Mark Davis landed Tom Brady. 

Davis announced Thursday that the retired seven-time Super Bowl champ had acquired a minority stake in the defending WNBA champ Las Vegas Aces. 

“I have always been a huge fan of women’s sports, and I admire the work that the Aces’ players, staff, and the WNBA continue to do to grow the sport and empower future generations of athletes,” Brady said in a statement.

Brady’s purchase will require the approval of the WNBA. 

“Since I purchased the Aces, our goal has been to win on and off the court,” Davis, the owner of the Aces, said in a statement. “Tom Brady is a win not only for the Aces, and the WNBA, but for women’s professional sports as a whole.”

Davis, who owns the Las Vegas Raiders, acquired the Aces nearly two years ago. 

Brady retired again after last season. He played 23 seasons in the NFL, the first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots. 

Brady’s interest in WNBA ownership was piqued after attending an Aces game last May. But Brady detailed how his appreciation of women athletes began much further back. 

“My love for women’s sports began at a young age when I would tag along to all my older sisters’ games,” Brady said. “They were by far the best athletes in our house. We celebrated their accomplishments together as a family, and they remain a great inspiration to me.”

The Aces begin their title defense on May 20 against the Seattle Storm. 

On Saturday, the National Women’s Soccer League kicks off a crucial season for the league’s growth.

The NWSL is on an impressive trajectory, with huge leaps in attendance (80%), ticketing revenue (125%), and sponsorship revenue (87%) from 2021 to 2022. The early returns on the coming season are looking good: As of Monday, season-ticket sales were up 20% compared to all of last year.

The growth has led to a major increase in team valuations, with the fee to join a league rising from around $5 million a few years ago to about $50 million for expected new teams in the San Francisco Bay Area and Boston. 

The league is hoping for a similar multiple from its next media deal, which commissioner Jessica Berman said is on pace to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

The league is bringing in a reported $1.5 million on its domestic media rights pact with CBS, which runs through this season.

“There are many interested parties in the media landscape,” Berman said at a media availability on Monday. “We think there are some really interesting opportunities both here and overseas to consider as we think about growing our brand globally and claiming our space as the best league in the world.”

Meanwhile, Berman has an eye on team sales in Chicago and Portland, spurred by issues of abuse and harassment with both teams. 

The league is overseeing systemic reform efforts, including establishing reporting procedures and human resource training for each of its teams.

Princeton’s men’s basketball team hasn’t made it to the Sweet 16 since 1967. But the 15-seed Tigers — who will face off against 6-seed Creighton at the South Regional in Louisville on Friday night — are unorthodox underdogs.

Most Cinderellas enjoy a major uptick in applicants, but Princeton is well-known enough that this run may not have that effect. Two areas it might see an uptick: recruiting and fundraising.

The school boasts a $36 billion endowment, but most of that isn’t eligible for athletics. In 2021-22, Princeton spent $1.8 million on its men’s basketball program not including coaching salaries, per Department of Education data — the lowest of any school in the Sweet 16.

But a strong showing in this year’s tournament could help coaches fundraise, UPenn sports economics expert Karen Weaver told Front Office Sports. “How could it hurt?” she said.

Ivy League schools can also sometimes be at a recruiting disadvantage because they don’t offer athletic scholarships. But this Sweet 16 run could help Princeton compete with programs like Duke and Stanford, which draw recruits interested in elite academics, Weaver said.

During a press conference on Thursday, coach Mitch Henderson — a Princeton basketball alum — explained the athletic department has both history and support.

Famous NBA players who played at Princeton, for example, show up often, he said. “We might be considered nationally as a mid-major, but our school thinks very highly of its basketball history, and we think that this team reflects that history very well.”

Read more about Princeton’s Cinderella run here, and learn how they got to this point in this afternoon’s FOS Pro.

The competition for sports media rights between tech giants Apple and Amazon is heating up.

Apple might take a run at a range of English soccer games, according to Bloomberg.

The global giant behind the hit series “Ted Lasso” would allow Apple to stream Premier League games in the U.K. as well lower-league matches from the English Football League, according to the report.

Apple made its first big move into live sports last year by signing a $2.5 billion, 10-year deal with Major League Soccer. 

“Pushing into English football would pit Apple against entrenched media companies such as Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., which last year agreed to a joint venture with BT Sport,” wrote Bloomberg. 

“It also could throw down the gauntlet with Amazon, which has become a force in streaming European football.”

In the U.S., both Apple and Amazon are finalists in negotiations for Pac-12 media rights, said sources. They’re competing against Disney’s ESPN.

Apple is also gearing up to offer a second season of “Friday Night Baseball” with MLB.

Amazon, meanwhile, made its big jump into live sports via an $11 billion, 11-year deal to exclusively stream the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” through 2033. 

As part of its growing relationship with the NFL, Amazon recently scored the rights to the league’s first-ever “Black Friday” game in 2023.