 Caitlin Clark helped push women’s hoops to new heights. Photographer: Cooper Neill/Getty Images Caitlin Clark’s power to capture an audience was apparent before this year began, but it reached new levels in her last months at Iowa, when she came within a game of a national title and turned the women’s NCAA basketball tournament into a bigger draw than the men’s. In April, when the WNBA’s Indiana Fever drafted Clark with the first overall pick, there were two big questions: Could she make the leap to the professional game? And would her magnetic appeal carry over? The answer to both was an emphatic yes. (Check out my feature on her impact from May.) Clark won rookie of the year, setting a single-season record for assists, and lifted the WNBA’s TV ratings and ticket sales to new heights. Clark’s arrival pushed the league into the mainstream–leading a broader boom in women’s sports–and setting up a showdown over pay in the year ahead. — Ira Boudway Investment Deal of the Year: NFL | The NFL finally decided that allowing private equity to buy into teams was a good thing. The calculation was a simple one: There aren’t that many billionaires out there, so adding another group of deep-pocketed entities would add more potential investors (demand) to keep the value of team equity (supply) going up (there’s other reasons, tax, succession, etc., but let’s stick to the money). But what makes it such a good deal is that it’s more proof, if it was needed, that the NFL looks after its own. As long as owners make money, the NFL is doing its job — and unlike the mess that’s the Premier League — all the owners pull in the same direction to make sure the league keeps spitting out cash. That’s why there was only one hold-out to letting private equity into the chicken coup. NFL owners quickly worked out that private equity offers allowed teams to raise the floor of valuations, which have been spiraling as it is. Owners could then take PE offers to other billionaires to ramp up a bidding process. We’ve heard stories of owners turning their noses up at PE offers, then trotting down the road and using them to get a better price from a billionaire.  The NFL enters the private equity era. Photographer: Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images It hasn’t taken long for deals to come. This month, two transactions were approved. Ares Management acquired a piece of the entity that owns the Miami Dolphins and other assets, including Hard Rock Stadium where the team plays, at a valuation of $8.1 billion. Meanwhile, Arctos Partners is acquiring a stake in the Buffalo Bills.
Because of the NFL's profitability, I expect there to be more deals next year, which will continue to supercharge team values. — Randall Williams It should be no surprise that with Caitlin Clark being the athlete of the year, the league of the year is the Women’s National Basketball Association. The league’s growth was astounding, with viewership surging, including up 115% for the Finals and 170% for regular season games on ESPN. Attendance boomed, too, with the average per game gained 48% as sellouts more than tripled. The fact that the media deal it signed this year — worth six times its previous one at $200 million a year — is now seen as a pretty cheap deal goes to show that something is going right. It’s an example of a women’s league delivering on the hype. And you know things are getting better when players argue about wanting a bigger slice of what they see as an increasingly lucrative league.  The New York Liberty took home the WNBA title, capping a season that saw interest in the league surge. Photographer: Elsa/Getty Images North America We broke the news in October that the league’s players voted to opt out of their collective bargaining agreement two years before its expiration in a push for a better deal. The league’s ascendancy had ripple effects, with expansion teams, stadiums and training centers being developed. (This feature from July on the New York Liberty’s remarkable turnaround points to where the W is headed.) There was also rise of unexpected social media phenomenon, like Ellie the Elephant. The Liberty’s mascot has more online followers than the majority of the players on the team she represents. Ellie appeared on stage with Usher, Justin Timberlake, Ciara and was the first pro sports mascot with their own float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. — Vanessa Perdomo Owners of the Year: Clearlake Capital/Todd Boehly | This time last year, Chelsea FC was 10th in the league. A once great team had a bloated squad and meddling owners. By April, the club was humiliated 5-0 by Arsenal, just weeks after the players were branded “blue billion pound bottle jobs” by Sky Television's Gary Neville following the lost Wembley final to Liverpool. The owners' business model was roundly criticized, too. Well, Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly might not be laughing yet, but they must be finally smiling. Chelsea has just one league defeat since opening day and now sit in second. Recent hires in both front and back of house are doing well. New coach Enzo Maresca, favored by Egbhali, has been almost faultless so far.  Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly making it work? Photographer: Clive Rose/Getty Images Europe All this despite the fact that our report in September revealed disharmony in the boardroom, and that the two owners were looking at ways to buy each other out. Should Chelsea's good form continue, it will at the very least make next season's Champions League, which could generate about £100 million in revenue, and the club is already booked to go to America in the summer for the Club World Cup. Chelsea’s owners have made some sensible hires and left them alone to do their job. That’s what good owners tend to do. Sure, it took them a while to work that out. And a lot of money. And there’s still a long way to go. But given the total basketcase Chelsea was at the start of the year, it’s saying something. It takes guts to work out what you’re doing something wrong, and even more to turn it around. Kudos where it’s due. — David Hellier and Giles Turner Breakout Athlete of the Year: Ilona Maher | In an Olympic year, you expect a few breakout athletes to win gold and become household names. Typically they come from swimming, track or gymnastics. Never has one come from women’s rugby. This summer Ilona Maher, captain of the US women’s rugby sevens team, became an internet sensation. She started off by making viral videos in the Olympic village, comparing it to Love Island. Then she won more fans by taking home America’s first medal (a bronze) in the sport.  Ilona Maher, rising star. Photographer: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images Europe She now has more Instagram followers than Olympic legend Michael Phelps and other breakout Olympians Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson. After the games, her profile has kept rising. She competed on Dancing with The Stars, finishing as the runner-up. Maher has partnerships with Secret deodrant, L’Oreal Paris and New Era. She also co-launched a skincare line called Medalist. Next year could be even bigger. In January, Maher starts a three-month contract with Bristol Bears in England’s Premiership Women's Rugby. She’ll likely be back in the UK for the Women’s Rugby World Cup later in the year. -- Vanessa Perdomo Payday of the Year: Juan Soto |  Juan Soto got his luxury suite. Photographer: Harry How/Getty Images North America Juan Soto got pretty much everything in his record-breaking $765 million, 15-year contract with the New York Mets: a $75 million signing bonus, performance incentives, a no-trade clause, an opt-out after five years, a guarantee that he can keep his uniform number (22), a hotel suite for road trips, and a luxury suite at Citi Field for home games. It is the best contract any baseball player, and quite possibly any athlete, has ever signed — so good that it’s quite likely to lead to a civil war among MLB owners. When even the Yankees balk at what Steve Cohen and the Mets are willing to pay, who can compete? — Ira Boudway Team of the Year: Atalanta | There was talk of giving this award to the Boston Celtics. Sure, the team won the NBA and look set to win it again. But no thanks. I sort of feel you shouldn’t pay your way to an NBA title. Apparently 14 of the past 18 NBA champions have paid luxury tax. The Celtics are no exception (and actually lost money last season). Instead, let’s look at Atalanta BC, also co-owned by Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca. This year the club reached the 2024 Coppa Italia final and made its debut appearance in the UEFA Europa League final, where it defeated Bayer Leverkusen (another good shout for team of the year).  Atalanta BC fans living it up. Photographer: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images Atalanta made a habit out of picking up floundering prospects at bigger rivals and turning their fortunes around (see: ex-AC Milan striker Charles De Ketelaere), and the club also consistently posts a profit, almost unheard of in European football, and is currently first in Serie A. The team also knows when to move stars on, making $100 million selling players to Manchester United alone over the past few years. Much of the credit goes down to Gian Piero Gasperini, who has been the manager since 2016, and the owners for not fiddling with the club. This year it also finished part of its stadium revamp. — Giles Turner Best Fan of the Year: Steve Ballmer | Nobody has ever combined basketball fanaticism and extreme wealth like Steve Ballmer. The centibillionaire former Microsoft CEO and Los Angeles Clippers owner spent more than $2 billion to build his team’s new home, the Intuit Dome, which opened in April.  Steve Ballmer in his element. Photographer: Harry How/Getty Images The arena is an “homage to basketball,” Ballmer told me when I interviewed him for this for this feature in January as he explained how the arena was designed to keep fans watching and cheering the action on the floor. Ballmer considered every detail, from the shape of the bowl to the number of bathrooms, to give his Clippers the most raucous atmosphere possible. Just look. Who said money doesn’t buy happiness. — Ira Boudway | 
