Top 10 most valuable soccer teams globally Data Source: Forbes, Photos: Getty, Designer: Jessica Russo The most valuable soccer teams are dominated by clubs in the English Premier League, with six in the Top 10 and 11 in the Top 30. No US-based MLS team is higher than 17, and only one team from the French league is in the Top 30. But money isn’t necessarily everything, because Paris Saint-Germain, the fifth-most-valuable team, according to Forbes, just won the Champions League for the second year in a row last weekend. A note about the most expensive team: Real Madrid had a record 2024–25 season, bringing in $1.27 billion in revenue. That figure not only beats every other soccer team but also surpasses the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys’ $1.23 billion in 2024 season revenue, which previously set the record for highest revenue from a sports team, per Forbes. Private equity gets in on the pitch. There is a smattering of private equity dollars in the Top 10 clubs: Qatar Sports Investme...

  US gov’t bonds plummet amid inflation concerns Douglas Rissing/Getty Images On Wednesdays, the Brew’s Sam Klebanov highlights a fascinating stock, commodity, or other asset that’s worth your attention. Investors are dumping IOUs from Uncle Sam. Government bond prices fell this week, pushing 30-year yields—which move in the opposite direction to prices—to 5.19% yesterday, the highest level since July 2007. Everyone is worried about inflation accelerating: Analysts say the risk of prices rising faster due to a prolonged Strait of Hormuz closure has investors expecting that the Fed won’t lower borrowing costs this year, which makes the current bonds that offer lower interest look as appealing as a hot tub in July. The market went from anticipating three rate cuts this year to now a rate hike . Growing government debt further cheapens federal bonds. The US national debt for last year’s Q4 was 122% of GDP, up from 105% during the same period in 2019. This affects you even if y...

  Kelce grabs a stake in his hometown MLB team Frank Jansky/Getty Images On Fridays, the Brew’s Dave Lozo looks at a sports business story that says a lot more than just the final score of a game. Kansas City Chiefs tight end and frequent subject of Taylor Swift songs Travis Kelce became a minority owner of MLB’s Cleveland Guardians this week, joining a long line of athletes to dip a toe into sports team ownership. “The opportunity came across my desk and I just couldn’t say no,” said Kelce, a Cleveland Heights native who shocked many by revealing that he owns a desk. Kelce’s share came out of the 35% stake owned by Blackstone exec David Blitzer, who can become the majority owner after the 2027 season. Other athletes with ownership stakes in pro teams include: LeBron James (Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins); Tom Brady (Las Vegas Raiders and Aces); David Beckham (Inter Miami CF); Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Brewers); and Kelce’s teammate, Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City...

  The first Star Wars movie in 7 years might flop Lucasfilm Disney has a lot riding on a little alien child. The Mandalorian and Grogu officially hit theaters yesterday, and the entertainment giant desperately needs Baby Yoda to revive the famous franchise’s fading box-office appeal. But the Force may not be strong with this one. The film is at risk of having the worst opening for any Star Wars movie ever: The Mandalorian and Grogu is projected to make $80 million to $100 million domestically this weekend. That would be less than Solo: A Star Wars Story , which is the franchise’s only film to lose money (so far). In revenue from preview viewings, The Mandalorian and Grogu is already behind Solo , which also premiered over Memorial Day weekend (in 2018). Potential obstacles: The film is a continuation of a Disney+ series that first endeared viewers to Baby Yoda in 2019. Potential audiences might assume the show is a prerequisite for understanding the movie. And some se...

  This year’s broadcast deals are chaotic CFOTO/Getty Images FIFA’s global media rights for World Cup 2026 are like a kids’ rec soccer game: slow-going, messy, and featuring many players who aren’t doing what the big bosses wish they would. It’s all in the timing. In big countries where swaths of the population will be asleep or groggy when the North America-based games kick off, FIFA may be getting less money from broadcasters than it was hoping for: Last week, FIFA finally reached a broadcast deal with India, the world’s most populous country, after cutting its asking price from $100 million to $60 million. The final amount may have been lower—an Indian broadcaster that paid $60 million for the 2022 rights ultimately lost money, and that World Cup was hosted in Qatar, a much closer time zone. China, the world’s second-most-populous country, reached a late-stage deal with FIFA last month that valued the 2026 World Cup rights at $60 million—down from the $300 million FIFA ...

  Waymo service takes a multicity rain check 11 Alive Waymo and its self-driving cars are used to making waves, but this isn’t what they had in mind. After several incidents of its robotaxis driving into floodwaters, the company announced on Thursday that it’s temporarily halting its service in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, and Houston due to inclement weather. So, what happened? During a bout of heavy rain in Atlanta on Wednesday, an empty Waymo car Leeroy Jenkins’d into a flooded street and got stuck. Elsewhere in the city, a different Waymo vehicle with a journalist inside also repeatedly tried its hand at self-boating. There were precipitating events: Waymo had already halted service in San Antonio last month over a similar incident. And last week, the company issued a recall on thousands of its vehicles to perform a software update aimed at solving the problem. According to Waymo: The update—meant to be a temporary fix—instructed vehicles not to drive when there’s an ele...

  Canada high court recognizes new civil wrong of intimate partner violence - JURIST - News News Dwong33 , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Canada high court recognizes new civil wrong of intimate partner violence Derren Chan | JURIST Staff MAY 17, 2026 12:18:38 PM The Supreme Court of Canada recognized intimate partner violence as a new civil wrong on Friday. The majority said it is a “pernicious social ill” that the law must address. Six justices decided to recognize intimate partner violence as a new tort —an act or omission that injures another, constituting a civil wrong that attaches liability. Justice Nicholas Kasirer, for the majority, accepted that intimate partner violence offends the victim’s dignity, autonomy and equality in a relationship that existing tort law fails to capture. The law cannot sufficiently compensate the victims because it fails to recognize the violence as a cumulative pattern of coercive control, its disproportionate impact on women and its aggravated d...

  Lululemon is being haunted by its founder JPix/Getty Images More than a decade after leaving his athleisure company, Chip Wilson is still trying to steer what he sees as a sinking ship. He’s currently trying to convince shareholders to overhaul Lululemon’s board, which prompted the company to call Wilson’s perspectives “misguided” and “outdated” yesterday in its first public response to the founder. “Mr. Wilson has shown that he does not have a full understanding of the business today or the brand’s future potential and remains intractably focused on the past,” Lululemon wrote, urging shareholders to back the company’s existing board members. “The board has not provided me with detail on where our disagreements lie,” Wilson, who has a history of making insensitive comments, said after Lululemon released their roast letter. For context, Lululemon’s revenue tripled in nine years after Wilson left the board in 2015, per Fortune, but its stock is now down ~75% from a 2023 ...

  Why are people camping out for this weird watch? Swatch Not since Hobbs & Shaw teamed up has there been this kind of buzz about an unlikely pairing. A new pocket watch from Swatch and Audemars Piguet (you decide which one is The Rock) is out today after a week of anticipation that included long lines and hype created by AI photos. The collection is called Royal Pop, which sounds like a game you will never download despite the 40-second ads for it everywhere. It can be worn around the neck like a pendant, comes in eight bright color combinations , and Audemars Piguet hopes that, at ~$400 apiece, the luxury watchmaker can reach a broader, younger audience. Swatch needs a hit, too: The company saw a 6.75% drop in sales and a 55.6% decline in operating profit in 2025, which is why an activist shareholder is applying pressure . Twisted-wristers: Buzz and endless lines outside stores were created when pictures of wristwatches “leaked,” but turned out to be fake AI images. ...

  Sobeys, Loblaw under fire for maple washing, as Sobeys ditches maple leaf symbol in stores | CBC News Sobeys, Loblaw under fire for maple washing, as Sobeys ditches maple leaf symbol in stores Federal regulator has identified 127 cases of maple washing by retailers since the start of 2025 Sophia Harris ,  Andreas Wesley  · CBC News · Posted: May 14, 2026 1:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago Listen to this article Estimated 6 minutes Sobeys customer Steve Palmer discovered these walnuts at a store in Nova Scotia. Although the packaging says the nuts come from California, they were promoted in-store with a red maple leaf. (Submitted by Steve Palmer) More than a year after the Buy Canadian movement took root, grocery giants Loblaw and Sobeys are facing increased scrutiny over "maple washing" — the practice of promoting imported goods as homegrown. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) slapped two Loblaw-owned stores in January with $10,000 fines each for maple wash...

  Has the chic luggage race peaked? VCG/Getty Images The next trendy suitcase better have a built-in television or some other ridiculous feature, because the market is getting crowded . Sign of the times. The popular DJ John Summit made an Instagram post in which he kicks, throws, hammers, and lights his Rimowa suitcase on fire—ostensibly because he’s fed up after pieces from the luxury brand broke down on him . Then the comments section took off: “We’ve been summoned,” wrote Away, the startup that kicked off the modern-day case race in 2015. More affordable than Rimowa and Tumi, but prettier than Samsonite, Away reached a $1.4 billion valuation in four years and opened the D2C suitcase floodgates. “Please let me send you some @beis luggage,” the actress Shay Mitchell commented. She founded Béis in 2018. One of its latest collaborations was with Rare Beauty, Selena Gomez’s cosmetics brand. Tumi and Samsonite also chimed in on Summit’s post. Samsonite owns Tumi, having bou...

The restaurant industry’s breaking point has arrived - Victoria Times Colonist Comment: The restaurant industry’s breaking point has arrived Many restaurants are simply charging more while serving fewer customers. Sylvain Charleboisabout 4 hours ago Patrons dine on a patio on King Street in Toronto. Evan Buhler, The Canadian Press Listen to this article 00:07:05 A commentary by the director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is co-host of The Food Professor Podcast and a visiting scholar at McGill University in Montreal. Canada’s restaurant industry is often treated as a symbol of resilience. Through inflation, lockdowns, labour shortages and supply chain disruptions, restaurateurs have somehow kept the lights on. But beneath the surface of the latest sales numbers lies a much darker reality: the economics of operating a restaurant in Canada are becoming increasingly untenable. This year, the Agri-Food Analytics Lab forecast that Canada could experien...

  Private-taxi-for-your-burrito app adds hotel bookings Jakub Porzycki/Getty Images Nothing says cultural immersion like ordering Uber Eats to the accommodation you booked through Uber while you’re Ubering there from the airport. This scenario became reality yesterday: Uber launched a hotel-booking feature for US users. As part of the rideshare app’s latest effort to become an everything app: A new hotel tab lets you book Expedia accommodations on the Uber app, with Vrbo rentals coming later this year. Uber One subscribers can get discounts on bookings, including 10% back in Uber credits and up to 20% off some hotels. Regular users can apparently also get deals. A Washington Post travel reporter without Uber One said she booked a discounted Hilton room that was slightly cheaper than it would’ve been through Booking.com, Hotels.com, or the Hilton website. Back scratch: Expedia said it’ll add Uber ride bookings to its app in June. This partnership was a long time coming—Uber...

Eilean Donan in Kyle of Lochalsh | Atlas Obscura Eilean Donan The most iconic structure in Scotland has been home to bishops, colonels, and Sean Connery characters. Kyle of Lochalsh, Scotland Added By Hannah Frishberg ShareTweet Email Been Here? 2,065Been Here Want to Visit? 3,647Want to go Add to List 1,321Added to list Eilean Donan Andrea Mucelli on Flickr About Having been featured in photos, ads, and films, the island fortesss known as Eilean Donan has spent centuries solidifying its position as the most iconic image of Scotland for natives and foreigners alike. Built on an island a mile away from the Village of Dornie, the land was first occupied in 634 AD, home to the monastic cell of Bishop Donan. During the 13th-century Alexander II built the first incarnation of Eilean Donan to defend the surrounding mountains of Kintail and the Isle of Skye against the Viking hordes. This original castle is said to have an immense curtained wall connecting seven towers and spanning the enti...