Sports
Rob Manfred finally got his marquee World Series. Here’s how he plans to capitalize
This World Series gives baseball a chance to reclaim its own moniker, for the national pastime to again be national. And maybe even more.
Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s commissioner, has been gifted a marketer’s dream. Two of the sport’s most iconic brands, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, are squaring off in the best-of-seven championship round. Those metropolitan areas happen to carry more television viewers than any other in the country, and their teams are wildly good.
Now in his 10th season leading the sport, Manfred believes baseball is positioned to capitalize on the moment, to propel Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees further into the sporting fan’s consciousness.
“This is trying to market to the whole nation and internationally, and it is different than what has been done in the past,” Manfred said in an interview with The Athletic.
A surreal collection of talent will be on display at Dodger Stadium when the series begins Friday. Ohtani, of Japan, enraptured at least two countries this season by becoming the first player to reach 50 home runs and steal 50 bases. Judge hit 60 home runs two years ago and he fell just two short of the mark this year. But Los Angeles’ Mookie Betts might be the game’s most complete player not named Ohtani, and the young Yankees slugger Juan Soto could command a $500 million or even $600 million contract as a free agent this winter.
“There’s a lot to capitalize on here,” said Jim Andrews, a sports sponsorship expert and founder of A-Mark Strategies. “It comes down to the very specific execution. How do you literally produce the right content on the right channels? The core fans are probably very excited for a lot of reasons. But how do you use this opportunity to bring in new fans? That, I think, is the key.”
Manfred and baseball’s teams have long been told they fall short in promoting their stars. On Wednesday, he said that some of that criticism has been fair, and some of it hasn’t.
“When you hear something enough, I think it takes a certain level of arrogance to ignore it, and it certainly was something that was being said,” Manfred said. “As a result, I paid attention to it. It’s a question of focus. The clubs locally did a lot of marketing, and we relied on that local marketing. I think what I’m talking about here is an entirely different focus.”
Manfred outlined four main pieces to the league’s plan to wrangle hearts and minds, with some crossover.
The first is leaning into the obvious: the players. One campaign features Judge and Ohtani with the tagline, “Once in a Generation. Twice.” There’s league content designed around them individually — “All Rise” for Judge, “Sho Time” for Ohtani — as well as others, distributed everywhere from social media and TV, to out-of-home billboards and signage.
The second effort isn’t surprising either, an acknowledgment of history.
“Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson played against each other in a Yankee-Dodger World Series. So did Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax,” Manfred said. “This one is a continuation.”
Both Manfred and Clayton Kershaw stand to benefit from the Dodgers making it back to the World Series. (Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The third goes overseas. The most-watched MLB postseason game in Japan all-time was earlier this posteason, in the Dodgers’ decisive Game 5 win over the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series. More estimated average viewers watched the game in Japan on TV, 12.9 million, than in the U.S. One of the two starting pitchers from that game, Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers, is set to pitch Game 2 of the World Series.
“I think our ratings in Japan are going to be awesome,” Manfred said. “That’s an important market where you can make real money.”
Earlier in the postseason, MLB took out 113 billboard ads around Tokyo, a nod to the combined number of home runs and stolen bases Ohtani reached.
And the fourth part of the league’s plan is domestic, built around a hope that the World Series is regarded as more than just a bicoastal, big-city party.
“We’re in a lot of non-LA, non-New York markets promoting. We got a thing going in Las Vegas at the Sphere,” Manfred said. “Why are we doing that? That’s part of, we want the World Series to be an event where people across America, not just in the two cities, are watching.”
A through-line in the effort is an attempt to focus on younger fans via social media and music, to meet fans where they are. MLB worked with El Alfa, a Dominican music artist, to create a song about Soto heading into the playoffs. Andrews said social media is an area where MLB has historically lagged behind the NBA and NFL.
Last year’s World Series, between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers, did not present the same opportunity. But once any match-up is set, there’s a limit to how much MLB can newly devise to power a series, Andrews said. Success is largely a test of plans already in place.
In that vein, Jon Einalhori, vice president of marketing for the player agency Apex, believes the Series can go so far as to revitalize the game.
“No, it’s not hyperbolic, because there really is an opportunity here,” said Einalhori, who represents several of the series’ participants. “You look at all the data on how many fans came through, the TV ratings, the eyeballs, the social-media impressions, there’s trends going upwards. Everything’s been building up for years.”
The league said the median age of ticket purchasers had dropped to from 51 to 46. FOX, which broadcasts the World Series, has seen a 39 percent increase in the 18 to 34 demographic for this postseason compared to last year, their best since 2017.
SponsorUnited, a platform that tracks sponsorships across sports, published a report Thursday that said the number of Japanese brands in MLB stadiums has risen 218 percent in two seasons, a development tied at least in part to Ohtani’s stardom.
The Dodgers and the Yankees combined for an estimated $300 million in sponsorship revenue this year, which makes for a big-money match-up in ways other than payroll. SponsorUnited’s founder, Bob Lynch, described their meeting as the “equivalent of the Dallas Cowboys competing against the Golden State Warriors: two entities that generate more sponsorship revenues combined than any other two that have ever played each other, in the U.S.”
“The way I look at this World Series is that we’ve had two really good years in a row,” Manfred said. “Attendance is up, our ratings are good, our demographics — both ticket purchasing and broadcast audience — are really improving. … And I think that this World Series provides an opportunity to appeal to a national audience because of the matchup and the players involved.”
The start of the 2023 season is a line of demarcation. Manfred bucked traditionalists and introduced a pitch clock, forcing faster game action and making games snappier.
Lynch said too that he’s noticed the league has boosted its own internal business operations, which advise the clubs. MLB teams saw a collective 20 percent increase in sponsorship revenue this season.
“They had an amazingly successful season off the field,” Lynch said. “This is a lucky culmination of a great year in business.”
Not everything will be in MLB’s control for the next eight days, the maximum amount of time the series can run. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Einalhori said he understands MLB is being flooded with requests from celebrities to attend the games.
“You’re going to have hundreds of millions, if not — I kid you not — billions of social-media impressions from outside the baseball sphere,” Einalhori said. “That’s the most immeasurable thing I think as far as capitalizing, but it’s probably going to bring the most value.”
FOX also will have a large say in how the game is received. From the presidential election, college football and NFL and now NBA seasons, it’s a crowded news cycle baseball has to break through, Andrews said.
“Clearly, your broadcast partner needs to be helping you out,” he said.
MLB and FOX did give consideration to one special accommodation that didn’t wind up being necessary.
For the first time this year, the World Series had two possible start dates: Oct. 25, or Oct. 22. The earlier date would have helped avoid a long layoff if both series of the prior round, the National League and American League Championship Series, finished in five games or fewer.
But when both the Dodgers and the Yankees were both entering their fifth game with a chance to close out that round, MLB and FOX considered keeping the World Series on the later schedule anyway, so it could marinate.
“That was really, in large measure, driven by the desire of our broadcast partners to have a little more time to sell,” Manfred said of the discussion.
In the end, because the Dodgers needed six games to advance, the conversation was moot. But an L.A.-New York meeting is a boon for FOX, which is tapping into fan bases from the two most populous cities in the country.
Naturally, some fans in smaller markets will in turn complain that those teams, and their large payrolls, are the last two standing. But Manfred defended the state of competition and parity across the sport.
“Our record on competitive balance is darn good,” Manfred said. “I just don’t think you can scream about the Yankees and the Dodgers given the matchups that we’ve had in recent years.”
In this hallmark World Series, Manfred said “long term efforts are starting to bear a lot of fruit.” Quickly, the question will be how long it can stay ripe. MLB in coming years may try to launch a national streaming package with a major digital company. How much money it can make from those media rights will depend on how well it commands attention across the country.
“The NFL has just done such an amazing job of really creating year-round content and things to talk about, whereas baseball tends to fade away in the depths of winter until spring training starts,” Andrews said. “Lean into your socials and say, we’ve got these stories of, ‘Hey, if you missed it, here’s a reminder of all of the exciting stuff that happened last fall, and make sure you don’t miss out in 2025.’”
(Illustration by Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Heather Barry, Todd Kirkland, Rob Tringali, Kevork Djansezian /Getty Images)
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Duke sent the College Football Playoff picture into uncertainty with a stunning overtime win on Saturday.
The Blue Devils secured their first outright ACC championship title since 1962 with a 27-20 victory over Virginia.
Duke quarterback Darian Mensah connected with tight end Jeremiah Hasley for a 1-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play in overtime, in what would be the deciding score.
Duke Blue Devils quarterback Darian Mensah looks to pass during overtime against the Virginia Cavaliers during the 2025 ACC Championship game at Bank of America Stadium. (Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images)
Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris was intercepted by Duke’s Luke Mergott on the Cavaliers’ first offensive play of overtime.
Duke last won a share of the ACC regular season title in 1989, sharing it with Virginia in Steve Spurrier’s final season as the Blue Devils’ coach.
The conference championship game was created in 2005, and Duke got there this year thanks to a five-team tiebreaker.
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Duke’s Dan Mahan celebrates defeating the Virginia Cavaliers during the 2025 ACC Championship game at Bank of America Stadium. (Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images)
Virginia, the ACC regular season champion, would have reached the CFP for the first time in school history with a victory. While Duke is still unlikely to make the playoff field, the win opens the door for a second Group of Five team — likely James Madison — to sneak in.
JMU alums Ben Overby and James Turner were even at the game to support Duke.
“Nothing against UVA,” Turner said excitedly, “but we’re just here to support Duke.”
Duke Blue Devils defensive end Wesley Williams celebrates with safety DaShawn Stone after defeating the Virginia Cavaliers during the 2025 ACC Championship game. (Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images)
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips argued this week that his league deserved two bids: one for No. 12 Miami as the league’s highest-ranked team, the other for the Duke-Virginia winner as the league’s champion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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About 30 minutes into Friday’s World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center, a landmark that Donald Trump would like to rename for himself, the president was called on stage to receive an award from FIFA chief Gianni Infantino.
The so-called FIFA Peace Prize didn’t exist five weeks ago. And when Infantino created it, there were never any candidates for the award beyond Trump, who has campaigned hard but unsuccessfully for a Nobel Peace Prize. That made Friday’s presentation feel awkward and uncomfortable for just about everyone other than Infantino and Trump.
“You definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action, for what you have obtained in your way,” Infantino said as Trump grabbed his medal and draped it around his own neck.
“This is truly one of the great honors of my life,” Trump said.
President Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from FIFA president Gianni Infantino during the 2026 World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center on Friday.
(Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
For the two men the exchange was just the latest in a strange bromance that has deepened in equally beneficial ways as June’s World Cup has drawn closer.
“It’s two massive egos stroking each other,” said a former U.S. Soccer official, who asked that their name not be used to avoid possible reprisal. “I assume Infantino’s ulterior motive is to get the most possible support from the government and make sure Trump, despite some unhelpful comments, does nothing to interfere with the tournament.
“For Trump, the opportunity to claim credit for hosting the world’s biggest sporting event in front of worldwide audience is irresistible.”
A FIFA spokesperson said Infantino must maintain collaborative relationships with host countries and noted he has forged strong bonds with Trump along with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.
“As per the FIFA Statutes, ‘the President shall seek to maintain and develop good relations between and among FIFA, the confederations, member associations, political bodies and international organisations,’” the FIFA statement read. “Furthermore, the FIFA President must maintain good relationships with leaders of host countries to ensure a successful event for all.”
For FIFA and Infantino, a longtime soccer executive who used his connections and smarts to climb to the top of the world’s most popular sport, the partnership is meant to win the president’s backing for, and limit his meddling in, what could be the most lucrative World Cup ever.
In recent months Infantino, who had a front-row seat at the president’s inauguration in January, has invited Trump to present players from Club World Cup champion Chelsea with their winners medals — one of which Trump pocketed — followed the president to Egypt in October for a summit to finalize a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, and rented space in Trump’s Manhattan office building.
Infantino has also been a frequent guest at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, and was able to greet Trump on the Kennedy Center stage Friday only because he abruptly moved the World Cup draw from Las Vegas to Washington, D.C., at Trump’s request, erasing months of planning.
For Trump, America’s sports fan in chief, the relationship means a role in history’s largest, most complex sporting event and the attention and acclaim that comes with that.
At the same time, Trump’s mercurial management style and his penchant for breaking with allies means Infantino can take nothing for granted. As a result, says David Goldblatt, a British sportswriter and a visiting professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, Infantino’s actions have been shrewd, if occasionally humbling.
Chelsea’s Reece James and Robert Sanchez are joined by President Trump as they celebrate their FIFA Club World Cup win on July 13.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
Confronted with a powerful yet unpredictable leader in a country that’s about to host a World Cup that could produce revenues of more than $9 billion, the FIFA president, a former Trump critic, has chosen to put those differences aside and appeal to Trump’s love of tributes and baubles rather than risking his wrath.
“This is a different world,” Goldblatt said of Infantino’s fears that Trump could harm the World Cup if he chooses. “This is not how states and heads of state used to operate.”
Infantino, 55, became head of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, in 2016, when he was elected to replace the scandal-ridden Sepp Blatter in a vote floor-managed by Sunil Gulati, then president of the U.S. Soccer Federation. At the time Infantino, who was born in Switzerland to Italian immigrant parents, was seen as a progressive reformer who would take the hidebound and conservative organization, the most influential and powerful governing body in global sports, in a different direction.
And he has delivered on some of that, growing the fields for both the men’s and women’s World Cups, increasing the prize money for the women’s tournament, expanding other competitions such as the Club World Cup and nearly quadrupling FIFA’s cash reserves. At the same time, he has also become comfortable forming alliances with autocrats.
During the run-up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Infantino developed such a close relationship with Vladimir Putin he was called to the Kremlin after the tournament to accept the Order of Friendship medal, one of Russia’s highest awards. That friendship has apparently endured: On Friday, the investigative news outlet Follow the Money reported FIFA has ordered multiple European clubs to pay transfer fees of up to $30 million to Russian teams despite international sanctions and banking restrictions imposed on the country following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Infantino moved to the emirate, renting a house and enrolling two of his children in local schools. He dismissed well-documented human rights abuses as Western hypocrisy and, on the eve of tournament, sided with the country’s leaders by prohibiting team captains from wearing rainbow-colored armbands and banning longtime sponsor Budweiser from selling beer at World Cup venues.
During Trump’s first administration, Infantino strongly criticized the Muslim ban the president tried to enact, fearing the possible effect it would have on international sports. This time around Infantino has all but ignored Trump’s decision to limit citizens of 19 countries — including World Cup qualifiers Haiti and Iran — from entering the U.S., something that will have a very real impact on next summer’s tournament.
“Infantino is intoxicated by the elite circles of power, status and wealth, into which he has been elevated,” Goldblatt said. “Now he’s king of the universe and has been moving in pretty exalted circles. How does he cope in that world?”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, smiles while clasping hands to greet Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 14, 2018, at the close of the World Cup in Russia.
(Yuri Kadobnov / Associated Press)
Infantino’s shift has caused concern and unease among many global soccer officials, who worry that he has abandoned FIFA’s mandated political neutrality. Delegates from UEFA, the governing body for European soccer for which Infantino used to work, walked out of May’s FIFA Congress in Paraguay after Infantino arrived hours late, delayed by a trip to the Middle East with Trump.
The FIFA president’s “private political interests does the game no service,” the delegates said.
Or maybe it does, says Adam Beissel, as associate professor of sports leadership and management at Miami University in Ohio and the author of several books and studies of FIFA’s inner workings.
“Maybe it was all worth it to get the federal subsidies for the World Cup, to get the sort of support to host an event that’s going to generate $9 billion of revenue,” he said.
By all accounts the friendship between Trump and Infantino is genuine, if ultimately transactional. Trump calls the FIFA leader “Johnny” and “my boy,” while Infantino has blindsided his own staff by announcing the creation of the FIFA Peace Prize, and presenting it to a president whose administration continues to bomb alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and threatens military action against Venezuela.
The FIFA president would surely like it if Trump stopped threatening to pull World Cup games out of blue cities — an impossibility this close to the tournament, yet a threat Trump delights in making nonetheless — and eased his travel ban for visitors who would like to attend the World Cup.
But at this point he’d probably settle for the president simply allowing the show to go on. And if the cost of that is a trophy for Trump, that’s a price Infantino seems willing to pay.
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Police in Italy successfully intercepted and prevented pro-Palestinian activists from interfering with a sacred Olympic tradition on Saturday.
The Italian police said that the pro-Palestinian activists were prevented from coming into contact with the opening stages of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch relay.
Both groups of protesters were removed before they reached the relay route in Rome, per police.
The Olympic torch is lit in Greece. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
A third group of about 10 people that was monitored by police waved Palestinian flags when the relay passed by the city’s biggest university, La Sapienza.
There were also three people carrying signs in support of Venezuela near the American embassy.
In October, more than two million demonstrators marched through more than 100 Italian cities to protest the war in Gaza.
Olympic champion swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri began the relay in the statue-lined Stadio dei Marmi and the torch was carried for 20 miles before ending the day in Piazza del Popolo.
The relay will cover nearly 7,500 miles and wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces before reaching Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony on Feb. 6.
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Short-track speedskater Jean-Francois Monette lights the Olympic flame at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium during the Olympic torch relay, Dec. 9, 2009. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)
In all, there will be 10,001 torch-bearers.
The next stops on the torch relay are Viterbo on Sunday, and Terni on Monday.
Pro-Palestinian protesters causing disruption to sporting events have become increasingly regular over the past year, especially sporting events involving Israeli teams.
Last month, multiple people were arrested at a soccer match in the United Kingdom that involved Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli fans of the team were prohibited from attending the match due to safety concerns, but disturbances still broke out regardless, with anti-Israel protesters in the vicinity.
Multiple people were arrested at a soccer match in the United Kingdom that involved Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli fans of the team were prohibited from attending the match due to safety concerns, but disturbances still broke out regardless, with anti-Israel protesters in the vicinity.
An Israeli cycling team was excluded from an October race in Italy, the Giro dell’Emilia, because of concerns over potentially disruptive pro-Palestinian protests. Organizers made the decision after protesters repeatedly disrupted the recent Spanish Vuelta.
Seven of the past 11 days of racing at the Vuelta were cut short or interrupted because Spain’s government estimated more than 100,000 people were on the streets in Madrid during the final stage in September.
The protesters said their actions were aimed at denouncing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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