Austin "appears to have landed" an MLS team after the City Council today "approved the McKalla Place deal" for a stadium. The agreement "paves the way" for Crew Owner Anthony Precourt to "begin financing an estimated" $200M venue on the 24-acre tract of city-owned land. Precourt "aims to have the team playing in the Austin area next year." The council voted 7-4 in favor of the stadium plan. Council member Ellen Troxclair "proposed raising the rent price for Precourt Sports Ventures from $550,000 a year to $958,720," but her amendment failed (STATESMAN.com, 8/15).

David Beckham, Jorge Mas and their partners "may finally have settled on a name, logo and colors" for their Miami MLS team. Several variations of a "black, pink and white logo for 'Internacional Club de Futbol Miami' were posted" to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office this morning. The circular logos are "mostly black with pink and white trim, including what appear to be great blue herons whose intertwined legs for a letter 'M,' and a sunbeam." At the bottom of the logo is the "roman numeral MMXX, which is 2020, the year the team is scheduled to begin play." Inter Miami would be the "shortened version of the team name" (MIAMIHERALD.com, 8/15).

Chicago-based Intersport is planning to create a new golf trophy called the Majors Cup to be awarded to the golfer with the best performance over the four major tournaments. The company since '98 has tracked the best player performances across The Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship and the PGA Championship in naming a Majors Cup winner but has never created an actual trophy. Justin Rose is this year’s Majors Cup winner with his combined 12 under in this year’s major tournaments. Beginning next year, Intersport will activate around its Majors Cup concept by unveiling the trophy.

“We’ve created the concept but we are going to create an actual trophy that can be paraded around,” said Intersport President Brian Graybill. “We want to make it a thing that is part of the golf conversation. We want to turn it into something that can be significant and meaningful.”

The Broncos and concessionaire Centerplate are launching new mobile and high-tech ordering options at Broncos Stadium at Mile High. That includes outfitting beer and food vendors with new hand-held devices which accept credit cards. Centerplate and the Broncos are also installing new self-ordering kiosks in club levels and added 55 new iPad points-of-sale at portable concessions stands throughout the stadium. Fans can also get Broncos and other football symbols engraved into their beer foam in one of the stadium’s premium areas.

“The new technology upgrades are going to enhance what is already the best home field advantage in all of football,” said Centerplate GM Justin Kizima. “Fans can now get their food and drinks faster, so they can get back to watching the game.”

Centerplate

The NFL Jets "wanted to partner with Blue Lives Matter this season, but the pro-cop group stiff-armed the team’s advances." Blue Lives Matter claimed the NFL "doesn’t respect cops," and flagged the Jets for signing a player, RB Isaiah Crowell, who once "posted an image of an officer’s throat being slashed on social media." Blue Lives Matter Founder Joe Imperatrice also said that the NFL is "too toxic with player protests over institutional racism." Jets Senior Manager of Premium Partnerships Anthony Bulak "tried to smooth things over by pointing out that no Jet has knelt during the national anthem." But Imperatrice later wrote in an email, "If I am correct the JETS may have signed an individual who depicted a Grim Reaper slicing the throat of a police officer" (NYPOST.com, 8/15).

AmEx

AmEx will leverage its longstanding relationship with Venus Williams in activating its '18 U.S. Open campaign ahead of the Aug. 27-Sept. 9 tourney at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The company will promote its new AmEx Band, a wristband that allows card members to pay using the tap of a band. Other elements include American Express Super Rally, an interactive game that combines augmented reality with actual tennis. The company also will bring back the AmEx Card Member Club (AmEx).

The Jaguars named India-based Tech Mahindra the team's "Technology and Analytics Partner and Digital Strategy Partner as part of a multi-year agreement." Mahindra will provide the franchise with "artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, virtual reality and more designed to enhance the fan experience and cut front office costs." Team President Mark Lamping said that the deal "will enable the Jaguars to be a more data-driven organization." This marks the "first major deal signed between an Indian firm and an NFL franchise" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 8/15).

CBS Sports Network released its announcer and studio teams for the upcoming college football season. Former NFLers Danny Kanell and Ross Tucker join the team as game analysts, while Kevin Carter will serve as an in-studio analyst. Golf reporter Amanda Balionis will also serve as a sideline reporter for select games (CBSSN).

Xfinity Series driver Elliott Sadler will not return to full-time racing following this season after primary sponsor OneMain Financial earlier this year announced it was at minimum cutting back in NASCAR next year to part-time status (Adam Stern, Staff Writer).

Expedia Group has reached a three-year agreement to become the official travel partner of the UEFA Champions League (Expedia Group).

Baked by Melissa has agreed to become the Yankees' official cupcake partner (Baked by Melissa).

"We've been sold out for 50-plus years. I think that streak would have gone had Scott not come back, so there's a significant renewed enthusiasm" -- Former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne, on the hiring of Scott Frost and its effect on the school's streak of 361 home sellouts (ESPN.com, 8/15).

"When I hear that they should get paid because the university is making money ... we’ve built facilities so that they could have a better experience. I think it would completely erode our amateurism" -- Auburn AD Allen Greene, on the issue of paying college athletes (OANOW.com, 8/15).

Andy Dalton announced via his Twitter account that his wife Jordan and the board members of the Andy & Jordan Dalton Foundation are going to Buffalo next week to make a donation to the Roswell Park Cancer Center as a way to give back for all the donations from the Bills Mafia

— Katherine Terrell (@Kat_Terrell) August 15, 2018

State of the program: A commenter at @TheAthleticCFB this morning called Pruitt not falling victim to any memes so far in his time as coach a "huge positive." I'm new to Tennessee, but I may have underestimated the traumatization of this fan base.

— David Ubben (@davidubben) August 15, 2018

Heartened to hear about upcoming Clemson-LSU home-and-home series. Understand why schools play neutral site games, but home-and-home series are part of the fabric of the sport. Alabama-Texas, Alabama-Notre Dame, Oklahoma-Nebraska and Michigan State-Oregon are others on horizon.

— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) August 15, 2018

USC official promises that the blight of the suites covering the Coliseum peristyle will end when renovation is done next year. That’s good news.

— Rich Hammond (@Rich_Hammond) August 15, 2018

Impressive backbone showed by LTA's new chief exec Scott Lloyd as he stands up to Wimbledon and says no to the Kosmos reforms of Davis Cup. Statement just out. LTA's 12 votes will be against.

— Simon Briggs (@simonrbriggs) August 15, 2018

And hours later, we have ourselves a pedestrian bridge to infield campers who will be camping the “Eye of the #ROVAL “. @CLTMotorSpdwy Anyone with infield access will be able to use it to get to the @CircleK_SouthE store during the race! pic.twitter.com/EImRJzvtov

— Greg Walter (@GTWalter1) August 15, 2018

MLB Network

MLB Network's Robert Flores, Lauren Shehadi and Mark DeRosa will have their own bobbleheads given out to the first 2,000 fans in attendance at the 7:00pm ET Single-A New York-Penn League Brooklyn Cyclones-Vermont Lake Monsters game at MCU Park.

In a recent installment of "Puck Personality" posted on YouTube, the NHL asked players from around the league about their favorite pets.

FS Midwest will present "This One’s For You," its annual Cardinals game telecast featuring local troops deployed overseas. Throughout the Nationals-Cardinals broadcast, the RSN will interview members of the 35th Engineer Brigade of the Missouri Army National Guard, deployed to the Middle East.

Golfer Justin Thomas will appear on NBC's "Tonight Show" at 11:35pm ET.

1,970,742 -- Total number of teams drafted during ESPN's 29-hour Fantasy Football Marathon earlier this week (ESPN).