WILMETTE, Ill. — The sports industry continues to feel the impact of the extended shutdown due to the coronavirus.

Led by motorsports, most leagues have returned to action, but their financial foundations are still being assessed.

The COVID-19 pandemic and related government containment measures created uncertainty for the sports and entertainment sectors.  As the recent financial metrics are being calculated, material changes to the revenue and cost profiles have occurred.

The operating scenarios will continue to evolve as economic activity returns and restrictions continue to be lifted.

The discretionary nature of spending for personal and business entertainment has come under intense pressure. Along with the fact that most events are allowing only a limited number of spectators, many consumers are not ready to attend events until a vaccine is readily available.

Ticket renewals and sponsorship contracts are being paused as a result.

The grassroots component of motorsports has been a quiet surprise.  The number of races run and car counts have been impressive at local short tracks and drag strips across the nation. Parts manufacturers and warehouse distributors are now shipping larger quantities of product after a slow start to the season.

Independent rating agencies such as Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s established a set of quantitative and qualitative measures that evaluate an entity’s financial standing. The goal is to assist participants such as banks or investors in understanding the risk of investing in sports.

Professional sports are a unique asset class. They are considered prestigious due to their scarcity, high barrier to entry, exclusivity to operate and the leagues’ vested interest to protect their teams and participants.

Top-tier professional motorsports contains these characteristics. NASCAR’s schedule has primarily three facility operators and its Charter system outlines the team ownership structure and specifies race cars and prize structure.

Typically, debut belonging to sports leagues and sports franchises is secured by national television contracts, ticket sales, luxury suites, sponsorship agreements, concessions and related revenue.

The moves to take NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports private last November recently came under review by rating agencies.

Specifically, NASCAR Holdings LLC has a $1.4 billion term loan and Speedway Motorsports $300 million in senior notes.

The shutdown limited the ability of track operators to host live events with spectators in attendance. Although the season will run in its entirety, profit and cash flow will decline substantially as the result in lost attendance revenue.

The possibility of an outbreak at a track may dampen the already challenged consumer demand and sentiment.

The contractual nature of the NASCAR broadcast agreement will offset the decreased revenue in other areas. The current media contracts expire in 2024 and total almost $850 million per year.

A conservative fiscal policy by the France and Smith families underlies their operating philosophy. Capital expenditures at the track will be reduced and real-estate development opportunities will be explored.

Team owners and manufacturers worked on controlling costs in the shop and at the track.

Motorsports has done an admirable job in responding to the crisis. It laid out a plan to respond, recover and thrive. It emphasized the health and safety of its community, worked with its partners and engaged with its fans.

Taking the green flag and racing toward the checkered flag was always the goal.

CONCORD, N.C. — Logan Schuchart arrived on the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series tour six years ago with the simple goal of making and finishing races.

This year, with two races remaining, he’s in contention for his first Outlaw championship.

The Hanover, Pa., driver is currently second in points, with a 46-point deficit to reigning champion Brad Sweet, heading into the Nov. 6-7 World of Outlaws Last Call at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.

“From where we’ve came from, all that we’ve overcome to get where we are, you know, I feel like this is a very successful season as it is,” Schuchart said. “But, you know, we started the season with a goal of finishing third. We’re in there. But definitely, we know we’re in a spot with an opportunity and we’re going to try and take advantage of it. I feel like we have a lot to learn and areas of where we can get better.

“Hopefully we can make these last races count and put some pressure on him (Sweet).”

Schuchart started the year strong with seven top-five finishes in a row – two of them wins – and took the points lead at Knoxville Raceway when the series returned to racing in May.

A mistake while trying to catch Sweet for the lead at Beaver Dam Raceway in June took him out of the race and allowed Sweet to take the top spot in the standings.

A couple of weeks later he and his Shark Racing team found their footing again by winning the Jackson Nationals, which was their first crown jewel victory and Schuchart’s 20th career World of Outlaws win.

They visited victory lane a couple of weeks later at the Terre Haute Action Track and then Schuchart reclaimed the points lead at Knoxville shortly after.

Despite having a run of 24 top-10 finishes in a row, which included a win at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, Schuchart lost the points lead again to Sweet at Huset’s Speedway and has been on the hunt to get it back ever since. The points gap between them has looked like an accordion with the level of their consistency swaying each week.

Sweet has tried to pull away, but Schuchart has kept a tight enough grip on the defending championship to not let him out of reach.

Sweet admitted that while going after his first championship last year he let the points situation get to him at times. Schuchart, with a chuckle, said he doesn’t think he’s felt the same way, yet.

“It’s definitely brought up a lot,” he said. “So, it makes me think about it more than I really am. I’m not going to say I don’t look at it during the week or when I’m tagged on something on Twitter. I’m out here because I want to win races. I definitely want to win championships and what that would mean to my career.

“I feel like I’m young and have plenty of chances to do that and I want to continue to learn and get better and be the best I can be. With that, hopefully that will come.”

It’s been a vigorous journey to the top for the Shark Racing team, owned by Schuchart’s grandfather and Hall of Fame Sprint Car driver Bobby Allen. When the team brought Schuchart and Jacob Allen on the World of Outlaws tour full-time in 2014, Bobby Allen said each driver had one motor for the season.

That meant they mostly had to fight to make features and when they did, they couldn’t always run every lap.

Then sponsors like Priority Aviation and their current full-time sponsor Drydene came on board, bringing more capital to the team. With more funding came more success, and more ability to expand their program.

“When we pull into a race track, I don’t think anyone has better motors than we do,” Bobby Allen said. “And it wasn’t that way until this year. We had good motors, but you could run them part of the year, maybe three-quarters of the way. This year and next year we can be even with anybody at any given time. Logan and Jacob both.”

Schuchart’s focus will be to keep the pressure on Sweet during the Last Call. With two wins already at the four-tenths-mile Charlotte track, he’ll look for one or two more and cut into the 46-point gap keeping him from a championship.

“Right now, we have our eye on finishing out the season strong,” Schuchart said. “Charlotte is a really good one for us. I’d just like to finish the season strong and hopefully get another win or two.

“It’s going to be tough to beat Brad (Sweet), but at least we can try to keep the pressure on him.”

Major League Soccer has created a new end of season award for the 2020 campaign with the introduction of the Young Player of the Year.

The award will recognize the top player in the league age 22 and under at the end of each season. The Young Player of the Year will replace the Rookie of the Year award, which had previously honored the top first-year pro that was signed either through the MLS SuperDraft or as a Homegrown Player.

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"The AT&T Young Player of the Year award reflects the commitment of MLS to develop world class players by recognizing the elite young stars within our league." said Todd Durbin, MLS executive vice president for player relations and competition.

"This honor will highlight the amazing talent developed in MLS academies, which year-after-year produce internationally coveted stars. With our clubs increasingly signing elite young international standouts and the continued quality of players in the MLS SuperDraft, there has never been more young talent to celebrate in our league."

Unlike the Rookie of the Year award, in which players were eligible only in their first year of professional soccer, the Young Player of the Year can have repeat winners so long as they meet the age requirement. Winners could have entered the league as a Homegrown Player, an MLS SuperDraft pick, via the international transfer market, or through other domestic leagues.

For the inaugural 2020 season only, a total of 11 rookie players who do not meet the age requirement this year will also be eligible for the award to meet contractual obligations. Otherwise, for 2020, any player born on or after Jan. 1, 1998 is eligible, while players born on or before Dec. 31, 1997 are ineligible. In 2021 and beyond, only players that meet the age threshold will be eligible.

Among the eligible recipients this year are LAFC forward Diego Rossi, Toronto FC forward Ayo Akinola, and Philadelphia Union midfielder Brenden Aaronson.

The MLS end of season awards will be determined through voting between Oct. 29-Nov. 9 from three groups: MLS players, MLS coaches and technical directors/general managers, as well as select media members. The finalists will be announced on Nov. 11.

Additionally, MLS will recognize the top plays of the season with the MLS Goal of the Year and MLS Save of the Year presented, with voting for both awards set to run from Nov. 12-18 on MLSsoccer.com.

The German Bundesliga will go back behind closed doors from Nov. 2 for the rest of the month as the country's government combats the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic with several restrictions to public life.

At a virtual meeting on Wednesday, German chancellor Angela Merkel and the 16 heads of the German federal states decided amongst other measures that all professional sports including the Bundesliga must be played behind closed doors.

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However, with restrictions not due to come in until Monday, that means this weekend's Bundesliga fixtures, including eight live on ESPN+ across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, can go ahead with some fans present.

Heading into the season, German clubs were allowed to bring back up to 20% of their fans if local health authorities approved their hygiene concepts and infection numbers remained below a seven-day incidence of 35

On Oct. 3, Borussia Dortmund welcomed 11,500 spectators to their 81,000 capacity Westfalenstadion as they beat SC Freiburg 4-0. This remained the highest single attendance in the Bundesliga with new infections putting the brakes on further records.

Other clubs, like Champions League winners Bayern Munich, were not able to have any fans at all due to a high number of cases in the region.

Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenige suggested that the "Bundesliga could collapse in its entirety" should the league be suspended again -- but the league is avoiding that scenario for now.

"If the Bundesliga is suspended again, if we are not allowed to play even without fans, bit-by-bit several clubs would have to declare bankruptcy," Rummenigge told SID on Tuesday. "And as a result, the Bundesliga would be in danger of collapsing entirely."

Several clubs like Schalke, Werder Bremen and Mainz have said the coronavirus pandemic has put them in a bad place financially.

Nasir Jamshed will be allowed to fight deportation proceedings from his home in England having won his release from prison.

Jamshed, the former Pakistan batsman, was imprisoned in February for his part in a spot-fixing conspiracy.

While his sentence for that offence is now served, he was recently informed of the Home Office's decision to progress with deportation proceedings. Although Jamshed was legally in the UK on a spousal visa - his wife is a doctor in Birmingham - any non-citizen who is sentenced to more than 12 months in prison is liable to deportation. Jamshed was sentenced to 17 months, of which he has served around half.

Although the Home Office contested the bail request at a hearing on October 28, the judge decided Jamshed, who is understood to have lost more than 10 kgs while in prison, was neither a flight risk nor a danger to others. He was released a couple of hours later.

Deportation proceedings are expected to take several months.

Mumbai Indians 166 for 5 (Suryakumar 79*, Kishan 25, Siraj 2-28, Chahal 2-37) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 164 for 6 (Padikkal 74, Philippe 33, Bumrah 3-14, Pollard 1-5) by five wickets

A death-bowling masterclass from Jasprit Bumrah, followed by a rollicking unbeaten 79 from Suryakumar Yadav, ensured the Mumbai Indians became the first team to reach 16 points and all but secure their place in the playoffs.

After being asked to bat, the Royal Challengers Bangalore,they rode on opener Devdutt Padikkal's fifty to move to 129 for 2 in 15 overs. At that stage, they might have been eyeing a total in the range of 190, but Bumrah's short-ball barrage in the slog overs, headlined by a double-wicket maiden, dragged them back to 164 for 6.

In their reply, the Rohit Sharma-less Mumbai started briskly, with Quinton de Kock and Ishan Kishan putting on 37 in 33 balls. However, they lost 3 for 35 and when the promoted Krunal Pandya holed out for a run-a-ball 10, the Royal Challengers threatened to turn 107 for 4 into something more than a wobble. Suryakumar's power and placement, though, thwarted the Royal Challengers' plans and ushered Mumbai home.

More to follow...

Wisconsin's football team has paused all team-related activities for at least seven days because of an increased number of COVID-19 cases, causing the No. 9 Badgers' game against Nebraska on Saturday to be canceled.

The game will not be rescheduled.

As of Wednesday morning, 12 people within the program had tested positive for the coronavirus in the past five days. That total includes six student-athletes and six staff members, including head coach Paul Chryst.

"This morning I received the news that I had tested positive via a PCR test I took yesterday," Chryst said in a statement released by the university on Wednesday. "I informed my staff and the team this morning and am currently isolating at home. I had not been experiencing any symptoms and feel good as of this morning.

"I am disappointed for our players and coaching staff who put so much into preparing to play each week. But the safety of everyone in our program has to be our top priority and I support the decision made to pause our team activities."

The university said the decision to pause team activities was made jointly by athletic director Barry Alvarez and chancellor Rebecca Blank.

"We have said from the beginning that the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff members comes first," Alvarez said in a statement. "Over the past several days, we have seen a rising number of student-athletes and staff contract the virus. The responsible thing for us to do is to pause football-related activities for at least seven days."

Earlier this week, sources told ESPN that Badgers quarterback Graham Mertz had his COVID-19 positive test confirmed and would be out a minimum of 21 days.

Mertz, who starred in Wisconsin's season-opening win over Illinois on Friday, had an antigen test come back positive for the coronavirus over the weekend. He had a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that confirmed the result Monday.

Big Ten policy requires any player who tests positive for COVID-19 to miss at least 21 days and undergo cardiac screening before being cleared to return.

Third-string quarterback Chase Wolf also tested positive, according to sources, confirming a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. If Wolf's positive test was confirmed, he also would miss a minimum of 21 days before returning to action.

An Illinois spokesperson said he's not aware of any positive tests for the Illini as of Wednesday morning

Wisconsin's next scheduled game is at home against Purdue on Nov. 7.

The Big Ten requires teams to play at least six games to qualify for the division championship, unless the average number of games by all league teams drops below six. In that case, teams must play no less than two fewer games than the average number by all teams to be considered for the division championship.

ESPN's Adam Rittenberg contributed to this report.

The Miller family has entered into an agreement to sell the Utah Jazz and Vivint Smart Home Arena to Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith for $1.66 billion, sources told ESPN.

Smith, 40, is a lifelong Utah resident and Jazz fan who built software company Qualtrics before it sold for a reported $8 billion. Smith had a long-standing relationship with the Jazz franchise, which included a philanthropic jersey patch that raised more than $25 million in recent years.

The NBA board of governors must formally approve the sale.

"I've approached Gail and the Millers a couple times," Smith said at a news conference Wednesday morning inside Vivint Smart Home Arena. "There's no secret about my interest in the NBA, and there's really no secret about my interest in the Jazz.

"I grew up watching the Jazz. This is the team I cheered for. I played Junior Jazz. I dreamed of playing for the Jazz, and that didn't work out. But as I was sitting there this week in the Junior Jazz program you guys started, with hundreds of kids running around, the legacy you've created is untouchable. We're all incredibly grateful for that. The Jazz are a gift to this whole community, and that's how we view it. That's 100 percent how we view this."

The Miller family, owners of the Jazz for 35 years, has overseen significant success: 16 50-win seasons, nine division titles and two Western Conference championships. Only the San Antonio Spurs have a better winning percentage than the Jazz (1,470-1,014, .592) since the 1989-90 season.

Gail Miller, 77, put the team into a legacy trust in 2017 but said the goal of that trust -- keeping the franchise in Utah for the long term -- had been accomplished by the sale to Smith.

"Now there's been a lot of attention given in recent years to my putting the team in a legacy trust," Miller said. "This was done in connection with my estate plan, with the objective of assuring our loyal fans that the team would remain in Utah. I am fully convinced that with this sale, the objectives of that trust will still be honored, and I want you to know the new owners have made the same commitment to keep the team in Utah."

Smith takes over a basketball operation that remains in strong shape, including four straight playoff appearances. The Jazz have a roster expected to compete in the upper echelon of the Western Conference and two star players, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, eligible to sign contract extensions. Coach Quin Snyder recently signed a long-term contract, and Jazz president Dennis Lindsey and general manager Justin Zanik remain in place.

Gail Miller and her late husband, Larry, are credited with saving the Jazz in Utah, purchasing control of the team in the mid-1980s when there were fears that the franchise's financial strife could have caused the team to be sold and moved. The Millers bought 50% of the franchise in May 1985 and acquired the other 50% in 1986 to become principal owners. The family will retain a minority interest in the team.

"There's no question that we have had a long and rewarding journey these last 35 years," Miller said, growing emotional as she spoke. "Today is a day I have never been able to imagine."

ESPN's Tim Bontemps contributed to this report.

Former Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is finalizing a deal to become the Philadelphia 76ers' new president of basketball operations, sources told ESPN.

A formal announcement is expected as soon as this week, sources said.

General manager Elton Brand is expected to remain in his current position, and new coach Doc Rivers is a proponent of the hiring, sources said. Rivers and Morey have a long history and strong relationship.

Morey has long been a target of 76ers ownership, turning down a chance to run the team two years ago before signing an extension with the Rockets.

In the aftermath of Houston's elimination from the league's Orlando restart, Morey approached owner Tilman Fertitta with the idea of leaving the job and the sides quietly worked through an exit agreement to conclude his 13 seasons running the franchise's basketball operations.

Discussions with the Sixers started soon after, sources said, and escalated this week, with Morey traveling to Philadelphia to meet with ownership, sources said.