the third NWSL club expected to launch in the next two years. Los Angeles-based Angel City FC is set to debut in the spring of 2022 with a star-studded ownership group, and the league is reportedly in talks to add a Sacramento team — backed by Sacramento Republic FC ownership — by 2023. Utah could also reenter the league in 2023 under a new ownership group.