2014 by the numbers

Photo by: Getty Images

$325 million
Value of a 13-year contract for Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, the largest total value for a player contract in North American sports history.

88,600
Number of regular-season and playoff games (give or take a few) played under the watch of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and NBA Commissioner David Stern. Stern retired in February and Selig’s official last day is Jan. 24, 2015.

3.49 million

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Bobbleheads distributed by MLB clubs across 146 giveaway dates, the most such dates in any year since we began tracking teams’ promotional efforts in 2005.

$14.53 million
During the general election cycle, spending by politicians and PACs during sportscasts in the 23 battleground markets that are home to a big league team.

$38.4 million
Amount raised during this year’s Boston Marathon by people running on behalf of nonprofit groups, smashing the prior year’s total and supporting more than 300 organizations.

32
New or extended naming-rights deals signed, the most ever in one year. Among the more than $676 million pledged was college football’s biggest average annual payout, a $1.5 million annual agreement from Texas Dow Employees Credit Union over the next decade to name the University of Houston’s new stadium.

Photo by: University of Houston

$738 million
College stadium construction projects underway, completed or approved in 2014 — in Texas. New stadiums opened at Houston (left) and Baylor, a $450 million renovation at Texas A&M wraps up next summer, and major projects are in the works at Texas and Texas Tech.

$40 million
Reported price that Palisades Arcadia Baseball paid to acquire the Class A Midwest League Dayton Dragons, a record for a minor league affiliate.

$51 billion
Reported expense of Sochi, Russia, to stage the 2014 Winter Olympics. Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., will each give their official presentations to the USOC this week as part of their bids to host the 2024 Summer Games. Each bid is expected to propose spending less than $5 billion.

$70-$80

Photo by: Don Muret / Staff

Price range of the Wow Burger at Time Warner Cable Arena, home of the Charlotte Hornets. The “market-priced” giant sandwich weighs in at 8 pounds and features 14 8-ounce burger patties spread across two huge buns.

2
Records set by U.S. sports fans. Kansas City Chiefs fans hit a level of 142.2 decibels at Arrowhead Stadium during the team’s Sept. 29 defeat of the New England Patriots, the loudest crowd roar ever at a stadium. The Aug. 2 Manchester United-Real Madrid friendly at Michigan Stadium drew a crowd of 109,318, the most ever to attend a soccer game in the U.S.

16
Name changes among this winter’s college football bowl games, compared to a year ago, the biggest such year-to-year turnover ever.

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