John Ourand

NASCAR is trying to turn media fragmentation into a growth engine, pairing resilient traditional ratings with younger digital audiences and Hollywood ambition.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin’s attempt to land a pair of players who previously signed NFL deals struck a nerve with just about everyone in college football this week. Was the act so audacious that Congress will have to take a harder look at the Protect College Sports Act?

John Ourand Welcome back to The Varsity. I’m John Ourand, coming to you from D.C. on a surprisingly busy sports business week for the end of August. I know you’ve still got to ask Claude to map out the relative risk of taking Christian McCaffrey in the first round of your fantasy draft, so let’s […]

The Lakers’ $12.5 billion price tag is just the latest, and so far the greatest, jaw-dropping team valuation, and it raises the question: What are these billionaires thinking? And since no one knows billionaires better than our colleague William Cohan, we enlisted him to talk about why team ownership is the ultimate flex, even if it’s not always good business.

With volatile forces (the transfer portal's Wild West, the Lakers and Seahawks valuations, football's international endgame, etcetera) reshaping the business of sports, Sportscorp C.E.O. Marc Ganis—the NFL's “33rd owner” and Roger Goodell whisperer—shares the inside story.

Sep 1, 2026 John Ourand Welcome back to The Varsity. It’s that time of year when it feels like half of my source calls are coming from people wandering around the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Yes, it’s U.S. Open time in Gotham. Before we begin: Stan Kroenke bought a controlling interest in the […]

The only surprising element of the NBA’s punishment of the L.A. Clippers is its severity—and how ferociously Steve Ballmer, the league’s richest owner, is fighting back. Is this a harbinger for future governor-on-league violence?

The NCAA’s authority is collapsing under a barrage of lawsuits, congressional paralysis, and its own refusal to admit that college sports have gone pro. Is unionization the answer?

After a summer in which much of the sports media tried to unpack his megadeal with ESPN—which remains unsigned, for the record—his omnipotence says almost everything one needs to know about the state of the business.

John Ourand Welcome back to The Varsity. Tomorrow marks 25 years since 9/11, so I urge you to rewatch these two great ESPN pieces: The Man in the Red Bandana and a 30 for 30 retrospective on George W. Bush’s first pitch at Yankee Stadium during that year’s World Series. Bush, who took the occasion […]