Arrowhead Stadium is Changing Its Name 🏟️

It’s no secret that sporting events have gotten really expensive over the past few years, but I’d argue there’s a trade-off. Want me to sit in 2 hours of traffic to watch the Los Angeles Angels? I’m going to need a $5 ticket and a $2 beer.

But if you’re telling me that I get to see a game at one of the most beautiful venues in all of sports? Then I might be willing to pay (a lot) more.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: Why Arrowhead Stadium is Changing Its Name

📉 Biggest Loser: From National Champion to $20M Con Man

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The Camera Solving Baseball’s Oldest Problem

Why are the Kansas City Chiefs being forced to change the name of their stadium?

Well, the short answer is because of the World Cup, but the real answer actually reveals one of the most expensive loopholes in all of sports.

Differing Needs: Even though NFL stadiums are typically used throughout the offseason to host a wide array of events, ranging from concerts to monster truck tours, the requirements to host FIFA World Cup matches have proven much more difficult to meet.

Not only are NFL fields almost 20 meters narrower than a World Cup pitch, requiring some venues to remove entire sections of seats, but 7 of the 11 U.S. venues have had to replace their artificial turf fields with natural grass:

Still, even all that pales in comparison to what each stadium is required to do off the field.

De-Commercialization: Part of agreeing to be a World Cup host stadium means agreeing to FIFA’s “clean site” policy, which demands that all stadiums remove or cover up all advertising in and around the venue.

This request is meant to protect FIFA’s exclusive sponsorships, which are estimated to be worth over $2.8 billion in 2026 alone; however, for the staff at these stadiums, it also means covering over 2,000 individual logos, both inside and out, including the venue's literal name.

That’s why, just this week, we saw the Chiefs’ stadium sponsor, GEHA, have its logo removed from the outside of what will now simply be called “Kansas City Stadium.”

Exceptions: However, as it turns out, not every stadium has to abide by these same rules.

That’s because, in the case of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, covering or removing the giant logo on its $1.6 billion roof would have caused major structural damage. So, after 18 months of negotiation, FIFA agreed to let the logo remain visible; however, you better believe that TV broadcasters are under strict orders not to show it.

I guess even some things are too expensive for FIFA.

Who is this former National Champion that just got arrested for dressing up as 3 NFL stars and stealing $20 million?

Well, it turns out, he’s actually one of the most prolific scammers in sports that no one seems to know anything about.

The Mastermind: Meet Luther Davis, a 4-star defensive tackle from Louisiana who played at Alabama for four years between 2007 and 2010, where he won a National Championship with the Crimson Tide in 2010.

However, after an otherwise disappointing college career and being cut by the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent in 2011, Davis returned to the college game, but this time as an alleged “bagman,” who reportedly acted as the middleman between top college prospects and NFL agents.

It was reported that between 2011 and 2012, Davis helped provide what was then considered to be over $45,000 in illegal payments to agents and five college athletes; however, neither he nor anyone involved was ever criminally punished.

In fact, the public wouldn’t hear from Luther Davis again until over 10 years late. However, this time, it would be for something far worse.

The Disguise: In 2023, Davis realized that as a 6’3”, 270-pound former athlete, he could put on wigs, makeup, and sometimes a do-rag to pass as one of three current NFL stars:

So, along with his co-conspirator, CJ Evins, Davis began contacting lenders using fake bank and email accounts and, while wearing various disguises, joined video calls with them to convince them he was the player in question.

Davis and Evins then used fake driver’s licenses featuring photos of the players they found online to obtain 13 loans totaling nearly $20 million, which they used to buy real estate, jewelry, and cars. However, by 2025, the jig was up, and after a year-long investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Georgia, both men pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.

I guess their plan was really too good to be true.

This camera helps solve one of the oldest problems in baseball, but not for the reason you might think.

Unclear Umps: Even though umpires started calling balls and strikes all the way back in 1863, if you dug through the baseball rulebook, you’d find that even 163 years later, there’s actually no definition for a “swing.”

In fact, the closest the rulebook gets to defining a “swing” is when it describes a strike as a pitch that “is struck at by the batter.” But it’s up to the individual umpire to determine what “struck at” means. And even though Rule 8.02(c) states that managers and catchers can ask for a base umpire’s help on a “half swing,” nowhere in the rules does it actually describe when a “half swing” turns into a “full swing.”

Now, it’s typically understood that the bat has to “cross the plane” or a batter has to “break his wrists” in order for a check swing to be called a strike, but even these definitions have a ton of gray area.

Saving the Strike: That’s why, for the past two years, MLB has been quietly testing a high-tech solution to this age-old problem by upgrading five (shown below in red) of the 12 cameras already set up in Minor League ballparks for pitch tracking and using them to start tracking the location of the bat throughout the entire swing.

Then, in 2024, they finally decided that in order for an attempt to constitute a “full swing,” the head of the bat would have to move ahead of its knob by more than 45 degrees, which is the same angle as both baselines in relation to home plate.

In-Action: Then, starting two years ago, batters, pitchers, and catchers in the Arizona Fall League could finally challenge a check swing, which would be instantly confirmed on the in-stadium video board the same way a challenged ball-strike call is today.

In fact, this test was so successful that it was graduated to Single-A play in 2025 and is now being used in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League this season, where it’s already helped reduce strikeout rates by 3%, resulting in more balls being put in play.

And even though it’s only a matter of time before this system gets brought to the Major Leagues, at least we finally now have a clear definition of what a swing is.

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

I’m curious, when you consider going to a sporting event, what’s the #1 factor that would keep you from going?