Happy New Year!  Let's kick off 2026 the right way.

I spent the holiday break doing what I always do—talking to clients, reviewing deal pipelines, and trying to make sense of what just happened. And honestly? I keep coming back to the same conclusion: 2025 quietly stacked the deck for a serious run of sports deal activity this year.

Think about it. The IPO backlog finally started clearing once the government shutdown dust settled. M&A roared back with real momentum. Institutional investors stopped kicking tires on sports and started writing checks. 

I've been doing this long enough to recognize when sentiment shifts, and it shifted hard.

My clients felt it too. Valuations climbed. Conversations that had gone cold for 18 months suddenly got urgent. The trajectory was up and to the right across the board.

So what does all of that mean for 2026? That's what we're unpacking this week. I think the floodgates are about to open, and I want to walk you through exactly why I believe that.

Let's rewind for a second. 

Last year wasn't exactly smooth sailing. We had economic uncertainty, a government shutdown that froze the SEC, and plenty of hand-wringing about whether dealmaking would ever pick up again. 

And yet? By the time the ball dropped, deal value in the second half of 2025 had jumped 61% compared to late 2024. Sports assets were leading the charge.

That didn't happen by accident. A specific set of conditions came together last year that most people haven't fully connected yet. Each one on its own would be notable. Together, they've created something I haven't seen in my career: a genuine runway for sports deal activity. 

When Washington shut down last fall, the SEC went dark. That meant every company waiting to go public got stuck in limbo, including a handful of sports and media players I've had my eye on. Dozens of offerings just sat there, paperwork gathering dust.

Now the lights are back on, and everyone's rushing for the door at once. We're looking at an unseasonably busy IPO season to start 2026, with companies that spent the downtime getting lean and profitable finally ready to hit the market. Traditional IPOs in 2025 had already raised $33.6 billion before the shutdown hit (the most since 2021), so the momentum was there. It just got bottlenecked.

For sports-adjacent businesses (think digital platforms, betting operators, and media plays), the window is wide open. Expect to see names you recognize filing in Q1.

Here's the thing about interest rates: when borrowing gets cheaper, deals get easier. And after years of the Fed tightening the screws, we're finally looking at cuts on the horizon.

Two-thirds of dealmakers surveyed at year-end said they plan to do more deals in 2026, and falling rates topped their list of reasons why. That tracks with what I'm hearing from clients. Financing a stadium project, acquiring a minority stake, or rolling up a regional sports network all pencil out differently when your cost of capital drops a point or two.

Inflation cooling off doesn’t hurt either. 

Jerome Powell's term as Fed Chair expires in May 2026, and the rumor mill is already spinning about who replaces him. President Trump is expected to nominate someone early this year. Polymarket clearly has Kevin Warsh and Kevin Hassett as the runaway favorites, and both are expected to ease monetary policy to varying degrees.

Why should you care? Because the Fed sets the tone for how loose or tight money feels across the entire economy. A new Chair perceived as friendly to the administration's growth agenda could mean faster rate cuts and easier credit conditions. Even the speculation of that happening has investors feeling optimistic.

I'm not saying the Fed is going to suddenly turn on the money printer. But after two years of tight conditions, the directional shift matters. And smart money is already positioning for it.

Remember how quiet things felt in early 2024? Everyone was in wait-and-see mode, sitting on their hands, wondering if the other shoe would drop.

That changed in 2025. Big deals started closing again. Charter merged with Cox for $34.5 billion. Netflix made an $82 billion bid for Warner Bros Discovery. Private equity firms finally started exiting positions they'd been holding for years. The muscle memory for getting deals done came back.

What that proved is important: buyers and sellers can transact even when conditions aren't perfect. Higher rates, geopolitical noise, tariff uncertainty... none of it stopped the wave. By December, the mood had completely flipped. Dealmakers stopped asking "should we wait?" and started asking "what's taking so long?"

That confidence carries forward. When people see others closing deals successfully, they get off the sidelines. We're in that part of the cycle now.

And then there's the big one. 2025 cemented sports as a legitimate alternative asset class, full stop.

Look at the numbers. The Boston Celtics sold for $6.1 billion. The Lakers' majority stake went for $10 billion, the richest valuation in sports history. Global sports team acquisitions hit $23.6 billion by August, an all-time high. Private equity, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional money poured in like never before.

What's driving it? Sports assets showed what Deloitte called "unique resilience" to macro pressures. Fans kept showing up. Media rights kept climbing. Cash flows stayed steady while other sectors wobbled. For investors looking for yield and appreciation in a volatile world, teams and leagues started looking like the smart bet.

The capital flooding into sports last year wasn't just domestic either. Saudi Arabia's PIF and other Gulf sovereign funds got aggressive in U.S. and European markets. At one point, PIF agreed to a $55 billion leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts alongside Silver Lake, bridging sports gaming and traditional sports business in a single deal.

At the end of the day, 2025 proved that sports investing isn't a vanity play anymore. The returns are real. The institutional interest is real. And now you've got a wave of new investors (many of them international) who watched from the sidelines last year and are ready to get in the game.

That's the setup. Now let's talk about what it means for 2026.

My clients and industry peers are entering 2026 with full pipelines and high expectations. The mood is different from what it was a year ago, for the simple reason that people aren't asking "if" anymore. They're asking "how fast" and "how big." The U.S. will likely lead the way given our market size and capital base, but there will undoubtedly be aftershocks globally.

Here's where I'm placing my bets.

We could see the biggest year for sports-related IPOs in recent memory. The window is open, valuations are rich, and a bunch of companies that sat on the sidelines are finally ready to move.

The name everyone's watching? Fanatics. The merchandising and betting giant has been valued at north of $25 billion as a private company, and 2026 might finally be the year they pull the trigger. Their private equity backers have been patient, but patience has limits when the IPO market is this receptive.

They won't be alone. Bankers I talk to are already prepping Q1 roadshows for sports-tech and media startups looking to ride the wave. The first half of 2026 is primed for a flurry of offerings thanks to that backlog we discussed. And here's the thing: in 2025, many IPOs priced above their ranges and traded well. That kind of performance gets other companies off the fence.

For investors who don't have billions lying around to buy a whole team, public markets are about to offer a lot more ways to get exposure to sports. Keep your eyes on the early months. We could see some headline-making debuts that set the tone for the whole year.

After what we saw with the Celtics and Lakers, every owner with a sports franchise is crunching numbers in their head right now. And some of them are going to like what that mental calculator tells them.

Long-time family owners, especially, have taken notice that institutional money is willing to pay top dollar. I wouldn't be shocked if one or two more major franchises quietly hit the market to test those record pricing waters. 

After all, if the Lakers are worth $10 billion, even a mid-tier franchise owner might be tempted to cash out at a historic multiple.

The NBA is the obvious space to watch. A new media rights deal is on the horizon, and the Celtics' sale set a benchmark that other ownership groups will want to chase. Expansion chatter is heating up, too. Seattle and Las Vegas are the frontrunners if the league adds teams, and any expansion announcement will come with enormous franchise fees (we're talking billions) for new slots.

The NBA isn't the only story, though, far from it. Women's soccer is exploding. The NWSL will welcome new teams in 2026, and the price tags have gone vertical. Boston's group paid $53 million for their expansion slot. Denver went for $110 million. Those numbers were unthinkable in women's sports just a few years ago.

Every one of these deals is a vote of confidence in the sector. And every headline will bring more buyers to the table.

If you work in sports tech or media, expect your LinkedIn inbox to get busy. Consolidation is coming, and it's coming fast.

The sports tech and media space is fragmented, and that makes it a target. Last year gave us Disney acquiring FuboTV and Netflix making an $82 billion play for Warner Bros Discovery. Those moves signaled that the big players are done waiting around. They want scale, and they'll pay for it.

Traditional media companies, tech giants, and PE-backed firms will all be hunting. Regional sports networks, data and analytics providers, competing streaming platforms... everyone's jockeying for position. The race is on to build end-to-end sports ecosystems before someone else does.

Private equity is driving a lot of this. Firms raised over $3.5 billion in fresh sports-focused capital in just the first half of 2025, and that money needs to find a home. From my conversations with PE clients, most have a buy-and-build game plan for 2026: acquire complementary businesses across media, betting, fan engagement, and venues, then integrate them into something greater (and eventually sellable or IPO-able).

Youth sports tech alone saw $52 billion in deal activity in the first half of 2025. The roll-up of smaller players (apps, coaching platforms, ticketing tech) will accelerate as bigger fish look to assemble something defensible.

For those of us in the finance trenches, it means due diligence galore. For everyone else, it means the sports tech environment is going to look very different by this time next year.

Sports are global, and so is the capital chasing it. In 2026, international investors will play an even bigger role in dealmaking, and the Gulf nations are by far the ones to watch.

The numbers are staggering. Gulf sovereign wealth funds invested a record $119 billion worldwide in 2025, up 43% from the prior year. Nearly half of that went into the United States, with a significant chunk funneled into sports, gaming, and media. Saudi Arabia's PIF has been everywhere: soccer clubs, esports, big U.S. media deals, and even partnering on a bid for Warner Bros Discovery.

I expect more Middle Eastern capital to flow into U.S. and European sports assets in 2026, though the structures might get creative. Direct team ownership has caps in certain leagues, so look for investments in infrastructure (stadiums, development programs) or backing for new leagues and ventures.

One big catalyst sitting right in front of us: the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America. Gulf investors want a piece of the soccer momentum around that event. We already saw a Saudi fund take a $1 billion stake in streaming platform DAZN in 2025, which helped secure rights to the expanded Club World Cup.  

If you thought the last few years were big for women's sports, 2026 is going to blow the doors off.

Women's sports have officially moved from passion project to serious business. We saw the proof points in 2025: expansion teams commanding eight-figure fees, record attendance and viewership, and dedicated investment funds launching specifically for women's sports ventures. Investors recognize the growth potential now, and they want in early before prices climb even higher.

Expect more expansion franchises to be awarded in women's leagues this year, with price tags continuing to rise. Don't be surprised if some WNBA or European women's soccer team transactions pop up either. The smart money is circling.

Niche and alternative sports leagues are gaining traction, too. Properties like secondary basketball and football leagues, extreme sports, and combat sports spinoffs might not command billion-dollar valuations yet. Still, they're attracting venture money and media deals as they target younger or underserved fan bases. The relative affordability compared to an NFL team means mid-tier investors can actually play here.

Several of my clients, in fact, have concentrated their focus on such assets where they can get in on the ground floor.  

It's a virtuous cycle: success breeds investment, which breeds more success. By year-end, we'll be celebrating a few breakout deals in this space. And as someone who's been advocating for broader sports investment for years, that's the part of 2026 I'm most excited to watch unfold.

2025 threw a lot at us. But when I step back and connect the dots, it all points in one direction: we're heading into one of the best years for sports dealmaking that I've seen in my career.

The economics are improving. Investors are hungry. Valuations are high and climbing. Deal momentum is real across every corner of the industry. And my clients? They're not sitting around waiting for permission. They're moving.

That's the energy I'm carrying into 2026. It doesn’t matter if you're raising capital, exploring a sale, or looking to grow through acquisitions. The window is open. My focus stays U.S.-centric because that's where the deepest market is, but I'm watching global capital flows closely. The Gulf money and European funds aren't slowing down, and what happens over there shapes what happens here.

So yeah, expect headlines this year. Expect big numbers. And expect me right here every week, breaking it all down with the unfiltered take you signed up for.

2026 is going to be fun. Let's ride.