The Australian Football League has officially announced this year’s grand final "will be played at Perth’s Optus Stadium," the second year in a row the event has been moved from the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The timeslot for the Sept. 25 match is set to be later than usual on Australia's east coast "due to the time difference" with Western Australia. With daily new coronavirus cases in Victoria still in the high double figures, the local government "made the call on Tuesday to move the grand final." AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan is "adamant the grand final will be played in front of a crowd, even if Perth were to enter a snap lockdown close to the event" (THE AGE, 8/31).

Despite calls to forge ahead with a Sept. 18 grand final, McLachlan said that a pre-grand final bye "allowed all clubs to quarantine for 14 days and then be allowed out in the Perth community for at least a week." Still, the AFL would "not hesitate to push back its season decider into October" if new host city Perth is "locked down with a last-minute Covid outbreak." The AFL will "not disclose how much it has secured from the WA government for the right to host the game but Queensland was understood to have paid as much" as A$15M for grand final at The Gabba last year (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/31).

F1 teams are set for a $1.2M cost cap bonus "thanks to the late Japanese Grand Prix cancellation which has cut the schedule back to 22 races." This change in the race number has "triggered a clause in F1's cost cap rules that means team will still get an extra spending allowance in the cost cap for the event going ahead," even though it has been ditched and they will not have to "face the expenditure of going." For this season, F1's budget gap is based around a $145M limit "if there are 21 races per season, with Article 2.3 of F1's Technical Regulations stating that for every extra event added teams will be allowed another" $1.2M. That means "for this year's originally scheduled 23-race calendar, the limit will be" $147.4M (MOTORSPORT, 8/31).

Following a successful third edition of the Women's International Champions Cup, which concluded at Portland's Providence Park on August 21, tournament organizer Relevent Sports Group CEO Daniel Sillman outlined plans to expand the event in '22 and beyond. After this year's WICC attracted an audience of 227,000 U.S. viewers across ESPN's networks -- up 37% from '19 (the event did not take place in '20 due to the pandemic) -- as well as a 120% increase in sponsorship revenue from '19 to '21, Sillman said the plan is to expand the tournament to six teams next year. He added that in '23, as many as 8-10 teams could be participate. For next year's six-team event, Relevent plans to feature four European clubs and two from the NWSL.

Sillman highlighted the competitive nature and the prize money -- the winners of this year's tournament, NWSL side Portland Thorns, took home $100,000 -- as two of the keys to the event's success. Each participating club qualified for this year’s WICC based on its success in '20. The Thorns qualified by winning the '20 NWSL Fall Series; Lyon the '20 Women’s Champions League and French league; the Dash the '20 NWSL Challenge Cup; and Barcelona the '20 Primera División. While the tournament fell during the preseason for France's Olympique Lyonnais and Spain's Barcelona, the Thorns and Houston Dash are well into the '21-22 season.

Next year's WICC will likely take place in two cities, with Sillman saying Portland is being considered as a possible host again. Sillman also said that Relevent is in talks to renew its partnership with this year's WICC broadcaster, ESPN. Sillman: "We invested the same in production on the women's side that we did on the men's [ICC]. It was phenomenal production quality and ESPN did a great job marketing and distributing it."

Liverpool, Man City and other EPL clubs are "holding firm over their refusal" to release players for World Cup qualifiers in countries on the U.K.’s coronavirus red list after Tottenham and Aston Villa "broke a pact not to do so." Liverpool, City, ManU, Leeds United, Everton and Newcastle United reportedly "had no plans on Tuesday to back down over blocking some of their biggest stars -- including those from Brazil -- from reporting for international duty in a mounting club-versus-country crisis." Spurs and Villa "reneged on a collective agreement" struck by all 20 EPL clubs last week to stop players from travelling to red-list countries. Tottenham and Villa allowed four Argentina players to feature in their country's qualifiers, which "provoked fury" for Brazil, which faces being without a number of key players (London TELEGRAPH, 8/31).

The Indian cricket board on Tuesday announced the release of a tender for "owning and operating two new Indian Premier League franchises." The deadline for the purchase of tender document is Oct. 5. The two new franchises are expected to participate in the IPL '22 season. The talks of new franchises have been "on for a few months now." The franchises are expected to be finalized by December, according to senior officials. Ahmedabad is most likely to host one of the franchises with the refurbished stadium at Motera its home ground.

Super League rugby clubs have agreed to hand over in excess of £5M ($6.8M) to the Rugby Football League for '22 as "talks continue on a re-alignment with the governing body." The cash will come from the £25M ($34.3M) a year thought to be due from the new two-year television agreement with Sky Sports "which kicks in from the end of this season." Top-flight clubs took on television negotiations when they broke away from the RFL in '18 but interim Super League chairman Ken Davy, who took over from executive chairman Robert Elstone in March, is "keen to forge closer ties with the governing body." Davy told a media briefing on Tuesday that talks which began in July are taking "longer than anticipated but that he hopes for a conclusion by the end of the year." 

In the meantime, Davy revealed that clubs have "agreed to give around a fifth of its television income to the RFL," which will decide how much of the £5M ($6.8M)-plus to hand on to the Championship and League 1 clubs (London INDEPENDENT, 8/31).

Pacific League MarketingPLM CEO Tom Negishi

UMass Amherst’s sport management department recently held an educational event with Pacific League Marketing, which was established in '07 as a joint capital investment by the six teams in Japan's Pacific League, one of two divisions in the country's top baseball league (NBP). Well-known title sponsors of Pacific League clubs include Rakuten and SoftBank, among others. Over two days, from July 27-28, more than 300 attendees tuned into the virtual event as UMass Amherst sport management faculty -- seven different instructors and academics -- presented their findings on consumer behavior, sports marketing and the pandemic's impact on the sports ecosystem, among other topics. UMass Amherst McCormack Center for Sport Research & Education Director Will Norton said that he hopes to continue the partnership with PLM into '22. A UMass Amherst sports management alumnus, Blue United CEO Takehiko Nakamura, helped broker the university's partnership with PLM.

The League of Legends European Championship (LEC) broke into Twitch's weekly top 10 channels in the most recent standings, the only region to do so as the LoL season is winding down with major regions finishing out their Summer playoffs and finalizing their World Championship representatives (Trent Murray, SBJ).

Publicly-traded Danish esports company Astralis Group reported its financial results for the first half of '21, generating net revenues of $6.24M during the six-month period, up 91.6% compared to $3.26M during the same period of '20. However, in total, Astralis reported a net loss of $2.01M, compared to a net loss of $4.8M last year (Tobias Seck, SBJ).

Esports Entertainment Group’s Online gambling service VIE.bet is now an official sponsor of Brazilian organization SG esports, covering its two Dota 2 teams, a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, and the organization’s roster of streamers and influencers (Victor Frascarelli, SBJ).

French net Canal+ has "extended its TV rights deal with F1" until '24. Canal+ has held the French TV rights to F1 since '13 (L'EQUIPE, 8/31).

Disney's Star+ streaming service launched Tuesday in Latin America and will include live sports from ESPN (Disney). Meanwhile, Disney+ Hotstar content is set to be split between with Hulu and ESPN+, with Indian SVOD platform Hotstar's cricket coverage (including the IPL) to air on ESPN+ (THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 8/31).

Professional rugby players experienced a "decline in blood flow to the brain and cognitive function after just one season," new research from the University of South Wales has found (London TELEGRAPH, 8/31).

Dutch pay-TV broadcaster Ziggo Sport has secured the rights to MotoGP for the next three seasons, starting in March '22. Ziggo Sport also holds the Dutch broadcasting rights for the IndyCar series and Formula E (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 8/31).

"People just come for the game itself [in Europe]. There's no entertainment, there's no halftime show, there's no cheerleaders, there's no music, there's no food. ... I think we're very cognizant of recognizing the differences in the culture and the sports. But there is a segment of the fans that want something else" -- LaLiga side Mallorca President Andy Kohlberg, on adding matchday amenities like a mobile pizza oven at Mallorca's home stadium (FORBES, 8/30).

"They could have done two laps, five laps, 50 laps or no laps, but the decision should have been with the individual driver" -- former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone, on organizers' handling of Sunday's Belgian F1 GP (London TELEGRAPH, 8/30).

ESPN.com's Rob Dawson explains how ManU "persuaded Cristiano Ronaldo to reject Juventus and Man City, return to Old Trafford."

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— Jean Todt (@JeanTodt) August 31, 2021

A sight we'll 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 tire of seeing 🤩#MUFC | @Cristiano pic.twitter.com/HlotZoJHJR

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 31, 2021

In the past 24 hours, another 205 supporters have set up new pledges. Again, just astonishing and testament to the commitment that has taken us to the position of being the biggest fan-owned club in the UK. Thank you #nevertoolate #proudtopledge pic.twitter.com/tLtfodXwnK

— Foundation of Hearts (@The_FOH) August 31, 2021