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  Jeff CarlisleOct 15, 2025, 07:38 AM ET

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  Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC.

The Aug. 10 match between the Portland Thorns and the Seattle Reign looked like countless other NWSL matches at Providence Park in downtown Portland over the years. The stadium’s North End, home to Thorns supporters group Rose City Riveters, kept up a steady beat of chants and songs. The Pride flags and Cascadia banners were draped over the railing. A crowd of 21,811 fans enjoyed a 4-2 victory over their longtime rivals.

Compared to the 2022 and 2023 seasons, there were some flags missing, however. There were no “Sell The Team” signs, nor were there any “You Knew” banners, a reference to the abuse scandal that rocked the team — and the NWSL as a whole — starting back in 2021 once the news had broken. The reason for this was simple: A change in ownership in early 2024 meant that Merritt Paulson — who long caught the ire of fans — was out, and RAJ Sports, headed by the Bhathal family, was in.

For fans, attending games the past two seasons has meant no more inner turmoil in terms of supporting the team once owned by Paulson, who they held responsible for much of the scandal.

“The joy is back,” said Gabby Rosas, the former president of the 107IST, the organizational arm of the Rose City Riveters, as well as the Portland Timbers’ counterpart, the Timbers Army. “I know I feel more comfortable in the stadium, in the stands. I don’t feel conflicted about it. I think the new ownership is not even really on my thought list when I’m getting ready for a match, unlike for a few years there.”

The joy might have returned to Thorns game days, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been growing pains. Decoupling the Thorns from the Timbers organization — which had been the driving force behind the NWSL team since its debut in 2013 — has been a bumpy process at times. And it’s still not over.

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Rebuilding trust in Portland

The Thorns’ new ownership group, led by the brother-sister duo of Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage, has attempted to steer the Thorns into a new era. That has meant a clear separation of the club from Paulson’s organization and crafting their own approach in moving the Thorns forward.

“For me, I consider it incredibly fun, challenging,” Merage told ESPN about taking over the Thorns. “It’s about problem solving. It’s about making a difference. It’s about influencing and shaping the future. I like to say shaping the future of women’s sports for generations to come. So, it comes with everything, but that’s what makes it so fun. We’re very lucky to be in this line of work.”

Alex Bhathal added: “We love business and we love sports, so there’s nothing better than to be the custodians of this community asset, and it’s been a thrilling ride, a lot of fun, a lot of challenges to overcome, but we’re just getting started and really excited about where we can elevate the club to on a global stage.”

Reilyn Turner and Pietra Tordin celebrate the Portland Thorns scoring against the Seattle Reign on Aug. 10. Soobum Im/NWSL via Getty Images

While there have been numerous challenges, the biggest ones have been about rebuilding trust with fans and sponsors. Portland was one of the teams at the epicenter of the Yates Report, which detailed systemic abuse at multiple NWSL teams. Former Thorns manager Paul Riley, who coached the team in 2014 and 2015, was named in the report as having allegedly engaged in sexual coercion of players, with the organization’s leaders — including Paulson — keeping the manner of his departure quiet and helping him find new employment within the league.

A report from the Oregonian also detailed a toxic workplace culture at the Timbers-Thorns organization as it related to its treatment of women employees. Later, ESPN reported that Paulson had given North Carolina Courage owner Steve Malik a warning that Riley shouldn’t apply for the then-vacant U.S. women’s national team job, extending the wall of silence about Riley’s behavior. Longtime Thorns executives Gavin Wilkinson and Mike Golub were later fired.

In 2022, Paulson announced he was stepping down as CEO from both the Thorns and the Timbers, and later said he would sell the NWSL side. That sale was completed on Jan. 3, 2024.

Bhathal and Merage said they spent the first year of their ownership on a “listening tour” in which they engaged with fans and other stakeholders. There were connections to the business community and fan base that needed to be reestablished. There was an organization that needed to be staffed.

Along the way, RAJ Sports also secured a WNBA expansion franchise, dubbed the Fire, that will be based in Portland.

“Our primary focus and goal and vision is to cement Portland as the global epicenter for women’s sports,” Bhathal said.

As it relates to the Thorns, that has meant knowing when to push through with ideas and when to back off. Tina Ettlin, a current 107IST board member, recalled how in one early meeting, the new ownership asked, “How are we going to light the beam?” — a reference to the postwin ritual of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings who count Alex Bhathal as one of their owners. That suggestion did not go over well with the Riveters and was eventually discarded.

“We’re like, ‘Did you not buy the team because of what you saw in the Riveters?’ So, we were a little bit confused by that and a little bit off-put by that,” Ettlin said.

Some endeavors from new ownership have been more successful than others. At the height of the scandal under Paulson, sponsors began abandoning the Thorns. Among those were Alaska Airlines, which ended its jersey sponsorship in 2023, after previously redirecting its funds to the NWSL Players Association Emergency Trust and local youth sports. Cheesemaker Tillamook also withdrew its support.

But Alaska Airlines and Tillamook have since come back into the Thorns’ sponsorship fold. Both companies had previously been Timbers sponsors too. Tillamook has since returned, signing on as the Timbers’ front-of-jersey sponsor, but Alaska has not. The Thorns, meanwhile, locked up security camera company Ring as their new jersey sponsor, which Merage said has helped bring sponsorship revenue up over 600% year over year.

At the height of discontent under former owner Merritt Paulson, Portland Thorns fans displayed signs that said, ‘You Knew,’ in reference to his involvement in covering up allegations of abuse under ex-coach Paul Riley. Logan Hannigan-Downs/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Not all broken ties have been mended, though. Union Wine was one sponsor that didn’t return, citing a wait-and-see approach with the new ownership. “Our commitment to this community runs deep,” said Union Wine owner and founder Ryan Harms in a statement to ESPN. “We believe the Thorns are an important part of Oregon sports culture, and we’re hopeful that the new leadership will take the steps necessary to rebuild and strengthen trust with fans and partners alike. If that happens, we’d certainly be open to exploring what a future partnership could look like.”

It helps that, with new owners, the organization has something of a clean slate.

“We are just approaching everything brand new, and establishing who we are, what our mission is, what we’re about, and really leaning into that,” Thorns CEO Alexis Lee said in relation to sponsorships. “And everybody has been very open to those conversations and quite actually excited about it.”

That doesn’t mean the relationship with Paulson is now nonexistent, though. According to Lee, no staff came over from Peregrine Sports, the Paulson-led entity that previously owned the Thorns. The two entities have been completely separate on the business side since the start of this year, Merage said.

At present, the Thorns employ 20 employees on the soccer operations side and 35 on the business side, with more to come. But the Thorns remain a subtenant at Providence Park, which is operated by Peregrine Sports and, by extension, Paulson.

“We still text with Merritt pretty regularly,” Bhathal said. “We cheer on the Timbers. He cheers on the Thorns. It’s all good.”

Facility gains, attendance challenges

RAJ Sports has also jumped headlong into building new infrastructure for the Thorns, who lacked their own practice space in the Paulson years, often having to train at the artificial turf of Providence Park. RAJ Sports broke ground on a new training facility back in May, one that will be shared between the Thorns and the Fire and will be designed for women athletes.

Construction is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2026 NWSL season and has involved consultation with other NWSL teams that have built similar facilities, including the Kansas City Current. Thorns players like Morgan Weaver and Sophia Wilson, who just gave birth to her first child, have also had a say in what amenities the facility will have.

“I think that what we learned was to allow flexibility for growth because it seemed like [Kansas City] built it and they were already starting to bust out the seams,” said Merage. “So we’re like, how does that come into play for ours? And then also just how they approach the female athlete. So, there were learnings with that as well.”

New Portland Thorns owners Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage accept a WNBA ball from commissioner Cathy Engelbert as the Bhathals announce their new WNBA team, the Portland Fire, planned to debut next year. Cameron Browne/NBAE via Getty Images

When asked if the Thorns would ever consider constructing their own stadium, Bhathal said that the team’s current venue is “representative of Portland being a soccer city, and it allows for the community to really support both the Timbers and the Thorns, and we are very happy in Providence Park.”

Attendance has proven to be a bigger challenge. During the 2022 season, when the Thorns’ organizational reputation hit rock bottom, per game average attendance was 15,543 and a wave of fans opted not to renew their season tickets. Once Paulson announced in December 2022 that he would sell the team, 2023 attendance ticked up to 18,918. It was about the same (18,725) in 2024 but has since moved downward to 17,479 so far this season. Lee noted that mark still leads the league, though attendance is down this year across the league.

Gavin Wilkinson, left, and Merritt Paulson, who oversaw both the Portland Timbers and Thorns before the Thorns’ ownership change, had been called out in investigations for their handling of abuse allegations. Diego Diaz/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

“Although we are in the top of our area, there’s always more opportunities to sell in that particular space,” Lee said. “We are very affordable. We want to remain affordable. We’re going to continue to evaluate what the product mix looks like, how are we meeting the needs of our marketplace and just the ever-changing demands of that as well.”

To meet those demands, Lee said they are looking at modifying kickoff times, the better to cater to families. Earlier this year, the Thorns held the “World’s Largest Baby Shower,” in a bid to not only honor Wilson and Thorns midfielder Olivia Wade-Katoa, but also to donate diapers to families in the community.

“What we’re trying to do is meet our audiences of where they’re at, also understanding where the economy is, and just trying to test how do we meet you where you’re at in whatever price point you’re at,” Lee said.

Even the presence of new owners can’t entirely repair the damage done during the scandal years. Chris Bright, a local tech entrepreneur who at one time tried to put together a consortium of microinvestors to buy the team, had canceled his season tickets at the height of the scandal, and while he has attended some games this year, he hasn’t yet renewed them.

“It’s just more about me not getting around to it,” Bright said. It shows the problem that the new Thorns organization still faces in winning fans and sponsors back to the same level of engagement after it has lost them once already.

A Thorns rebuild on the field too

As much as off-field matters continue to be a work in progress, so too is what’s happening on the field.

The Thorns have been without Wilson and Weaver because of pregnancy and a right knee injury, respectively. That, along with the retirements of club legends Christine Sinclair, Meghan Klingenberg and Becky Sauerbrunn, might explain in part the drop in attendance.

But on the field, the Thorns are staying afloat despite those absences — they are currently in seventh place, but just two points behind third-place Orlando.

There has been some upheaval on the soccer operations side, with Jeff Agoos replacing Karina LeBlanc as general manager at the start of 2025, while Rob Gale replaced Mike Norris as manager after the start of the 2024 campaign. This is Agoos’ first foray into woman’s soccer after previously working for the New York Red Bulls and MLS league office.

Agoos admits that there’s been a bit of a learning curve, but insists that while the loss of former league MVP Wilson was a huge blow, it forced the team to diversify its attack.

“We wanted to make sure that we were going to be younger and more aggressive,” Agoos said. “We wanted to make sure we rebalanced our team and that we had different areas that were capable of scoring from a lot of different places. Sophia was essentially the main protagonist for us last year, whereas we’ve got goals coming from a lot of different players this year.”

Deyna Castellanos and Mimi Alidou after a game at Providence Park in April 2025. Soobum Im/NWSL via Getty Images

Agoos added he’s trying to reset the club’s culture, even as the club won a championship as recently as 2022.

“We want to make sure that you have the courage to do the right thing at the right moment, even when people aren’t looking,” he said. “And so being a good pro, both on and off the field, whether it’s staff or whether it’s for players, is critically important.”

While the vibe from fans overall is positive, there is a sense that the Thorns have fallen from what was once a lofty perch. As the league expands — two new teams, in Boston and Denver, debut in 2026, taking the league to 16 teams — there’s no guarantee that the organization will make it back. There has been a scarcity of top signings that make fans sit up and take notice.

“I think part of the frustration is how do we get back to being No. 1,” Rosas said. “Not just in the standings, but how do we get back to being the club that international players want to come to? The top tier players want to be at? How do we get back to being this beacon for women’s soccer, not only in NWSL, but for around the world?”

That the Fire, who will launch in the WNBA next year, are now part of the RAJ Sports portfolio isn’t viewed entirely as a positive to some fans either. The constant advertising for the Fire at Providence Park leaves some fans feeling wary.

“The frustration is it feels like their focus has really pivoted to [the WNBA],” Rosas said. “I know that that’s a tall order, that’s a huge project, but I also feel like there’s still a lot of work to do on the Thorns side as well.

“I think they now are calling themselves the epicenter of women’s sports. And it’s like, what does that mean? I just feel like the Thorns are getting pulled into this identity that isn’t the Thorns. It’s like you’re trying to spread something out to encompass a lot more than what it needs to. We’re in a playoff run; we should be focusing on the Thorns.”

In response to those concerns, Lee said that while the Fire is an “exciting new addition” to the organization, it hasn’t changed the level of commitment of investment that the ownership has in the Thorns.

“Our success is intertwined, and the Thorns remain a top priority,” Lee said.

Both Bhathal and Merage acknowledge that there is more work to be done. With a home venue with a 26,000-seat capacity, there is certainly room to grow in terms of attendance. But ownership is intent on playing the long game. Bhathal said women’s sports franchises will be billion dollar businesses “in short order.”

“We consider ourselves growth stage investors,” Bhathal said. “So, when we came in, it was post the venture stage. I would say it’s into the growth stage, and it’s nowhere near maturity. There’s so much opportunity ahead. So, it was the right time for us where we feel that there’s a proof of concept, it’s working.”

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  Baxter HolmesOct 14, 2025, 02:28 PM ET

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  Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) is a senior writer for ESPN Digital and Print, focusing on the NBA. He has covered the Lakers, the Celtics and previously worked for The Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times.

Phoenix Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia has countersued two Suns minority owners, saying that they insisted he buy out their ownership shares “at an exorbitant premium,” according to a copy of the complaint obtained by ESPN.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Delaware State Court. The two Suns minority owners are Scott Seldin and Andy Kohlberg, both of whom were holdovers from the previous regime under former Suns owner Robert Sarver. Seldin and Kohlberg sued the team in August, alleging that Ishbia has refused access to internal records.

ESPN previously reported that the Suns sent a letter in August to Kohlberg and Seldin, in which the team said that the two men demanded that the Suns buy their ownership share for $825 million, a figure that would place the team’s value at about $6 billion — a 60% increase from the value when Ishbia bought his controlling interest in 2023.

The Suns said in the letter, which ESPN obtained, that they have no obligation to buy Seldin and Kohlberg out.

“When Mat Ishbia bought the Suns and Mercury, he couldn’t have been clearer with investors: he was going to invest in the teams, the fans, and the community,” a spokesman for Ishbia said Tuesday. “Every investor had the choice at that point — sell at premium or stay in and invest alongside him. Andy Kohlberg and Scott Seldin want it both ways. They don’t want to invest in the teams, but they are demanding a payday significantly higher than what Mat originally offered, which was still over 20x their original investment. That’s not how it works, and we’re confident we’ll prevail in court.”

An attorney representing Kohlberg and Seldin didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The August lawsuit from Seldin and Kohlberg was the sixth against the Suns since November 2024. The other five were by current or former employees. Some of their allegations include discrimination, retaliation, harassment and wrongful termination.

During a Sept. 24 appearance on ESPN’s “NBA Today,” Ishbia addressed the lawsuits.

“Obviously anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason they want, for anything they want,” Ishbia said. “How many lawsuits have we actually lost? The answer is zero. How many will we lose? Zero.

“The way I look at it a little differently than other people is we don’t settle. We don’t settle with someone. You want to say, give me $30,000 and I won’t file a lawsuit? I say file a lawsuit. We didn’t do anything wrong. If we do something wrong, we take care of people, but I’m not going to be leveraged by people.”

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Tottenham have received a cash boost of £100m from their owners, the Lewis family trust, with further funding poised to follow that will provide Thomas Frank with greater room for manoeuvre in the transfer market.

The club have long sought fresh investment to enable their varied plans to expand the business, which include numerous non-football projects. But the priority is on-field success; there is an awareness at boardroom level that it is the principal driver for everything.

The 17th-placed Premier League finish last season was a disaster and the target for Frank is to return the team to the top five, mainly for sporting reasons, but also to drive revenue streams and keep the clubâ€s value high.

Frank was permitted to spend about £125m on players this summer – most notably Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons – with the club also committed to paying combined fees of about £50m to make the deals for Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel permanent.

Frank has started well – Spurs are third – and will be backed in January if the right signings are available at the right prices. The usual disclaimer about the mid-season window being a difficult time to add to the squad applies.

The equity injection has come from the Lewis family fortune and put it into Spurs via their investment vehicle, Enic. A source close to the family said: “This is initial additional funding. As the clubâ€s management decides whatâ€s needed to deliver success, more money will be available. The Lewis family is committed to backing the club to be successful.â€

The Lewis family and the rest of the Spurs executive tier maintain the club is not for sale. Spurs have been stalked by takeover talk for a long time and it has intensified since the former chair Daniel Levy was ousted in early September. The club have rejected expressions of interest from three groups. One was Amanda Staveleyâ€s PCP International Finance; another a consortium of investors led by Dr Roger Kennedy and Wing-Fai Ng through Firehawk Holdings Limited; and the third came from a United States-based consortium led by the tech entrepreneur Brooklyn Earick.

Spurs said the £100m would “further strengthen the clubâ€s financial position and equip the leadership team with additional resources to continue the focus on driving long-term sporting success. This additional capital is part of the Lewis familyâ€s ongoing commitment to the club and its future.â€

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Peter Charrington, the Spurs nonexecutive chair, said: “Our focus is on stability and empowering the management team to deliver on the clubâ€s ambitions. I know the Lewis family are also ambitious for the future. Todayâ€s capital commitment reflects that ambition and I would like to thank them for their ongoing support. We will continue to do all we can to ensure that Vinai [Venkatesham, the chief executive] and his team are supported in the best way possible to take this club forward.â€

Spurs†non-football projects include the building of a hotel and an indoor arena close to the stadium; an expansion of the training ground in Enfield to take in a hub for the womenâ€s team and a bespoke NFL training facility; and numerous residential developments in the Tottenham area.

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TAMPA, Fla. — The new owners of the Tampa Bay Rays are promising to get hurricane-damaged Tropicana Field repaired in time for next season and beginning a search for a new ballpark to open in 2029.

The group led by Florida-based real estate developer Patrick Zalupski finalized a $1.7 billion purchase last week from Stu Sternberg, who owned the Rays for 18 years and had long sought to find the team a new stadium.

Zalupski and other top executives Ken Babby and Bill Cosgrove said at a news conference Tuesday they intend for the team to remain in the Tampa Bay area.

Zalupski said the search is on for a site in the region that could include roughly 100 acres (40 hectares) that would support retail shops, bars, restaurants and other amenities along with a ballpark. The stadium itself, he said, would be a domed ballpark with a fixed roof.

“We need a new ballpark. I don’t think that’s disputed by anyone,” Zalupski said. “We want to build a sustainable championship team. We’re confident we can be successful in Tampa Bay.”

Babby, described as the team’s new CEO, acknowledged there is longstanding “fatigue” in the area about where the Rays would build a new home — with frequent speculation they might decide to leave altogether. But MLB has repeatedly said it wants the team to stay. Several sites in the area have previously been considered, such as the nightlife-rich Ybor City neighborhood, the grounds of a Tampa community college and even an old greyhound racetrack.

“We’re looking at everywhere,” Babby said. “We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves to one location or site.”

Meanwhile, work continues on Tropicana Field, which had its roof ripped off and suffered significant internal damage last October during Hurricane Milton. By the end of the week, Babby said, half of the Trop’s 24 roof panels will be installed.

Under their current lease with the city of St. Petersburg, the Rays are obligated to play at the Trop for three more seasons. The mayors of both Tampa and St. Petersburg attended the news conference.

The Rays in March withdrew from a $1.3 billion project to construct a new ballpark adjacent to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, citing the hurricane and delays that likely drove up the proposal’s cost. That led Sternberg to sell the team, which had to pay the New York Yankees $15 million to play this season at the Yankees’ spring training ballpark, Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

Zalupski, CEO of Jacksonville-based Dream Finders Homes Inc., will be the team’s control person and a co-chair along with Cosgrove, CEO of Union Home Mortgage in Ohio. Babby will run day-to-day business operations.

Babby is CEO of Fast Forward Sports Group, which owns the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, a Miami Marlins affiliate, and the Double-A Akron RubberDucks, a Cleveland Guardians farm team.

During their time in St. Petersburg, the Rays have struggled with poor attendance, although they’ve been successful on the field. The Rays won American League East titles in 2008, 2010, 2020 and 2021 and twice reached the World Series, losing to Philadelphia in 2008 and to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.

This year, the Rays missed the playoffs with a 77-85 record.

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Sep 22, 2025, 04:55 PM ET

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball owners voted unanimously Monday to approve the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays to group headed by real estate developer Patrick Zalupski, allowing the transfer from Stu Sternberg’s group to close.

The Rays said on Sept. 17 they expected the sale to close within two weeks.

Sternberg took control of the team from founding owner Vince Naimoli in November 2005 and rebranded it the Rays from the Devil Rays after the 2007 season. The Rays won AL East titles in 2008, 2010, 2020 and 2021, and twice reached the World Series, losing to Philadelphia in 2008 and to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.

The Rays in March withdrew from a $1.3 billion project to construct a new ballpark adjacent to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, citing a hurricane and delays that likely drove up the proposal’s cost. The team said in June it had started talks about a potential sale.

Because of damage to Tropicana Field caused by Hurricane Milton last October, the Rays played home games this season across the bay at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays went 41-40 for their ninth straight winning record at home.

Playing home games in an open-air ballpark for the first time, the Rays experienced 17 rains delays over 16 games for a total of 17 hours, 47 minutes.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that he expects under Zalupski the Rays will start a new search for a new ballpark site in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area. Under Sternberg, the Rays announced plans for and then failed to move ahead with proposed ballparks at the Al Lang Stadium site in St. Petersburg (2007), Ybor City in Tampa (2018) and the site adjacent to the Trop in downtown St. Petersburg (2023 ).

Tampa Bay started this season with an $81.9 million payroll, ahead of only the Athletics and Miami.

Playing at a 10,046-capacity ballpark, Tampa Bay had 61 sellouts and drew 786,750, down from 1,337,739 in 2024, when they were 28th among the 30 teams and ahead of only Miami and Oakland.

Tampa Bay is currently 29th in home attendance this year, ahead of only the Athletics, who are playing home games at a minor league ballpark in West Sacramento, California, while a new stadium expected to open in 2028 is built in Las Vegas. The Rays have completed their home schedule while the A’s have drawn 711,609 with six home games left.

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The Tampa Bay Rays have a new owner.

Per The Athletic’s Melissa Lockard and Evan Drelich, MLB owners unanimously approved the sale of the team to a Patrick Zalupski-led ownership group, and the sale is expected to be finalized later this week.

In July, Rays owner Stu Stenberg agreed to sell the team in principle to Zalupski, a Jacksonville-based developer, for nearly $1.7 billion.

Drellich reported in March that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred was pressuring Stenberg to sell the team after he struggled to secure a new stadium. Stenberg responded to that pressure by saying that “the team is not for sale.”

Ultimately, Stenberg agreed to give up his majority ownership stake in the Rays.

Stenberg purchased the team in 2004 for $200 million, and while he’ll no longer be the majority owner, he and his partners will remain minority owners, according to Lockard and Drellich, retaining a 10 percent share of the team. Lockard and Drellich noted that Stenberg and his group “are expected to fully divest their investment in the club in the coming years.”

The Rays found some success under Stenberg’s ownership, reaching the World Series in 2008 and 2020, but never established themselves as a perennial contender. Tampa Bay is fully in rebuilding mode now, sitting at 76-80 on the season.

The Rays have played their home games during the 2025 campaign at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the spring training stadium of the New York Yankees, due to damage to their own stadium during Hurricane Milton last year.

The team was supposed to get a new $1.3 billion stadium in St. Petersburg, but did not move forward with those plans after the hurricane. Lockard and Drellich noted that Zalupski’s group will continue to try to find a new stadium, but will return to Tropicana Field in 2026.

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The baseball world sent its condolences and gave tribute to former Mets manager Davey Johnson, after the four-time All-Star and…

Baxter HolmesAug 27, 2025, 10:01 PM ETCloseBaxter Holmes (@Baxter) is a senior writer for ESPN Digital and Print, focusing on…

When Mat Ishbia purchased a controlling interest in the Phoenix Suns, he offered to buy out any of the team’s…