As we approach the final days of 2024, there’s a lot of developing news going on in the world of sports that will carry over into 2025. This week on Yahoo Finance Sports Report, host Joe Pompliano takes a look at some of this week’s biggest headlines in sports that you and your portfolio need to know. This week, Pompliano takes a look at the NWSL’s latest expansion plan, the Philadelphia 76ers’ new $1.3B arena, and the WNBA’s A’ja Wilson and her new six-year contract extension with Nike (NKE). NWSL in talks for new expansion franchise in DenverThe NWSL is in negotiations with a group from Denver to be the women’s soccer league’s next expansion team. The expansion fee is worth somewhere between $105-$120M, which is more than twice what was paid for previous NWSL expansion teams. Last season, the NWSL added two teams, the Utah Royals and Bay FC, and a third team out of Boston will be joining the league in 2026. These teams only paid $53M in expansion fees. Philadelphia 76ers are set to build a new $1.3B basketball arena The Sixers recently got approval from the Philadelphia City Council to build a new $1.3 billion arena in a project called 76 Place for the NBA team in the heart of the City of Brotherly Love. Construction on the arena is set to be completed by 2031. A’ja Wilson signed six-year extension with Nike WNBA star A’ja Wilson signed a six-year contract extension with Nike, making it one of the “richest shoe deals” in women’s basketball history per ESPN. While the extension itself isn’t a huge surprise – Wilson has been with Nike for a long time and won MVP last year – it marks a larger trend for Nike with Elliot Hill at the helm as CEO, putting athletes front-and-center for the brand. To learn more, listen to the full episode of Yahoo Finance Sports Report here. Yahoo Finance Sports Report with Joe Pompliano, a vodcast brought to you by Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports, looks beyond the latest sports business headlines, analyzes all the need-to-know news – the teams, trades, and billion dollar deals – so you and your portfolio will win BIG. Yahoo Finance Sports Report is developed and produced by Lauren Pokedoff.
