Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno is likely making — at minimum — a $500 million bet that he can retain one of baseball’s most transcendent talents and transform his lagging franchise.

After weeks of back-and-forth speculation, the Angels have pulled two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani off the trade market, believing the team can both better compete this year and improve its chance to retain the Japanese star when he hits free agency this winter.

The decision will have massive implications across the franchise. 

The Angels haven’t reached the postseason since 2014, tying the longest active drought in the league, and they still sit outside of playoff position — a situation that irks Ohtani. The club also is 10th in MLB attendance with a per-game average of 33,637, a ranking and figure that would plummet with an endorsement magnet like Ohtani gone and star teammate Mike Trout still injured.

But Moreno — who has been continually beset with ownership and stadium issues — believes the Angels’ best chance to retain Ohtani long-term is to not let him go in the first place.

Beyond 2023 loyalty, though, keeping Ohtani will likely require a MLB-record contract of at least $500 million — an outlay arriving at a time when the link between player spending and on-field success is being inverted like never before.

“We’re going to roll the dice and see what happens,” said Angels GM Perry Minasian. “Whether it works or it doesn’t, I can go to bed at night and say, ‘You know what, we did this for the right reasons.’”

The growing conflict regarding compensation for NFL running backs is only intensifying — and could ultimately need formal talks to settle.

After a series of bitter contract negotiations involving several top backs sparked outcry among numerous players, the issue has now reached the NFL Players Association, which has discussed potentially pursuing a new franchise tag system without position assignments.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay recently said such a move — and the broader unrest among running backs — is unwarranted.

“We have negotiated a CBA that took years of effort and hard work and good faith by both sides,” Irsay tweeted on Wednesday. “To say now that a specific player category wants another negotiation after the fact is inappropriate. Some agents are selling ‘bad faith.’”

The comments prompted immediate pushback from Malki Kawa, agent for Colts star running back Jonathan Taylor, who tweeted back, “Bad faith is not paying your top offensive player.”

Irsay is one of the league’s most outspoken and influential owners whose comments presaged the ultimate departure of former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder. That influence will square up against newly appointed NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell, who also has separate issues involving his prior employer, consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

Howell has been involved in the conversation among running backs as salaries soar to unprecedented levels for quarterbacks.

“There’s a ton that we can do,” said the Los Angeles Chargers’ Austin Ekeler. “One is controlling the narrative. We’re starting to put out this narrative that’s kind of combatant against what’s been out there so far.”

The Oakland A’s used a series of stadium renderings to help land $380 million in public funding last month toward a new Las Vegas ballpark.

Now, the team says those images are literally trash.

Just weeks after landing Nevada state funding for a $1.5 billion stadium along the Las Vegas Strip, the A’s have told architectural firms that the initial renderings have no basis in the project’s future reality.

“We told the groups, ‘You saw the renderings in the newspaper, but wad those up for now,’” Brad Schrock, A’s director of design, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

It’s long been common knowledge in the business of sports that initial stadium and arena renderings frequently have marked differences from their finished versions. Early drawings are often used to generate public excitement and win political support and public dollars.

But the first Las Vegas drawings showed a particularly rushed effort, with many features simply unfeasible for the A’s project.

The renderings show a traditional retractable roof that would be all but impossible to build on the tight, 9-acre Tropicana Hotel site pegged for the project. Oakland’s MLB-leading foul territory — a product of the Oakland Coliseum’s 60-year-old design and not present in any modern ballpark — was also carried over to the Las Vegas drawings.

The A’s intend to pick a stadium architect in November.

Barcelona received a major financial boost a few weeks before beginning its first La Liga title defense since Lionel Messi departed in 2021.

The Spanish club is getting a $65.83 million payment from reselling a portion of its media production arm Barca Studios, according to El Confidencial. The cash injection is vital to complete signings of key players. 

A German private equity company is buying two 8% stakes in Barca Studios from existing investors Socios and Orpheus Media — who both initially paid more than $100 million each for 24.5% stakes in the outfit. However, Socios and Orpheus had delayed $30 million-plus payments due to Barcelona, causing the club to seek new funding.

As it stands now, Barcelona itself owns 51% of Barca Studios, while Socios, Orpheus, and the new German company each own about 16%.

UEFA has permitted Barcelona to play the upcoming Champions League season despite an investigation into a potential scandal involving $7 million paid to a referee — a case that could eventually be reopened. 

Problems Off The Pitch

In Italy, bids for Serie A domestic media rights aren’t reaching the $1.1 billion annual threshold the league seeks for a deal to begin next year. Discussions had taken place with DAZN, Sky Italia, and MediaForEurope. 

Another update is scheduled to be announced in October.