Formula 1 Coming to NYC?

Formula 1 already has an unprecedented three U.S. races — but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t add a fourth.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenecali hinted that he was open to exploring additional cities in the U.S. in an interview with Sky Sports. The series is already racing in Austin, Miami, and Las Vegas this year.

“There is a lot of interest in far East Asia, more interest in the U.S.,” he said, adding that “we have three [in the U.S.], which I think is the right number for the next couple of years.”

Speculation has gravitated toward New York City.

“It would be amazing,” said Red Bull principal Christian Horner earlier this year. “A race here in the Big Apple, for example — what a spectacle that would be.”

F1 director of media rights Ian Holmes agreed, telling Front Office Sports last year, “Who wouldn’t want to race in New York?” 

But the F1 calendar may be reaching capacity with 23 races this year — after the Chinese Grand Prix was canceled — and there’s interest in bringing a race to South Africa.

Honda Turning to Aston Martin?

Reports surfaced this week that Honda could pair up with Aston Martin heading into 2026. 

The Japanese carmaker currently supplies engines to Red Bull and AlphaTauri, but those teams will work with Ford and Red Bull Powertrains heading into 2026, when engine regulations are overhauled.

An exclusive deal with Aston Martin could have domino effects on Mercedes, which currently supplies the British team’s engines. Mercedes principal Toto Wolff is also an investor in Aston Martin.

Prosecutors in Manhattan’s federal court want former Minnesota Vikings minority owner Reginald Fowler to serve seven years in jail and forfeit more than $740 million for his role in a crypto scam. 

Fowler is accused of establishing Global Trading Solutions LLC to support a money-laundering front for cryptocurrency companies working with Crypto Capital, which allowed cryptocurrency firms to swap their digital currencies for cash. 

Crypto Capital operators Oz and Ravid Yosef are defendants in the case alongside Fowler but remain at large, according to Bloomberg. 

The former Vikings owner (from 2005-2014) was also a recent investor in the failed Alliance of American Football. Fowler allegedly opened several accounts with U.S. banks by falsely claiming they were for real estate transactions when the funds were helping facilitate crypto transactions instead. 

In April 2022, the 64-year-old Fowler pled guilty to wire and bank fraud, as well as conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. In last year’s plea agreement, Fowler admitted to defrauding people associated with the AAF, which shut down after just eight weeks of play in 2019 following Fowler’s decision to withdraw his majority investment in the league. 

The suggested $740 million fine and seven-year prison punishment follows Fowler’s rejection of a previous deal to forfeit up to $370 million.

Fowler is set to be sentenced Thursday by a federal judge in New York’s Southern District court.

Riding its popularity, the Premier League is offering more to broadcasters as new media negotiations loom.

The U.K. league is preparing to offer an additional 60 live games to broadcasters in its next domestic rights deal, according to the Telegraph — which means that 260 of the league’s 380 games per season would be broadcast live, up from the current 200. 

However, there are no indications that the league will get rid of its “3 p.m. Saturday blackout” rule which dictates that no games be broadcast live between 2:45 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. local time on Saturdays.

The potential move comes at the perfect time for the league, as the Prem’s media rights are as valuable as ever.

Sky Sports, BT Sport (rebranding to TNT Sport this summer), and Amazon Prime Video hold the league’s domestic rights for a collective $6 billion for the three-year cycle ending with the 2024-25 season. Sky holds the largest chunk, with rights to 128 matches.

The league’s international rights reached $6.3 billion for this cycle, topping the domestic haul for the first time. 

Of the total sum from media rights, $2 billion is distributed to lower-tier leagues, while the bulk goes to the Premier League’s 20 clubs.

Negotiations for the following three years are expected to begin later this year.

Ticketing company SeatGeek filed confidentially with regulators earlier this month to go public, according to a new report from The Information. 

Front Office Sports reached out to SeatGeek, but a PR rep for the company declined to comment on its reported IPO.

SeatGeek’s planned IPO follows its previous attempt to go public via a SPAC merger with RedBall Acquisition Corp. Still, both parties agreed to terminate the deal last June due to market conditions. That merger would have valued SeatGeek at $1.35B and included investments from Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures and Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith.

SeatGeek, which recently signed a reported $100M deal to become MLB’s official ticket reseller, is not the only ticket operator making reported moves to go public. StubHub filed paperwork with the SEC to pursue going public via a direct listing that would value the company at $13 billion, according to a Jan. 2022 report from Bloomberg. 

Secondary ticket marketplace Vivid Seats went public in Oct. 2021 after a SPAC merger backed by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Todd Boehly and DraftKings. Vivid Seats’ stock price is currently down about 37% to $7.44 since going public.