Sport business quiz 2025: Test your knowledge with City AM’s topical teasers December 24, 2025 Quiz fans, have you been paying attention to the ever-changing sport business landscape in 2025? We at City AM have been breathlessly documenting it and have devised a test to see how much you remember. If you think you know your Hundred auctions from your Formula 1 minority sales and your record breaking NBA team [...]
Financial stability before glory: Why professional sport must grow up December 24, 2025 Professional sport has never looked richer or felt more fragile. Revenues are growing, valuations are rising, and private capital is circling like never before. Yet beneath the surface, financial fragility remains endemic. Too many clubs – across football, rugby, cricket and beyond – are one bad season, one failed owner, or one missed broadcast deal [...]
Champ clubs demand divorce payment from RFU over Prem franchise plan December 23, 2025 The Rugby Football Union is facing the threat of legal action from Champ clubs if the RFU Council approves a proposal from the Prem to become a franchise league with no promotion from the second tier. City AM has learned that the Champ Rugby board held an emergency meeting with clubs last week at which [...]
Newcastle Red Bulls, Dupont and ITV: Top rugby business stories of 2025 December 19, 2025 This year really has been a 12 months where the business of rugby became a major talking point in ovalball discourse. We have always seen the odd deal here or investment there but 2025 has seen a step change across the sport, and it remains to be seen how it will pan out. So here [...]
Cornish Pirates: We will kick door down to reach franchised Prem Rugby December 18, 2025 The chief executive of Cornish Pirates insists she is ready to “kick the door down” to get her Champ side into Prem Rugby if the top flight becomes a ringfenced franchise league. Prem Rugby and the Rugby Football Union are exploring a franchise model which would see the current 10 teams form a new ring-fenced [...]
R360 or Ultimate Sevens: Which rugby project would I invest in? December 12, 2025 Everyone is an investment expert these days, with a proposal they say will save rugby and a project that will see a return on that backing. Whether it is the Prem Rugby franchising project, a developing league in the United States or South America, the delayed R360 proposal or the Ultimate Sevens project; there’s an [...]
Jamie George leaves Team England Rugby, Itoje and Genge stay on December 5, 2025 International rugby union player Jamie George has left his role as director of the company he formed with teammates to handle contract and commercial negotiations with the RFU. A Companies House update reveals that the former British and Irish Lion has left Team England Rugby Limited, effective last month. The company was credited with helping [...]
Investec Champions Cup: How Prem Rugby can beat Top 14 budgets December 5, 2025 It seems to come around quicker every year; not Christmas but the Investec Champions Cup. Some criticise the competition – whether it is because of the inclusion of the South African United Rugby Championship teams, its availability being restricted to Premier Sports or its odd pool format – but it is the very best of [...]
EY: Traditional sports cricket and rugby union surging in popularity December 4, 2025 Rugby union and cricket have surged into the top 10 most popular sports across the UK in what is a tonic for traditional sports, new research has shown. Cricket climbed six places in the EY-Parthenon Sports Engagement Index to eighth, while rugby union jumped three spots to 10th. Football, Formula 1, Swimming and Tennis all [...]
ITV launches £80m bid for rugby’s Nations Championship December 2, 2025 Rugby union’s inaugural Nations Championship looks set to be shown on free-to-air television after ITV bid more than £80m. If successful, every Six Nations match and Nations Championship fixture will be terrestrial TV in the UK until at least 2029. The broadcaster has been in competition with TNT Sports, the early favourites to land the [...]