NFL will play more games in England
The NFL will continue staging at least two games per year at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium through the 2029 season, the league announced Thursday.
The deal with the Premier League soccer club is a two-year extension on their original longterm agreement to play regularseason games at Tottenham’s $1.6 billion facility.
Tottenham’s stadium was custom built with an NFL field below the Premier League team’s moveable soccer pitch. The grass soccer field splits into three sections before it’s moved to make way for the astroturf underneath.
The stadium, which features designated NFL locker rooms and capacity seating of nearly 63,000, has hosted six games so far.
MLB RED SOX FIRE EXEC BLOOM >>
The Boston Red Sox fired Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom as the team stumbled toward a third last-place finish in four seasons. The team made the announcement before the start of a doubleheader against the New York Yankees, who took the first two games of the series to drop Boston into a tie for last.
Bloom was hired from the Tampa Bay Rays to help revive the farm system and bring financial stability to a team that was one of baseball’s biggest spenders. One of his first moves was to trade 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts, a year before he was eligible for free agency, on a mandate from ownership to get the payroll in order. YANKEES PROSPECT DOMÍNGUEZ TO UNDERGO TOMMY JOHN SURGERY NEXT WEEK >> Yankees top prospect Jasson Domínguez will have Tommy John surgery next Wednesday, manager Aaron Boone said Thursday morning.
The 20-year-old center fielder was scratched from Sunday’s series finale against Milwaukee because his right elbow limited his swing during batting practice.
Boone said the recovery time for a position player is nine to 10 months.
Olympics SALT LAKE CITY GETS GO-AHEAD AS BIDDER FOR FUTURE WINTER GAMES >>
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee officially endorsed Salt Lake City as the American bid
city for an upcoming Winter Olympics, with the committee’s chairman saying that while the U.S. bid remains flexible, it would prefer hosting in 2034 over 2030.
The move to put Salt Lake City up as a candidate for “targeted dialogue” with the International Olympic Committee about an upcoming Winter Games was expected, but still marked a major milestone for the bid, said the city’s bid-committee president, Fraser Bullock.
Bid organizers have touted Salt Lake City, which hosted the Winter Games in 2002, as the most ready and most flexible candidate to host in either 2030 or 2034.
Soccer FIRED SPAIN COACH VILDA LEFT OFF FIFA AWARD LIST >>
Spain’s Women’s World Cup winning coach Jorge Vilda was left off the short-list of nominees for the annual FIFA awards announced Thursday, a week after he was fired following an international uproar in the wake of the final.
Vilda was not among five candidates for the Best Women’s Coach Award for 2023, which did include England coach Sarina Wiegman, whose team lost the final to Spain. The candidates were picked by a FIFA-appointed expert panel that included United States great Mia Hamm.
Spain forward Jenni Hermoso, who was kissed by now-disgraced and ousted Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales after the final, is one of four Spain players who are among the 16 candidates for the women’s player of the year award. Rubiales is being investigated for sexual assault in Spain over the kiss.
Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé are competing with six Champions League winners from Manchester City and four others for the Best Men’s Player Award.