WNBA struggling with image of fairness in protecting its stars
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Bulls of the week
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The past week has been a healthy reminder of how important drafting is in building teams — and ultimately, winners — in the business of sport. All three major drivers of product development — the draft, trade and free agency — have been in the headlines this month in the NHL and NBA, the two major North American leagues that go shoulder-to-shoulder each year in their regular season schedule, playoffs, draft and free agency.
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Yet there is no question that it is drafting that drives franchise building — or franchise rebuilding. That opportunity to restock the shelves, so to speak, sets the tone and tenor for the rest of the hockey operations process rounded out by trading and free agent signings.
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Sunrise
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Just ask fans of the Montreal Canadiens and San Jose Sharks, to name two. They are the NHL’s poster children for drafting with a vision for the future. Kudos to President of Hockey Operations Jeff Gorton and GM Kent Hughes whose Habs made the conference finals this spring and San Jose GM Mike Grier, whose Sharks should follow in their footsteps as early as this coming season. After years of pain and bad teams, Grier sure seems to have set the stage for the payoff; a very good NHL club led by Macklin Celebrini of North Vancouver.
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Another case in point is the Toronto Maple Leafs, buoyed by winning the NHL draft lottery in May and selecting consensus No. 1 Gavin McKenna with the first overall pick eight days ago. Putting McKenna in a Leafs jersey is quite the head start for new GM John Chayka.
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Yet despite the fun for armchair GMs generated by the respective NHL and NBA drafts, blockbuster trades and now free agency, the biggest winner this week in the business of sport is the World Cup 2026. It is marking its third weekend of five, with the Round of 16 beginning Saturday in Houston when Canada takes on heavily favoured Morocco. The bull market is one part destination television, one part sold out stadiums and one part social media and global fan engagement like none other.
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For Canada, it’s the single biggest corporate opportunity all time for soccer and the men’s national team program. After drawing domestic television audiences of 3.2 million for group stage matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina, 5.2 million against Qatar and 4.1 million over Switzerland and 5.2 million for Canada’s first World Cup knockout round victory over South Africa last Saturday, Saturday’s match against Morocco should top all those TV numbers, especially if it’s a competitive match.
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With average World Cup matches driving global audiences of 175 million four years ago, the historic Canada-Morocco matchup could track north of 300 to 400 million in more than 200 countries around the world. That would make it the most-watched Canadian sports event in our history.
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All of this is happening in the context of the co-hosting of the 2026 World Cup by the United States, Mexico and Canada, with 16 host cities in those three countries. So far, the co-hosts have obliged optimal fan engagement, with all three reaching the Round of 16 and two of the three doing so on home soil. If that continues, into the quarter-finals and semifinals, it will live up to its billing as the biggest World Cup of all time, both literally and figuratively, on every major financial indicator of success for FIFA.
