I want our George Pickens relationship to be all honey. I can't tell you how positive I feel about him, and I want our fans to look at it and say, 'That's a lot of money they're putting out there.' Jerry emphasized his commitment to maintaining a positive relationship with Pickens while justifying the financial investment to fans.
MLB is the only one of the four major American sports without a minimum and maximum limit to spending, and some owners may be looking to change that. According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the early projections from the league suggest a salary cap of around $260-280 million, along with a salary floor of around $140-160 million.
The main issues are focused on compensation and benefits for players on the lower end of the pay scale. Sources said that the union and the league have agreed on implementing a standard contract length of 12 months, instead of the 10 months stipulated by the previous CBA. This had been a sore spot for the USLPA given that being a professional soccer player is essentially a year-round job.
For 2026, Texas Tech lured perhaps the biggest -- and likely most expensive -- fish yet. Sorsby ranked No. 1 overall in ESPN's Portal rankings. He'll project as one of the top quarterbacks in the country next year, as he earned second-team All-Big 12 honors last year. Tech has earned a reputation for being one of the sport's biggest spenders; ESPN's Max Olson reported earlier this year that the Red Raiders spent more than $3 million on edge rusher David Bailey last year.
Major League Baseball revealed its 2025 post-season bonus pool for players on Thursday, with the back-to-back World Series-champion Los Angeles Dodgers earning 36 per cent ($46.15 million) of the total $128.2 million pool, per Sportico's report. The Toronto Blue Jays, who were dealt a heartbreaking loss in Game 7 of the World Series at Rogers Centre last month, received 24 per cent ($30.76 million) of the post-season bonus pool.
The 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement introduced the pre-arb bonus pool as a way for younger players to get paid earlier in their careers. Every team pays roughly $1.67MM into the pool, which adds up to a $50MM total. That money is then dispersed to pre-arb players, even if they have signed an early-career extension. In many cases, the pool is a greater source of income than a player's salary.
Battlefield 6's rollout on publisher Electronic Arts' own PC app didn't go exactly smoothly, with players left unable to play on launch day. Since then, the issue has since been resolved, and EA is giving out free season passes and XP boosts for those who were impacted. The issue affected players who had pre-ordered Battlefield 6 via the EA App launcher on PC.
The total player compensation for the 2025 US Open is $90 million, the most winnings ever offered at a professional tennis tournament. "The US Open has made a deliberate and concerted effort to ensure double-digit percentage increases from 2024 in all rounds of all events for all players, while at the same time significantly increasing the percentage of prize money for athletes playing deep into the singles draws," the US Tennis Association said in a press release.
The NFL and senior leaders of the NFL Players Association struck an unusual confidentiality agreement that hid the details of an arbitration agreement from players, including a finding that league executives had urged team owners to reduce player compensation.
