43 of the 50 richest NFL contracts right now belong to three positions: • Quarterback • Wide Receiver • Edge Rusher

The richest NFL players earn the vast majority of their money on the field The exception: Travis Kelce, who made $32 million from endorsements this year

Happy 30th Birthday Patrick Mahomes! 🎂 He's the highest-paid player in the NFL this season, including salary and endorsement earnings 🏈💰

What a difference 5 yards makes... Read more: wp.me/pc2RuA-1lzonN

Donald Trump called the NFL's dynamic kickoff "sissy football," but so far this season 77% of kickoffs have been returned, up from 22% two years ago Read more: www.sportico.com/leagues/foot...

Carlos Alcaraz is only 22 years old and is already 7th all-time in tennis prize money

8 consecutive Grand Slams for Alcaraz and Sinner

After winning the US Open yesterday, Aryna Sabalenka has now won at least one set in 103 consecutive Grand Slam matches 🤯

NFL teams are increasingly pushing costs down the road using void years

NFL home field advantage has definitely declined, but it's not dead Last season, home teams outscored road teams by an average of 1.71 points per game

Happy NFL kickoff day 🏈🎉 A thread 🧵 of 10 charts 🔟📊 explaining the NFL's business model... (1) 72 of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts last year were NFL games, meaning the NFL can sell its media rights to CBS/FOX/NBC/ESPN/Amazon for huge amounts of money

Just a few years ago, Nike sponsored nearly all the best young tennis players 🎾👕 Nike still outfits Alcaraz and Sinner, but after that top top tier, other brands like Adidas and On are eating into Nike's dominance ... 🧵

The US Open Honey Deuce price of $23 did not go up this year, but it is still far outpacing inflation over the past decade as demand for the cocktail has increased The USTA made ~$12.8 million in revenue from the drink in 2024

The biggest Instagram stars of the 2025 US Open 👇

The 2025 US Open is much more wide open on the women's side than the men's side right now, according to @polymarket.bsky.social

Adrian Mannarino: The coolest 🎾 player you haven't heard of • Never looks at the bracket • Had no sponsor for over a year • Strings racket at 24 lbs (normal is 50 lbs) • Wins 58% on grass, but only 22% on clay • Won majority of his titles after his 35th birthday www.sportico.com/leagues/tenn...

Texas and Ohio State play football tomorrow Their athletic department budgets are bigger than the GDPs of some small island nations

Lower-ranked tennis players' earnings pale in comparison to athletes in other sports

Lee Corso makes his final College GameDay headgear pick on Saturday Lots of data viz here: wp.me/pc2RuA-1lznH0 Here's all 430 of his picks, in one chart 👇

The US Open's profits have increased by 76% since before COVID Most expensive tickets, more sponsors, more Honey Deuces

A snapshot of Travis Kelce's Instagram following in 2023, when his relationship with Taylor Swift began

Many top European soccer clubs operate at a loss ⚽️💵☹️ Even the profitable ones are significantly less profitable than the average NFL franchise 🏈💵🙂

Alcaraz, Sinner, and Djokovic have combined to win the past 13 Grand Slams... BUT, the US Open has historically had more outlier results than the other slams (del Potro, Cilic, Thiem, etc)

64 men and 64 women will lose in the first round of the US Open. For many of them, the $110K will still be their richest payday of the season Chris O'Connell, for instance, has not won a Grand Slam match in 2025... yet Grand Slams make up more than 50% of his YTD prize money

Doubles specialists Sara Errani & Andrea Vavassori topped Iga Swiatek & Casper Ruud in an awesome match last night to win the US Open's record $1 million mixed doubles prize “We have to give credit to the tournament to create something that was really worth it" - Vavassori Read more ⬇️

You gotta give the US Open credit. They said they were going to get stars to play mixed doubles and they did—7 of the top 10 men's singles and 6 of the top 10 women's singles players participated

64 of the 100 highest-paid athletes in the world are American 🇺🇸 The US represents ~4% of the world's population

The 10 highest paid tennis players this past year earned 65% of their money off the court 🎾💰

The 100 most valuable sports teams in the world includes... • Every NFL 🏈 team (all in the top 50) • Every NBA 🏀 team • Only 10 soccer ⚽️ clubs • Some MLB ⚾️, NHL 🏒 and F1 🏎️ franchises

The US Open qualifying draw begins today, and there's a ton of money at stake for players ranked outside the top 100 who sometimes struggle to earn a living Make it to the third round of qualifiers and earn $57K... Qualify for the main draw and earn $110K, even if you lose

My colleague @dan-bernstein.bsky.social crunched the numbers and found that console users are playing less Madden NFL in recent years 🏈🎮📉 Read more: www.sportico.com/business/tec...

The Warriors and Lakers are tied for the most national TV games in 2025-26 despite being projected for less than 50 wins On the flip side, the Cavs and Magic probably "deserve" more attention given the quality of their teams

Jalen Brunson has BY FAR the most clutch points in the NBA Playoffs over the past 5 seasons h/t @tommybeernba.bsky.social

NBA national TV / streaming games in 2025-26 👇 • LeBron & Steph still tied at the top with OKC 🏆 • Rockets with the biggest jump of any team 📈 • Runner-up Pacers getting no respect 😕 • League has given up on Zion & the Pelicans 📉

The WNBA is averaging more than 11,000 fans per game this season for the first time in its history

How the major US sports leagues make money 💰🥧

Since @sportico.bsky.social's NFL valuations dropped today, here's 200 sports team valuations in one chart 👇 • Cowboys now worth $12.8B 💰 • NFL, NBA, MLB each have 3 to 4 teams way ahead of the rest of the pack • Only 4 soccer clubs worth more than the Bengals

🚨 SCOOP 🚨: Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has agreed to buy the Portland Trail Blazers from Paul Allen's estate @sportico.bsky.social values the franchise at $3.6 billion Read more: www.sportico.com/business/tea...

The average NFL franchise value is +130% in the past five years has more than doubled since 2021, per @sportico.bsky.social 🏈💰

Three NFL franchises are worth > $10 billion, per @sportico.bsky.social's latest valuations Full list: wp.me/pc2RuA-1lyBKJ

Last year, only 32% of kickoffs were returned This year, the NFL is moving touchbacks out to the 35 yard line to encourage kicking teams to kick into the landing zone

NFL salaries for top wide receivers (+88%) and quarterbacks (+78%) have increased more than any other positions since 2019 Positions with the slowest growth are special teams, center, and running back

The @nytimes.com top 100 movies of the 21st century broken down by release year: • 8 movies from 2001 (more than any other year) • 0 movies from 2020 or 2024 • Significantly fewer movies from the past decade (anti-recency bias? movies getting worse?) List: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The vast majority of factories supplying sporting goods companies are in East or Southeast Asia The tariff rate is still 30% on imports from China and 19% for many other SE Asian countries

The total US Open 🎾 prize pool is up 20% for 2025 But the players who advance further in the tournament will see the biggest bumps 💰📈 The men's and women's singles winners will earn $5M each (+39% YoY)

The San Francisco 49ers topped the NFL's ticket revenue rankings in 2024 with $176 million • The 49ers were $40 million ahead of #2 Dallas • The 49ers were #1 for the third straight year • The Titans were last for the second straight year Read more: wp.me/pc2RuA-1lzn2x

Despite flag football's growth, youth tackle football has not disappeared On the contrary, tackle football participation has rebounded post-COVID

The University of Texas athletic department spent $325 million (!!!) in the 2023-24 school year and generated $331.9 million in revenue 💰

The Golden State Warriors make so much more money than every other NBA team

With Ichiro Suzuki entering the Hall of Fame this past weekend, here's a look at Japanese players in MLB over time: