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The Business of Sports Is Booming
A recent Forbes article highlights the rapid growth of sponsorship revenue across North America's major professional sports leagues, which generated a record $7.66 billion in sponsorship revenue last season. According to research from SponsorUnited, Major League Baseball led the way with nearly $300 million in new sponsorship business in 2024, reaching $1.84 billion league-wide. One of the biggest drivers was the arrival of Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani in Los Angeles. SponsorUnited estimates the Dodgers added 12 Japanese-based partners and $70 million in incremental sponsorship revenue during Ohtani's first season with the club. The impact extended beyond the Dodgers, with Japanese brands purchasing advertising and signage opportunities at ballparks across the league whenever Ohtani played on the road. The article also points to broader industry trends fueling sponsorship growth, including jersey patch advertising, digital signage, premium fan experiences, international expansion, and increasingly sophisticated audience targeting. Tim Derdenger is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. An expert in sports markets, his research is centered around celebrity endorsements and how to optimize their impact on product sales. View his profile According to Carnegie Mellon University marketing expert Tim Derdenger, technology will play a critical role in the future of sports sponsorship. "Using technology to reach customers and personalize those messages for them is going to be a key player in the growth of sponsorship across the leagues." As teams seek new revenue opportunities and brands look for more effective ways to engage fans, sponsorship has become one of the fastest-growing segments in professional sports. The trend reflects how leagues are increasingly leveraging data, technology, and innovative marketing strategies to create value for partners while connecting with audiences in new ways. Connect with Tim Derdenger from Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, who is available to discuss: • The economics of sports sponsorship • How technology is transforming sports marketing • The business impact of global athletes and superstar brands • Fan engagement and personalized advertising • Emerging trends in professional sports business
Covering the World Cup? University of Delaware Experts are Here to Help with Your Coverage
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup captures attention across North America and around the world, University of Delaware experts are available to help media examine the larger stories connected to the tournament, from player safety and youth soccer to tourism, sports analytics, playing surfaces and the shared experience of watching the game. University of Delaware's World Cup Experts Hub brings together faculty and specialists who can provide timely commentary on the health, business, social and scientific issues shaping one of the world’s most watched sporting events. Featured Topics The Business of Youth Soccer Youth sports participation, community impact, the business of soccer and how a major global tournament can influence local programs, families and the next generation of players. Player Safety and Concussions Head injuries, concussion prevention, heading guidelines, athlete health and how evolving safety standards are changing the way soccer is played and taught. Tourism and Global Impact How mega-events drive tourism, economic activity, host-city visibility and broader cultural connection across countries, communities and fans. Youth Development and Fan Engagement How family traditions, school programs and shared sports experiences shape youth identity, social development and interest in physical activity. Sports Analytics in Action The rise of data-driven performance, real-time game analysis and how students and practitioners are applying analytics to elite global competition. The Science of Playing Surfaces Natural grass requirements, turfgrass systems, stadium preparation and the science behind maintaining world-class fields for international play. Why Watching Together Matters The psychology of shared experiences, happiness, social connection and why gathering for World Cup matches can be meaningful far beyond the final score. Media can visit the University of Delaware’s World Cup Experts Hub to explore available experts and connect directly with the right source for their story.
World Cup 2026: The Business Behind the Game
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup unfolds across North America, Emory University’s Goizueta Business School experts are available to help media explore the business stories behind the world’s biggest sporting event, from the economics of hosting and ticket pricing to global sponsorship, player brands and the psychology of fandom. Goizueta’s World Cup 2026 Business Hub brings together faculty who can provide timely, research-backed commentary on the commercial, cultural and consumer forces shaping the tournament as it moves from match to match, city to city and story to story. Featured Topics The Economics of Hosting Infrastructure investment, tourism revenue, real estate, local labor markets and the broader financial impact of hosting World Cup matches. The Science of Fandom What drives global fan devotion, audience loyalty and engagement across stadiums, broadcasts and digital platforms. Ticket Pricing and Demand Dynamic pricing, hospitality packages, travel costs and how extraordinary demand shapes the fan experience at major global events. Brand Strategy and Global Sponsorship How companies evaluate World Cup sponsorships, build global campaigns and measure the return on major sports partnerships. The Rise of the Player Brand How star footballers build, extend and monetize personal brands that reach far beyond the pitch. Media can visit Goizueta’s World Cup 2026 Business Hub to explore available experts and connect directly with the right source for their story.
Dr Komal Raj Aryal, lecturer in crisis and disaster management at Aston Business School, has expressed serious concern following the powerful twin earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on 24 June 2026. "The back-to-back earthquakes, measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 and occurring within less than a minute of each other at an approximate depth of 22 km, represent an exceptionally severe seismic event," said Dr Aryal, who has more than 26 years of international research experience in earthquakes, landslides, extreme weather events and disaster risk governance. "The combination of two major earthquakes occurring in rapid succession, their relatively shallow depths, and the repeated strong ground shaking is likely to have substantially increased damage to buildings, transport networks and other critical infrastructure. Scientifically, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake releases approximately three times more energy than a magnitude 7.2 event. Experiencing both events within seconds creates an extremely complex emergency response situation." Dr Aryal highlighted particular concern for San Felipe, an important industrial, commercial and transportation centre with a population of more than 300,000 people. Built across hilly terrain, with steep streets and dense urban development, the city could face significant challenges for emergency access, search and rescue operations, evacuation and humanitarian assistance. Around 10% of the city's population is aged 65 or older, making older adults particularly vulnerable during prolonged emergency situations. "If widespread power outages occur while temperatures remain between 32°C and 35°C, communities will face compounded risks including heat stress, disruption to healthcare services, shortages of clean water, communication failures and interruptions to essential public services. These cascading impacts often become as significant as the direct earthquake damage itself." Based on the available seismic information and preliminary footage shared on social media, Dr Aryal noted that it will likely take days or even weeks before authorities fully understand the extent of structural damage across northern Venezuela. "Initial seismic information suggests a rupture along a major fault system parallel to Venezuela's northern coastline, with areas experiencing extremely intense ground shaking. If confirmed, significant cascading impacts may extend well beyond the epicentral area, affecting multiple urban centres, transport corridors and regional supply chains." Dr Aryal also expressed concern about the resilience of Venezuela's healthcare system. "Northern Venezuela contains a large concentration of hospitals and healthcare facilities. At present, it remains unclear how many medical facilities have been affected by the earthquakes. Any disruption to hospitals, combined with existing pressures on healthcare capacity, medicine supplies and emergency logistics, could significantly affect the delivery of healthcare services for both acute injuries and patients with chronic illnesses." He added that damage to airports, major highways, bridges and other transport infrastructure could delay humanitarian assistance, emergency logistics and economic recovery. "The humanitarian consequences of this disaster will depend not only on the severity of the ground shaking, but also on the resilience of critical infrastructure, the effectiveness of emergency coordination, the availability of healthcare services and the country's broader socioeconomic capacity to recover." Dr Aryal further warned that the immediate earthquake sequence is unlikely to mark the end of the crisis. "Strong aftershocks are highly likely following earthquakes of this magnitude. These may continue for months, and some could themselves be damaging. They increase risks to already weakened buildings, complicate search and rescue operations, trigger additional landslides in mountainous areas, and prolong humanitarian needs." He concluded that while casualty figures and the full extent of the damage remain uncertain, the event has the potential to become one of the most significant seismic disasters in the region in recent years, requiring sustained national and international humanitarian support.
World Cup 2026: Hofstra experts on the science, health, and business behind the tournament.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup comes to the New York metro area, and Hofstra University is ready. From the training room to the boardroom, Hofstra faculty bring research-backed expertise to the stories journalists are chasing this tournament season. Featured Topic The Cultural Game Why soccer means what it means and what this World Cup moment represents The World Cup has always been about more than the game. Brenda Elsey, Professor of History, studies soccer as a cultural and political force across the Americas -- from grassroots identity to gender and power. She can speak to what this tournament represents as a historical moment, on and off the field. Expert Brenda Elsey - History Featured Topic Health and Performance on the World Stage Expert insight on what it takes to compete and recover at a World Cup. Competing at this level means managing the body and the mind across weeks of high-stakes matches with almost no recovery time. Hofstra's health and kinesiology faculty are your sources for the stories behind the performance. Experts Jayne Ellinger - Athletic Training Katie Sell - Exercise Physiology Anna Len - Physical Therapy Genevieve Weber - Mental Health Featured Topic Beyond the Pitch What the World Cup does to cities, economies, and public health systems From local business impact and tourism economics to disease surveillance and emergency preparedness - Hofstra faculty are ready to talk. Experts Andy M. Forman - Marketing & Tourism Lauren Hindman - Management Martine Hackett - Population Health Meshack Achore - Population Health
FIFA 2026: Where Sports, Technology and Global Marketing Collide
After an amazing opening weekend - the 2026 FIFA World Cup has the full attention of a global audience. The event is poised to be one of the biggest sports business stories in North America. With matches hosted across Canada, the United States, and Mexico, the expanded 48-team tournament is expected to draw billions of viewers while creating unprecedented opportunities for sponsors, broadcasters, marketers, and technology companies. A recent BBC StoryWorks feature examining Lenovo's role as FIFA's Official Technology Partner highlights how artificial intelligence is transforming the fan experience. New technologies include AI-powered match analytics, enhanced broadcasts, referee-view cameras, AI-generated player avatars that help explain officiating decisions, and infrastructure designed to deliver near real-time content to audiences around the globe. Tim Derdenger is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. He also coordinates the Technology Strategy & Product Management Track for Tepper MBA students whose interest lead them to employment in technology firms. View his profile Beyond the technology, FIFA 2026 represents a major cultural and commercial moment for soccer in the United States. The tournament is expected to accelerate awareness of the sport, attract new fans, create new sponsorship opportunities, and further integrate soccer into the North American sports landscape. At the same time, innovations in broadcasting, immersive content, and digital engagement are changing how fans experience major events, whether they are in the stadium or following from thousands of miles away. Fernando De la Torre is a a research faculty member in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests are in the fields of Computer Vision and Machine Learning. In particular, applications to human health, augmented reality, virtual reality, and methods that focus on the data (not the model). View his profile CMU experts like Fernando De la Torre and Tim Derdenger can provide insight into the business, marketing, and technology implications of FIFA 2026, including how global sporting events influence consumer behavior, brand strategy, fan engagement, media consumption, and the growing role of AI in sports entertainment. As organizations look to understand the long-term impact of the tournament, these perspectives can help explain why FIFA 2026 is much more than a sporting event, it is a case study in the future of global audience engagement.
Happiness isn’t just about chasing big, exciting moments. A lot of the science points to the smaller, everyday things that help people feel connected, calm and grounded. Simple habits like helping others when we see them struggling create a bigger impact than we often expect. University of Delaware's resident "happiness expert" Amit Kumar, a psychologist and assistant professor of marketing in UD's Lerner College of Business & Economics, appeared on NPR's Hidden Brain to discuss that very topic. Kumar discusses why sometimes it feels like we can't help others and how we can surmount those fears to build strong connections and also feel a greater sense of happiness. To speak with Kumar about this topic, click his profile.
World Cup 2026: Story Angles Beyond the Pitch
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be one of the biggest sports stories of the year, with matches underway across Mexico, Canada and the United States. But the story will reach well beyond the field. As the tournament moves from city to city, it will bring host communities, public agencies, local businesses and civic leaders into the spotlight. That creates a wide range of story angles for journalists, from public health and safety, tourism and economic impact to sports technology, fan culture, athlete performance, national identity and the politics of international sport. Institutions using ExpertFile are helping media cover these broader World Cup stories through dedicated Topic Authority Hubs, Spotlight posts and expert profiles featuring trusted sources across health, business, technology, public policy, culture and sport. Featured World Cup Expert Hubs With the World Cup coming to the New York metro area, Hofstra University’s hub brings together experts on athlete health, recovery, injury prevention, mental performance, public health, tourism, local business impact and the cultural history of soccer. Explore Hofstra’s World Cup 2026 Hub. Source: Hofstra University The University of Delaware’s hub focuses on player safety, concussion research, sports analytics, tourism, youth development, fan behavior, shared experiences and the science behind elite competition. Explore the University of Delaware’s World Cup 2026 Hub. Source: University of Delaware Carnegie Mellon University’s hub looks at the tournament through the lenses of geopolitics, diplomacy, sports marketing, fan engagement, AI, robotics, biomechanics, human performance and emerging sports technologies. Explore Carnegie Mellon’s World Cup 2026 hub. Source: Carnegie Mellon University Emory University’s Goizueta Business School hub explores World Cup 2026 through the business of the tournament, including host city economics, ticket pricing, fan engagement, sports marketing, global sponsorship, brand strategy and the rise of the player brand. Explore Goizueta Business School’s World Cup 2026 hub. Story Angles As coverage plans take shape, these are some of the World Cup 2026 story angles journalists may want to explore. The Topic Authority Hubs featured above offer a helpful starting point, with Spotlight posts and expert profiles connected to many of these issues. Journalists can also search directly on expertfile.com to find additional academic experts who can bring depth, context and clarity to their coverage. The politics behind the tournament The World Cup is never just about sport. It can become a global stage for diplomacy, national pride, protest, soft power and political tension, with countries not only competing on the field but also presenting themselves to the world. For journalists, that creates timely story opportunities around national identity, international relations and the political flashpoints that often surface around major global sporting events. The next generation of fans A World Cup can shape how young people connect with sport, family, community and national identity. For many children and teenagers, this may be the first tournament they experience in a big way — at school, at home, in their community or through local soccer programs. The mental pressure of representing a country Few sporting events carry the emotional weight of the World Cup. Players are not just competing for clubs or contracts. They are carrying national expectations in front of a global audience, often under intense media and social media scrutiny. The science of movement under pressure World Cup matches are full of moments that happen almost too quickly to see: a sudden change of direction, a hard landing, a collision, a late tackle, a split-second decision to accelerate or pull back. Experts can help explain the biomechanics behind elite soccer movement, how the body absorbs stress during competition, and why injuries such as ACL tears and concussions remain such important issues at the highest level of the game. How technology is changing the game AI, sports analytics, wearables, robotics, motion tracking and virtual experiences are changing how soccer is played, trained, analyzed and watched. Some of this technology is visible to fans. Much of it is happening behind the scenes. The hidden science behind the tournament Some of the most important parts of the World Cup are easy to overlook. Playing surfaces, stadium preparation, natural grass requirements, turfgrass systems and venue logistics all play a role in the quality of the tournament. What host cities gain — and what they have to manage The World Cup can bring major attention to host cities, along with increased demand on hotels, restaurants, transportation systems, small businesses and public services. The story is not only how many people visit, but who benefits and what remains after the tournament moves on. Sports analytics in action Data is now part of how elite soccer is understood, taught and analyzed. From performance trends to real-time decision-making, analytics can help explain what is happening inside the game and how teams, coaches and analysts evaluate play at the highest level. Soccer as culture and identity For many fans, soccer is tied to family, community, immigration, history and belonging. The World Cup offers a chance to tell stories about fan culture, grassroots soccer, Latin American soccer history, gender and power in the sport, and why watching together can feel so meaningful. Public health and mass gatherings Millions of fans travelling across borders and gathering in stadiums, fan zones and public spaces create important public health questions. Cities need to think about disease surveillance, emergency preparedness, health system readiness and health equity — all while hosting one of the most visible events in the world. About ExpertFile ExpertFile helps organizations become the most trusted and visible source of expertise in an AI-driven world. The platform combines expert profiles, content publishing, inquiry management, analytics and media distribution into a single Visible Authority infrastructure - enabling universities, healthcare organizations, corporations and associations to improve how their expertise is discovered, cited and engaged across search engines, AI assistants and media channels. Built-in workflow orchestration, governance controls and compliance oversight help organizations reduce risk and achieve greater impact with existing resources. Trusted by leading institutions including Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and ChristianaCare, ExpertFile helps organizations unlock the full value of their expertise at scale. The ExpertFile Mobile App connects journalists, conference organizers, policymakers, researchers and industry partners with authoritative expertise across more than 50,000 topics.
The Grace to Fail: My MBA Journey (Part 3)
I have a confession to make. My wife Bonnie and I are addicts. Not the kind that requires an intervention, exactly, but close. We are addicted to home improvement. We are always planning the next upgrade, the next project, the next thing to tear apart and make better. It gives us genuine pleasure and a profound sense of accomplishment. Bonnie leads most of these endeavours. She is remarkably capable with power tools and can pull off a tool belt like she is strutting down a Home Depot runway (aisle). Our shared obsession has even spawned a series of Facebook posts called the 2 Capable Women, where we document everything from felling trees to the deeply humbling art of Ikea assembly. So there we were, driving in traffic, and Bonnie was telling me about her next project: removing the circa-1960 wood panelling and replacing it with modern shiplap. Mid-conversation, she went quiet for a moment and said, almost to herself, “I guess I need to allow myself the grace to fail.” I nearly drove off the road. You must understand something about Bonnie. She is a self-declared perfectionist. Not casually. She is committed to being a perfectionist at being a perfectionist. So, hearing those words come out of her mouth, unprompted, while discussing a renovation project, was like hearing your accountant quote Oprah. It stopped me completely. The truth has a certain ring to it. I heard that bell loud and clear. Because sometimes wisdom does not arrive in a lecture hall or a leadership book or a TED talk. Sometimes it arrives in a car, in traffic, from the person sitting next to you holding a coffee and thinking about shiplap. That phrase has not left me since. Many of us do this. We replay mistakes endlessly, convinced that self-criticism is somehow productive. We lie awake revisiting conversations and missteps, assuming that if we beat ourselves up long enough, we will emerge wiser. All we accomplish is a thorough self-beating followed by self-flagellation. Lots of noise. Zero progress. Zero calories burned. This is not just a problem for people climbing mountains or starting businesses. It plays out in perfectly ordinary moments. You send an email and immediately wish you had worded it differently. You make a comment at dinner that lands wrong and spend three days replaying it. You make a small error at work and carry it around like luggage for a week. The inner courtroom convenes regardless. Most of us are not failing spectacularly. We are just living, occasionally getting things slightly wrong, and treating that as evidence of something deeply and permanently wrong with us. It is not. It is just Tuesday. I have been thinking about this a lot lately because I am in the middle of my MBA at the Sprott School of Business. I wrote about My MBA at age 69 in Part I and Part II. Back in graduate school after four decades in the workforce, opportunities to feel uncomfortable, uncertain, and occasionally like you have wandered into the wrong building are plentiful. A recent assignment on crafting Team Charters and enhancing my leadership skills inspired me to write a personal manifesto for my graduate studies and to take a closer look at myself. You can read mine here. While working through it, I made a surprising discovery. Most of the commitments I was making to myself had nothing to do with school. They were about life. Read the instructions carefully. Ask for help sooner. Pay attention to what your emotions are trying to tell you. Trust your experience. Hold yourself to your own standards. And this one, which stopped me cold, and sounded very familiar: Allow yourself the grace to fail. There was that bell again. Those six words turned out to be the most important thing I wrote. Not because failure is something to celebrate, but because the willingness to risk it is the price of admission for virtually everything worth doing. Failure is not a topic most of us rush toward. It is about as pleasant as stubbing your toe in the dark. Yet every meaningful thing I have ever done required me to risk it. Starting a new career. Leading a sales team. Launching a business. Climbing a mountain. Writing a book. Going back to school at 69. None of it came with guarantees. All of it came with uncertainty, mistakes, and moments where I genuinely wondered whether I had lost my mind. The jury is still out on some of those. The irony is that failure and growth are inseparable. Dweck (2006) found that people who view setbacks as learning opportunities rather than evidence of inadequacy are more likely to persevere and ultimately succeed. Duckworth (2016) agreed, and in Grit, one of my favourite books, long-term success depends less on talent and more on the willingness to keep going after things fall apart. Neff (2023) added that people who respond to failure with self-compassion rather than harsh self-judgment show greater improvement and are more likely to try again. The friction produced by failure is often exactly what generates learning, but only if we give ourselves enough grace to stay in the game. I see this everywhere. Professionals are staying in jobs they no longer enjoy because starting over feels too risky. Retirees hesitate to try something new because they might not be good at it right away. Students who will not ask a question because they do not want to appear uninformed. And if I am being honest, I see it in myself. Every time I hesitate to contribute to class because everyone else seems younger and sharper. Every time I catch myself wondering whether I belong in the room. One exercise has helped me enormously. When I catch myself spiralling into negative self-talk, I imagine my five-year-old self standing beside me, listening. Would that little girl feel encouraged? Not a chance. So why do we think inner dialogue helps us? A recent example: I made a point in a meeting that got a polite nod and complete silence. You know the silence. The one that could mean anything from “interesting” to “what on earth did she just say?” I replayed that moment for two days. Eventually, I asked a colleague how the meeting had gone, and she said she barely remembered it. The forensic investigation was conducted entirely in my own head. I am not suggesting we lower our standards. We should hold ourselves accountable, learn from our mistakes, and strive to do better. But there is a meaningful difference between accountability and cruelty. Between reflection and rumination. Between learning from a mistake, and building a summer cottage on top of it, and checking in every long weekend. I worry about what this means for the generation behind us. Research by Professor Gabriel Rubin at Montclair State University found that despite living in one of the safest periods in history, Gen Z perceives risk virtually everywhere (Rubin, 2023). They have grown up knowing that at any moment, someone has a phone. One stumble, one terrible dance move, and the clip is posted before you catch your breath. Permanent, searchable, shareable public failure is something entirely new, and the consequences are showing up in surprising places. Monocle magazine noted young people standing completely still on nightclub dance floors, phones in hand, unable to lose themselves to the music. The club has become a stage, and the crowd has become the content. Instead of dancing, people film. Instead of connection, there is performance. This is not a small thing. Dancing is how humans have always signalled availability, built trust, and found each other. It requires a willingness to look slightly absurd. If we have raised a generation so terrified of being captured mid-stumble that they will not move to the music, we have handed surveillance culture a victory it does not deserve. Calculated risks lead to new opportunities, foster innovation, and teach lessons that comfort never could (Rubin, 2023). Risk aversion makes short-term sense. As a way of life, it quietly closes doors that were never meant to stay shut. Give yourself and the young people around you, explicit permission to be unpolished in public. To dance badly. To say the wrong thing and survive it. The phone will always be there. So, fortunately, will the music. Here is what I keep learning inside this MBA: wisdom arrives disguised as failure. The assignments that challenge me teach me more than the ones that come easily. The questions I most resist asking are usually the most important. I did not expect graduate school to teach me this. Then again, I did not expect to be here at seventy. I no longer think in terms of Wins and Losses. Those categories are too simple. I think in terms of Wisdom and Learning. Success builds confidence. Setbacks build insight. Both move us forward. Read that again. So the next time you find yourself at two in the morning replaying something you said three days ago, ask whether your five-year-old self would find your internal monologue useful. If the answer is no, offer yourself a little grace. Which brings me back to Bonnie. Last weekend, she pulled off that 1960s panelling. Every last piece. It was messy and uncertain, and at several points she was unsure what she would find underneath. There were surprises. There were moments of doubt. She kept going anyway. By the end of the weekend, the shiplap was going up, clean and bright and exactly right. She did not do it perfectly. She did it anyway. And it is beautiful. That is the whole lesson, right there, delivered by a woman with a pry bar and a tool belt, on a weekend in June. Failure is not the enemy. Most of the time it is just fear wearing a funny hat. And if you are lucky, it will teach you something genuinely worth knowing. Sometimes it comes from a research paper. Sometimes it comes from your wife, in a car thinking out loud about shiplap. Either way, listen for the bell. Writing my manifesto was one of the most clarifying things I did this year. Not because it solved anything, but because it forced me to decide, on paper, who I was going to be when things got hard. I want that for you, too. So I created the ReWirement Manifesto: a simple template for anyone navigating a new chapter, a big transition, or simply a Tuesday that did not go as planned. It is not a bucket list. It is not a vision board. It is a set of honest commitments you make to yourself, in your own words, that you can return to when your inner courtroom calls you to order. Download your free ReWirement Manifesto template here. Fill it in. Keep it somewhere you can find it. And the next time you are staring at a wall of 1960s panelling, wondering if you are in over your head, remember: the grace to fail is not a consolation prize. It is the whole point. Don’t Retire…Re-Wire! Sue My Book is Now Available for Pre-Order I hope you will consider pre-ordering a copy of Your Retirement Reset for you, a friend or loved one. It's available September 8, 2026 published by ECW Press - You can now order at Indigo or Amazon. And if you love supporting Canadian booksellers, please also check with your local independent bookstore. Most can easily order it for you.
Pause for Water. Stay for the Ads. FIFA's $500 Million Timeout
FIFA's decision to introduce mandatory hydration breaks in every match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup is drawing attention far beyond player welfare circles. The new rule requires a three-minute stoppage in each half of all 104 tournament matches, creating more than 10 hours of additional broadcast inventory that did not exist in previous World Cups. Analysts estimate the added commercial value could approach $500 million, making the breaks one of the most significant business stories of the tournament. While FIFA has emphasized player health and safety amid concerns about summer temperatures across North America, broadcasters and advertisers have quickly recognized the value of guaranteed in-game breaks. Networks are now able to sell premium advertising inventory during some of the most highly watched sporting events on the planet, creating opportunities that resemble the commercial structure of American sports broadcasts. Tim Derdenger is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. An expert in sports markets, his research is centered around celebrity endorsements and how to optimize their impact on product sales. View his profile The move has generated debate among fans and observers, with some questioning whether commercial considerations played a role in expanding hydration breaks to every match regardless of venue or weather conditions. Critics argue the stoppages alter the traditional flow of soccer, while supporters point to growing concerns about extreme heat and player safety. For brands, however, the development represents a rare opportunity. Unlike traditional halftime advertising, hydration breaks occur while viewers remain actively engaged in the match, creating premium moments for sponsors seeking global reach and attention. The breaks also open new possibilities for branded content, integrated sponsorship activations, and enhanced fan engagement strategies during live play. Looking to know more? We can help. Tim Derdenger is an expert in sports marketing, sponsorship strategy, media rights, and the business of major sporting events. He can discuss: • How hydration breaks create new revenue opportunities for broadcasters and sponsors • The growing commercialization of global sports properties • Whether fans will accept more advertising during live sporting events • How brands can maximize engagement during high-profile World Cup broadcasts • What this development signals about the future of sports media rights and sponsorship Looking for expert insight on the business side of the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Connect with Tim Derdenger today to discuss how FIFA's hydration breaks could reshape sports marketing, sponsorship activation, and broadcast economics for years to come.