I stayed up late last night reading through the notes from a fascinating podcast conversation about FIFA’s financial transformation, and I’m still thinking about it this morning. Not because of the numbers themselves, though a jump from $7 billion to $13 billion in one World Cup cycle is certainly eye-popping, but because of what those … Read more
The most valuable thing about PEAK’s Future of USA SportsTech Report 2026 is not that it tells us what’s new. It tells us what now matters. SportsTech has moved from “look at this cool tool” to “show me the operating model, the data layer, and the revenue path.” Why This Report Lands Right Now Sports … Read more
Here’s a delicious irony for you: sometimes the best way to win attention is to be told you can’t have it. I’ve been thinking about the Levi’s Stadium debacle at the World Cup. You know, the one where FIFA forced them to cover up their branding. Instead of fading into obscurity, they turned that awkward … Read more
Something shifted this summer, and it wasn’t just the score on the board. When the USMNT beat Australia 2–0 on a Friday afternoon, 14.78 million people watched on English-language television alone, making it the fourth-largest audience for a men’s World Cup match in U.S. history, behind a record set just one week earlier when 18.04 … Read more
A Comunicano Sports Special Intelligence Report The biggest event in sports just became the biggest experiment in sports media. FIFA didn’t just sell rights to the 2026 World Cup. It engineered a distribution architecture. And if you’re still thinking about sports rights the way you thought about them in 2022, you’re already behind. FIFA’s Hybrid … Read more
Back in the fall of 1974, I was tasked by Philadelphia Wings general manager Jack Bionda, one of the five greatest box lacrosse players of all time, and our director of player personnel, Ken Wood, to begin assembling information on every draft-eligible box and field lacrosse player in North America. I gathered stats books from … Read more
a comunicano sports | strategy & media intelligence report| June 2026 A strategic analysis of sponsorship economics, the RSN collapse and the architecture of a bigger play Term defined: vMVPD A traditional MVPD, like Comcast or DirecTV, delivers bundled television channels over physical infrastructure it owns or leases: cable lines, satellite transponders, set-top boxes. A … Read more
I came up in sports when the data was a stat line in the morning paper and the fan experience was a hot dog, a bad seat, and a prayer that your team didn’t blow a lead in the ninth. I worked marketing for four professional sports teams. I spent time at a sports licensee … Read more
Most industries talk about AI transformation in the future tense. Sports just moved it to the present tense. Two deals announced this week look like separate news items. They’re not. Together, they signal a structural inflection point that will separate the organizations that thrive in the next decade from the ones that scramble to catch … Read more
The Verdict Is In. Now the Real Fight Begins. A jury found Live Nation guilty on every count — and the breakup question just got a lot harder to dodge. Someone I’ve known in the music industry called me the morning after the April 15th verdict. He has managed mid-size touring acts and stadium artists, … Read more
