👨‍⚖️ Y! Sports Biz: NFL's $14.1 billion saga continues

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In today’s edition: The ruling on the field is overturned in the NFL Sunday Ticket case, the Valkyries add on-court victory to off-court success, the F1 biz behind the Benz, the state of the Adidas-Puma rivalry, and more.

Time to show you the money...

🏈 SUNDAY TICKET SAGA

THE RULING ON THE FIELD IS OVERTURNED

(Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo)

How was your Friday afternoon? It probably wasn’t the NFL’s favorite in recent memory.

Bad news, good news: On Friday, a federal judiciary panel revived the class-action antitrust case concerning the NFL’s Sunday Ticket broadcasting package. The outcome for the league was mixed.

  • The bad news: The panel reinstated the previously tossed 2024 verdict, which found that the league and its teams violated antitrust law.
  • The good(ish) news: It ordered a new trial to determine the damages, finding that the jury miscalculated with its $14.1 billion assessment.

What’s the case about? The case centers on whether the NFL and its teams violated antitrust law by pooling their out-of-town broadcast rights for the Sunday Ticket package. Plaintiffs contend that the practice inflated prices and suppressed competition, arguing that customers pay higher prices for the bundled package of all out-of-town games than they would if they could buy unbundled packages for select teams.

The timeline: When this saga began, Tom Brady had only won four Super Bowls, and he was still eight years from retirement. The suits are only months younger than Deflategate.

  • June 2015: Sunday Ticket subscribers filed the first suits against the league alleging violations of federal antitrust law.
  • June 2017: A district judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the package did not constitute harm to competition or reduce the output of games.
  • August 2019: The U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal, disagreeing with both of the above arguments.
  • June 2024: The jury ruled against the NFL at trial, awarding $4.7 billion to the plaintiffs, which is trebled to $14.1 billion under antitrust law.
  • August 2024: The U.S. District Judge for the case vacated the jury’s verdict, finding flaws in testimonies from the plaintiffs' expert witnesses and the jury’s damages calculation.
  • October 2026: The Court of Appeals reinstated the verdict, ruling that the expert testimony should have been allowed and ordering a new trial on damages.

What next? Barring a settlement, the case would return to court for a new trial, though any court date is currently uncertain. The timeline above could extend for years, particularly in the event of further appeals.

Why it matters: This is only one very high-stakes battle in a growing war on the NFL’s distribution of media rights, which has come under DOJ and Congressional scrutiny.

  • The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which provides an antitrust exemption for games distributed over sponsored broadcast television, remains a point of contention in its applications to the modern media landscape.
  • The NFL, however, maintains that its distribution model is fan-friendly, with 100% of games broadcast over the air for free in the competing teams’ local markets.
  • The verdict and additional scrutiny could eventually force an overhaul of that model, which would have implications extending far beyond the Sunday Ticket package.

Bottom line: The NFL has dodged the $14.1 billion nightmare scenario for the moment, but the bad dream could persist long into the future, with the outcome uncertain.

📸 BANK SHOTS

MONEY ON THE FIELD

(Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

🏀 San Francisco, California — The Golden State Valkyries captured the WNBA title on Saturday in just their second season of existence, adding on-court supremacy to its standard-setting off-court success.

Business is booming: The Valkyries have sold out every home game they’ve ever played and recently became the first women’s sports team to surpass $100 million in annual revenue.

(Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)

🏈 Atlanta, Georgia — Georgia had little trouble with Florida on Saturday, winning 27-8 as the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party moved inside to Atlanta due to ongoing renovations to Jacksonville’s EverBank Stadium.

Pay to play: Each school received $9 million for the occasion, a figure which will rise to $10 million when the game returns to Jacksonville.

(Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

👟 New York City, New York — American Jess McClain sprinted to a career-best second-place finish in the New York City Marathon. It was the first podium finish in a Marathon Major for a Brooks athlete since Des Linden won Boston in 2018.

A formidable business: Berkshire Hathaway-owned Brooks has achieved 13 consecutive quarters of growth, CEO Dan Sheridan told Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi.

🏎️ BIZ BREAKDOWN

MERCEDES RETURNS TO THE F1 SUMMIT

(Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Mercedes F1 driver Kimi Antonelli captured the World Drivers’ Championship in Mexico City on Sunday, becoming the youngest champion in history at only 20 years old. Though the Constructors’ Championship is not yet clinched, Antonelli’s victory also restores Mercedes to the F1 summit.

The best or nothing: Though Mercedes hadn’t won a Drivers’ championship since 2020 and hasn’t claimed the Constructors’ since 2021, it has remained at the pinnacle of the sport commercially.

  • Revenue: Mercedes F1 recorded €633 million in revenue in 2025, effectively flat with the prior year, as its fourth-place 2024 finish and reduced sponsorship revenue from team shareholder INEOS weighed on results. Despite the tepid growth, the lowest among F1 teams that report financials publicly, its revenue total remained the highest.
  • Profit: Mercedes generated €167 million in operating profit in 2025. No other team with public financials exceeded €25 million.
  • Partners: The team’s partner roster is an embarrassment of blue-chip riches. It includes Petronas, CrowdStrike, Ineos, Microsoft, Adidas, Snapdragon, HPE, Stripe, and PepsiCo among countless other household names.
  • Valuation: CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz bought a stake in Toto Wolff’s Motorsport Investment Limited (one-third owner of Mercedes F1) in 2025. The transaction reportedly valued the team at $6 billion, a figure trailing only Ferrari on the grid.

Accelerating ahead: The flat revenue growth in 2025 will soon look like an anomaly. Sportico reports revenue could top €750 million ($1 billion) in 2026, placing Mercedes among the world’s elite sports franchises.

📈 JOCK STOCKS

DASSLER BROS' BRANDS RISE AGAIN

Adidas and Puma's prospects have diverged in recent years. (Yahoo Finance Alphaspace)

Adidas and Puma were formed by a split between brothers Adi and Rudy Dassler in the late 1940s, but the two companies’ paths have rarely diverged as severely as they have in recent years. They were united in stock market strength last week, though, albeit from dramatically different positions.

The black cat’s bounce:Puma shares rose nearly 6% after the company reported Q3 results on Friday morning, as the market is optimistic about a return to sales growth in 2027.

  • The company is in the midst of a turnaround effort, culling stale inventory and curbing discounting behavior to restore brand strength.
  • Sales fell 6.3% on a currency-adjusted basis in Q3, ahead of expectations, while inventory fell 24.3%, more than expected, which is a good sign for the ongoing clear-out.
  • Most notable is the conclusion of a deal that made Chinese giant Anta Sports the brand’s largest shareholder. The company will help define Puma’s operating model in China, potentially unlocking growth in a key market.

The German rivals both pleased shareholders last week. (Yahoo Finance Alphaspace)

Three Stripes surge:Adidas shares climbed 7% last week after the company posted record Q3 revenue and operating profit. Sales grew 7% on a currency-adjusted basis to €7.25 billion, while operating profits eclipsed €1 billion.

  • Adidas has cultivated balance, ensuring performance products (+14% in Q3) can offset sluggish lifestyle growth (+3%), apparel (+19%) can provide ballast for footwear (flat), and strong geographies (China, +13%) can quiet the struggles elsewhere (Europe, -4%).
  • With flat growth in footwear, Adidas added another data point to a mountain of evidence illustrating the industry-wide weakness in lifestyle sneakers. But it didn't stop the brand from posting a record quarter.
  • Given Nike’s struggles in China, Adidas’ 13% sales growth in Greater China is also a striking achievement.

Bottom line: Adidas is leading a battered sports footwear and apparel industry through a challenging moment, while its German rival is fighting to rejoin the pack.

🏃‍♂️ LET'S PLAY

OVER/UNDER: MONEY FOR MILES

(Ishika Samant/Getty Images)

Andreas Almgren and Sheila Chepkirui broke the tape at the New York City Marathon, the former accomplishing the feat in his marathon debut.

Over/Under: Did each champion win over or under $75,000 in prize money?

Answer at the bottom.

⚾️ MLB ENDORSEMENTS

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL

The first thing we learn when we start playing tee ball is to keep our eye on the ball. It seems some of MLB’s most marketable players forgot that in 2026.

Swing and a miss: MLB’s most active endorsers struggled on the field this season. The top five players with the most endorsement deals, as ranked by SponsorUnited’s MLB Sponsorship Intelligence Report, saw their WAR* decline 63% from the prior season. Only Royals’ All-Star Bobby Witt Jr. outperformed his pre-2026 average.

(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Flush it away, Big Dumper: Cal Raleigh, the top player in SponsorUnited’s rankings, hit .182 for the season, with his 60 home runs in 2025 more than halved to 23.

Quality, not quantity: The lesson for brand partners is clear: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. One minute, you’re elated to capture the Big Dumper. The next, you’re stuck with the Big Slumper. As for the players, keep your eye on the ball, fellas.

*WAR stands for Wins Above Replacement. It’s an advanced statistic that measures how many wins a player contributes above what a replacement player would add. Basically, it distills a player’s impact to one number.

Over/Under answer: Over. Each Open Division winner took home $100,000 in prize money.

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