Saudi Arabia’s big boxing project is going global. At London’s Wembley Stadium tonight, British boxers Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois will face off in the first European showdown organised by Riyadh Season. It follows last month’s fight night in Los Angeles, which also took place under the Riyadh Season brand and began as a programme of cultural events in the Saudi capital.

This is a sign of things to come. Unlike in the Gulf, those responsible for Saudi Arabia’s sporting offensive in boxing have found a rhythm and brought rival organizers together under the umbrella of the Riyadh Season so that fans and broadcasters can see the fights they long for. Boxers and organizers, meanwhile, are collecting hefty fees.

Boxing is one of the most sought-after sports with a global audience, but the Saudis have also had success in tennis recently. Perhaps this is the big lesson learned from the expensive LIV golf experiment: it is much cheaper to team up with the establishment than to turn it on its head.

This week we take a look at the latest big news from Nike, whose CEO has been ousted. And we wonder if football fans are reaching their limits with rising prices. Read more — Josh Noble, Sports Editor

How outgoing Nike CEO John Donahoe lost the thread

On June 27, Nike CEO John Donahoe led one of the bleakest conference calls in the sporting goods maker’s history. Not only is the company still trying to find its balance between online and brick-and-mortar sales, he said, but consumer demand for the brand’s sneakers and sportswear is also weakening.

The company made its name outfitting world-record runners, but the Swoosh earned a dubious distinction that day: the worst stock drop in Nike’s nearly 44-year history as a publicly traded company. The market’s reaction was so swift that co-founder Phil Knight issued a rare statement, saying, “I am optimistic about Nike’s future, and John Donahoe has my unwavering confidence and full support.”

Less than three months later, Knight withdrew that support. On Thursday, the board announced that Donahoe would retire next month and be replaced by Nike veteran Elliott Hill.

Donahoe, 64, leaves a mixed bag at the world’s largest sports brand. Although he only took the helm in January 2020, he deftly steered the company through the pandemic and accelerated a push toward higher-margin online sales that boosted profits. Just last year, he led the company to its long-overdue $50 billion revenue goal. But while Donahoe proved to be technically and sales-wise – he was poached by Nike from software company ServiceNow after a career at consulting firm Bain and online retailer eBay – he lacked a key component for a shoe brand: knowing what’s cool.

Several of Nike’s shoe “drops,” or limited editions, have either missed the mark or reeked of desperation, such as this summer’s announcement that a once collector-only Wu Tang Dunk would be sold commercially. Partner retailers that sell Nike shoes, such as JD Sports and Foot Locker, praised rival brands like Adidas, New Balance and On for their “newness.”

By choosing Hill, 60, as its next CEO, Nike’s board is going back to the future. A native Texan, Hill was once an assistant coach for the Dallas Cowboys and later started at Nike as an intern after graduating from business school. He has 32 years of experience at the Swoosh, including five years at the European headquarters in the Netherlands, and led all of Nike’s commercial and marketing activities until his retirement in 2020.

“I am thrilled to welcome Elliott back to the team. His experience, understanding of Nike and leadership skills are exactly what we need right now,” Knight said in a statement released Thursday. “We still have a lot of work to do, but I look forward to getting Nike back on its feet.”

Price increases: Have football fans lost patience?

When the European Super League was (briefly) launched in 2021, one of the main arguments for abolishing the status quo in football was that it would deprive fans of exciting games between elite teams.

This week, it has become clear that this argument is on shaky ground. When Liverpool visited AC Milan in the opening game of this season’s Champions League, one of the main topics of conversation was the empty seats at the San Siro. While the Italian club averaged just under 72,000 spectators for league matches last season, local estimates put the crowd on Tuesday at around 60,000. So what’s going on?

Milan started the season slowly and lost the match against Liverpool 3-1. But a few days earlier, more than 71,000 spectators were there to watch the Rossoneri welcomes Venezia in an Italian league match.

The main reason for the empty seats on Tuesday evening seems to be the rising ticket prices – seats in the lower tier of the San Siro initially cost over 120 euros.

The issue of rising costs for football fans has become increasingly prominent across Europe in recent months.

This year, 19 of the 20 English Premier League teams announced increased prices for season tickets, while some teams removed certain discounts on concessionary tickets.

Nottingham Forest, for example, more than doubled the price of a child’s ticket in one section of their home ground. Wolverhampton Wanderers fans called on the club to reconsider price increases to “preserve the lifeblood of this famous old club”. Fulham supporters held up yellow cards to protest against the £3,000 price of a season ticket in some sections of the new Riverside Stand.

“Ticket prices are a ticking time bomb and club management are turning a blind eye. Something has to happen,” the Football Supporters Association said last month.

And it’s not just about ticket prices. The cost of replica shirts has also risen rapidly. Manchester United’s new home shirt starts at £85, but you’ll need to shell out over £100 if you want a name and number on the back or an exact replica of the match-worn version. (Although that’s still some way off the £900 listed in this weekend’s HTSI.)

The price increase is being driven by a number of factors. Inflation has driven up the cost of everything from electricity to wages to food around the world. Ticket prices are a quick and easy lever to respond to this – they effectively pass the rising costs on to the end consumer.

But there are other constraints too. Stricter spending rules at European and national level are forcing clubs to focus relentlessly on maximising their revenues.

The globalisation of the game also brings with it a growing number of football-loving tourists who are willing to pay any price to see a top team live, especially in holiday hotspots such as Rome, Paris and London.

In the example of Milan, the influence of institutional investors can hardly be ignored. After private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners bought the club in 2022, matchday revenue rose from €33 million the previous year and €34 million before the pandemic to €73 million. Revenue from advertising, television and sponsorship also rose significantly – and helped the club to its first annual profit in 17 years.

The empty seats on Tuesday evening could be an isolated case. The problems could also be club and competition specific.

But as more and more clubs increase their prices wherever they see fit due to new regulations and the need to generate returns on capital, those in charge are faced with increasingly difficult decisions – and less forgiving fans.

Highlights

• Cricket is booming thanks to the Indian Premier League gold rush. But are we reaching saturation point? And is there a bubble now? These are some of the questions we aim to answer in this Big Read.

• Lord Sebastian Coe is one of seven candidates to succeed Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, who steps down in March next year.

• Adrian Wojnarowski, the veteran NBA journalist at ESPN who single-handedly revolutionized sports reporting for the social media age, announced his retirement from the industry to become general manager of the men’s basketball team at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure University.

• Glasgow has agreed to host a scaled-down Commonwealth Games in 2026, partly funded by Australian taxpayers. The state of Victoria was previously slated to host but withdrew after deciding the Games would be too expensive.

• Raj Sports has paid $125 million to bring a new WNBA team to Portland, Oregon, the latest move to increase the total number of teams in the league from 12 to 15. Raj Sports also owns the Portland Thorns women’s soccer team.

• The Diamond League has announced an increase in prize money – the latest salvo in the fight for the future of athletics.

• Qatar Airways has replaced Turkish Airlines as the main sponsor of the UEFA Champions League. The six-year contract is worth up to 500 million euros, according to SportBusiness.

Final out

Shohei Ohtani had the best game by a baseball player in the history of the sport on Thursday night: three home runs, two stolen bases, 10 runs batted in for the Los Angeles Dodgers in their 20-4 victory over the Miami Marlins. Even crazier: He became the first player in over a century of Major League Baseball to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season, establishing what is known as the 50/50 club. (Non-baseball fans may be familiar with the 40/40 club, the former benchmark for power players, as it inspired the name of Jay-Z’s exclusive Manhattan lounge.)

“This has to be the greatest baseball game of all time,” Ohtani’s teammate Gavin Lux said Thursday night. “I’ve never seen anyone do anything like this, even in the minor leagues.”

Check out the incredible performance here.