Driving the news: Crowds flooded the streets on June 30 for the Avalanche's Stanley Cup parade — the Avs' first title since 2001 and Denver's third hockey championship since March.
The Tour de France begins July 1 in Copenhagen, where 23-year-old Slovenian Tadej Pogačar is eyeing a three-peat as the "all-time legend" talk builds around him.
By the numbers: This marks the 24th Grand Départ in a country other than France, and the first in Denmark.
WNBA star Brittney Griner went on trial on Friday in Russia facing drug charges that carry up to 10 years in prison, Reuters reports.
Driving the news: Russian prosecutors outlined the charges against Griner, who was detained in Moscow in February. She is accused of intentionally importing drugs into Russia, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
The sports ticket market has matured exponentially over the last two decades, and a landscape once dominated by brokers and early StubHub adopters is now driven by teams and technology.
State of play: Once upon a time, sports teams sold tickets almost exclusively through their own channels for a relatively flat price. This allowed re-sellers to swoop in and flip them for a profit, birthing an industry of middlemen.
USC and UCLA will leave the Pac-12 and join the Big Ten in 2024, the schools announced Thursday — a bombshell that caught the sports world completely off-guard.
Why it matters: The future of college athletics seems clear: Two "super leagues" built from the foundations of the SEC, which will soon add Texas and Oklahoma, and the Big Ten, which now spans coast to coast.
The University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles will leave the Pac-12 conference and join the Big Ten at the start of the 2024-25 season, the schools announced on Thursday.
The big picture: It's another seismic shift in college sports. USC and UCLA, two of the biggest schools in the Pac-12, are the largest and most successful athletics departments on the West Coast, USA Today writes.
The NFL is teaming up with Ice Cube's Contract with Black America Institute to bolster its partnerships with Black-owned businesses, the league announced Thursday.
Driving the news: The partnership aims to help close the racial wealth gap by finding league-wide "opportunities in the financial, tech, and production sectors" with a focus on increasing spending toward national Black businesses.
Luis Arráez has always been an excellent hitter, but what he's doing this season — with league-wide batting average at its lowest since 1967 — is turning heads around the league.
By the numbers: The Twins infielder leads the AL in AVG (.337) and OBP (.418), which are 43% and 38% better than league average, respectively. That success didn't come out of nowhere.
