On Sunday, NFL regular season opens. One topic of conversation the past four weeks has been whether such a long preseason is necessary. Or even safe. Case in point: the Baltimore Ravens lost tight end Benjamin Watson and running back Kenneth Dixon to injuries in a meaningless game.

With its recent signing of a sports marketing contract, Hawai'i has served notice it intends to catch the sports tourism wave. In the wake of losing the Pro Bowl and a world-level women's soccer game, the time is right for the islands to retool their brand.

When numbers fall in youth football because of parents' concerns over concussions, it might be expected. But when a Pop Warner league cancels its season due to insufficient enrollment, with kids moving over to flag football, it's a trend worth noting.

The Olympics ended in Rio not with a bang from terrorists or mosquitoes, but with this surprising piece of data: Millennials watched a ton of coverage. And that is probably something to gladden the hearts of the IOC, which has long courted that demographic.

NCAA's men's soccer coaches in Division I are pressing their case for abandoning the fall college soccer season in favor of a fall-spring season. It's a measure that, if adopted, could impact student athletes, schools, other spring field sports - and event owners.

'Restructuring' is an honorary four-letter word in the sports business industry, and when obstacle race owner (and former Fiesta Bowl sponsor) BattleFrog started using it, athletes responded, well, strongly. Most comments from racers included two syllables and one finger (or at least the digital equivalent of it.)