Afternoon Edition

November 2, 2026

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The Michigan Senate race between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers might be the most closely watched race on Tuesday’s ballot. Sports figures who took interest in the contest donated almost exclusively in support of Rogers.

—Eli Kronenberg and Amanda Christovich

First Up

Exclusive: FanDuel will name its interim CEO as the company’s permanent leader. The news was delivered to employees in an email obtained by FOS.
Fox rides the World Cup to a $4.57 billion quarter, but the critical Thanksgiving holiday potentially holds much less promise for the company.
The DP World Tour and WWE are pressing ahead with events in the Middle East this week despite ongoing security concerns in the region due to the U.S.-Iran war.
Pardon the Interruption cohost Michael Wilbon is taking a leave of absence for health reasons, with guest hosts Pablo Torre and Frank Isola filling in this week.

At Least 10 Sports Owners Backed Mike Rogers in Michigan Senate Race

Ryan Garza / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

This is part of a Front Office Sports series about sports spending in the 2026 midterm elections.

With control of the U.S. Senate on the line in Tuesday’s midterm elections, the eyes of the nation have been fixed on Michigan, where Democratic former public health administrator Abdul El-Sayed faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers. Sports figures who took interest in the race donated almost exclusively in support of Rogers.

Rogers and supportive PACs received donations from at least 10 principal owners of major American sports teams, according to an FOS analysis of Federal Election Commission records. El-Sayed’s campaign received little support from owners, but it did earn contributions from two notable sports figures: San Diego Padres pitcher Lucas Giolito and Chicago Stars minority owner Jennifer Pritzker.

The campaigns for El-Sayed and Rogers did not immediately respond to FOS requests for comment.

Among sports owners who donated to Rogers’s campaign:

Orlando Magic owners Dick and Dan DeVos ($7,000 each)
Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Browns, and Columbus Crew owner Jimmy Haslam ($7,000)
Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill ($7,000)
Denver Broncos owner Rob Walton ($7,000)
Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick ($3,500)
Cincinnati Reds owner Robert Castellini ($3,500)
Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt ($3,500)
Atlanta Hawks owner Antony Ressler ($3,500)
Los Angeles Kings owner Philip Anschutz ($3,500)

Meanwhile, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft donated $100,000 to the Great Lakes Conservatives Fund (GLCF), a super PAC formed to support Rogers. GLCF has spent more than $20 million in advertising buys this cycle, exclusively on the Michigan Senate race. Kraft previously donated $3,500 to the principal committee for Rep. Haley Stevens, El-Sayed’s Democratic primary opponent who he narrowly defeated in August. A representative for Kraft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other contributors to GLCF include Bidwill ($5,000), Kendrick ($5,000), Dan DeVos ($5,000), and Haslam ($3,000).

Some sports kingmakers who don’t own a team also heavily backed Rogers. Ben Navarro, who owns the Cincinnati and Charleston tennis tournaments and is the father of WTA top-30 player Emma Navarro, donated $500,000 to GLCF. Casey Wasserman, the chairperson and president of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee, donated $25,000 to Team Rogers.

El-Sayed received almost no support from major sports owners.

Pritzker, whose cousin is Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, donated $7,000 to El-Sayed’s campaign. She also donated $565 to Rebellion PAC, founded by leftist political activist Cenk Uygur, which supports multiple progressive candidates, including El-Sayed. The PAC drew criticism for re-running a campaign ad featuring a couple in a grocery store blaming the rising cost of eggs on U.S. military aid to Israel.

El-Sayed did also receive support from at least one athlete: Giolito, who has been a prominent supporter of progressive causes, donated $1,250 to El-Sayed’s principal campaign committee.

Giolito and a representative for Pritzker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, local team owners appeared to stay out of the race altogether. Current majority owners for the Detroit Lions (Sheila Ford Hamp), Red Wings and Tigers (Chris Ilitch), and Pistons (Tom Gores) did not donate to either campaign or related PACs, according to an FOS analysis.

A Pivotal Race

Republicans currently hold a 53–47 majority in the Senate, with Democrats trying to flip the chamber by targeting several seats currently occupied by Republicans, including in North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, Texas, and Alaska.

Michigan is likely the Republicans’ strongest chance to flip a seat currently held by a Democrat, after Sen. Gary Peters left the seat open when he announced his retirement last year. However, with surveys suggesting a national environment that heavily favors Democrats, El-Sayed currently leads by 4.9 percentage points in Silver Bulletin’s latest polling average.

A Detroit News analysis found that, as of last week, El-Sayed, Rogers, and their allies have poured more than $400 million into the race. El-Sayed’s campaign has comfortably outraised Rogers’s, but Rogers has a sizable advantage in outside spending.

El-Sayed came through a bitterly contested Democratic primary by only 1 percentage point against Stevens, which has continued to bring discord right up to the eve of the election. While Stevens initially endorsed El-Sayed the day after her defeat, she endorsed Rogers on Sunday after feuding with El-Sayed over the Rebellion PAC ad, which his campaign distanced itself from but did not initially condemn.

Polls in Michigan close at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Built to Grow With Microsoft

For Microsoft, sports data is table stakes. The right teammate is the real advantage.

“We were really looking for a very strong data provider that could grow with us, not just in the near term, but for the long term,” says Geraldine Russell, head of AI data partnerships at Microsoft.

Sportradar fit the bill. Its data already powers scores, summaries, and insights across Windows, MSN, Bing, and Copilot.

That was the foundation. Now the two are setting their sights on co-innovation in AI, exploring new ways to bring sports to more fans around the world.

Learn how Sportradar and Microsoft are building what’s next in sports, together. Watch Sportradar’s newest partnership story with Microsoft.

LOUD AND CLEAR

A Shorter NBA Season?

Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

“If I were gonna do one thing, maybe I would reduce the schedule by a few games, so it’s not 82.”

—Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson when asked by Front Office Sports’s Baker Machado about the current state of the league and what changes he would make. Johnson believes shortening the regular season to fewer than 82 games would alleviate some of the physical stress on players, which is already being felt this season as a number of stars are out with injuries.

“Injuries are gonna happen, but part of it’s like, you know, the wear and tear on these guys—maybe you need to reduce that a little bit,” Johnson continued. “The talent you see in the league has never been higher. … Just in terms of watching the guys at the height of their powers, I love the product.”

How the Yankees Get Ahead Off the Field

Behind one of sports’s most storied organizations is a finance team managing 50 different departments.

With Sage Intacct, the New York Yankees have cut month-end close time by 67% and made financial modeling immediate, giving the team more time to focus on long-term planning. Real-time dashboards and automated processes help the finance team deliver insights faster, giving leadership the information it needs to make decisions in the moment.

Read how Sage Intacct is helping the Yankees streamline operations, make faster decisions, and plan for the future.

STATUS REPORT

Three Up, One Down

Eduardo Munoz-Reuters

Ben Shelton ⬆ Juan Carlos Ferrero, the former tennis coach of Carlos Alcaraz, announced on social media Sunday that he will join Ben Shelton’s coaching staff next season. Ferrero coached Alcaraz to six of his first seven Grand Slams before the two split in late 2025. Shelton, who is currently men’s world No. 4, right behind Alcaraz, made his first Grand Slam final at the US Open in September. He outlasted Alcaraz in an epic five-setter at the US Open quarterfinal that ran past 3:30 a.m. ET.

Jackson Koivun ⬆ The breakout U.S. star of the Presidents Cup will be back in the national spotlight this fall. Koivun, 21, will compete on Scottie Scheffler’s team in the second edition of the Golf Channel Games on Dec. 16, alongside fellow Americans Chris Gotterup and Michael Brennan. They’ll square off against Rory McIlroy’s team that includes fellow international players Matt Fitzpatrick, Si Woo Kim, and Haotong Li. It will be the second made-for-TV golf special for Koivun, who is also set to play in Amazon Prime Video’s The Skins Game on Black Friday.

Gotham FC ⬆ On Sunday, the reigning league champions won the club’s first NWSL Shield—the trophy given to the team with the best regular-season record—earning each player a $15,000 bonus. Gotham now heads into the playoffs as the top seed, hoping to reach the Nov. 21 championship match in Washington, D.C.

Ice Hockey World Championship ⬇ At least two major sponsors said they would pull out of their deals with the men’s International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship next May if Russia is allowed to compete. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Friday that Russia must be allowed back into international hockey, overturning a ban that had excluded the country since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Swedish furniture company AJ Products, which has sponsored the world championship for nearly 40 years, and Czech betting company Tipsport said they would boycott.