Less than three months from trial, Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke appears to be wavering on his promise to cover tens of millions of dollars in legal expenses related to litigation over his team’s relocation from St. Louis.

Kroenke had promised to indemnify the league before owners approved his club’s move in 2016.

ESPN reported that the news that Kroenke was challenging that agreement “angered many NFL owners” during a meeting Tuesday.

• The decision could put the owners on the hook to pay legal costs associated with the lawsuit filed by the St. Louis, St. Louis County, and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority.
• Those plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in 2017 and a trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 10.
• Attempts by Kroenke’s lawyers and the league to get the case dismissed have failed.

NFL general counsel Jeff Pash informed the owners — minus Kroenke, who was asked to leave the room — of the Rams owner’s shifted position, ESPN reported. New York Giants owner John Mara noted that if Kroenke had not agreed to indemnify the league, owners wouldn’t have voted for the Rams to move.

Pash said that Kroenke had sought to settle the long-running litigation for less than $1 billion, according to the report.

An NFL spokesman declined to comment when reached by Front Office Sports on Wednesday.

Microsoft powered through supply chain issues to post huge gains in Xbox hardware sales during the first quarter of its fiscal 2022.

The tech giant saw revenue rise 22% year-over-year to $45.3 billion, which was split between cloud services ($17 billion), productivity and business services like Microsoft Office ($15 billion), and its More Personal Computing segment ($13.3 billion) which includes Xbox.

• Xbox hardware revenue grew 166% year-over-year thanks to new consoles.
• However, content and services revenue was nearly flat, with 2% year-over-year growth.
• An Xbox exec claimed the company has never turned a profit on Xbox hardware during testimony in the Epic Games v. Apple case.

Key to the company’s gaming strategy is its Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which provides access to new titles and a large library of classic games. The service includes most of Microsoft’s in-house games and dozens more through a partnership with Electronic Arts.

The company said in January that Game Pass had 18 million subscribers. In September, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the subscriber count was around 30 million, which Microsoft has yet to confirm.

Supply chain shortages have limited the availability of both the Xbox Series X|S and Sony’s PlayStation 5. Toshiba said in September that the shortages could last until 2023.

The Cleveland Guardians roller derby team went to federal court Wednesday in an attempt to block the Cleveland Indians from rebranding as the “Guardians,” months after the MLB club offered under $10,000 for rights to the name.

The baseball team announced in July that it would be known as the Cleveland Guardians after the current season. The rub? A roller derby team has used the Guardians name with a similar winged logo since 2013 — and has held the clevelandguardians.com domain since 2014.

Lawyers for Gary Sweatt, owner of the Guardians roller derby team, filed the lawsuit in Ohio Northern District Court:

• The suit includes a request for an injunction to prevent the baseball club from using the Cleveland Guardians name.
• The baseball club offered “to pay a nominal amount” to Sweatt for the rights to the name in June, which Front Office Sports confirmed was less than $10,000.

“It is inconceivable that an organization worth more than $1B and estimated to have annual revenues of $290M+ would not at least have performed a Google search,” Sweatt’s attorneys wrote in the complaint.

The Indians’ statement to FOS: “We have been and continue to be confident in our position to become the Guardians. We believe there is no conflict between the parties and their ability to operate in their respective business areas.”

Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid is back on top after Forbes unveiled its rankings of the NHL’s highest-paid players.

Ranked No. 1 in 2018 and 2019, the four-time All-Star will earn $16.4 million in the 2021-22 season between his $12.4 million salary and $4 million from off-ice ventures.

The next three highest-paid players:

• Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews ($12.2 million)
• San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson ($12.1 million)
• Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price ($11.8 million)

The NHL’s top players have seen their annual earnings drop by 27% since 2019. The league’s top 10 earners this season will pocket a combined $117 million.

The other major U.S. leagues by comparison:

• MLB’s 10 highest-paid players made a combined $357 million this year.
• The NFL’s top 10 earners will pocket $418 million in 2021.
• The NBA’s 10 highest-paid players are set to make a collective $714 million this season.

Disney’s ABC/ESPN is paying $400 million annually to serve as the NHL’s lead TV partner, while Turner Sports is paying $255 million per year for the “B” package.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league expects to generate more than $5 billion in revenue during the 2021-2022 season.