Soccer is Gen Z’s third-favorite sport, and investors are buying into the growth potential of Major League Soccer.

Houston Texans running back Mark Ingram II will become the latest MLS team investor when he buys a minority stake in D.C. United at a $710 million valuation, per Sportico. 

That figure represents one of the highest valuations in MLS history. LAFC also recently received a valuation north of $700 million when some of its owners bought out Vincent Tan, a Malaysian businessman who also owns Wales-based Cardiff City FC. 

Even though MLS teams typically lose money each year, values are rising fast and are hard to peg down. Chicago Fire FC was valued at $240 million in 2018, and then at $400 million the next year.

The league has been a major target for athlete investors.

• Three Brooklyn Nets have stakes in three different teams: James Harden is a part owner of Houston Dynamo FC, Kevin Durant invested in the Philadelphia Union, and coach Steve Nash has a piece of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
• Two Seattle legends Russell Wilson and Ken Griffey Jr. own part of the Seattle Sounders.
• LAFC’s ownership group includes Magic Johnson, Mia Hamm, and Nomar Garciaparra.

The league itself has been expanding quickly. FC Cincinnati, Inter Miami CF, Nashville SC, and Austin FC have all entered the league since 2019. Charlotte FC and St. Louis SC are slated to join in 2022 and 2023.

Streaming is the future of sports broadcasts, but it’s unclear what that means for HBO Max.

The service, which launched a little over a year ago, added 2.7 million subscribers in Q1 2021 for a total of 44.2 million. 

But HBO Max isn’t ready to join the sports streaming wars just yet, despite Turner Sports — another WarnerMedia subsidiary — signing a reported seven-year, $225 million deal with the NHL in April, in addition to rights it already holds for NBA, MLB, and NCAA men’s basketball broadcasts.

• When the NHL deal was announced, chairman of WarnerMedia news and sports Jeff Zucker downplayed its impact on HBO Max.
• “We’re going to figure that out now,” he said, later adding, “It’s not imminent and it’s not going to happen this year. Our emphasis in the year ahead will certainly be on TNT and TBS.”

A month later, AT&T announced that it was spinning off WarnerMedia to merge with Discovery in a $130 billion deal, but how that affects sports on HBO Max is still uncertain.

“It’s just not, ‘How do we present those games?’” Andy Forssell, general manager of HBO Max, said at an investor conference last week. “What shoulder content goes around it? Should the talent that’s connected to it be different in the digital world?”

While AT&T CEO John Stankey says “the new company will have a content spend that exceeds most of its industry peers,” the newly-titled Warner Bros. Discovery will face stiff competition from other services.

Disney, ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, and Amazon have rights to stream everything from the NFL to WWE, and are already airing live sports on their respective services.

Electronic Arts has turned a recreational classic into a lucrative new venture.

“Knockout City,” a team-based dodgeball video game, appears to be the next big hit for the game publisher.

The title has already amassed 5 million active players since its May 21 release.

• It’s available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
• Free-to-play until players reach Level 25.
• Full versions of the game are available for $19.99 or $29.99 for the deluxe edition.

EA is once again a Fortune 500 company after a 10-year absence from the list, thanks in large part to the success of its sports titles and connected offerings. 

The company generated $5.5 billion in revenue in its fiscal 2020, an 11.9% increase year-over-year. 

Live services alone hit $1.03 billion in revenue in EA’s latest earnings report, a 6% increase compared to the same period a year prior. 

“Ultimate Team” in particular is the category’s bread and butter.

The game mode available across EA’s Madden, FIFA, and NHL franchises brought in $1.62 billion in FY2021, according to the company’s latest 10-K document filing.

“Knockout City,” with its fast-paced competitive gameplay, has quickly earned its place as the hottest new property in the EA ecosystem. Perhaps there was pent-up demand for a new-age dodgeball game?

In the physical world, dodgeball has more than 90 million global participants across 70 nations.

A new class of sports stadiums is on the rise, and they offer much more than an arena to play games. 

The Dallas Cowboys, the most valuable franchise in all of sports recently valued at $5.7 billion, set the precedent. 

The Cowboys’ $1.15 billion 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium is the largest covered stadium in the world. The team’s 90-acre, $1.5 billion headquarters — called “The Star” — includes a 16-story hotel, private club, hall of fame, stores, restaurants, and event space.

In the last year, we’ve caught more glimpses of what stadiums will be like in the future.

Real Madrid’s plans for its stadium’s $700 million refurbishment feature a casino, fine dining, a museum, and shops.

The Jacksonville Jaguars hope to build what they’re calling the “Stadium of the Future,” which would include developing the surrounding area with a luxury hotel, parks, and more. The first planned step is a $441 million football facility next to their stadium designed as a practice space that also offers fan experiences. 

The Oakland A’s also proposed a neighborhood development plan as part of a $12 billion stadium proposal, or the team may move to Las Vegas, where a new stadium could cost around $1 billion.

New NFL stadiums typically cost between $750 million and $1.9 billion. 

Major League Soccer, meanwhile, has encouraged stadiums built specifically for soccer. FC Cincinnati opened its $250 million venue in May; St Louis SC’s and Nashville SC’s stadiums are under construction.