The NCAA today will open its portal for schools, sports commissions, municipalities and other organizations to bid on the right to host the roughly 500 postseason events that will be awarded for the 2026-27 through 2029-30 academic years (David Broughton, SBJ). Read more about the bidding process in this week's SBJ College newsletter.
The city of Birmingham has "doubled its amount of guaranteed funding" for construction to make sure updates of Rickwood Field are done in time for its MLB game next year. The Birmingham City Council yesterday approved $4.5M to "pay the costs of capital improvements." The city had already allocated more than $2M for upgrades (AL.com, 9/5).
Sportfive has secured exclusive ownership of third-party media rights for the South American World Cup Qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The agreement encompasses all Conmebol home World Cup qualifier matches for the national teams of Brazil and Argentina. Additionally, Sportfive is set to oversee the media rights for all home friendlies of the Brazilian national team (Sportfive).
