The WNBA season tips off this weekend — and the league is looking to capitalize on the growing interest in women’s sports from mainstream fans and media outlets.

Four games get the action started Friday night before a total of five more on Saturday and Sunday, while a new WNBA app is streaming 12 games for free during the first two weekends of the season after the league enjoyed record viewership in 2022. 

Six of the weekend’s contests will count toward the Commissioner’s Cup — the league’s season-long competition that commissioner Cathy Engelbert believes will generate more revenue for the WNBA.

The Las Vegas Aces, who won last year’s Commissioner’s Cup and an extra $30,000 per player, will be without coach Becky Hammon, who was suspended for the first two games of the season after a controversial player-mistreatment issue. The defending champions became the first team to open its own practice facility.

On Friday, Brittney Griner returns for her first Phoenix Mercury game after being freed from imprisonment in Russia, while a new star arrives in former South Carolina standout Aliyah Boston. 

Boston was selected No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2023 WNBA Draft — an edition that posted the event’s best viewership since 2004. 

The league may consider expansion after last weekend’s sellout of a preseason game in Toronto, which alleviates the WNBA’s roster problem.

Several recent high draft picks were cut during final roster decisions, including 2021 No. 1 pick Charli Collier of the Dallas Wings. WNBA teams’ 12-person roster size is becoming a point of contention for some players, with many calling for the league to expand rosters to 14 players.

“A whole league is training at home,” L.A. Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike tweeted this week.

Formula One was supposed to make its first trek through Italy this weekend — but devastating floods around the town of Imola have halted the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

While F1 potentially could have conducted the race, doing so would have taken away from relief efforts in Northeastern Italy, as per its official statement. 

Whether the event is rescheduled or canceled altogether, the move will be costly for F1. 

According to Autosport, in the event of a cancellation, race promoters won’t be forced to pay this year’s fee, which is understood to be around $20 million. F1 itself and the 10 teams will share that cost.

ESPN reported that although there’s a desire to run the race later this year, F1 internally considers it highly unfeasible. The promotion’s continued expansion, including a new race in Las Vegas, have led to a jam-packed calendar that was set to include a record 23 grand prix.

Money Matters

This week, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown called for Formula 1 to retool its cost-cap structure so teams wouldn’t have to choose between performance and sustainability.

“Current regulations have created some unintended barriers when it comes to investing in sustainability,” Brown said in a statement.

Mets owner Steve Cohen won’t allow an MLS neighbor to park for free on his lot.

NYCFC is deep in negotiations for a new, 25,000-seat stadium and housing development neighboring the Mets’ Citi Field, but the MLS team’s ambitions are tangled up in Cohen’s plans for the same area, according to The City.

The club — which isn’t required to offer parking — wants to use Citi Field’s parking lot for its home games, which would require the Mets’ approval. But Cohen is looking to build a casino near Citi Field on 50 acres designated as park land — and is holding out approval on a parking agreement as leverage.

The NYCFC project is set to transform the area around Citi Field. Plans call for 2,500 units of affordable housing next to the Mets’ stadium and a 650-seat school.

The soccer stadium would be built in the project’s second phase, which will also include a 350-room hotel and could begin by the end of 2024. Construction would be completed in time for the 2026 World Cup and 2027 MLS season.

Meanwhile, Cohen is up against groups including Las Vegas Sands, Resorts World, Related Cos., and Wynn Resorts for a New York City casino license. He’s partnering with Seminole Hard Rock on the bid.

Janice Simpson is putting her 10% stake in the Texas Rangers up for sale in a move that reportedly values the MLB club at $3 billion.

The Rangers took in $405 million in revenue in 2022 versus $335 million in the pre-pandemic 2019 season, according to Forbes. 

The team’s Globe Life Field stadium, which opened during MLB’s 2020 pandemic season, is paying off — though with an average of 27,040 fans per game, the Rangers rank in the middle of the pack (17th) in MLB attendance this season.

Simpson’s ex-husband Bob Simpson and fellow oil magnate Ray Davis bought the Rangers out of bankruptcy court in 2010 for $593 million and will continue as majority owners if Janice Simpson sells her minority stake.

The Rangers’ valuation factors in the club’s five-year, $185 million contract given last offseason to two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom, as well as an ongoing dispute concerning their regional sports network run by Bally Sports. 

Diamond Sports Group, Bally Sports’ owner, has missed its rights fee payments to the Rangers and several other MLB clubs. The Rangers are owed a reported $111 million per year from Diamond — the fifth-highest annual RSN fee of all MLB clubs. 

The Yankees still have the highest valuation of an MLB team at $7.1 billion, while the Dodgers rank a distant second at $4.8 billion, per Forbes. In 2020, Steve Cohen bought the Mets for $2.4 billion, the highest sale price ever paid for an MLB franchise.