ATLANTA — Despite a recent run of growth in baseball, the sport is grappling with existential shifts in media and competitive balance that demand large-scale change, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said. 

Meeting early Tuesday with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, Manfred heightened his call for a systemic overhaul in the game’s economics, citing historic disruption in existing revenue models such as the regional sports network business. 

“When I talk to players, I don’t try to convince them that a salary-cap system would be a good thing. I identify a problem in the media business and explain [to players] that owners need to change to address that problem,” he said. “I then identify a second problem that we need to work together on, and that is there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem.”

Manfred has also pointed to the top 10% of MLB players earning nearly three-quarters of all salaries.

To the MLB Players Association, however, that rising call for change means owners will indeed revive their call for a salary cap. The union is stridently opposed to any salary-cap-based system, believing it would fundamentally impair player compensation and disrupt recent gains in attendance and viewership.

“A cap is not about a partnership. A cap is not about growing the game,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said. “A cap is about franchise values and profits. … This is not about competitive balance. This is institutionalized collusion.”

Manfred, however, did acknowledge that low-spending clubs such as the Pirates—a particular point of contention for the union—is a growing problem.

“We need to deal with that issue,” the commissioner said yesterday on ESPN. 

ESPN Rights in Limbo

Manfred said the league is nearing a resolution on reselling media rights being abandoned by ESPN after the season. A prior hope of reaching deals by the All-Star Game, however, did not materialize. 

The commissioner did not detail specifics, but ESPN is believed to be still in the mix on a potentially reworked agreement, along with other networks. Manfred worked on the matter while attending the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, which drew many top media executives. 

Rays Sale Moving Forward

The $1.75 billion sale of the Rays to a group led by Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalupski is on track to be completed this fall, Manfred said, essentially confirming reports there is now an agreement in principle.

Manfred, meanwhile, also said that George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the club’s temporary home ballpark, will host all potential Rays postseason home games, including in the World Series—despite prior concerns about the venue’s capacity of about 10,000 and its inability to meet the usual business demands of the playoffs.

“I understand it’s a unique situation,” Manfred said of the Rays. “It’s different, but that’s where they’re playing.”

More Big Issues

• Both the A’s and Rays playing in minor league ballparks this season, meanwhile, continued to draw rebukes from the union—particularly the interim tenure of the A’s in Sacramento while a new ballpark in Las Vegas is built. “Playing in a minor league ballpark is less than ideal,” Clark said. “One was an act of God. One was a decision.” There has been no advanced discussion of other options, however, and rehabilitation of the Rays’ Tropicana Field continues. 
• Efforts continue to have MLB players compete in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The Olympic baseball tournament is set for July 15–20 at Dodger Stadium, a schedule that would have minimal disruption to the MLB schedule. Other considerations, such as changes to league media rights and insuring players, remain in process, though. “There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done. … We’re hopeful that we can figure our way through it for the benefit of the game,” Clark said.
• A sale of the Twins will also happen, Manfred said, despite bidder Justin Ishbia dropping out recently and instead striking a multi-stage deal for the White Sox.

“I’m confident that a transaction will take place,” Manfred said.

The wait is over. Caitlin Clark will participate in her first professional 3-point contest during the 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend.

The WNBA announced Tuesday that Clark will be one of five participants for Friday’s contest. The other four participants are also 2025 All-Stars: Sabrina Ionescu, the event’s record holder, Kelsey Plum, Sonia Citron, and defending champion Allisha Gray.

Clark did not join the contest last year and passed on participating in a special 3-point shooting contest during the 2025 NBA All-Star weekend. ESPN reported she wanted the 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend, which will be hosted by the Indiana Fever, to be her first shootout.

The league also announced the Skills Challenge participants: Natasha Cloud, Skylar Diggins, Erica Wheeler, Courtney Williams, and Gray—who, last year, became the first player in league history to win both events in the same year.

60,000 Reasons

The winner of the WNBA’s 3-point contest and Skills Challenge wins $2,575, according to the league’s current CBA. However, last year, the players’ union announced a partnership with insurance company Aflac that awarded an additional $55,000 to the winner of each challenge. Gray took home more than $115,000 for winning both contests.

The partnership, however, was announced just a day before the 2024 All-Star weekend.

This year, Aflac added an additional $5,000 to the winner of the 3-point contest, an announcement that was made in April. The $60,000 also matches the first-prize purse for the NBA’s 3-point contest winner.

Ratings Win

Day 1 of last year’s WNBA All-Star weekend averaged 695,000 viewers on ESPN, the league’s largest audience for the exhibition contests. But the number has room to grow, considering how more than 20 WNBA telecasts featuring Clark drew more than 1 million viewers last season.

For comparison, the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game averaged 3.44 million viewers on ABC, the league’s most-watched broadcast since Clark was drafted.

ATLANTA — Sufficient funding from revenue-sharing and NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals won’t be a problem for Georgia in the new era of college sports, but Bulldogs football coach Kirby Smart is worried about the impact it’s having on players.

“You can say what you want, but there’s people who are in college football today, especially in the SEC, that are comfortable with where they are,” Smart said about college football players Tuesday during SEC media days. “‘This is a pretty good life. I’m earning $200,000 a year. I’m very comfortable.’ And you don’t reach your goals being comfortable.”

Georgia recently closed its official NIL collective and instead hired Learfield to help facilitate NIL deals; the school will pay athletes the full $20.5 million allowed in revenue-sharing. 

“They’re gonna get paid. No coaches are going to stand up here and say they don’t want players to get paid,” Smart said. “We want them to get paid. I am completely comfortable with that. What I want is them to get paid and that not change how they go about their business, that not change if they’re sensitive to being demanded excellence of.”

While Smart believes players being pushed “doesn’t preclude them from gaining monetary value,” he’s still concerned about the shifting landscape of college football. “A lot of coaches aren’t willing to do that,” he said. “People don’t want to confront and demand anymore for fear of losing a player.”

No More Walk-Ons?

The revenue-sharing era has brought stricter roster limits to many college sports, including football, which is something Smart laments.

“Opportunities are being lost all across college athletics,” he said. “And unfortunately, that’s part of it. I can’t really give a message to the next walk-on because I don’t know that there’s going to be an opportunity for that walk-on.”

Football programs can have no more than 105 players—or scholarships—which is creating a more difficult path for walk-ons.